6,100km TEP opening on the 144 MHz band from Uruguay to the Caribbean - 21st Oct 2023

As we head towards the end of October 2023, there have been reports of some TEP (Trans-Equatorial Propagation) openings in South America on the 144 MHz band.

Carlos, CX5CBA in Montevideo, Uruguay writes... "As of the 21st of October 2023, there have been TEP openings every night for two weeks between South America and the Caribbean.

I have been able to make several contacts on 144 MHz on SSB and Q65 with a 4.7m long Yagi antenna and 50W. The stations worked are:

SSB: HI8D, HI8AN, HI8GSP, NP4BM
Q65: HI8D, HI3I, HI8T, NP4BM, PJ4GR."

The map above shows the path of one of these contacts between CX5CBA and HI8D. Note that the Geomagnetic Equator is almost equidistant from both stations and the path is at right angles to the Geomagnetic Equator as well. This is pretty much the ideal path for a TEP opening at 144 MHz.

The other stations NP4BM (Puerto Rico) and PJ4GR (Bonaire) are also located in the western part of the Caribbean. This follows the typical pattern for TEP openings in South America at 144 MHz... i.e. stations in Uruguay and Argentina work the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Bonaire whereas stations in the south of Brazil usually work the eastern part of the Caribbean - Martinique, Guadeloupe, etc.

This is a log extract from CX5CBA...

It shows several contacts made on SSB which means the signals must have been reasonably strong.

You'll notice the one CW contact on the 50 MHz band to V31XX in Belize. With lower frequencies like 50 MHz, signals that are not as close to right angles can propagate.

This screenshot from Carlos shows that some on the contacts were made with the Q65 mode.

This screenshot shows the callsigns, signals and time. Note the time... about midnight UTC which is about 9pm local time in Uruguay.

Comment... Thanks for Carlos for the report and images. While these TEP openings at 144 MHz are pretty common, we should still remember that we are looking at contacts that are over 6,000 kms in length.

It's also a reminder that the TEP season is in full swing in South America and it's time to check out 50 MHz, 88-108 MHz and 144 MHz.

It would also be very interesting to see some stations doing TEP experiments on the 432 MHz (70cms) band.

Link... For more examples of long distance 144 MHz contacts, see my 144 MHz page.

6000km+ TEP opening on 144 MHz from the Caribbean to S America - 19th Jan 2022

19th January 2022: It was interesting to see that that there was a TEP (Trans-Equitorial Propagation) opening on 144 MHz between the Caribbean and South America. While the opening happened at 01:00 UTC on the 19th, the time for the stations concerned was about 8pm on the evening of the 18th.

The maps above shows the opening on 144 MHz with distances in the region of 4,400 to 6,143 kms being recorded. To put that in context, the distance across the North Atlantic from Ireland to Newfoundland is about 3000kms so the longest contact from Buenos Aires to the Dominican Republic is over twice that distance.

LW2DAF: Diego, LW2DAF in Buenos Aires, Argentina reports that his contact with HI3I in the Domican Republic was a personal distance record. Diego was using the Q65B mode and the log from PSK Reporter is shown below...

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
LW2DAF HI3I 2m Q65 6143 km 00:32:17
HI3I LW2DAF 2m Q65B 6143 km 00:30:34
PJ4EL LW2DAF 2m Q65B 5299 km 01:05:44
LW2DAF PJ4EL 2m Q65 5299 km 00:13:28
PJ4GR LW2DAF 2m Q65B 5294 km 01:44:18
LW2DAF PJ4GR 2m Q65 5294 km 00:23:29

WP4KJJ on Puerto Rico heard two stations from Brazil.
Txmtr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
PY5EK 2m Q65 5198 km 01:04:13
PY2OAL 2m Q65 4914 km 01:19:58

FG4SU on Guadeloupe seems to have had a good path into Brazil and was using FT8 instead.
Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
PU4JLV FG4SU 2m FT8 4189 km 01:35:44
FG4SU PU4JLV 2m FT8 4189 km 01:34:11
FG4SU PY2TC 2m FT8 4287 km 01:33:44
PY2TC FG4SU 2m FT8 4287 km 01:04:44
PY2SRB FG4SU 2m FT8 4386 km 01:07:44
FG4SU PY2SRB 2m FT8 4386 km 00:59:02
PU2MBY FG4SU 2m FT8 4421 km 01:02:14
FG4SU PU2MBY 2m FT8 4421 km 01:00:29
PY2OAL FG4SU 2m FT8 4566 km 01:14:14
PY2WLM FG4SU 2m FT8 4725 km 01:32:29

You'll notice from the map above that the TEP signals at 144 MHz tend to stay close to 90 degrees relative to the Geomagnetic equator. The paths tend to run parallel to each other with stations in the Dominican Republic & Curacao working Argentina and Puerto Rico & Guadeloupe working Brazil.

These are the spots from the DX Cluster...

Spotter Freq. DX Time  Info Country
PU4JLV 144174 FG4SU 01:36 19 Jan 22 FT8 -10 dB 1584 Hz Guadeloupe
PU4JLV 144174.8 FG4SU 01:07 19 Jan 22 FT8 -18 dB 1589 Hz Guadeloupe
PY5EK 144180 WP3DN 00:49 19 Jan 22 Q65B -11 dB 901 Hz tnx tep Puerto Rico

While TEP openings are normally associated with the equinox period, it's interesting to see one an opening on 144 MHz in mid-January.

Links...

1) For more examples of long distance openings on 144 MHz, see my 144 MHz page HERE