3000km+ opening from the Canary Islands to Germany - 8th July 2021

On the 8th of July 2021, there was another example of a 3000km+ path on 144 MHz between the Canary Islands and Germany. As can be seen from the map above and the DX Cluster spots below, both DK5AI and DL8DAU in German managed to complete a digital FT8 contact with EA8JK.

DL8DAU-@ 144174.0 EA8JK 15:00 08 Jul JO40<ES>IL18 -20/+6 tnx! Canary Islands
DK5AI 144174.0 EA8JK 14:59 08 Jul JO51GO<ES>IL18 Thanks 73! Canary Islands

The distances were 3674kms for DK5AI and 3287kms for DL8DAU.

Update: Frank, PA4EME in JO20WX also reports reception of EA8JK as well.

Propagation Mode: It would seem to be another example of a combined Sporadic-E and tropo ducting path. The tropo prediction map below from F5LEN shows the presence of a maritime duct between the Canary Islands and the south-west coast of the Iberian Peninsula.

It's likely that this tropo duct accounted for 1000-1300kms of the total path. The rest was due to a short Sporadic-E opening from Germany which coupled into the NE end of the duct.

There is also the possibility that it was double hop Sporadic-E but the probability of this is a lot lower than a combined tropo/Sp-E path.

More examples of 3000km+ openings can be seen on my 144 MHz page.