Remarkable 13,000 km opening on 6-metres between Australia and South America - 12th Dec 2020

At the moment, our colleagues in the southern hemisphere are in the middle of their summer Sporadic-E season and there are of course plenty of openings on the VHF bands.

On the 12th of December 2020, there was a remarkable opening on 6-metres between Australia and South America. For example, the map below from the PSK Reporter website shows the sent/received reports for VK3BD in the SE of Australia.

What is truly remarkable about this is the sheer distance and the path of the signals.

For many, the distance between the stations in Australia and the stations in Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay was in excess of 13,000 kms! 

To put that into perspective for European readers, the distance from say the UK to Japan is about 9500 kms. Every year, there seems to be multi-hop Sporadic-E openings from Europe to Japan on 50 MHz which cause a lot of excitement. This opening from Australia to South America was significantly further.

The second interesting point was the path. In some instances, the Great Circle path crossed part of Antarctica with the most southerly path going as far as 78 degrees south. Again to put that into perspective for European readers, 78 degrees is about as far north as say the island of Svalbard to the north of Norway.

Far northern or far southern latitudes are not areas normally associated with Sporadic-E.

To get a view from the South American side, I took a screenshot of the map for CP6UA in Bolivia.

As the map shows, the stations in New Zealand (ZL) were also getting in on the action and the distance to them was an impressive 11,000 kms or so.

Mode of propagation???... The million dollar question. I presume it was multi-hop Sporadic-E but it was a lot of hops! One of the longest paths that I saw was between VK5BC and PT9FD, a distance of 13,530 kms.

VK5BC PT9FD 6m JT65 13530 km 22:17:50

The maximum distance for one Sporadic-E hop is about 2300 kms. Was it six hops of 2255 kms? Seven hops of 1933 kms? If it was multi-hop Sporadic-E then a lot of patches of Sporadic-E had to line up in a row and at the correct distance for it to work.

Addendum... Someone suggested that Polar Mesospheric Summer Echos (PMSE) with electrons gathering around ice crystals may have been responsible for this opening. I include it here for reference reference.

Contacts... I'm sure many contacts were made but the purpose of this post is just to highlight the fact that the opening occurred.

Looking at the PSK Reporter website, these were the stations that I saw listed...

Australia...

VK1JA

VK2ZQ

VK3OT, VK3BD, VK3DUT, VK3OER, VK3WE, VK3KU

VK5PW, VK5BC, VK5PJ, VK5RM

Brazil - PY5HOT, PT9FT, PY5KD, PY5EK

Paraguay - ZP5DPC, ZP4KFZ

Bolivia - CP6UA

Argentina - LW2DAF, LU3CQ, LU9DO

Chile - CE3SX, CA3SOC, XQ3MCC

Uruguay - CX6DRA

DX-Cluster... Here are a selection of spots from the DX-Cluster...

PT9FD 50276.0 VK3OT 22:19 12 Dec JT65A GG27OR <> QF12ag TU 73 Australia

PT9FD 50276.0 VK5BC 22:00 12 Dec JT65A gg27or PF95jj tks 73 Australia

CE3SX 50276.0 VK5PJ 22:00 12 Dec FF46<>PF95MK TU Peter Australia

CP6UA 50276.0 VK3DUT 21:35 12 Dec Thanks New One Norm. 73 Australia

PY4AQA 50276.0 VK4QG 22:18 10 Dec JT65A -24 dB Australia

VK3OER 50276 PT9FD 23:24 12 Dec 20 JT65 -25 CQ Brazil

VK3OT-@ 50277.3 PT9FD 22:18 12 Dec 20 QF12ag GG27 jt65 qso 73 Brazil

VK3OT-@ 50277 PT9FD 22:14 12 Dec 20 cq pt9fd gg27 jt65a -19 Brazil

VK3OT-@ 50277 PY5HOT 21:42 12 Dec 20 cq gg46 jt65a Brazil

VK3OT-@ 50279 PT9FD 21:34 12 Dec 20 jt65 cq -23 Brazil

VK3OT-@ 50277 ZP4KFX 20:55 12 Dec 20 wow thanks JT65A Paraguay

VK3OT-@ 50277 ZP5DBC 20:50 12 Dec 20 JT65A thanks -19 Paraguay

I also kept a record for some of the Australian stations logs of the signals that they heard from South America for this opening. PSK Reporter normally wipes all records after 24 hours so it's nice to have some record of the opening. See below...

VK3OT

 Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
VK3OT PT9FD 6m JT65 13115 km 22:25:50
PT9FD VK3OT 6m JT65 13115 km 22:10:50
PY5HOT VK3OT 6m JT65 13088 km 21:40:50
VK3OT ZP5DBC 6m JT65 12729 km 20:46:50
ZP5DBC VK3OT 6m JT65 12729 km 20:43:50
VK3OT ZP4KFX 6m JT65 12718 km 20:46:50
ZP4KFX VK3OT 6m JT65 12718 km 20:45:50

VK3BD

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
CP6UA VK3BD 6m JT65 13189 km 21:14:50
PT9FD VK3BD 6m JT65 13068 km 22:44:50
PY5HOT VK3BD 6m JT65 13066 km 20:52:50
PY5KD VK3BD 6m JT65 12891 km 21:18:50
ZP4KFX VK3BD 6m JT65 12661 km 20:25:50
LU2FFD VK3BD 6m JT65 11751 km 23:18:50
CX6DRA VK3BD 6m JT65 11711 km 22:42:50
LU3CQ VK3BD 6m JT65 11690 km 22:48:50
LU9DO VK3BD 6m JT65 11664 km 22:46:50
LW2DAF VK3BD 6m JT65 11658 km 23:00:50
VK3BD CE3SX 6m JT65 11316 km 21:45:50
CE3SX VK3BD 6m JT65 11316 km 21:26:50
XQ3MCC VK3BD 6m JT65 11311 km 23:46:50

