Balloon Ops on 150.995

Last weekend I stopped by the Lake Pleasant area and one of the balloon operations on New River Road north of AZ-74 was using 150.995 simplex, DPL 532 for ground to air and air to air ops.

Obviously unlicensed but interesting just the same...

Yea, it's pretty common for balloonists to use the low power and itinerant VHF and UHF business channels, as well as the MURS (even though FCC regulations specifically prohibit aircraft use of those channels), GMRS and FRS channels.
The crew I was on through the 90's used CB radio.
123.300 and 123.500 can also be licensed for air-air and air-ground use by balloonists, as well as gliders and sailplanes.

John
Peoria

This one is more interesting since the freq is assigned to the Public Safety pool and is part of the legacy Highway Radio Service (PH) so it is most commonly assigned to state, county and local highway departments.

Oh, for some reason I was probably thinking 151.955, Purple Dot.
150.995 was the old Arizona State Capitol Police channel, IIRC. It was a repeater, but maybe somebody bought their old VHF radios at auction, and there was also a simplex channel on channel 2 of those radios.

John
Peoria