3275km opening on 144 MHz between Madeira Islands and Denmark - 17th Dec 2023

There has been some remarkable tropo conditions in Europe over the last few days with some stations completing contacts on the 144 MHz band in excess of 2000kms. 

One of the longest contacts was that shown above... an amazing 3,275 km contact using FT8 between Thomas, OV3T in Denmark and Stefan, CT9/OM3RG on the Madeira Islands. See report from Stafan at the bottom of the post. Thomas reports using 700-800w into a 2 x 11-element Yagi on a 18m tower. 

As can be seen from the map above, it is mostly a sea path but it does have to cross some land.

Bernd, DF2ZC in Germany also reports working CT9/OM3RG and the distance for this 2m contact was 2,818 kms. Bernd reports using EME power to 4 x 18-element M2 Yagi. Bernd also reports that the path had to cross over 1800m high mountains in the north-west of Spain. 

Propagation Mode???... The long path over the sea would suggest it was one of the marine ducts that we have seen in the past resulting in really long distance contacts. The obstructed path however from DF2ZC to the Madeira Islands would suggest an elevated duct. Was it a combination of a marine duct near the surface and an elevated duct?

The tropo forecast by Pascal, F5LEN certainly suggests a good sea path for some areas.

I think some people will have their own ideas but I don't think anyone can be certain on this one.

Update: See bottom of post for another propagation map.

Link... For examples of other long distance contacts on the 2m band, see my 144 MHz page.

Addendum 1: Thanks to Stefan, CT9/OM3RG for sending on this additional information.

Stefan reports that he was using 100-watts from an ICOM IC-9700 into 2 x 9-element LFA Yagi.

He reports that he worked as many stations as he could with his 100-watts. He heard lots of other stations from Germany (DL), Belgium (ON) and Netherlands (PA) but they couldn't hear him.

This is a list of stations that Stefan worked on the 17th & 18th of December 2023. 3000km+ stations in red, 2500km+ in orange. CW in bold.