VK3DUT
Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
CP6UA VK3DUT 6m JT65 13039 km 21:14:50
PY5HOT VK3DUT 6m JT65 12938 km 21:52:50
PT9FD VK3DUT 6m JT65 12933 km 22:04:50
ZP5DBC VK3DUT 6m JT65 12536 km 21:01:50
ZP4KFX VK3DUT 6m JT65 12524 km 21:03:50
LU7FIN VK3DUT 6m JT65 11600 km 21:16:50
CX6DRA VK3DUT 6m JT65 11581 km 22:34:50
LW2DAF VK3DUT 6m JT65 11524 km 22:38:50

VK2ZQ
Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
PY5HOT VK2ZQ 6m JT65 13188 km 21:56:50
CP6UA VK2ZQ 6m JT65 13184 km 22:08:50
PY5KD VK2ZQ 6m JT65 13036 km 21:36:50
PY5EK VK2ZQ 6m JT65 12832 km 21:38:50
VK2ZQ ZP5DBC 6m JT65 12750 km 21:55:50
ZP4KFX VK2ZQ 6m JT65 12738 km 21:56:50

VK5PW
Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
PT9FD VK5PW 6m JT65 13522 km 22:42:50
ZP4KFX VK5PW 6m JT65 13129 km 22:34:50
LU3CQ VK5PW 6m JT65 12137 km 22:40:51
LU9DO VK5PW 6m JT65 12114 km 22:40:52
LW2DAF VK5PW 6m JT65 12107 km 22:50:50

VK5BC
Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
VK5BC PT9FD 6m JT65 13530 km 22:17:50
PT9FD VK5BC 6m JT65 13530 km 22:04:51
ZP4KFX VK5BC 6m JT65 13138 km 22:38:50
LW2DAF VK5BC 6m JT65 12115 km 22:48:52

VK5PJ
Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
PT9FD VK5PJ 6m JT65 13528 km 22:44:50
VK5PJ PT9FD 6m JT65 13528 km 22:01:50
ZP5DBC VK5PJ 6m JT65 13147 km 22:32:50
ZP4KFX VK5PJ 6m JT65 13135 km 22:34:50
LW2DAF VK5PJ 6m JT65 12114 km 23:00:50
VK5PJ CE3SX 6m JT65 11859 km 21:55:50
CE3SX VK5PJ 6m JT65 11859 km 21:08:50
VK5PJ CA3SOC 6m JT65 11830 km 21:31:50

VK3OER
Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
PT9FD VK3OER 6m JT65 13133 km 23:20:50

VK3WE
Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
CP6UA VK3WE 6m JT65 13047 km 21:14:50
PY5HOT VK3WE 6m JT65 12942 km 21:52:50
PY5EK VK3WE 6m JT65 12583 km 21:48:50
ZP5DBC VK3WE 6m JT65 12541 km 20:43:50
ZP4KFX VK3WE 6m JT65 12530 km 20:45:50
CX6DRA VK3WE 6m JT65 11585 km 22:36:50
LW2DAF VK3WE 6m JT65 11529 km 22:48:50
XQ3MCC VK3WE 6m JT65 11172 km 21:42:50

LW2DAF

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)

LW2DAF VK5BC 6m JT65 12115 km 22:48:52

LW2DAF VK5PJ 6m JT65 12114 km 23:00:50

LW2DAF VK5PW 6m JT65 12107 km 22:50:50

LW2DAF VK5RM 6m JT65 12090 km 22:48:50

LW2DAF VK3BD 6m JT65 11658 km 23:00:50

LW2DAF VK3WE 6m JT65 11529 km 22:48:50

LW2DAF VK3DUT 6m JT65 11524 km 22:38:50

CE3SX

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)

VK5PJ CE3SX 6m JT65 11859 km 21:55:50

CE3SX VK5PJ 6m JT65 11859 km 21:08:50

VK3BD CE3SX 6m JT65 11316 km 21:45:50

CE3SX VK3BD 6m JT65 11316 km 21:26:50

VK3KU CE3SX 6m JT65 11230 km 21:45:50

ZL3RJ CE3SX 6m JT65 9353 km 22:03:50

CA3SOC

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)

VK5PJ CA3SOC 6m JT65 11830 km 21:31:50

PY5EK

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)

PY5EK VK2ZQ 6m JT65 12832 km 21:38:50

PY5EK VK3WE 6m JT65 12583 km 21:48:50

PY5EK ZL1SG 6m JT65 11669 km 22:44:50

PY5EK ZL3AAD 6m JT65 11189 km 22:12:50

PY5EK ZL3RJ 6m JT65 11022 km 22:42:50

CX6DRA

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)

CX6DRA VK3BD 6m JT65 11711 km 22:42:50

CX6DRA VK3WE 6m JT65 11585 km 22:36:50

CX6DRA VK3DUT 6m JT65 11581 km 22:34:50

XQ3MCC

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)

XQ3MCC VK3BD 6m JT65 11311 km 23:46:50

XQ3MCC VK3WE 6m JT65 11172 km 21:42:50