TEP openings on the 144 MHz band from St Helena Island to Europe - Oct 2024

Back at the end of September 2024, I had a post on the blog about the first TEP contact on the 144 MHz band between Spain and St Helena in the South Atlantic, a distance of about 6,100 kms - Post HERE.

Just after that, other stations in Spain and Portugal were making TEP contacts with St Helena so I waited for the end of October to do a proper report.

First of all, I must give credit to Gabriel, EA6VQ who collects a list of TEP openings on his website... https://www.dxmaps.com/

As with all data, it's hard to know from just raw information what is going on. So I took the information and generated the map that is shown above to give a better idea of what happened during the month of October 2024.

Some notes...

1) # of Days... Out of the 31 days of October 2024, there were 22 days where Trans-Equatorial Propagation on 144 MHz was reported between St Helena and the Iberian peninsula. As Garry, ZD7GWM is the only person active on 144 MHz from St Helena, any reported activity obviously depends on him being active. 

There were also a few days where TEP didn't seem possible due to geomagnetic disturbances. 

Still though, it's remarkable that there was a TEP path on 144 MHz to St Helena on two-thirds of the days of the month.

2) Mode... The initial contact with EA4I last month was with the FT4 digital mode. They are now using modes more suitable for TEP. For the first half of the month, the Q65-30B mode was used while the Q65-60D mode was used in the second half.

3) Right Angles... At 144 MHz, the TEP paths cross the geomagnetic equator close to 90-degrees. This is where the value of map becomes a reality because we can see the spread east and west of the stations involved.

Most of the stations at the northern end of the TEP circuit are in Portugal and the EA4 & EA7 regions of Spain. It's interesting to see EA3CJ in the NE of Spain is the outlier and well to the east of the rest. 

4) Missing signals?... Sometimes, it's the missing signals that are interesting. There were no reports from the EA1 area in the NW of Spain. Too far north? There were also no reports from the EA5 or EA6 areas. Too far east?

5) Distances... The longest distances are in the region of 6,300 to 6,400 kms. A total of 17 stations were involved at the northern end of the TEP path. Even UT1FG/MM on a ship to the west of the Straits of Gibraltar managed to get in on the action!

CT1EEB IN50qr 6315km

CT7ABA IN60GD 6246km

CT1FCX IM59LG

CT1APE IM59kj

CT1FFU IM59kk

CT1DIZ IM58kp

CT1CAD IM67GE 

UT1FG/MM IM55

EA3CJ JN01SE 6403km

EA4GDA IM68MV

EA4I  IM68MU

EA4LU IM68TV

EA4CYQ IM78CX

EA7/SM0KAK IM76mm

EA7BPO  IM76SR

EA7HLB IM76OP

EA7FDW  IM76WS

6) Times... As is typical with evening type TEP, most of the signals were around 8pm local time. The earliest report was at 19:38 UTC and the last report was 21:32 UTC.

7) ZD7GWM... As far as  I know, Garry, ZD7GWM on St Helena has a modest station with just 50-watts from a Yaesu FT-897 into a Diamond X700H vertical antenna.

Analysis... I've been following the TEP tests in 2024 and it has been pretty remarkable just how often the path is there on 144 MHz. I think a lot of people expected it to be more sporadic but it often seems like TEP at certain times of the year is almost a daily occurrence.

Looking at the map, I think a lot of people will be wondering just how far north could this TEP path reach? Is it possible to reach the north of Spain? Could another propagation mode take the TEP signal further north to the likes of Ireland, Wales & the SW of England?

Sporadic-E would be an obvious answer but it's very unlikely at 144 MHz at 8pm on an evening in October. A maritime duct from Ireland to the north of Spain is more likely but signals don't seem to get too far inland into Spain.

It's very likely that the TEP signals from St Helena are in the north of Morocco but there is no-one there to exploit it.

I have a previous post about Garry's set up HERE

For more information about other long distance openings on the 2m band, see my 144 MHz page.