3500km+ opening on 144 MHz between England and Israel - 25th June 2021

Friday 25th June 2021: There was an extensive Sporadic-E opening on 144 MHz across Europe that lasted several hours. Stations in the south of England were able to work the south of Italy, Greece, Albania and North Macedonia. Most of there were in the region of about 2000kms which is pretty normal for one-hop Sporadic-E.

For a brief window of about 10-15 minutes around 16:40 UTC, the path on 144 MHz from England opened up to Israel.

The map above shows three stations in Israel that were heard by G4LOH on FT8.

4X/OM2IB was around 3840kms, 4X1GA was around 3845kms and 4X1BG was around 3820kms.

This is the map for G4FUF near London who heard two stations in Israel.

The distance to 4Z5CP was around 3750kms and around 3520kms for 4X4MH.

From what I understand, both of the English stations were unable to complete the FT8 contacts.

It once again highlights the FT8 paradox.

Because everyone is on the one frequency, FT8 is great for being able to hear unusual signals.
Because everyone is on the one frequency, FT8 is terrible for making contacts because there is too  much interference.

These are the spots from the DX-Cluster which are all for FT8.

G4FUF 144174.0 4Z5CP 16:49 25 Jun JO01GN<ES>KM72MT lost EU QRM Israel
G4FUF 144174.0 4X4MH 16:44 25 Jun JO01GN<ES>KM72KD TX 2nd Israel

G4LOH 144174.0 4X/OM2IB 16:42 25 Jun IO70JC<ES>KM72JC Hrd -5 Israel
G4LOH 144174.0 4X1BG 16:34 25 Jun IO70JC<ES>KM72KM Hrd 3 pds Israel

Propagation Mode: It seems likely that the 144 MHz opening from England to Israel was via double hop Sporadic-E. Whether it was via a reflection at the midway point or went from Sp-E cloud to Sp-E cloud (chordal hop) is open for debate.

This is the tropo prediction map from Pascal, F5LEN which shows some enhancement over the eastern part of the Mediterranean. Again, whether a tropo duct was involved in the eastern part of the 3500km+ path is open for debate.

In Conclusion: Israel has been worked from England before on 144 MHz so this opening is nothing new. It is however a reasonably rare occurrence. Any path that on 144 MHz that is well in excess of 3500kms is always worth reporting.

Link...

1) See my 144 MHz page of plenty of examples of 3000km plus openings on 144 MHz.

New 432 MHz station on Cape Verde Islands raises possibility of new records being set

144 & 432 MHz Yagi antennas on Cape Verde

So far in 2019, the D4C contest team on Cape Verde Islands off the west coast of Africa have made some pretty amazing contacts on 144 MHz. Using the call D41CV, they have worked across the Atlantic to the Caribbean, up to the UK, France and Ireland via marine tropo ducting and into Germany, Italy and Slovenia with a combined Sporadic-E / marine ducting mode.

Many of these contacts were well in excess of 4000 kms in distance. See links to posts HERE.

The D4C team have recently announced that they are now active on 432 MHz (70cms).

"We are now capable to be active on #70cm #432Mhz #uhf using a 16 El yagi "Pinocchio" model (wooden boom) home made. Transverter connected to @FlexRadioSystem 6600M driving a solid state PA running 100W seems working as we have worked on SSB loc IM66 for 3000 km dx #hamradio"

As the tropo prediction map from F5LEN shows below, a marine duct off the west coast of Africa seems to exist for long periods of time during the Summer and Autumn months.

This should allow D41CV on the Cape Verde Islands to work up to coastal stations in Spain and Portugal on 432 MHz, a distance of roughly 2,900 kms.

Potential for new records???

Before we look at the potential of D41CV setting new records, we should probably look first at what the current IARU Region 1 record for tropo on 432 MHz is.

Back on the 9th of July 2015, G4LOH in the south-west of England worked D44TS on 432 MHz CW. This was a sea path of roughly 4070 kms, an amazing distance for 70 cms.

This contact was as a result of the marine duct extending much further north so that it managed to get as far as England.

Just to show how good conditions were that day, here is video clip showing G4LOH hearing the D4C/B beacon on 432 MHz...



One important point here is that G4LOH worked D44TS where as D41CV is actually on a different island. As you can seen from the map below, Cape Verde is spread out over several different islands...

You'll also notice that D41CV is further south than D44TS.

If we now look at how far 4070 kms is from D41CV then we get this map...

This means that if anyone in Ireland, Wales or England managed to work D41CV on 432 MHz then it would be a new IARU Region 1 tropo record.

I would suggest that as long as there is a 432 MHz capable station active on Cape Verde Islands then this is probably a case of 'when' rather than 'if '.

Trans-Atlantic on 432 MHz???

It's hard to imagine a 70cms signal getting across the Atlantic but it's something that can't be discounted.

Earlier in June of 2019, there was a tropo duct across the Atlantic from Cape Verde to the Caribbean which lasted several days and allowed the propagation of 144 MHz signals.

If 144 MHz signals lasted for several days, was there a shorter period of time when 432 MHz signals would have propagated inside the marine duct?

If it were possible then this is what the 4070 km distance from D41CV looks like...

If a 432 MHz signal can travel 4070 kms from Cape Verde Islands to England then perhaps trans-Atlantic is not impossible?

There should be some interesting times in the months and years ahead as these possibilities are explored.

Links...
1) Archive from G4LOH's blog
2) IARU Region 1 tropo records for 432 MHz
3) F5LEN Tropo Forecast