It is now believed that a United States F-22 Raptor fighter jet, under NORAD command, on February 11, 2023 shot down a Amateur Radio Pico-Balloon over the Yukon Territories of Canada.  This illegal, proactive and unnecessary act of War has outraged the international Amateur Radio community.  Operators from all over the World have been hastily meeting to strategize countermeasures to deter and protect their perfectly legal payloads.  

Top Pico-Ballooners such as W5KUB, VE3KCL, SA6BSS, NU7B, KO6FE and the owner of the shot down balloon, K9YO are set to implement counter-measures to protect their aerial investments from now on.  State of the art tactical flare and chaff systems will now be employed as well as electronic warfare jamming techniques switched on when payloads are approached by military aircraft .  When asked if the Amateurs were concerned that these tactics would "up the ante" for NATO  the spokesperson  for the collective responded with , " Just go ahead and try us".

If NORAD is willing to shoot a half million dollar missile at a bag of gas then our crowd funding will offset that with half a million in countermeasures.  The Amateur Radio community is notorious for their generosity and willingness to spend money on expensive, cutting edge, modern technology.  Green stamps have already started flooding into W5KUB mission control at the mere rumor of this development. "We have less trouble over Ukraine and Russia then over NATO territories." the spokesperson went on to say.  Watch this space for future updates on this evolving story.

-Scott VA7SL reporting from Ham-tv.com

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