Is Truth stranger than Fiction?

I hope this is not a hoax as It seems incredible that a balloon carrying a QRP beacon could circumnavigate the globe in 22 days and be reporting its position as it travels
Ladies and Gentlemen – it doesn’t get better than this. Or if it can, then it must be rare. Dave VE3KCL’s S18 balloon flight was launched on 07-Oct-2016 from Toronto, Canada. It was an AMAZING flight! It completed a circumnavigation around our Planet Earth on its 22nd day, and continued for another few days across the Atlantic ocean before being brought down by clouds. Congratulations to Dave VE3KCL on this fantastic achievement of good engineering, and also of course the QRP Labs Ultimate 3S firmware which performed flawlessly for 28 days, out of reach of human intervention. The total distance covered was over 46,500km (29,000 miles).

The S18 balloon received a total of 32,477 WSPR reception reports from 630 unique receiving stations! The best DX was VK3FFB at 19,606km (though others probably bettered this, by long path reception). Not bad for well under a hundred milliwatts even in the peak sunshine of the day! You can read the full story, see all the daily reports of the flight, and download the entire data set at http://www.qrp-labs.com/flights/s18

Ron W6WO

PS whatever next on=board cameras ?