Also the weather balloons are launched on consistent schedule / from consistent consistent locations and they often have a transmitter that allows them to send back data and even be found right?
Not to say one of these can't be a weather balloon, but I would expect these also are known possibilities / somewhat detectable / aren't trying to be sneaky ...
> Commercially available radar reflectors are frequently found as a sailboat supply item
Wooden and fiberglass boats are fairly invisible to radar, even with metal masts and rigging. If you are ever planning to head out into the ocean and near where you might expect commercial shipping, these are a cheap safety item for making your boat visible.
If you attempt to go near larger commercial shipping lanes you are required to have them at least were I live, they are not optional here. Also get the right size, some smaller ones are useless (so I've been told).
> If you attempt to go near larger commercial shipping lanes you are required to have them at least were I live, they are not optional here.
Not required in the US, but not a bad idea to hoist one in fog.
Although these days, an AIS transmitter is a better answer. But a prudent mariner never trusts a single point of failure, so might as well do both.
Admittedly I don't always hoist the radar reflector in the heavy fog near the Golden Gate bridge, but I always transmit AIS in low visibility (and monitor it).
Yup. There are different requirements depending on payload size, but if you’re doing it regularly even if you don’t have to, you send appropriate information anyway notifying the right people locally what is flying where, expected flight paths, descriptions, exact times, etc.
We did a balloon launch a long time ago, it had a radio sending back telemetry and we chased it across Colorado scrub land hundreds of miles.
Not to say one of these can't be a weather balloon, but I would expect these also are known possibilities / somewhat detectable / aren't trying to be sneaky ...