20231217 7:02 F6DBI IN88IJ FT8 2085

20231217 9:36 MW0AXA IO81FQ FT8 2371

20231217 9:37 GW7SMV IO81LN FT8 2378

20231217 9:38 G4CBW IO83UB FT8 2546

20231217 9:40 EI9KP IO54MB FT8 2450

20231217 9:44 G8JLY IO82WG FT8 2480 

20231217 9:45 G0PQO IO92UA FT8 2365

20231217 9:46 M0PNN IO82TS FT8 2516

20231217 9:49 G4FUF JO01GN FT8 2530

20231217 10:12 F6EGD IN88HR FT8 2110

20231217 10:14 G4EZP JO01GN FT8 2530

20231217 10:25 G8HGN JO01FO FT8 2530

20231217 10:28 EI8KN IO62IE FT8 2296

20231217 10:30 F6HRO IN88JQ FT8 2114

20231217 10:32 G7GXK IO90IS FT8 2378

20231217 10:40 G8TTI IO81WM FT8 2408

20231217 10:42 2E1EMK IO91BI FT8 2404

20231217 10:47 G4BNM IO93EV FT8 2644

20231217 12:04 G4ELW IO81MC FT8 2337

20231217 18:21 G4ZFJ JO01HO FT8 2538

20231217 18:22 CT7AUS IM58HT FT8 968

20231217 18:24 G0LGS IO81WV FT8 2444

20231217 18:25 G8GON IO80HP FT8 2281

20231217 18:27 G4KWQ IO92AQ FT8 2523

20231217 18:28 M0BUL IO82NG FT8 2450

20231217 18:29 G4NBS JO02AF FT8 2564

20231217 18:30 M6JAY IO90HV FT8 2387

20231217 18:30 G7RAU IO90IR FT8 2377

20231217 18:31 G4DCV IO91OF FT8 2442

20231217 18:31 G0BIX JO01CI FT8 2498

20231217 18:32 G0ODR JO02OP FT8 2651

20231217 18:32 G0JDL JO02SI FT8 2642

20231217 18:33 PA4ZP JO21RK FT8 2766

20231217 18:38 G1OJS IO90JU FT8 2391

20231217 18:43 G0LTG IO81RF FT8 2367

20231217 18:44 G6HIE JO00DW FT8 2467

20231217 18:47 PA3BIY JO22HB FT8 2768

20231217 19:22 G3TKF IO81SJ FT8 2386

20231217 19:24 M0CFV IO91UM FT8 2489

20231217 19:25 G4ZTR JO01KW FT8 2577

20231217 19:28 G7WIR JO01BJ FT8 2497

20231217 19:28 G3XDY JO02OB FT8 2602 

20231217 19:29 G3XDY JO02OB FT8 2602

20231217 19:31 F6EAS IN98LV FT8 2235

20231217 19:32 G4GFI IO91VH FT8 2475

20231217 19:34 OV3T JO46CM FT8 3275

20231217 20:09 GW4SHF IO82HP FT8 2466

20231217 20:11 G4RGK IO91ON FT8 2471

20231217 20:13 PA2M JO21IP FT8 2741

20231217 20:16 G4AEP IO91NJ FT8 2453

20231217 20:19 G4KPZ IO92WK FT8 2575

20231217 20:21 G0JJG JO02ME FT8 2605

20231217 21:42 PA2CHR JO32DB FT8 2854

20231217 21:48 DG6JF/P JO33QN FT8 3017

20231217 21:50 PA3DZL JO21LS FT8 2763

20231217 22:08 G4DHF IO92UU FT8 2605

20231217 22:10 PA3BIY JO22HB FT8 2768

20231217 22:20 G0LTG IO81RF CW 2367

20231217 22:21 G4DHF IO92UU CW 2605

20231217 22:27 G0LTG IO81RF CW 2367

20231217 22:42 ON4KHG JO10XO FT8 2626

20231217 23:21 G0GMB IO92NB FT8 2511

20231218 6:37 F6KHM IN78RJ FT8 2028

20231218 6:39 G4FUF JO01GN FT8 2530

20231218 6:46 F5DQK JN18GR FT8 2413

20231218 6:50 G4EZP JO01GN FT8 2530

20231218 6:51 F6GNR IN97FD FT8 2069

20231218 6:53 EA1M IN53TI FT8 1399

20231218 6:55 G4RRA IO80BS FT8 2272

20231218 7:24 G4MKF IO91HJ FT8 2431

20231218 7:37 ON4KHG JO10XO FT8 2626

20231218 7:46 ON4KHG JO10XO FT4 2626

20231218 7:55 G3XDY JO02OB FT4 2602

20231218 8:36 M0VXX IO90 FT8 

20231218 8:40 EA7JCR IM67WK FT8 1129

20231218 8:47 G3WZT IO90UX FT8 2443

20231218 8:49 G4DDK JO02PA FT8 2603

20231218 8:52 M0CKM IO90QT FT8 2414

20231218 8:54 G4FSG JO02PC FT8 2610

20231218 8:55 EA1YV IN52OC FT8 1268

20231218 8:59 G3WZT IO90UX CW 2443

20231218 9:02 M0CKM IO90QT CW 2414

20231218 9:10 EA1DFP IN53XI FT8 1416

20231218 9:12 G6HIE JO00DW FT8 2467

20231218 9:20 EA1CCM IN52QG FT8 1291

20231218 9:21 G3ZSS IO90NU FT8 2406

20231218 9:23 G3SJX IO91LC FT8 2420

20231218 9:44 DF7KF JO30GU FT8 2785

20231218 9:45 OQ4U JO20KV FT8 2696

20231218 10:01 PA1BVM JO21RO FT8 2778

20231218 10:15 PA3DOL JO22MT FT8 2845

20231218 10:30 PA3DOL JO22MT FT8 2845

20231218 10:35 G0JJG JO02ME CW 2605

20231218 10:47 G4CKS IO91VL FT8 2489

20231218 10:59 DF2ZC JO30RN FT8 2818

20231218 11:45 DL8YE JO32TC Q65A 2929

20231218 13:11 G4HSK JO01FS FT8 2544

20231218 13:18 G4BWP JO02FH FT8 2590

20231218 13:19 G0LQI IO80SP FT8 2319

20231218 13:23 PA0CAB JO22DA FT8 2748

20231218 13:34 PA3DOL JO22MT FT8 2845

20231218 15:38 DL1YDI JO42FA Q65A 2969

20231218 16:02 DM1CG JO30GU Q65A 2785

20231218 16:26 DM1AC JO30IV Q65A 2797

20231218 18:46 PA3BIY JO22HB FT8 2768

20231218 18:48 PA3FYC JO31AF FT8 2783

20231218 19:11 PA5Y JO21VO Q65A 2795

20231218 19:39 DL5EBS JO31NH Q65A 2848

20231218 19:54 ON4CLQ JO11SE FT8 2647

20231218 20:09 F5RZC JO10JG FT8 2539

20231218 20:50 ON4MU/P JO20ET FT8 2663

20231218 21:01 DL5EBS JO31NH FT8 2848

Addendum 2: PA3AUC supplies the following chart which suggests that the opening was due to an elevated duct at 500-750m.

