Thursday 3rd June 2021: There was a remarkable opening on the 3rd of June from the Azores in the North Atlantic to Europe with paths in excess of 3,000kms being recorded.
The FT8 map above from the PSK Reporter website for CU3EQ in the Azores with a cluster of reports out around the 3000km mark in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. A full list of stations is shown at the bottom of this post.
This is the map for CU3AA which has a similar pattern...
And this is the map for CU1AL...
For all three CU stations, paths in excess of 3000kms were open to Germany on 144 MHz.
Propagation Mode: As reported by stations on the DX Cluster, the primary propagation mode was Sporadic-E. However as the maximum range for one hop is in the region of 2300kms, something else had to make up the additional 700 or so kms.
There are two possibilities.
One was Chordal Hop Sp-E with a bounce going from Sp-E to Sp-E cloud. This would however require two intense areas of Sporadic-E at just the right spot to support 144 MHz propagation.
The more likely scenario was that it was one Sporadic-E with a tropo extension. The weather charts show high pressure over the Azores...
The tropo forecast from the website of Pascal, F5LEN suggests that a few hundred kms of tropo around the Azores might be possible.
The Sporadic-E prediction map from Jim, G3YLA shows a kink in the Jet Stream to the south of Ireland which may have been a trigger mechanism for the Sporadic-E.
In his daily E's prediction on the PropQuest website, G3YLA wrote... "The sharp upper trough west of the UK is also a good source of atmospheric gravity waves (AGW) and the southerly jet stream from Portugal to Ireland could look good for paths to EA and CT with a possible extension by second hop to EA8/D4."
This region is shown in Purple above and is very close to where the 144 MHz Sporadic-E cloud was located.
Conclusion: It seems likely that the first few hundred kms were via tropo from the Azores and then coupled into a single Sporadic-E hop onwards to Europe.
Trans-Atlantic on 144 MHz??? The map below shows a 3000km circle centred on the Azores...
Considering there was a 3000km opening on 144 MHz between the Azores and Germany on the 3rd of June, sure a 3000km path on 144 MHz from the Azores to North America is possible?
Stations in St.John's, Newfoundland are close to the one hop Sporadic-E range. Stations in Nova Scotia would need a tropo extension.
If the North Atlantic is going to be bridged on 144 MHz then surely Canada to the Azores would be a first step in the process?
Reports from the PSK Reporter website...
