30th July 2020 - There was another impressive 4000 km plus opening on the VHF & UHF today from Cape Verde Islands off the west coast of Africa to the north-west of Europe.
The map above from PSKReporter shows the FT8 signals being sent and received by D4VHF in Cape Verde. The mode of propagation was the usual marine duct but it was unusual to see the conditions extend into the midlands in England.
One of the most unusual reception reports was from PB0AHX in the Netherlands for two reasons.
1) The distance at 4680 kms is just 100kms short of the IARU Region-1 tropo record which was from D4VHF to the Isle of Skye in January of 2020.
2) The path from the Netherlands was over a lot of France and parts of Spain raising the possibility that perhaps there was another mode of propagation at work for the northern part of the path such as Sporadic-E or Meteor Scatter?
These are the FT8 reports on 144 MHz in order of distance for NW Europe...
Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
D4VHF PB0AHX 2m FT8 4680 km 12:50:44
D4VHF M0CTP 2m FT8 4622 km 15:58:14
D4VHF G4BNM 2m FT8 4582 km 15:47:42
D4VHF GM3SEK 2m FT8 4562 km 14:29:44
D4VHF GD3YEO 2m FT8 4503 km 13:07:14
D4VHF G4CLA 2m FT8 4473 km 09:24:44
D4VHF G8VHI 2m FT8 4466 km 12:08:41
D4VHF G4KWQ 2m FT8 4462 km 16:36:11
G0CUZ D4VHF 2m FT8 4440 km 10:43:27
MW1CFN D4VHF 2m FT8 4438 km 11:04:57
G8TIC D4VHF 2m FT8 4411 km 12:15:27
D4VHF GW4SHF 2m FT8 4404 km 15:41:14
D4VHF M0BUL 2m FT8 4388 km 15:32:14
M0BUL D4VHF 2m FT8 4388 km 15:32:57
D4VHF G0JCC 2m FT8 4362 km 16:40:41
D4VHF GW7SMV 2m FT8 4317 km 16:52:44
D4VHF GW4HDF 2m FT8 4312 km 18:48:14
D4VHF GW4VXE 2m FT8 4280 km 09:55:41
D4VHF GW0KZG 2m FT8 4276 km 16:54:14
D4VHF GW1JFV 2m FT8 4264 km 10:16:41
D4VHF EI8KN 2m FT8 4230 km 13:29:11
D4VHF G4RRA 2m FT8 4211 km 16:44:14
D4VHF EI2FG 2m FT8 4182 km 19:11:41
D4VHF M0BKV 2m FT8 4181 km 18:49:44
D4VHF EI3KD 2m FT8 4170 km 19:26:14
G4ALY D4VHF 2m FT8 4160 km 12:07:57
D4VHF G8IXN 2m FT8 4110 km 13:30:44
D4VHF G4LOH 2m FT8 4098 km 19:43:14
M0AFJ D4VHF 2m FT8 4094 km 18:43:57
D4VHF G3NJV 2m FT8 4090 km 14:02:44
D4VHF G7RAU 2m FT8 4086 km 19:33:41
D4VHF F6DBI 2m FT8 4020 km 16:54:44
D4VHF F6KHM 2m FT8 3966 km 10:23:44
D4VHF F8DBF 2m FT8 3963 km 19:38:14
The tropo prediction map below from Pascal, F5LEN shows the sea path from Cape Verde...
70cms... The sea path was also open at 432 MHz.
EI3KD 70cm FT8 4170 km 10:12:14
G3NJV 70cm FT8 4090 km 13:03:14
G7RAU 70cm FT8 4086 km 19:16:11
F8DBF 70cm FT8 3963 km 22:08:44
EA1FBU 70cm FT8 3224 km 18:56:44
EA1YV 70cm FT8 3201 km 19:04:14
EA7SL 70cm FT8 2885 km 19:38:44
EA8CSB 70cm FT8 1562 km 19:15:14
EA8AR 70cm FT8 1546 km 11:12:11
EA8RH 70cm FT8 1512 km 20:45:11
It's always amazing to see a 4000 km plus path at 432 MHz.
Canary Islands... It's also worth mentioning that the sea path was also open from the Canary Islands to NW Europe...
G7RAU 432174.0 EA8CSB 18:15 30 Jul IN79JX
G7RAU 144485.0 ED8ZAA/B 17:48 30 Jul IN79JX
G7RAU 144320.0 EA8BPX 17:46 30 Jul IN79JX
GM4FVM 144174.0 EA8CSB 17:39 30 Jul IO85WU
MM0CEZ 144174.0 EA8CSB 17:01 30 Jul io75xu
M1GSM 144174.0 EA8CSB 16:50 30 Jul IO94DR
G4RRA 144174.0 EA8CSB 16:02 30 Jul IO80BS
F6FGQ 144485.0 ED8ZAA/B 10:52 30 Jul 529 stable in IN78QJ Canary Islands
G4ALY 144485.0 ED8ZAA/B 10:44 30 Jul IL18UM(TR)IO70VL 549 Canary Islands
EI3KD 144485.4 ED8ZAA/B 05:45 30 Jul IO51VW
Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
EA8CSB GM0HBK 2m FT8 3287 km 15:50:14
EA8CSB GM4FVM 2m FT8 3248 km 19:01:41
EA8CSB MM0CEZ 2m FT8 3197 km 17:19:14
MM0CEZ EA8CSB 2m FT8 3197 km 17:17:29
EA8CSB 2M0ETJ 2m FT8 3135 km 17:58:44
2M0ETJ EA8CSB 2m FT8 3135 km 17:17:59
EA8CSB GM3SEK 2m FT8 3073 km 17:04:44
GM3SEK EA8CSB 2m FT8 3073 km 16:04:59
EA8CSB GI4SNA 2m FT8 3013 km 17:35:44
EA8CSB GI6ATZ 2m FT8 3002 km 17:56:41
EA8CSB G0SYP 2m FT8 3001 km 17:20:41
It's always worth remembering that the distance across the North Atlantic from Ireland to Newfoundland is about 3000 kms.
Links...
1) F5LEN Tropo Prediction
I was also lucky enough to work EA8CSB on 432MHz FT8 on the evening of 30th July. What's quite fun is that we were both using vertical antennas. I didn't hear D4VHF on 432MHz this time, sadly!
ReplyDeleteTim GW4VXE