There are a large number of licence exempt radio communication modules available (e.g. see link) - however there are only 3 types that may be used for air to ground communication (see link) - these are:

• Radio Location: 173.7 – 174 MHz and 458.9625 – 459.1000 MHz 10 mW erp 12.5 kHz or 25Khz handwidth
• Data Transmission: 434.040– 434.790 MHz 10 mW erp 25 KHz bandwidth and 433.05 - 434.79 MHz 1mW erp 25Khz bandwidth
• Video: 2.400 – 2.4835 GHz 10 mW eirp 20 MHz Bandwidth

Equipment must conform to EN 300 220

And as of Septemeber 08 - 500mw on 869.40- 869.65 MHz < 10% duty cycle

Given the very low powers (10mW is about the power used by a dim LED)- its going to take some doing to use these in balloon to ground communication.

• http://www.ofcom.org.uk/radiocomms/ifi/tech/interface_req/msoC4784.pdf
• http://www.rfsolutions.co.uk/acatalog/index.html