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The Circumnavigators (2017)
- muunbo 4y agoI really love all the random hobbies that people have
- ianburrell 4y agoIt is important to realize the difference in scale between amateur balloons and the Chinese spy ballloon. Some amateur ones are less than ounce of payload, the Chinese one was thousands of pounds. The ham radio balloons mostly just transmit position. It is impressive that they do that in small size and can make multiple circumnavigations.
- robobro 4y agoCan we call it the Chinese big balloon instead? Because from what I gather that thing was massive. Future big balloons also will not necessicarily be used for espionage - worse case scenarios involve dropping harmful payloads.
- robotnikman 4y agoThat was actually a tactic deployed by the Japanese during WWII to attack the US mainland. They carried and incendiary payload in hoped of starting forest fires and other damage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fu-Go_balloon_bomb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fu-Go_balloon_bomb edit: Actually, there is a whole history of weaponized balloons, it's pretty interesting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incendiary_balloon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incendiary_balloon
- LarryMullins 4y agoThose balloon bombs caused the only US civilian casualties due to enemy action in the mainland US; one of them killed a few kids who found it in a forest. Strangely, their father later became a presumed civilian casualty in the Vietnam War, where he went missing. Tragic distinctions for that family.
- ghaff 4y agoI learned about it a few years back from, I think, a 99 Percent Invisible episode. I find almost as bizarre as the story itself is that it's practically unknown.
- godelski 4y agoIn addition to this, HAM radio rules require that radio signals are not encrypted (rules specify that they must not be obscured). While this wouldn't prevent you from having a spy balloon and sending all images back in clear, it would make it obvious what you are transmitting or obvious that you're a spy if it is encrypted.
- Buttons840 4y agoCould you hide an encrypted signal in what appears to be a normal HAM radio signal? I know it would be illegal, but is it possible?
- refuse 4y agoSteganography? Sure, but you might be better off using a code that sounds like normal speech.
- godelski 4y agoThere's a lot of weird stuff on radio. You don't need encryption to have codes. But this probably wouldn't be useful for sending surveillance information from a balloon. It would also draw a lot of attention. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station (Buzzer) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UVB-76 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UVB-76 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_broadcast https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_broadcast
- maxbond 4y agoEdit: I think I got confused by reading an article a long time ago referencing the command & control exemption mentioned in another comment. I should've kept my mouth shut about a legal matter I couldn't properly articulate/didn't fully understand or at least put IANAL, my bad. --- original comment: --- This regulation is often misunderstood. The requirement is that it must be possible to decode the signal; the signal cannot be scrambled. It is totally legal to, for instance, have an HTTPS connection tunneled over an internet radio link, as long you could decode the radio message - it's not illegal for a message to carry an encrypted payload. By the same token, steganography wouldn't be illegal either. This regulation isn't trying to stop you from sending secret messages, it's making it possible to introspect the messages to determine what protocol and call signs are involved. It's about managing the spectrum and figuring out who to complain to if there's interference, not about controlling cryptography.
- myself248 4y agoI used to be, let's not say heavily involved, but eagerly observing, this community. I was lurking in #highaltitude when M0XER's B-64 crossed its launch longitude, marking a circumnavigation, and the place went _nuts_. Then B-63, launched a few days earlier, did the same. But B-63 popped shortly thereafter, while B-64 just kept going, eventually circling 8 times over the coming 4 months. It's one thing to set a record, it's another thing to smash it so thoroughly immediately after setting it. I want to say he was using dry-cleaning bags as envelopes early-on, but I think he switched materials to achieve that kind of durability.
- avz 4y agoTechnical detail: Having crossed all meridians is generally not considered the proper criterion for circumnavigation since this is trivially done near the poles. The definition I have come across include a loop that partitions Earth's surface into two parts of comparable area.
- lmm 4y agoThere's a tradition of having to pass through antipodal points, but that's probably too strict for a balloon.
- Andrew_nenakhov 4y agoAny two non-zero areas are comparable, but I don't think 1:10000000 will satisfy the definition. It is necessary to establish an acceptable ratio. 1:6 or something like that?
- bhickey 4y agoThe requirement I'm familiar with is crossing all meridians and the equator.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- pcrh 4y agoAwesome! I found this site which tracks current amateur radio balloons: https://habhub.org/ https://habhub.org/
- codazoda 4y agoI would love to do this but have never considered it an option because of all the regulations I imagine exist. Could these interfere with an aircraft? What if you fly one over a military site? What about flying over other countries? The rules seem complex, but I’d love to build one.
- galaxyLogic 4y agoIt could interfere with an airplane but so can any bird. Should it be forbidden to release birds into the air? There's a cost and benefit to everything. But I'm not exactly sure what is the benefit of these balloons except perhaps entertainment. Leave it to Beaver I would say