[AK-VHF] balloon amateur opportunities

[Ron VE8RT]

  this might be considered off topic by some.  Opportunities presented
by the Chinese balloon.

  I have on occasion used overflying aircraft as reflectors on 2M to
reach out of range stations.  If the payload is the size of 3 school
buses and at an altitude of about 60,000 feet, would the payload be a
suitable reflector for DX experiments at VHF and up?

   It may also be an interesting thing to monitor, using SDR's might it
be possible to detect transmissions from it?  Either uplinking data, or
perhaps a channel for terrestrial control and data which may have been
used at it's initial launch, or perhaps worse, to interested parties on
the ground in North America.  There are so many more resources
available to this generation of amateurs, for those who are curious.

   As for what to do about it, I'm not going there, its a matter for
officials to decide.  But as an object of curiosity and potential
amateur experiments, that seems to be fair game.

    Ron VE8RT DP22

-- 
Ron VE8RT <ve8rt at yknwt.ca>