If you have the time and inclination, building your own tracker from scratch is the most rewarding option; it will mean that something you soldered together and coded is up there, near space, sending back telemetry and maybe images down to the ground. Your own little (near) space programme. NASA on a budget!
Or if you lack the electronics and/or software skills, you can buy a balloon tracker kit that does those things for you, leaving you more time on the other aspects of the flight.
In any case, you should start here, with my guide to all things HAB.
Learning
- UKHAS Wiki
- My Introduction to HAB
- Steve Randall’s Youtube Channel (“how-to” HAB videos)
Getting Involved
Flight Planning
Supplies
- HAB Supplies – Complete trackers, GPS and radio parts to make your own tracker
- Random Solutions – Balloons and Parachutes etc
Following A Flight
- Live map (type in the payload name in the search box to limit to that payload; wildcards allowed; separate multiple payloads with “;”)
- Live Images (add /PayloadID to limit to one payload)
- Flight Announcements
- Flight Calendar (ICS format – add http://habitat.habhub.org/calendar/ to your calendar)