South Texas Suspicious Balloon Tracking - 3/25/2023

[blantonl]

Looks like a suspicious balloon has been spotted in South Texas, and there are assets building to track and identify it. So far they've identified it as a balloon with a long string with something attached. There's an E-3 out of Tinker headed down to provide coverage. Gassman 02 is on station providing air refueling, Gassman 03 is enroute from the West Coast as well.

271.000 is active with Bigfoot and the fighters and the tanker getting Bogey Dopes (radar vectors) to the balloon

354.0 and 128.6 were active with Houston Center working the fighters

Fighters referenced CONR-3 to be used if they need to go secure (UHF Satcom 263.925 downlink). CONR-3 is also very active with secure traffic.

 

[blantonl]

So far it looks like it's going to be between Corpus Christi and Victoria Texas... heading out to sea. They've got two tankers, and the E-3 from Tinker is about to make it on station.

 

[letarotor]

What altitude is the balloon at?

 

[KevinC]

271.000 load and clear from my house.

 

[blantonl]

What altitude is the balloon at?

41,000 feet. It has a container hanging from it and is 10 feet in diameter. I’m recording all the traffic on 271.0 and Houston center on 133.750 which is being used as well.

 

[KevinC]

41,000 feet. It has a container hanging from it and is 10 feet in diameter. I’m recording all the traffic on 271.0 and Houston center on 133.750 which is being used as well.

I'm recording 271.000 as well.

 

[prcguy]

Are they gonna shoot down another ham experiment?

 

[KevinC]

Are they gonna shoot down another ham experiment?

Darn hams.

 

[busted_knuckle]

USAF needs to watch this map so there is no confusion.

SondeHub Amateur

Live tracking of radiosonde flights. Data via SondeHub Amateur. Includes weather overlay, predictions, and access to historic radiosonde flights.

amateur.sondehub.org

 

[letarotor]

Will you be posting a recording of the comms somewhere? It's been a while since I've listened to Bigfoot traffic. Thx

 

[blantonl]

Here's the audio:

https://s.broadcastify.com/audio/2023-03-25-Balloon-STX.mp3

 

[KevinC]

Here's the audio:

https://s.broadcastify.com/audio/2023-03-25-Balloon-STX.mp3

Did your recording capture them going RTB? If so I missed that audio. It's about the last thing I captured.

 

[RaleighGuy]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1639814241132658688

 

[blantonl]

Did your recording capture them going RTB? If so I missed that audio. It's about the last thing I captured.

They were probably out of range for me at that point. I was capturing from San Antonio.

 

[letarotor]

Thanks Lindsay! This brings up an interesting issue. A lot of resources were expended to identify this object, not to mention frayed nerves because of all the recent spying on US military installations by adversarial state actors. By not requiring balloon hobbyists to notify the FAA or the military before sending these craft up in the NAS where they technically can become a hazard to navigation appears to be an issue that needs to be addressed by the FAA. I'm not saying stop them from doing it but make it a requirement to at least issue a NOTAM, or like in the case of drones, put a Remote ID broadcadt beacon on it so it can be quickly identified as friendly!

 

[mancow]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1639814241132658688

"routine" If so, that's even more concerning.

 

[dwhit29689]

Balloon Intercepted By U.S. Air Force Over Texas

North American Aerospace Defense Command has confirmed that it scrambled aircraft to investigate a suspicious target of interest over Texas.

www.thedrive.com

 

[prcguy]

USAF needs to watch this map so there is no confusion.

SondeHub Amateur

Live tracking of radiosonde flights. Data via SondeHub Amateur. Includes weather overlay, predictions, and access to historic radiosonde flights.

amateur.sondehub.org

So is the balloon in question showing up on the SondeHub map?

 

[Echo4Thirty]

Are they gonna shoot down another ham experiment?

Its a broadcastify calls high altitude node.