20,000km opening on 50 MHz from Chatham Island to Europe - 9th Mar 2024

As we approach the equinox, there are some really good openings on the 50 MHz (6m) band. On the 9th of March 2024, there was a path open from Chatham Island in the Pacific to southern Europe.

The paths from the PSK Reporter website are shown above and note the ones in Europe. The PSK Reporter website shows the shortest path but it's likely that the signals from ZL7DX on Chatham Island to Italy and Malta were in fact long path and over 20,000kms.

I have listed the European stations that heard ZL7DX below and I've adjusted the distances.

 Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
9H1TX (Malta) ZL7DX 6m FT8 21286 km 18:04:43
IW5DHN (Italy) ZL7DX 6m FT8 20559 km 20:28:14
F5BZB (France) ZL7DX 6m FT8 19896 km 20:29:14
F4GGJ ZL7DX 6m FT8 19893 km 20:25:43
F4ARU ZL7DX 6m FT8 19814 km 20:20:44
F1HFW ZL7DX 6m FT8 19768 km 20:08:45
EA5Y (Spain) ZL7DX 6m FT8 19294 km 19:56:44
EA1IOK ZL7DX 6m FT8 19111 km 20:03:14
EA1FK ZL7DX 6m FT8 19015 km 20:04:14
EA1NL ZL7DX 6m FT8 19014 km 20:08:14
EA1YV ZL7DX 6m FT8 18998 km 20:10:14
CT1EEB (Portugal) ZL7DX 6m FT8 18959 km 20:51:44
CT2FEY ZL7DX 6m FT8 18948 km 20:04:44
CT1APE ZL7DX 6m FT8 18853 km 20:37:43
CT2GLO ZL7DX 6m FT8 18834 km 20:39:43
CT4NH ZL7DX 6m FT8 18806 km 21:01:44
CT1IUA ZL7DX 6m FT8 18781 km 20:47:44

Link: Examples of other long distance 6m paths can be seen on my 50 MHz page.