# My wife found a radiosonde

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-found-a-radiosonde/822195>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [September 30, 2018, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-found-a-radiosonde/822195 "2018-09-30T02:41:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2018, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-found-a-radiosonde/822195/1 "2018-09-30T02:41:37Z")

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We have a house about 25 miles to the west of Flagstaff. My wife was up there last week, while I stayed home with the dogs. She texted me, and sent my a photo of this “strange thing” she found on the property. I said “Cool! A radiosonde!” She brought it back home with her, and when I send it back (it comes with a pre-paid bag to mail it back to be refurbished), I’m going to put a note with it and see if I can get the telemetry it sent - I’d love to know how far it went.

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**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2018, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-found-a-radiosonde/822195/2 "2018-09-30T02:48:18Z")

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That totally fucking rocks! I wonder if they usually honor those requests? Let us know!

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**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2018, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-found-a-radiosonde/822195/3 "2018-09-30T02:51:00Z")

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That’s really 🆒

I used to watch the Air Force launch rawinsonde balloons at Edwards. Later, I’d send the data to JSC for the Shuttle flights.

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**Author:** ![Anne\_Elk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Anne\_Elk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Elk)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2018, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-found-a-radiosonde/822195/4 "2018-09-30T10:55:40Z")

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I actually saw one arrive via parachute. I took to the nearest post office for return.

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**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2018, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-found-a-radiosonde/822195/5 "2018-09-30T11:42:11Z")

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I found one once. I saw it coming down under a parachute. When I got to it, I noticed a rather large battery in a plastic case was leaking a liquid and emitting steam. I removed that before I sent it back.

Another time, while hiking in the desert, I found the remains of a mylar balloon which had a hard plastic cylinder the size of a rolling pin attached to it. There was a data port on the side, about 9 pins if I remember. No return instructions on that one. I kept it for for a few years, but lost track of it after college.

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**Author:** ![Anita\_Dayoff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Anita\_Dayoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anita_Dayoff)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2018, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-found-a-radiosonde/822195/6 "2018-09-30T15:00:27Z")

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The one I found a couple years ago had a launch information tag and had flown about 80 miles.