SondehuntThe Essen midday sonde of Saturday, 29.09.2018, P3020155, landed in a residential area in the eastern outskirts of Leverkusen. On Friday morning after, I was in Cologne for a lecture that was cancelled at short notice and decided to look for the sonde. Arrived there by bus and train, the first way led into the forest behind the property, in which I suspected the sonde. I could not see anything in the trees, and a very high and steep slope separated me from the property. So I started the way back and due to the geography I had to take a considerable detour, so some 20 minutes later I stood on the other side in front of the three terraced houses in question.
Already at the first I had success; an older lady opend me, and when I explained my concern, she asked me to the garage. The sonde was already awaiting me there. But first I was the one of interest. Whether I was a friend of the neighbor’s son to whom she wanted to give the sonde for the physics class. Why then a (designated) amateur radio operator from Gummersbach would know that a sonde had landed at her backyard. How exactly that worked. Unfortunately, the parachute hung out of reach in the first tree of the forest, the sonde was lying on her lawn and had been salvaged immediately. Very happy about the first successful cold sonde hunt I started my way back a little later.