3000km+ opening on 144Mhz from the Canary Islands to Italy - 7th June 2021

7th June 2021: There was another example of a 3000km+ opening on 144 MHz between the Canary Islands and Italy.

Here are a few spots from the DX-Cluster with the distances in brackets...

EA8AVI 144185 I3MEK 13:05 07 Jun 21 IL28FC<>JN55SJ 55 Italy (3063kms)

EA8AIN 144175.5 IZ5EME 12:34 07 Jun 21 FT8 JN52ns< > IL18cq 73 Italy (3024kms)

IV3/HB9CAT 144174 EA8CXN 13:04 07 Jun 21 JN65UQ<ES>IL81SK TNX Canary Islands (3264kms)

IU4FNO 144174 EA8CXN 13:00 07 Jun 21 Jn54in<ES>il18sk FT8 Canary Islands (2997kms)

IZ5EME 144174 EA8AR 12:32 07 Jun 21 jn52-il18 ES Canary Islands (2947kms)

IK8BIZ 144174 EA8EY 11:52 07 Jun 21 HRD -19 FT8 Canary Islands (3214kms)

There may have been more paths open but I only have the spots on the cluster to go off. Unfortunately the data on the PSK Reporter website disappears after 24 hours.

Propagation Mode: The tropo prediction map below from F5LEN shows the suggested conditions at the time...

It seems likely that it was a combined Sporadic-E / Tropo ducting path. There was a Sporadic-E opening at the time between Italy and Spain so that confirms the north-eastern 1500-2000kms of the path. The south-western part of the path was probably via a marine tropo duct to the Canary Islands.

There were reports of 2700km tropo openings from the Canary Islands up to the south coast of Ireland & England on that morning and the previous morning so those conditions were very good.

There is always the possibility that the path from the Canary Islands to Italy was via double hop / chordal hop Sporadic-E but the probably of that is much lower than a combined Sp-E / tropo path.

D4 Cape Verde: Unfortunately the D4VHF station on 144 MHz is off air at present. If they had been on the air then there would be a possibility of paths well in excess of 4000kms.

More examples of 3000km plus paths on 2-metres can be found on my 144 MHz page... https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/p/144-mhz.html

Addendum:

1) Thanks to Zvonko, 9A2AE for the following information. At 12:55UTC, there was a 3567 km path open from 9A2AE in Croatia to EA8AIN in the Canary Islands (IL18CQ).

2) Thanks to Davor, 9A5BWW for the following info. At 12:49 UTC, there was a 3468 km path open from 9A5BWW to EA8CSB (IL18TL).

3) Thanks to César, EA8CXN for the following info. He writes..."It was a mix between tropo and ES. Due to mountains on my direct path, I beam my antennas to the opposite direction, bouncing my signal off the 'El Teide volcano".

Log extract from the 7th with the TR+ES opening...
07/06/21 IV3GTH FT8 +13 -12 2m Italy EA8CXN (~3255kms)
07/06/21 S52LM FT8 +13 -12 2m Slovenia EA8CXN (~3255kms)
07/06/21 IV3/HB9CAT FT8 +07 -05 2m Italy EA8CXN (3264kms)
07/06/21 IU4FNO FT8 -14 -17 2m Italy EA8CXN (~2997kms)
07/06/21 S59F FT8 -11 -21 2m Slovenia EA8CXN (3273kms)

Website... https://ea8cxn.es/