Aggregating Weather Balloon Data Online with a Custom Raspberry Pi Image

Thanks to a RTL-SDR.COM reader for submitting a tip about radiosondy.info, a weather balloon data aggregation website made by SQ6KXY. Weather balloons carry a sensor and transmitter payload called a radiosonde. These radiosondes transmit their data to a ground station via an RF signal, which is typically at around 400 - 406 MHz in most countries. With an RTL-SDR and decoder software (related tutorial) it is possible to receive and decode their weather data, and also often their GPS location data. The location data can be used to find and collect radiosondes once they reach the ground.

SQ6KXY has created a website called radiosondy.info which aims to aggregate and make weather balloon data received by contributors public. It is similar to sites like flightradar24 which aggregate ADS-B data from aircraft. The main page allows you to view radiosondes that are currently flying, and the archive of previous flights.

To make contributing to the site as simple as possible, SQ6KXY has created a custom image for the Raspberry Pi, which is automatically generated by the website for your particular user account, local radiosonde frequency requirements, and number of SDRs. They don't specifically mention it, but we assume that contributors are mostly using RTL-SDRs in their receivers. The custom image is available for generation after signing up.