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?

144 MHz beacon on Hawaii heard in California - Apr 2021

Back in April of 2021, there was an opening on 144 MHz between Hawaii and California, a distance of approximately 4074 kms.

 Timestamp Call MHz SNR Drift Grid Pwr Reporter RGrid km az Mode
 2021-04-24 11:00   KH6HME/B   144.277007   -31   0   BK29go   20   N3IZN/2   DM13ji   4074
 2021-04-24 10:58   KH6HME/B   144.277007   -31   0   BK29go   20   N3IZN/2   DM13ji   4074
 2021-04-24 10:56   KH6HME/B   144.277008   -29   0   BK29go   20   N3IZN/2   DM13ji   4074
 2021-04-24 10:48   KH6HME/B   144.277008   -31   0   BK29go   20   N3IZN/2   DM13ji   4074
 2021-04-24 10:46   KH6HME/B   144.277008   -29   0   BK29go   20   N3IZN/2   DM13ji   4074

The reports shown above are from Chris Arnold, N3IZN in California who heard the WPSR transmissions on 144 MHz from the KH6HME beacon on a mountain in Hawaii.

The tropo duct across the eastern Pacific usually opens up several times a year and allow signals from 144 MHz to the microwave bands to propagate through it. It's probably one of the best long distance VHF paths in the world.

Update on the new 144 MHz beacon on St Helena Island (ZD7)

A few days ago, I had a post about the new proposed 2m beacon for St Helena Island. Dee, ZR1DEE has very kindly sent on some additional information.

Garry, ZD7GWM is the beacon keeper and recently took delivery of  a Motorola GM340 FM radio, power supply, cables and a Diamond X700H antenna.

As of the 4th of February, the antenna still needs to be installed and then the beacon will be turned on.

More info from Dee.....  

Gary will select the beacon frequency from a list of 4 pre programmed frequencies (Channel 1: 144.475 Channel 2: 144.325 Channel 3: 144.375 Channel 4: 144.385 ) to suit .
 
Now we wait for the Diamond antenna to be erected and BEACON SWITCHED ON

* * *

Update 16th Feb 2021: Photos of the new antenna at the bottom of this post.

* * *
 
The keyer circuit is a 8 pin PIC12F675 chip fed to the input of the Motorola  GM340 FM radio

Additional information about the beacon...
Call sign of the beacon  ZD7GWM
QRG – 144.475 frequency
Grid locator IH74DB
QTH LONGWOOD ISLAND OF ST HELENA
Antenna type DIAMOND X700H
Height above sea level  545M
Height above ground  10M
Antenna direction OMNI-DIRECTIONAL
Horizontal or Vertical  VERTICAL
Power output  20 W
Keying – mode CW
Machine Generated Mode if applicable
GPS coordinated  S 15⁰ 56’ 54.68  W005⁰ 41’ 02.34 (-15.9485  -005.6840 )
Beacon status activated soon
Beacon Keeper GARRY MERCURY ZD7GWM

Analysis... Let's have a look at where St Helena is and who is likely to hear this beacon.

3000km plus contact made on 433 MHz from St.Helena to South Africa - 16th Oct 2020

On the 16th of October 2020, there was a remarkable 3000+ km contact made on the 70cms band between South Africa and St.Helena in the South Atlantic.

The contact at 433 MHz was made between Garry, ZD7GWM on St.Helena Island and Tom, ZS1TA in South Africa. The distance was approximately 3136 kms and what was even more amazing was that the contact was made on FM!

The power used for the contact was a modest 35 watts into a vertical antenna. This was a new distance record for a contact between South Africa and St.Helena on the 70cms band.

