EI7GL....A diary of amateur radio activity: G3SMT works Cape Verde Islands to set new 144 MHz Tropo record

Wednesday, September 26, 2018

G3SMT works Cape Verde Islands to set new 144 MHz Tropo record

Back on the 5th of August 2018, Mark Turner EI3KD worked D4Z in the Cape Verde Islands off the coast of Africa to set a new IARU Region 1 tropo record on 144 MHz. Now less than two months later, that record has been broken again.

On Tuesday the 25th of September 2018, the marine duct from the Cape Verde Islands expended as far north as the British and Irish Isles again.

At 21:10, EI3KD managed to repeat his record distance by working D4Z on cw for a second time, a distance of 4163 kms.

At approx 21:46, GW0KZG in IO71LW in the west of Wales worked D4Z to extend the record to approx 4270 kms. It turned out to be one of the shortest held records however,

At approx 21:47, Peter Torrry G3SMT worked D4Z (HK76MU) to set a new IARU 144 MHz Region 1 record of 4431 kms. Peter's locator square is IO82KV.

DX-Cluster spots - 25th Sept 2018...
GW0KZG 144300.0 D4Z 22:12 25 Sep IO71LW HK76MU still 519 cal Cape Verde
G3SMT 144300.0 D4Z 21:46 25 Sep IO82KV HK76MU Cape Verde
GW0KZG 144300.0 D4Z 21:45 25 Sep IO71LW HK76MU 539 tks QSO Cape Verde
G7RAU 144300.0 D4Z 21:42 25 Sep IN79JX HK76MU 599+ cq, gl Cape Verde
G7RAU 144300.0 D4Z 21:18 25 Sep IN79JX HK76MU 559! wow! Cape Verde
EI3KD 144300.0 D4Z 21:11 25 Sep IO51VW HK76MU tnx! 589 cq Cape Verde

D41CV was also worked on FT8...
M0BUL-@ 144174.0 D41CV 22:28 25 Sep tnx Cape Verde
GW0KZG 144174.0 D41CV 22:27 25 Sep IO71LWHK76TC H-10,/-04 Tn Cape Verde
EI3KD 144174.0 D41CV 22:22 25 Sep IO51VW HK76MU oops call :) Cape Verde
G7RAU 144174.0 D41CV 22:19 25 Sep IN79JX HK76MU +03 FT8 GL! Cape Verde

This is the tropo prediction map for the path at the time...

Source : F5LEN

It's probably likely that the record will be extended again at some stage in the future with perhaps a contact to Northern Ireland or Scotland.

Just to illustrate just how far the G3SMT - D44Z contact was, this is the equivalent distance across the Atlantic from the south-west coast of Ireland.