Showing posts with label LU2FGL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LU2FGL. Show all posts

Saturday, November 28, 2020

5400km TEP opening on 144 MHz between Argentina and the island of Aruba - Nov 2020

In two recent posts, I covered some recent 144 MHz TEP openings from Guadeloupe to Brazil during October 2020 and from  Curacao to Argentina in early November. 

P41E on the island of Aruba has been also been busy during the month of November 2020 and has worked several stations in Argentina via TEP.

One of the longest contacts was with LU2EPO with a claimed distance of an impressive 5449 kms.

In the graphic above, the geomagnetic equator is shown in Purple. Both P41E and the LU stations are equidistant from it and are also at right angles to it, both factors which are important at 144 MHz.


With Trans-Equatorial Propagation (TEP), zones of high ionization occur either side of the geomagnetic equator in the F layer of the ionosphere. What makes the mode so interesting is that it can allow propagation on the VHF bands from 50 MHz to 144 MHz. As the zones of ionization is roughly 400kms above ground level, the propagation paths achieved are in the region of 4000 to 5000 kms, much greater than what might be usual with Sporadic-E.

Here are a selection of videos showing the contacts made during the month of November 2020...

Contact with LU4FW on SSB...

Contact with LU3FCI and great to see the vintage Yaesu FT-480R in action! ...

Contact with LU3FCI...

P41E was using 100 watts into a 13-element Cushcraft Yagi.

* * *

Addendum: Thanks to Etienne, P41E for sending on the following information.

This is a photo of the antennas used for 144 MHz and 50 MHz


P41E is using an old an old Yaesu FT-767GX and a Tokyo HL160V running about 100 watts.


Etienne has very kindly sent on a log extract of what he has worked on 144 MHz from the 17th to the 28th of November 2020.


There are a total of 33 contacts in total. Looking through them, some are repeat contacts on different days or on a second mode. The log contains 17 separate stations from Argentina and most of these would have been in the 4500km plus range.


You will note that the majority of the contacts are on SSB with a few on FM and FT8.


Note also the times of the contacts which are around 00:00 to 02:00 UTC. This is around 21:00 to 23:00 for stations in Argentina and 20:00 to 22:00 for P41E in Aruba. This ties in well with Trans-Equatorial Propagation which is thought to peak at about 20:00 local time.

Solar Data... Just for reference purposes, I have included the solar data for the range of dates concerned...

#              Radio  SESC 
#              Flux  Sunspot
#  Date     10.7cm Number
2020 11 17   79     11
2020 11 18   77     11
2020 11 19   77     11
2020 11 20   82     11 
2020 11 21   85     23 
2020 11 22   88     35 
2020 11 23   96     38
2020 11 24  100     37
2020 11 25  104     40 
2020 11 26  106     43
2020 11 27  106     60
2020 11 28  110     67

Links...
a) I have a number of posts about long distance 144 MHz contacts on the blog and I 
keep a list of them here... https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/p/144-mhz.html