The mode of propagation was probably a marine duct as shown by this tropo forecast map from Pascal, F5LEN.

This 3000km+ tropo path between South Africa and St.Helena opens up on a reasonably regular basis. Back in November of 2018, there was an opening on 144 MHz as outlined in this previous post.

In June of 2020, the 2m path opened up again and the most recent opening on 2-metres was on the 23rd of September 2020 when ZD7GWM was worked by no fewer than five ZS stations... ZS1TA, ZS3CVB, ZS1CF, ZS3JPY and ZS1FC.

To put these remarkable contacts on 144 MHz and 433 MHz into context, the 3136 km distance is equivalent to the path across the North Atlantic between Newfoundland and Ireland.

Link...

1) Cape Town Amateur Radio Centre: ZS1TA & ZD7GWM Set New 70cm Distance Record - 16 Oct '20

Looking back at the first 144 MHz trans-Atlantic reception report of the Cape Verde D4C beacon in 2015

In a previous post, I reported on the first ever trans-Atlantic contact between the Canary Islands and the Caribbean on 144 MHz. As with many other posts, this generated some discussion online and I was interested to read that the first 144 MHz trans-Atlantic report to the Caribbean was back in 2015 by PJ4VHF.

To be honest, I can't remember seeing this before and it's possible that I did read it but forgot about it. As I keep a record of the 2m trans-Atlantic openings on my 144 MHz page, I thought it only right that I should do up a post about it and have a record of it here on the site.

Dave Pederson, N7BHC operated from the island of Bonaire in the Caribbean as PJ4VHF from February 2012 to June 2019. While there, he operated on the 50 MHz, 144 MHz and 432 MHz bands.

The above photo shows the antennas used by PJ4VHF at about 12 metres above ground level...a 5 element Yagi on 50 MHz (M2 6M5X), a pair of stacked 13-element Yagis on 144 MHz (Cushcraft 13B2) and a 43 element Yagi on 432 MHz (M2 43-9WL).

On the evening of the 6th of May 2015, PJ4VHF heard the Cape Verde D4C beacon on CW on 144.436 MHz for about 90 minutes (01:00 to 02:30 UTC). The distance across the Atlantic was 4,694 kms (2,917 miles).

The D4C beacon was running 20 watts into a 5-element Yagi and the CW signal was reported as being 10dB out of the noise.

The video above shows the reception of the D4C beacon on the 6th of May 2015. The morse code message reads... D4C/B HK76MV     DE D4C/B HK76MV

The reception report was subsequently confirmed by QSL card...

From the ARRL News..... Pedersen, PJ4VHF/N7BHC, on Bonaire copied a 2 meter CW signal from the D4C/B beacon on 144.436 MHz at Cape Verde via tropospheric ducting on May 6 (0100-0230 UTC). Bonaire is in the Caribbean just north of Venezuela, while Cape Verde is off the coast of Africa, west of Senegal — a distance of nearly 3000 miles.

The D4C beacon runs 20 W and is about 750 meters above sea level. Pederson was able to confirm the transmission with the beacon operator, HB9DUR. He was using a Kenwood TS-2000 and two 13 element Yagis.

“I had parked my VHF array pointing west for minimum wind resistance,” Pederson told ARRL Propagation Contributing Editor Tad Cook, K7RA. “Tuesday evening [May 5] I was doing some paperwork in the shack and rotated the beams back east at 0100 UTC to prepare for listening all night. To my amazement, I started copying CW while the beam was still 30° off the D4C bearing.”

D4C contest site on top of a mountain on the Cape Verde Islands

Later in June of 2015, NP2X received signals from a German ham visiting Cape Verde one night, and a couple of nights later he was heard by the German visitor on D4, but unfortunately no two-way contact was made.

At the time in 2015, the D4C contest site was unmanned for most of the time but in later years remote operation become possible. The reception report by PJ4VHF showed that a trans-Atlantic sea path by tropo on 144 MHz was possible and this encouraged others to make the effort.

The first trans-Atlantic contact on 144 MHz between Cape Verde and the Caribbean took place four years later in June of 2019.

More details about the various trans-Atlantic contacts on 144 MHz can be found here... https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/p/144-mhz.html

Externals links...

