3000km+ opening on 144 MHz from the Madeira Islands to Europe - 17th June 2021

Thursday 17th June 2021: As I spend more time looking at Sporadic-E openings on 144 MHz, it's becoming clearer that distances in excess of 3000kms are actually a lot more common than we might have expected.

On the 17th of June, there was what I believe to be a double hop Sporadic-E opening from the Madeira Islands to Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary and the Ukraine.

These are the FT8 paths on 144 MHz for CT3HF...

Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)

UT5ST 2m FT8 3893 km 14:34:26

HA6NQ 2m FT8 3521 km 13:27:59

S51ZO 2m FT8 3221 km 13:19:59

9A6NA 2m FT8 3214 km 13:14:29

S55OO 2m FT8 3078 km 13:14:56

S52LM 2m FT8 3003 km 13:20:56

S59F 2m FT8 3003 km 13:20:57

IV3/HB9CAT 2m FT8 2997 km 13:21:00

IV3BLQ 2m FT8 2973 km 13:21:29

IV3GTH 2m FT8 2966 km 13:18:56

I3VWK 2m FT8 2856 km 13:27:59

IK3MLF 2m FT8 2852 km 13:14:56

IK4CBO 2m FT8 2711 km 13:21:26

If we look at the map for UT5ST in the Ukraine, this is what it looks like.

Notice how there are stations in the south of France and the NW of Spain at roughly the midway point.

EA6VQ UT5ST 2m FT8 2001 km 14:47:56
CT3HF UT5ST 2m FT8 3893 km 14:34:26
F1HQM UT5ST 2m FT8 1609 km 14:31:59
F4VTP UT5ST 2m FT8 1776 km 14:24:26
EB2FJN UT5ST 2m FT8 2191 km 14:24:26
F5DYD/P UT5ST 2m FT8 1933 km 14:15:26
EB3JT UT5ST 2m FT8 1983 km 14:04:11
UT5ST IS0YFG 2m FT8 1644 km 13:54:44

This to me suggests that for there were two Sporadic-E hops involved rather than one hop (2300kms) with a tropo extension.

Just to note that the opening from UT5ST to the NW of France was at the later time of about 18:18 UTC.

These are the spots from the DX-Cluster which suggests that all of the activity for these long paths was on the FT8 digital mode...

F6GNR 144174.0 CT3HF 16:43 17 Jun IN97FD<ES>IM12OP -20 FT8 Tnx Madeira Islands 

G4FUF 144174.0 CT3HF 16:38 17 Jun JO01GN<ES>IM12OP Madeira Islands 

EA2Z 144174.0 CT3HF 16:33 17 Jun 73. FT8 ES Vert antenna Madeira Islands

HA9AL-@ 144174.0 CT3HF 14:21 17 Jun BIGGEST DX FOR ME RX 3442KM Madeira Islands

S57A-@ 144174.0 CT3HF 13:30 17 Jun tu your best+4 Madeira Islands

S51ZO 144174.0 CT3HF 13:27 17 Jun Jn86/ES/IM12 -08db tnx Madeira Islands

 Spotter Freq. DX Time Info Country

CT3HF 144174.0 F5DYD/P 14:52 17 Jun IM12OP<ES>JN03 France

CT3HF 144174.0 F5PSR 14:43 17 Jun IM12OP<ES>JN13 France

CT3HF 144174.0 UW8SM 13:32 17 Jun IM12OP<ES>KN28 HRD -13 into IM Ukraine

CT3HF 144174.0 S57A 13:28 17 Jun IM12OP<ES>JN65 +13 Slovenia

CT3HF 144174.0 S51ZO 13:24 17 Jun IM12OP<ES>JN86DR FT8 +05 Slovenia

CT3HF 144174.0 S55OO 13:22 17 Jun IM12OP<ES>JN76 Slovenia

Note the second Ukrainian station UW8SM who was at 3,875 kms.

Tropo: This was the tropo prediction map at the time....

It looks as if the usual path from Portugal to the Madeira Islands and the Canary Islands is a bit weaker than usual. This ties in with no CT stations in Portugal hearing CT3HF. It supports the theory that it was two hops.

Canary Islands - EA8: It looks as if stations on the Canary Islands were a bit too far south for nearly all of the opening that occurred around 13:30-14:40 UTC. They had their own opening to France, England and Belgium around 16:30 UTC.

In the above image, the image on the left shows the paths from one of the EA8 stations. The image on the right shows the paths from G4ZFJ in England with a Sporadic-E footprint around Lisbon in Portugal.

Considering that the EA8 stations didn't seem to be hearing the CT/EA stations on tropo, I think this was another opening on 144 MHz with two Sporadic-E hops.

As the FT8 reports below show, some paths were just short of 3000 kms. 

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
ON4KHG EA8CSB 2m FT8 2993 km 16:41:56
G0MBL EA8CSB 2m FT8 2938 km 16:39:42
G4ZFJ EA8CSB 2m FT8 2937 km 16:30:57
F6EAS EA8CSB 2m FT8 2629 km 16:25:41
F6GNR EA8CSB 2m FT8 2444 km 16:29:27
EA8CSB F4EZJ 2m FT8 2387 km 16:30:12
F4EZJ EA8CSB 2m FT8 2387 km 16:25:56

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
F6EAS EA8AO 2m FT8 2698 km 13:09:26
F6GNR EA8AO 2m FT8 2516 km 16:35:56

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
F4EZJ EA8AR 2m FT8 2403 km 16:26:27

In Conclusion: It does seem as if the opening from the Canary Islands (EA8) was a bit more patchy that the one from the Madeira Islands (CT3) but the distances were still up around 3000kms and above. 

Before the introduction of FT8 in 2017, I think the general consensus was that there were a handful of 3000km+ Sporadic-E openings on 144 MHz every Sporadic-E season. 

Now that I am keeping a record of them for the Summer of 2021, it seems as if 3000km openings at 144 MHz are a lot more common than we thought.