Uploaded January 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

---

This is a video of a couple of Pico Balloon launches at Quartzfest 2022.
Pico Balloons are ultra-light balloons and payloads that are designed to rise to a set altitude and then remain at that altitude. Some Pico Balloons have gone around the world multiple times before they were lost.
5 balloons were launched at Quartzfest this year. 4 of the balloons have APRS transmitters on them. So their locations will only be reported when they are over a populated area and in range of an APRS gateway receiver. The 5th balloon has both an APRS transmitter and a WSPR transmitter operating on 20 meters. So this balloon can be tracked even when it is far out over an ocean or other unpopulated area.
If you'd like to track these balloons, you can follow the links below:
N6JED-1: aprs.fi/#!call=a%2FN6JED-1&timerange=3600&tail=3600
KJ6CPU-12: aprs.fi/#!call=a%2FKJ6CPU-12&timerange=3600&tail=3600
N6JED-15: aprs.fi/#!call=a%2FN6JED-15&timerange=3600&tail=3600
N6JED-2: aprs.fi/#!call=a%2FN6JED-2&timerange=3600&tail=3600
N6CVO-15: aprs.fi/#!call=a%2FN6CVO-15&timerange=3600&tail=3600

General information about Pico Balloons:
picoballoons.net
qrp-labs.com/lightaprs/n6cvo11.html

One of the main forums for Pico Balloons is on Groups.io:
groups.io/g/picoballoon
Membership in this group requires approval from the moderators.

Please check out the companion website for this channel at: https://a-2-z.tech/