1) ARRL News item
2) PJ4VHF website

3) Report on the D4C website

144 MHz contact between Denmark & the Canary Islands exceeds 3000kms

Long distance contacts on 144 MHz that are in the region of 3000kms are always of interest as that is the distance across the North Atlantic between Ireland and Newfoundland. In this series of blog posts, I will look back at some of the 3000km plus contacts on 144 MHz during the Summer of 2020 that I haven't reported on yet.

Back on the 12th of July 2020, there was a remarkable contact made on FT8 on 144 MHz between EA8CXN in the Canary Islands and OV3T in Denmark at about 19:55 UTC.

OV3T in Denmark was using 400 watts into a 10-element Yagi for the contact. I'm not sure what EA8CXN was using.

EA8CXN gave OV3T a report of +8dB while OV3T gave EA8CXN a report of -10dB. This probably meant that CW or FT8 were the only viable modes for making a contact.

Mode of Propagation... The distance was in the region of 3710 kms which is well in excess of the usual 2300km limit for one hop Sporadic-E. So what is the likely explanation?

First off, we can look at the Hepburn prediction map for tropo for the day...

If you examine the right hand side of the map, it shows an enhanced maritime duct from the Canary Islands (EA8) to Spain and Portugal. This tropo path was confirmed earlier on the 12th when EB1DJ spotted EA8CXN on the DX  Cluster.

EB1DJ 144174 EA8CXN 10:30 13 Jul 20  TR  FT8 +4 dB 863 Hz Canary Islands

While OV3T was working EA8CXN at 19:55 UTC, another Danish station OZ1CCM worked EA1YV at about the same time which suggests a short Sporadic-E opening from Denmark to NW Spain & N Portugal.

While we can never be 100% sure of what exactly happened, this is the likely scenario....

There was an marine duct from the Canary Islands to the west coast of Spain and Portugal for most of the day. This maritime duct probably didn't get more than 100kms inland and probably didn't cross over the mountains on the Iberian peninsula.

At about 19:50 UTC, there was a short Sporadic-E opening from Denmark to NW Spain & N Portugal. The Sporadic-E signals from Denmark got coupled into the marine duct and on to the Canary Islands.

The tropo part of the path probably accounted for 1500kms of the total while the remaining 2200kms was Sporadic-E.

In conclusion... This contact yet again shows the value of the FT8 digital mode in exposing propagation paths that we didn't know were possible. 

It also shows the paradox of FT8... i.e. The problem with FT8 is that it is overcrowded because there are too many on the one frequency but it's because there are so many on the same frequency that there is a better chance of catching unusual openings.

The opening from Denmark to the Canary Islands also raises the possibility of a further extension further south to the Cape Verde Islands. The maritime duct off the west coast of Africa often extends from Cape Verde to Spain and Portugal and if that coincided with a similar Sporadic-E opening again then perhaps contacts in the region of 5,200kms might be possible.

Links...

1) OV3T blog post

2) EA8CXN blog post

3) VUSHF post in Danish

New 2700km+ IARU Region-1 tropo record on 23cms between Ireland and the Canary Islands - 17th July 2020

On the 17th of July 2020, there was an opening between the Canary Islands and the UK & Ireland on the VHF & UHF bands. A remarkable contact was made on 1296 MHz between EA8CXN and EI2FG which turned out to be a new IARU Region-1 tropo record for the 23cms microwave band.

In a report on his website, Cesar EA8CXN reports that there was a good tropo opening on July 17, 2020,  between Ireland-England and the Canary Islands.

In the evening, EA8CXN completed contacts with G7RAU, G4LOH and EI20C (op. Mark, EI3KD) on 432 MHz. EI20C mentions that John, EI2FG is also active on 1296 MHz so tests begin.

G7RAU is the first to complete a successful contact on SSB on 1296.200 MHz using just 5 watts into a 56 element Yagi. G4LOH also completed a contact.

After a period of deep QSB, a successful SSB contact was completed with EI2FG on 23 cms with 5/1 and 5/4 reports exchanged. The distance was an amazing 2714 kms.

Not only was this the first ever contact between Ireland and Canary Islands on 1296 MHz but it was also a new IARU Region-1 tropo record for 23 cms.

The map above shows the limit of the new record. The old record of 2661 kms was set on the 14th of July 2017 between EA8AVI and M0VRL.

The map also suggests that there is plenty of scope for the record to be broken with sea paths further north to the west of Wales and up the Irish Sea.

