Very disturbing? Girl Scouts launch weather balloons for fuck's sake. I am pretty sure I could buy the same balloon at any hobby shop and it'll have a "made in China" stamp on it.
I doubt you will find all that specialized surveillance hardware at the hobby shop. The balloon itself is huge, more likely to find an old weather balloon at a US military surplus outlet.
they definitely sell drones with cameras, and all kinds of radio equipment at hobby stores
Out of the box generic stuff, not specialized/weaponized for Military level eavesdropping/jamming. I get the gist though, if one were a brilliant engineer they might be able to repurpose some consumer level electronics stuff to replicate some of the capabilities of this spy balloon.
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