1850km opening on 1296 MHz between Spain & Greece - 2nd Jan 2022

It was interesting to see that a contact on 1296 MHz was made between EA5TT in Spain and SV8CS in Greece on the 2nd of January 2022. The distance was around 1850kms.

While this is well short of the 2714km IARU Region 1 record between Ireland and the Canary Islands set back in July 2020, it is still an impressive distance for the 23cms microwave band.

Manolo, EA5TT reports working SV8CS on 1296.174 MHz on FT8 after working him on 144 MHz and 432 MHz earlier. EA5TT was using just 10 watts with a 35-element Yagi antenna.

As for the mode of propagation, it looks like it was a tropo duct over the Mediterranean Sea. This is the tropo forecast from Pascal, F5LEN...

I'm not sure what the record is for tropo in the Mediterranean but it looks like there is a 3300km sea path between the SW of Spain and Israel. Is it possible on 23cms?

More reception reports of the South African 40 MHz beacon in Europe - Apr 2021

Following on from my previous post about the South African 8-metre ZS6WAB beacon on 40.675 MHz being heard by SV2DCD in Greece, there are now three more reports!

IZ0BCD: Francesco, IZ0CBD in Rome, Italy report reception of the 8m ZS6WAB beacon on the 20th of April 2021.

Video...

Francesco was using a Kenwood TS2000 and a 6-element Yagi for 50 MHz and the distance was around 7500kms.

9H1TX: David, 9H1TX on the island of Malta heard the 8m beacon on the 19th of April using a 7-element Yagi for 50 MHz.

Video...

SV8CS: Spiros, SV8CS heard the South African 8m beacon also on the 19th of April 2021 using a 7-element Yagi  by I0JXX.

Video clip at this link... https://raag.org/to-zs6wab-akoystike-sti-zakyntho/

Propagation Mode: As outlined in a previous post, the mode of propagation was TEP (Trans-Equatorial Propagation). As shown in the map above, both the beacon and the receiving stations are equidistant from the Geomagnetic Equator.

Links...

1) For more information on the 8-metre band, visit my 40 MHz page.

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Addendum:

1st Update - 22nd Apr 2021: Info from Paulo,  CT2IWW

CT7ASY: Eduardo, CT7ASY near Lisbon heard the ZS6WAB 8m beacon on the 20th of April.

CT7ASY... " My name is Eduardo Arraia and I´m an amateur radio operator licensed as CT7ASY, in Portugal, locator IM58gv.

Whilst monitoring the 8 meter band this afternoon, I came across the ZS6WAB beacon. As you can see by the attached image, I received the following message, decoded on CWSkimmer, at about 15:41 UTC, this afternoon, on 40.674MHz: TAR de ZS6WAB DE ZS6WAB DE ZS6WAB BCN LOC K R4

I am monitoring the band with an Icom IC7300 and a Sirio GPA 40-70 ground plane vertical antenna.

Until a couple of years ago, the 40MHz band was used, in Portugal, by the fire services in a country wide repeater network.

Since all emergency and police services moved to the new TETRA UHF network, this portion of spectrum was freed up and we can monitor some beacons, from Europe. South Africa is a first, though.

Cheers and 73, Eduardo, CT7ASY"