Equipment... For the record SSB contact on 23 cms, EA8CXN was using 150 watts into a small parabolic dish which was 50 cms in diameter. The feed point for the dish was a 3-element horizontally polarized PCB Yagi.

EI2FG was using his EME station of 200 watts into a 3-metre parabolic dish. The feed point was Right-Hand Circular Polarization on transmit and Left-Hand CP on receive.

Propagation... The mode of propagation was via a maritime duct over the ocean.

This duct exists for long periods of the year between the Canary Islands and the western coast of Spain & Portugal and then gets extended sometimes further north to the UK and Ireland.

In conclusion.... To put this this record 2714 km contact on 1296 MHz, a microwave band into perspective, it's worth remembering that the distance across the North Atlantic from Ireland to Newfoundland is around 3000kms. 

It's also likely that the record distance could be exceeded further north to Wales or up the Irish Sea as outlined earlier. The biggest obstacle at the moment is probably the lack of stations on 23 cms.

If the D4VHF station on Cape Verde Islands off the coast of Africa ever became operational on 1296 MHz, the record could well be extended to about 4000 kms.

Links...

1) EA8CXN post in Spanish

3000km plus contact on 144 MHz from St.Helena to South Africa - 4th June 2020

There are several areas around the world where there are some amazing propagation paths on VHF due to ducts forming over the ocean. One of these seems to happen occasionally in the South Atlantic off the coast of South Africa.

On the 4th of June 2020, there was a successful FT8 contact on 144 MHz between ZS1FC near Cape Town in South Africa and ZD7GWM on St.Helena.

The distance was in the region of 3,040 kms which about the same distance as from Ireland to Newfoundland across the North Atlantic.

Back in November of 2018, ZD7GWM managed to work some ZS3 stations who were further north on the coast and the distance was about 2,700 kms. This new contact with ZS1FC is about 300 kms further.

5000km plus opening on 144 MHz from Cape Verde Islands to Italy, Slovenia & Croatia - 2nd July 2020

On Thursday the 2nd of July 2020, there was another remarkable opening on 144 MHz between Cape Verde Islands off the west coast of Africa and Italy, Slovenia & Croatia.

This isn't the first time that this has happened but any terrestrial opening on 144 MHz which reaches 5000kms or more is always special.

This edited list shows the stations that heard by D4VHF in Cape Verde. It also lists those hearing D4VHF on FT8 but not weren't heard by them (in order of distance)...

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
D4VHF S51ZO 2m FT8 5028 km 19:09:59
9A5BWW D4VHF 2m FT8 5013 km 19:02:42
D4VHF 9A6NA 2m FT8 5013 km 18:51:56
D4VHF S50TA 2m FT8 4885 km 19:17:44
D4VHF S57A 2m FT8 4809 km 18:41:59
D4VHF IV3/HB9CAT 2m FT8 4798 km 18:27:59
D4VHF IV3GTH 2m FT8 4792 km 18:41:56
9A5CW D4VHF 2m FT8 4790 km 19:17:57
D4VHF IV3GBO 2m FT8 4786 km 19:11:44
9A3CX D4VHF 2m FT8 4776 km 19:03:12
D4VHF IV3BLQ 2m FT8 4776 km 19:17:41
D4VHF 9A5CW 2m FT8 4774 km 19:17:14
D4VHF 9A3K 2m FT8 4774 km 19:15:44
D4VHF 9A1UN 2m FT8 4766 km 19:04:29
9A2RD D4VHF 2m FT8 4766 km 19:01:41
IK3VZO D4VHF 2m FT8 4643 km 18:35:12
D4VHF IW3GJF 2m FT8 4639 km 18:35:29
IZ3NOC D4VHF 2m FT8 4636 km 18:32:11
D4VHF IK4DRY 2m FT8 4624 km 18:59:29
D4VHF IK4FMT 2m FT8 4596 km 18:59:26
D4VHF IW4AZY 2m FT8 4548 km 19:11:15
D4VHF IK2MKS 2m FT8 4528 km 15:51:44
IK2LHP D4VHF 2m FT8 4517 km 15:57:56
IK0SMG D4VHF 2m FT8 4506 km 16:44:56
D4VHF IW0FFK 2m FT8 4505 km 16:46:44
D4VHF IZ2MHO 2m FT8 4480 km 15:52:11
D4VHF G7RAU 2m FT8 4086 km 16:02:14

FT8 screenshot from D4VHF

This is a list of the 20 stations in Italy, Slovenia & Croatia that D4VHF actually completed a contact with on FT8...

