Juan, ZP9HTL in Paraguay sent on some interesting information to me about his experience with Trans-Equatorial Propagation (TEP) on 144 MHz.
With TEP propagation, signals on the 144 MHz band usually cross the Geomagnetic Equator close to 90 degrees i.e. a right angle. This means that openings tend to happen to the exact same area when the band is open.
This can be seen as the TEP pipeline from Buenos Aires in Argentina to Bonaire, Curacao, Aruba & the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean. Likewise, stations in the south of Brazil have a pipeline to Puerto Rico & Guadeloupe.
For ZP9HTL, his pipeline from Paraguay is to Puerto Rico where he is often heard on SSB on 144.300 MHz.
Video... The following clip was sent to me by Juan.
It shows that what a TEP signal on SSB can sound like. Note the distortion and the very rapid flutter.
Remember, this is a signal on 144 MHz over a 5000km path!
Antenna... On 144 MHz, Juan is using an 11-element LFA Yagi.
DX-Cluster Spots... I have included below the DX Cluster spots for ZP9HTL from the Caribbean. As you can see, they are all from Puerto Rico and they range from the start of the TEP season in September 2021 to now, mid January 2022.
It's interesting to see that the TEP openings happen at pretty much the same time i.e. 00:00 UTC which is about 8pm local time in the evening for the stations concerned.
From these spots, the earliest time is 23:45 UTC and the latest time is 00:39 UTC, a window of about one hour.
DX-Spots...
Spotter Freq. DX Time Info Country
NP4BM-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 23:54 21 Jan 22 59 tnks tep qso Juan Paraguay
NP4BM-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 00:06 14 Jan 22 59 tks qso Juan Paraguay
WP4G 144300 ZP9HTL 00:39 13 Jan 22 55 in FK68 Paraguay
NP4BM-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 00:30 13 Jan 22 still 59 Paraguay
WP4KJJ-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 00:19 13 Jan 22 Paraguay
KP4EIT-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 00:10 13 Jan 22 5/2 swl Paraguay
NP4BM-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 00:05 13 Jan 22 58 tks tep qso Paraguay
NP4BM-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 00:01 29 Dec 21 tnks qso tep Paraguay
WP4I 144300 ZP9HTL 00:11 23 Dec 21 heard Paraguay
NP4BM-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 00:10 23 Dec 21 57 tks tep qso Paraguay
KP4EIT-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 23:47 22 Dec 21 54 tnx tep Paraguay
NP4BM-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 00:17 20 Dec 21 59+ tep qso Paraguay
WP4KJJ-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 23:46 19 Dec 21 5/9 Paraguay
KP4EIT-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 23:56 16 Dec 21 5/2 swl Paraguay
NP4BM-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 23:55 16 Dec 21 tnx tep qso 57 Paraguay
WP4KJJ-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 23:53 16 Dec 21 59 Paraguay
NP4BM-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 23:54 06 Dec 21 57 tnks qso Paraguay
KP4EIT-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 23:42 06 Dec 21 5/2 swl Paraguay
NP4BM-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 23:54 05 Dec 21 59+ tnks tep qso Paraguay
NP4BM-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 23:37 30 Nov 21 57 TEP qso Paraguay
WP4KJJ-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 00:09 30 Nov 21 55 Paraguay
NP4BM-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 23:44 23 Nov 21 57 tnx tep qso Paraguay
NP4BM-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 23:32 22 Nov 21 59 tnx qso Paraguay
NP4BM-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 23:26 21 Nov 21 tnx tep qso Paraguay
NP4BM-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 23:41 19 Nov 21 56 tep qso Paraguay
NP4BM-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 23:29 18 Nov 21 58 tep qso Paraguay
KP4EIT-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 00:49 12 Nov 21 5/1 SWL Paraguay
KP4EIT-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 00:07 08 Nov 21 5/3 TNX Paraguay
WP3DN-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 23:51 07 Nov 21 55 TEP SWL Paraguay
NP4BM-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 23:45 07 Nov 21 59 tep qso Paraguay
KP4EIT-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 23:40 07 Nov 21 5/6 SWL Paraguay
NP4BM-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 00:33 05 Nov 21 56 tep qso Paraguay
KP4EIT-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 00:33 05 Nov 21 5/4 TNX Paraguay
NP4BM-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 23:40 02 Nov 21 57 tep qso Paraguay
WP3DN-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 23:36 28 Oct 21 55 tep tnx Paraguay
KP4EIT-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 23:34 28 Oct 21 now 5/5 tep Paraguay
KP4EIT-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 23:25 28 Oct 21 5/2 tnx tep Paraguay
KP4EIT-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 00:16 28 Oct 21 5/3 tnx tep Paraguay
NP4BM-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 00:07 28 Oct 21 tnks tep qso Paraguay
NP4BM-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 23:31 21 Oct 21 ssb tep qso Paraguay
NP4BM-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 23:40 19 Oct 21 53 tep qso Paraguay
NP4BM-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 00:01 16 Oct 21 51 tep qso Paraguay
NP4BM-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 23:56 19 Sep 21 calling cq Caribe Paraguay
KP4EIT-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 23:55 19 Sep 21 5/2 swl Paraguay
No comments:
Post a Comment