Pico Balloons
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Construction. Launching, and Monitoring of Pico Balloons
Brian, N6CVO, and Jed, N6JED have successfully launched several Pico Balloons over the last few years. Through Amateur Radio you can track the progress of the balloons and watch how they travel around the globe. In 2022, Tom, WA2IVD, provided this video of a launch at the Quartzfest event in Arizona.
At Quartzfest 2024, Brian, N6CVO, and Jed, N6JED, launched three pico balloons during the course of the event. All three are transmitting location data on WSPRnet and can be tracked on a number of websites.
How do I get started with Pico Balloons?
A great site for instructions on constructing a Traquito transmitter and solar array is https://traquito.github.io/
There is a community out there on Groups IO at https://groups.io/g/picoballoon
CYmylar 60 inch clear balloons can be found here on Alibaba. So far, pretty good results for the price.
Recent Flights
N6JED-26
- Launched 19-Jan-2026 from QuartzFest 2026 south of Quartzsite Arizona.
- I did a Pico-Balloon presentation here at QuartzFest in AZ yesterday (21-JAN-2026) and we had 86-Hams in attendance. Near the end of my presentation, my friend N6JED and I pulled out a balloon and launched it to the crowds delight. Conditions were far from perfect with clouds and icing at 20,00-30,000 feet so we were not surprised when a few hours later it showed signs of icing and started a descent that continued into the night. This morning we were pleasantly surprised to watch it climb back thru 30,000’ over Texas and level off at the predicted 41,000’.
- As of 24-May-2026 the N6JED balloon has been aloft for 125-days and is still flying well at around 38,000 feet. Around six weeks ago the winds took the balloon up into the Arctic Circle where, until recently, it has been flying around the North Pole. With the balloon being so far north spots were intermittent, but predictions showed at least two times where it passed within 100-miles of the North Pole. during this time the 10m band was generally considered closed but the balloon was heard most days in Australia during Grey-Line. currently the balloon is over Alaska and predicted to head towards Hudson Bay later in the week.
- Update 10-Jun-2026 – I’m sad to report the demise of the N6JED-25 balloon. On the 29th of May it flew into a severe wind-sheer near Seattle Washington and has not been heard from since. It was most likely destroyed by the rapidly changing winds it flew into at 42,000’. During it’s flight it was spotted 3,775 times with 65,706 reception reports. The average reception distance was 2,000-6,000 miles with 284 of them over 8,000 miles. Remember this was at a power of only 0.017W (17mW) and on the 10m Band.
N6CVO-25
- Launched 21-Jan-2026 from QuartzFest 2026 south of Quartzsite Arizona.
- Just like N6JED-26 which was launched on Monday, we went with a max solar panel design which included two PowerFilm MPT-3.6-150’s, a SuperCap, and 5v shunts. The transmissions hav begun and ended with very low solar angles. Tracker is a Traquito on 10m with a Litz Wire 40/60 half-wave dipole. Total payload weight is 17.5grams and it’s flying under a 60” balloon using H2
- As of 24-May-2026 the N6CVO balloon has been aloft for 123-days and is still flying well at around 39,000 feet. Last week the winds took the balloon up into the Arctic Circle where it most likely made a very close pass around the North Pole. Previously, during numerous excursions into the Arctic Circle, the balloons signal was received many times by DP0GVN which is the German Neumayer Research Station in Antarctica, and I received a QSL Card from them. Currently the balloon is over the Yukon and headed for Hudson Bay later in the week.
Gallery
