RSGB LoRa balloon challenge

The High-altitude balloon launch took place on Saturday 20 September. The balloon soared at a peak altitude of 48,556ft before landing in a remote location in the Thursden Valley.

What happened?

As part of the RSGB’s National Coding Week activities for 2025, the RSGB Outreach Team launched a High-altitude balloon (HAB) equipped with a LoRa digipeater. The team worked with Hi-Impact to deliver the event in which radio amateurs were tasked with building a tracker, that if successful, beamed up packets to the airborne relay, which transmitted to a local Igate.

You can catch up with a livestream of the event via our YouTube channel.

The RSGB Legacy Funds and Moonraker sponsored the event and Moonraker provided some great prizes for the competition.

What was the goal and who were the winners?

The aim of the activity was to have fun, learn something new and to be part of a challenge that brought radio amateurs of all ages together in a special event.

Prizes were available for getting your signal the furthest from the balloon launch location. There were two categories, single RSGB member operator and RSGB Affiliated Club. The winners were:

Single RSGB member operator – Robert Williams, G7ATJ from the Isle of Wight

RSGB Affiliated Club – Newbury and District Amateur Radio Society NADARS (G5XV)

The winner of each category won a £200 Moonraker voucher

How can I use my LoRa tracker after this event?

Visit our “How can I use my LoRa tracker now the RSGB challenge has finished?” web page to find out how to re-code your tracker and to get ideas on what you can do next.