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.

3000km+ opening on 144 MHz from Israel & Lebanon to Europe - 10th June 2021

Thursday 10th June 2021: In this second of three posts, we will look at some of the extraordinary paths on 144 MHz that were in excess of 3000kms in length. In the previous post, I looked at the paths from the Canary and Madeira Islands to Europe, this time we'll look at the paths from Israel & Lebanon to western Europe.

This is another long post so scroll down. At the end, I'll have a look at some of the evidence for what type of propagation was responsible.

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OD5KU in Lebanon had two paths on 144 MHz to Portugal which were over 4000kms in length.

This map are the FT8 paths that were open on 144 MHz and I'll note a few things.

1) Notice how there is no path from Lebanon to Greece. This suggests that the eastern half of the path was via a single Sporadic-E hop.

2) There are plenty of stations clustered around the south of Italy and Sicily showing where the first hop landed.

3) The western limit of the path was not on the east coast of the Iberian Peninsula but at the far western side on the coast of Portugal. This suggests another Sporadic-E at the western half of the 4000km path.

4) Back on the 28th of June 1979, CT1WW in Portugal worked OD5MR in Lebanon on SSB on 144 MHz for what was claimed to be a double hop Sporadic-E contact. That was an IARU Region 1 record for many years. It looks as if the conditions on the 10th of June 2021 were similar.

To have a complete record, here are some of the long FT8 paths from OD5KU...

3000km opening on 144 MHz between Israel and Germany - 25th May 2021

Tuesday 25th May 2021: During the major Sporadic-E opening on the 25th, many European stations made multiple contacts on the 144 MHz band. While the vast majority were in the one-hop range (<2300kms), there were a few exceptional contacts.

Jan, 4X/OM2IB in Israel (KM72JC) managed to complete two FT8 contacts with two stations in Germany during a short opening.

The two German stations were DJ9MG (08:18UTC - JO52TC - 2909kms) and DG6JF/P (08:31 - JO33QN - 3234kms).

The FT8 screen from 4X/OM2IB is shown below...

It clearly shows the two FT8 contacts as well as reception of PA0O and DL7TY. The time range of the reports is from 07:53 to 08:36 UTC, a span of roughly 43 minutes.

Propagation Mode: As outlined already, the normal maximum distance for one-hop Sporadic-E is about 2300kms. There are probably two choices to help explain how 144 MHz signals from Germany traveled the approximately 3000kms to Israel.

Theory 1) Sp-E & Tropo: In this scenario, there was one hop Sporadic-E from Germany to Turkey and then the last few hundred kms by tropo ducting over the sea to Israel. The tropo prediction map below from F5LEN certainly suggests that this might be possible.

The distance from 4X/OM2IB to the coast of Turkey is about 700kms. 

In this scenario, it's not hard to imagine a Sporadic-E hop of 2200kms going from DJ9MG is the eastern half of Germany to the southern coast of Turkey and from there via a tropo duct of about 700kms to Israel.

The problem however comes with DG6JF/P who is an additional 300kms further away at 3234kms. That can't be easily explained by a tropo extension at the eastern end of the circuit as that would require the duct to cross over a large part of the landmass of Turkey.  . 

It's possible that the Sporadic-E ionised region was higher than usual which sometime happens near the start of an opening but it seems a bit of a stretch.

Theory 2) Chordal Hop: The other possibility is that there were two active Sporadic-E regions involved and the signal bounced from one to the other before returning to the ground. This resulted in a range in excess of 3000kms.

The problem with the Chordal Hop theory is that it requires two Sporadic-E clouds to line up correctly. It would seem that it does happen at 144 MHz but how often and for how long?

In conclusion: In his Sporadic-E report, 4X/OM2IB noted..."Random and very short openings. Probably sea TROPO + Es for this distance. Doesn't look like a double Es hop."

Sometimes when you can look back at an opening, you can examine the evidence and you can determine the most likely scenario. In this 144 MHz opening between Germany and Israel, it's hard to know for sure which propagation mode was responsible. I think without further evidence, we just have to put a question mark next to it.

It does however show yet again that contacts in the region of 3000 kms are possible at 144 MHz, the same distance across the North Atlantic from Newfoundland to Ireland.

Addendum: 

1) PA0O in his blog post says he worked Istanbul in Turkey at 2150kms. This gives some additional credence to the Sp-E & Tropo theory. Link HERE