Hello Mike,

Thanks a lot for your kind and interesting reply!

My apologies, it took me a while to get back to e-mail tonight, and I'm just reading your e-mail right now (well after 'twennytwohundred local', so to speak).

You're probably much more familiar with the specific region in Germany you once served in than I am, having spent most of my life central and South Bavaria, with a few exceptions. And you're certainly blessed being a person who has had (and taken) the opportunity to work and travel abroad, which I believe is a great way to open one's mind and sometimes even make friends with local people there! Something I'd always recommend to anyone asking and in a position to make it happen. I guess you've been to more countries in Europe than I have, or at least a few different ones, I should say. SP is none of mine yet, certainly worth a trip, and with quite a bit of Ham activity, too.

A look into my FT8 log revealed nothing from DL88, and I can only guess how rare it must be on 6 m then. I'm not equipped for this fascinating band today, but I still vividly remember analog TV DX from all over Europe (at least from the countries with compatible TV systems) 'in the old days'. It's just great that Hams were able to 'conquer' 6 m when the channels down there were finally abandoned in the wake of the switch to Digital TV. Just opened your map image, I see now, for sure an interesting challenge, good luck with this operation then...


I agree, the low mountains of Northern Bavaria are a nice place with pleasant landscapes and scenery, not as exciting as what Texas has to offer, but a good place to live for sure.


Haha, 'erratic-spree', not a bad synonym for sporadic-E. :-)

I think, in fact, we still don't really understand where it starts building up and how it spreads out over such huge territories...? About 40 years ago, a SW radio hobby friend had told me about a theory that it appears to be favored in areas of greater pressure gradients, in other words, you would not experience a lot of Es close to the center of a pressure system, but as a L moves into an area of H pressure (or vice-versa), it may be more likely to happen. But I never heard about this again, although I'm inclined to think that there may be some such mechanism linked to our troposphere. It would at least be in phase with its being 'erratic', yes, that's your wife's proper expression for it! 'Sporadic' is in fact not really the best term, because it refers to the Sporades, the 'scattered' Greek islands, but Es certainly is not limited to any sea surfaces, but happens just as well over land, as we all know.


Wow, wonderful images, that's really special! Must be great fun taking the JEEP and the trailer out into such a beautiful scenery! Well, you and your wife sure deserve it, and I bet you're doing the exact right thing with your precious time. I've been to a desert (near Dubai) only once during a short stop-over on a business trip, quite an experience, even while only 'passing by'.


Thank you very much, I appreciate your kind words and would certainly like to visit you over in West Texas (having been to to the States several times before but sadly newer even close to the very attractive SW 'corner'), but I don't think it's likely going to happen, for various reasons. Life sometimes is more complicated than it should, and not all things can be 'engineered' at will.


So, Mike, let's keep in touch on radio related topics at least, and while I'm not even a ham, I do enjoy the radio hobby, and these days, with so many other SW services having closed, much of it is Ham Radio related now. And with my modest contributions, as in this group, I do try to support the Ham community just a little.


All the best from Franken,

73s Tobias
.-.-.