Whew, I do not have a write up on the process. While it isn't terribly complicated there is a lot to learn to make it happen. We used amateur radio connected to a GPS receiver to report the balloon's position(s). There are other methods using different radio devices but it is all basically the same procedure.
In the U.S. you can fly an unmanned, untether balloon that weighs less than 6 lbs. without and formal permission.
This online book, Near space, by L. Paul Verhage is a good primer on how to do it.
http://www.parallax.com/tabid/567/Default.aspx there are many other online resources as well.
Edge of Space sciences also has a lot of information on their program.
http://www.eoss.org/index.htmlDon't let an Amateur radio license keep you away from doing this. They are easy to get and the test questions can be found online.
http://www.arrl.org/Using amateur radio you can get the flight's path to be placed live online using APRS.
http://www.aprs.org/ The flight from where these photos were taken can be seen here:
http://aprs.fi/?call=kc0gpb-11&dt=1258934400&mt=m&z=11&timerange=3600CHDK comes in to play with an intervalometer (I grabbed a script off the EOSS web site linked above under hardware>camera).
There are a lot of challenges in a HAB flight but that just makes it more fun.
I hope this helps.
Pete
