Saturday, February 20, 2021

TEP contact on 144 MHz between 3A2LU and V51E - 1990-1991

At the end of 2020, I had some posts up on the blog about some remarkable 144 MHz contacts between Argentina and the Caribbean via Trans-Equatorial Propagation (TEP). Many of the contacts were in the region of 5000 kms.

The post sparked some discussion and someone mentioned a TEP contact on 144 MHz between 3A2LU in Monaco and V51E in Namibia which had taken place in the early 90's.


The path is shown above and is in the region of 7162 kms, a really impressive distance for 144 MHz.

This contact was made in pre-internet days but from what I can tell from doing a search, 3A2LU in Monaco was running 150 watts into a 15-element Yagi. Amazingly, V51E in Namibia was using an antenna for the 160m band!


The contact which was via CW would have taken place close to the peak of solar cycle 22 so conditions must have been really good.

If anyone has any additional information about this contact then please let me know.

For examples of other long distance contacts on 144 MHz, visit my 144 MHz page.

1 comment:

Jan, OZ9QV said...

I recall a SV station playing back (a recording?) of signals from ZS6DN on 28.885, It may have been cycle 21, but I do think it was likely cucle 22. The signals sounded like aurora signals.
73 de Jan, OZ9QV.