2020-07-02 15:49:15 IZ2MHO JN45 144.175900 FT8 +03,-06 
2020-07-02 16:30:30 IK0SMG JN61 144.175900 FT8 -03 -11 
2020-07-02 18:25:00 IK3VZO JN55 144.174900 FT8 -19 -01 
2020-07-02 18:28:00 S50TA 144.174900 FT8 +08 +01 
2020-07-02 18:28:30 IZ3NOC 144.174900 FT8 -03 -12 
2020-07-02 18:33:00 IV3NDC 144.174900 FT8 -06 -06 
2020-07-02 18:34:30 IW3GJF 144.174900 FT8 -12 -06 
2020-07-02 18:36:45 IV3GTH JN65 144.174900 FT8 -17 -11 
2020-07-02 18:37:45 IZ3QFG 144.174900 FT8 -05 
2020-07-02 18:42:30 S57A JN65 144.174900 FT8 +02 -06 
2020-07-02 18:44:00 IK4FMT JN54,144.174900 FT8 -15 -21 
2020-07-02 18:46:45 IK4DRY 144.174900 FT8 -11 -07 
2020-07-02 18:52:00 9A3CX JN65 144.174900 FT8 +00 -01 
2020-07-02 18:57:30 9A3K JN65 144.174900 FT8 +05 +01 
2020-07-02 18:58:15 9A6NA JN86 144.174900 FT8 -12 -19 
2020-07-02 19:02:00 9A2RD JN65 144.174900 FT8 +13 -09 
2020-07-02 19:02:45 9A5BWW JN86,144.174900 FT8 -05 -16 
2020-07-02 19:04:30 9A1UN JN65 144.174900 FT8 -10 -07 
2020-07-02 19:05:45 IV3GBO JN66 144.174900 FT8 +17 -07 
2020-07-02 19:12:30 9A5CW JN65 144.174900 FT8 -06 -13 

Another screenshot from D4VHF

Mode of Propagation... How exactly did these 5000km signals travel so far on 144 MHz? It seems likely that it was via a combination of a marine duct from Cape Verde up as far as Morocco and via Sporadic-E from there to Italy.

The tropo prediction map from Pascal, F5LEN shows some tropo in the Mediterranean Sea so that can't be discounted either. However, there must surely been at least one Sporadic-E hop in there somewhere.

Full D4VHF log including the EA & EA8 stations shown below...

432 MHz world tropo record extended even further to 4,644 kms - 1st Jan 2020

On Saturday the 28th of December 2019, Ian GM3SEK in the south-west of Scotland managed to work D41CV on 432 MHz to set a new world record for tropo on the band. The distance for this FT8 contact was an amazing 4,562 kms.

Considering the fact that it was on the 70cms band and that  the south-west coast of Scotland was one of the longest sea paths to Cape Verde Islands, it seemed as this might be a long term record.

It wasn't to be however as just a few days later on Wednesday the 1st of January 2020, Nick G4KUX in the county of Durham in the north of England managed to work D41CV also on FT8 on 432 MHz to push the record out a further 80kms or so to 4,644kms.

This is the screenshot of G4KUX having an FT8 contact with D41CV on 432 MHz.

Nick, G4KUX lives in an elevated location to the west of Bishop Auckland in County Durham in the north of England. His location is about 360 metres above sea level and he has a good take off for radio in all directions.

For the record breaking contact with D41CV, Nick was using 400 watts into a UHF Log-Periodic antenna as shown in the photo below. The suprising thing about this is that the gain of the Log-Periodic would be pretty modest and is probably no better than say a 3 or 4 element Yagi.

The gain of the Log is probably at least 10dB lower that say a box of four Yagi antennas like the ones Nick has for 144 MHz.

Mode of Propagation???... Looking at the path for the previous record contact on 432 MHz from Ian, GM3SEK in the SW of Scotland to D41CV on Cape Verde Islands then we can probably speculate that the mode of propagation was via a sea duct.

