AA6DY is still MIA, but showing up on our APRS link in case it decides to come back. Pico Balloon K9YO reported today as expected near our prediction, at 19:30 UTC and just 90 minutes late. Pico Balloon KD9UQB has been very busy today first waking at 01:52 UTC, going to sleep at 16:52 UTC and waking at 21:52 UTC all on December 5th. Now that KD9UQB is south of the Day/Night Change Line, sleepy time is over.

Pico Balloon K9YO woke at 19:30 UTC at Grid DO00xj northeast of Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, flying at an altitude of 12,420 meters, 40,738 feet.

Based on the 84 hour NOAA Hysplit model, K9YO will circumnavigate the world a 4th time tomorrow, December 6th around 15:00 UTC. The NOAA model also shows that K9YO will travel thru Montana, North Dakota and Minnesota before heading northeast towards Ontario, Cananda for the 4th Circumnavigation.

Below is the 84 hours NOAA Hysplit model for Pico Balloon K9YO which shows the Jetstream traveling north of the Day/Night Change Line into darkness. I’ll provide another 84 hour model after tomorrow.

Pico Balloon KD9UQB has been very active today. Waking at 01:52 UTC at Grid KD96FB, going to sleep at 16:54 UTC at Grid LC97NV and waking back up at 21:54 UTC at Grid MC24CV. Pictured below is Pico Balloon KD9UQB at Grid MC24SE at 23:32 UTC and still flying. There appears to be a new altitude record for KD9UQB now reaching 10,900 meters, 35,752 feet.

The easiest way to keep track of KD9UQB is by Sondehub at this link W5KUB and click W5KUB-115 or scroll out to see all the W5KUB balloons. To track all the Pico Balloons around the world please go to our Locate and Track page and click SondeHub Balloon Tracker at the top of our page.

Below is a picture from the APRS link on our Locate and Track page showing our three balloons with the newest locations of K9YO and KD9UQB with AA6DY at the last known location November 24th

Our Locate and Track page is now updated for our active balloons with the 84 hour NOAA Hysplit model, Ventusky for wind speed and direction, APRS and Sondehub for tracking all Pico Balloons flying around the world. You can also find the current Grid for our balloons by clicking on WSPR Spot Database for each balloon on our Locate and Track page.

The other nice part of the WSPR Spot Database link is it shows how far the reporting station is from our balloon at the time of the report. On December 5th at 01:52 UTC, Station KFS in Northern California reported 17,814 Km or 11,069 miles from our balloon, that’s pretty amazing.

73, Cary KD9ITO