5000km plus opening on 144 MHz from Cape Verde Islands to Italy, Slovenia & Croatia - 2nd July 2020

On Thursday the 2nd of July 2020, there was another remarkable opening on 144 MHz between Cape Verde Islands off the west coast of Africa and Italy, Slovenia & Croatia.

This isn't the first time that this has happened but any terrestrial opening on 144 MHz which reaches 5000kms or more is always special.

This edited list shows the stations that heard by D4VHF in Cape Verde. It also lists those hearing D4VHF on FT8 but not weren't heard by them (in order of distance)...

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
D4VHF S51ZO 2m FT8 5028 km 19:09:59
9A5BWW D4VHF 2m FT8 5013 km 19:02:42
D4VHF 9A6NA 2m FT8 5013 km 18:51:56
D4VHF S50TA 2m FT8 4885 km 19:17:44
D4VHF S57A 2m FT8 4809 km 18:41:59
D4VHF IV3/HB9CAT 2m FT8 4798 km 18:27:59
D4VHF IV3GTH 2m FT8 4792 km 18:41:56
9A5CW D4VHF 2m FT8 4790 km 19:17:57
D4VHF IV3GBO 2m FT8 4786 km 19:11:44
9A3CX D4VHF 2m FT8 4776 km 19:03:12
D4VHF IV3BLQ 2m FT8 4776 km 19:17:41
D4VHF 9A5CW 2m FT8 4774 km 19:17:14
D4VHF 9A3K 2m FT8 4774 km 19:15:44
D4VHF 9A1UN 2m FT8 4766 km 19:04:29
9A2RD D4VHF 2m FT8 4766 km 19:01:41
IK3VZO D4VHF 2m FT8 4643 km 18:35:12
D4VHF IW3GJF 2m FT8 4639 km 18:35:29
IZ3NOC D4VHF 2m FT8 4636 km 18:32:11
D4VHF IK4DRY 2m FT8 4624 km 18:59:29
D4VHF IK4FMT 2m FT8 4596 km 18:59:26
D4VHF IW4AZY 2m FT8 4548 km 19:11:15
D4VHF IK2MKS 2m FT8 4528 km 15:51:44
IK2LHP D4VHF 2m FT8 4517 km 15:57:56
IK0SMG D4VHF 2m FT8 4506 km 16:44:56
D4VHF IW0FFK 2m FT8 4505 km 16:46:44
D4VHF IZ2MHO 2m FT8 4480 km 15:52:11
D4VHF G7RAU 2m FT8 4086 km 16:02:14

FT8 screenshot from D4VHF

This is a list of the 20 stations in Italy, Slovenia & Croatia that D4VHF actually completed a contact with on FT8...

2020-07-02 15:49:15 IZ2MHO JN45 144.175900 FT8 +03,-06 
2020-07-02 16:30:30 IK0SMG JN61 144.175900 FT8 -03 -11 
2020-07-02 18:25:00 IK3VZO JN55 144.174900 FT8 -19 -01 
2020-07-02 18:28:00 S50TA 144.174900 FT8 +08 +01 
2020-07-02 18:28:30 IZ3NOC 144.174900 FT8 -03 -12 
2020-07-02 18:33:00 IV3NDC 144.174900 FT8 -06 -06 
2020-07-02 18:34:30 IW3GJF 144.174900 FT8 -12 -06 
2020-07-02 18:36:45 IV3GTH JN65 144.174900 FT8 -17 -11 
2020-07-02 18:37:45 IZ3QFG 144.174900 FT8 -05 
2020-07-02 18:42:30 S57A JN65 144.174900 FT8 +02 -06 
2020-07-02 18:44:00 IK4FMT JN54,144.174900 FT8 -15 -21 
2020-07-02 18:46:45 IK4DRY 144.174900 FT8 -11 -07 
2020-07-02 18:52:00 9A3CX JN65 144.174900 FT8 +00 -01 
2020-07-02 18:57:30 9A3K JN65 144.174900 FT8 +05 +01 
2020-07-02 18:58:15 9A6NA JN86 144.174900 FT8 -12 -19 
2020-07-02 19:02:00 9A2RD JN65 144.174900 FT8 +13 -09 
2020-07-02 19:02:45 9A5BWW JN86,144.174900 FT8 -05 -16 
2020-07-02 19:04:30 9A1UN JN65 144.174900 FT8 -10 -07 
2020-07-02 19:05:45 IV3GBO JN66 144.174900 FT8 +17 -07 
2020-07-02 19:12:30 9A5CW JN65 144.174900 FT8 -06 -13 

Another screenshot from D4VHF

Mode of Propagation... How exactly did these 5000km signals travel so far on 144 MHz? It seems likely that it was via a combination of a marine duct from Cape Verde up as far as Morocco and via Sporadic-E from there to Italy.

The tropo prediction map from Pascal, F5LEN shows some tropo in the Mediterranean Sea so that can't be discounted either. However, there must surely been at least one Sporadic-E hop in there somewhere.

Full D4VHF log including the EA & EA8 stations shown below...

D4VHF worked on 02 JULY 2020 on 144 MHz
IZ2MHO JN45 FT8 rst_sent:+03 rst_rcvd-06
EA8AR FT8 rst_sent:+04 rst_rcvd:+07
EA7JLM IM66 FT8 rst_sent:+15 rst_rcvd:+19
EA7TB FT8 rst_sent:-16 rst_rcvd:-16
IK0SMG JN61 FT8 rst_sent:-03  rst_rcvd:-11
EA7SL IM76 FT8 rst_sent:-10  rst_rcvd:-08
EA8CSB IL18 FT8 rst_sent:-08  rst_rcvd:-05
IK3VZO JN55 FT8 rst_sent:-19  rst_rcvd:-01 
S50TA FT8 rst_sent:+08  rst_rcvd:+01
IZ3NOC FT8 rst_sent:-03  rst_rcvd:-12 
S50TA FT8 rst_sent:+01  rst_rcvd:0>
S50TA FT8 rst_sent:-19  rst_rcvd:-06
IV3NDC FT8 rst_sent:-06  rst_rcvd:-06 
IW3GJF FT8 rst_sent:-12 rst_rcvd:-06
S50TA FT8 rst_sent:-03  rst_rcvd:0 
IV3GTH JN65 mode:FT8  rst_sent:-17  rst_rcvd:-11 
IZ3QFG FT8 rst_sent:-05  rst_rcvd:0 
EA8DGZ IL28 mode:FT8  rst_sent:-10  rst_rcvd:-10 
S57A JN65 mode:FT8  rst_sent:+02  rst_rcvd:-06 
IK4FMT JN54 mode:FT8  rst_sent:-15  rst_rcvd:-21
IK4DRY FT8 rst_sent:-11  rst_rcvd:-07 
9A3CX JN65 mode:FT8  rst_sent:+00  rst_rcvd:-01
9A3K JN65 mode:FT8  rst_sent:+05  rst_rcvd:+01
9A6NA JN86  mode:FT8  rst_sent:-12 rst_rcvd:-19 
9A2RD JN65 mode:FT8  rst_sent:+13  rst_rcvd:-09 
9A5BWW JN86 mode:FT8  rst_sent:-05  rst_rcvd:-16 
9A1UN JN65 mode:FT8  rst_sent:-10  rst_rcvd:-07 
IV3GBO JN66 mode:FT8  rst_sent:+17 rst_rcvd:-07 
9A5CW JN65 mode:FT8  rst_sent:-06  rst_rcvd:-13 
EA7SL IM76 mode:FT8  rst_sent:+07 rst_rcvd:+02