On Saturday, the 20th of September, a high-altitude balloon will be launched with a cross-frequency LoRa APRS Digipeater as its payload. Ben Lloyd, GW4BML, a director of the Radio Society of Great Britain, will send the balloon on its way () at 11 a.m. local time from Welshpool in Powys. The balloon is expected to be in the air for about two hours, reaching an altitude of 90,000 feet.

The challenge for amateur radio operators is to build or re-code a LoRa tracker using instructions provided on the RSGB website - then try to get the farthest signal from the launch site. Successful transmissions will reach the airborne relay and be retransmitted to one of the Internet gateways local to the launch site.

Individual hams and some ham clubs may boost their chances through the use of a high-gain antenna or by operating from a summit or other high ground at the same time to get a line-of-sight advantage. If your tracker build is successful, it will beam up packets to the airborne relay to be retransmitted.

The event is part of National Coding Week, in which the RSGB is participating in during the third week of September.

For details, visit the website rsgb.org