#science_center

Last year I was fortunate enough to attend Tinkerfest at the Chabot Space and Science Center, high in the hills of the East Bay. One of the fun things about it was that I ran into an old friend from HacDC, who is very involved in the amateur radio ballooning community out here. Their specific thing (because everybody seems to have a Thing out here) is launching and tracking pico balloons - high altitude balloons with super lightweight payloads (they weigh less than an empty coffee mug) that stay aloft for weeks to months at a time and broadcast telemetry in the amateur radio band.