V1650483

How I almost recovered radio sonde V1650483 launched from Larkhill (UK)

I was second to this sonde

I had been watching this radio sonde from around 07:30 and the prediction was for it to land near East Stratton, about 20km from me. After a big fat full english breakfast, my wfe and I set off.

Once in East Stratton, we parked outside the Northbrook Arms. I had a strong signal and it looked liked the radio sonde was in a field behind the pub. There was a public footpath at the end of the pub car park that went along the edge of the field at which point there was easy access.

Once in the field, I could see someone looking like they were reeling in a long line of nylon thread. I had been beaten to the radio sonde by a few minutes.

We spent a few minutes chatting about recovering radio sonde devices, how many we had recovered and what we planned to do with them, which at the moment, was nothing. Both of us had wanted to recover one of the radio sondes launched by Reading University as these have a pressure sensor onboard. Neither of us had managed to recover one of these yet.

Whilst chatting we realised another radio sonde had been launched from Larkhill, radio sonde V1650492 as my receiver was picking it up and letting me know it was 32km away and it was predicted to land near New Alresford. He said I could recover the next one so my wife and I headed off to New Alresford for coffee and cake until it landed.

The track of this radio sonde is recorded on radiosonde.info.