For G4KUX however, the signals had to cross over some hills and mountains in Wales and the north of England. Considering there were very good tropo conditions at the time across western Europe, it seems likely that there was an elevated duct for the most northerly part of the contact and this then coupled into a sea duct further south.

Record Limit... The map below shows the new limit of the 432 MHz tropo record.

Can the record be broken? Probably. We saw in 2019 several occasions during the year when a sea duct existed between Cape Verde Islands and the British and Irish Isles. If the only mode of propagation is via sea ducting then maybe the new record will be set from the western islands of Scotland.

What we saw in the last few days at the end of 2019 and the start of 2020 was the rarer occurrence of the sea ducting happening at the same time as an extensive tropo opening with elevated ducting. This will no doubt happen again but maybe not so often.

G4KUX contacts... This is a list of some contacts G4KUX made around the same time on FT8 on 432 MHz.

G4KUX IO94BP F6DBI IN88 FT8 -08 -15 20191229 105400  20191229 105500 70CM 432.174000  0
G4KUX IO94BP F5APQ JO00 FT8 -06 +03 20191231 153200  20191231 153400 70CM 432.174000  0
G4KUX IO94BP ON4QJ JO20 FT8 -12 -09 20191231 153500  20191231 153600 70CM 432.174000  0
G4KUX IO94BP F1ISM JN09 FT8 +03 +02 20191231 155300  20191231 155400 70CM 432.174000  0
G4KUX IO94BP ON4AOI JO21 FT8 -06 -14 20191231 160200  20191231 160400 70CM 432.174000  0 
G4KUX IO94BP F6KBF JN18 FT8 -03 -17 20191231 160500  20191231 160700 70CM 432.174000  0 
G4KUX IO94BP SP7CKH JO92 FT8 -13 -19 20200101 121100  20200101 121300 70CM 432.063000  0
G4KUX IO94BP SP2JYR JO92GP FT8 -15 -10 20200101 121400  20200101 121400 70CM 432.063000  0
G4KUX IO94BP DL1TRK JO63  FT8 -20 -14 20200101 121500  20200101 121500 70CM 432.063000  0 
G4KUX IO94BP HF1J JO73  FT8 -17 -21 20200101 151400  20200101 151700 70CM 432.063000  0 
G4KUX IO94BP DL1SUZ JO53 FT8 +00 +06 20200101 151700  20200101 151800 70CM 432.063000  0 
G4KUX IO94BP PH0TV JO32 FT8 -16 -11 20200101 152000  20200101 152100 70CM 432.063000  0 
G4KUX IO94BP D41CV HK76MU FT8 -15 -20 20200101 192900  20200101 201300 70CM 432.174000  0 

As you can see, Nick was able to work into France, Belgium, Poland, Germany and the Netherlands while there was high pressure and tropo ducting about.

All in all, an amazing week or so of propagation on the VHF and UHF bands.

Links...
a) F5LEN tropo forecasts

Remarkable start to the New Year with a new 144 MHz tropo record from Cape Verde Is to Western Scotland

Back in September of 2018, G3SMT in the west of England managed to work D4Z on the Cape Verde Islands on 144 MHz to set a new IARU Region-1 tropo record of 4,431kms.

On the 28th of December 2019, Ian, GM3SEK worked D41CV from the same location on the Cape Verde Islands to extend the 144 MHz tropo record to 4,565kms.

On the 1st of January 2020, the New Year was hardly a few hours old when Calum, GM0EWX on the Isle of Skye in the west of Scotland managed to work D41CV on FT8 on 144 MHz. This now extends the IARU Region-1 tropo record to an amazing 4,776kms.

For the contact, GM0EWX was using an IC7100 with 400 watts into two 15-element long Yagi's about 15 metres above ground level.

Calum kindly sent on screenshots of the FT8 contact and they are added to the end of this post.

Mode of Propagation... It's very likely that the bulk of the path was due to a sea duct extending from the west coast of Africa, up past Portugal and up to the British and Irish Isles.

Tropo forecast from F5LEN - 03:00 UTC 01-01-2020

You'll notice however from the first map that the most northerly part of the path crosses over the island of Ireland. It seems likely that there may well be an elevated duct for this part of the path and it is then coupling into the sea duct for the remainder of the journey.

New limit... As the tropo record extends north, the number of potential stations capable of breaking it reduces.

The one intriguing possibility is a tropo path from the Cape Verde Islands up to the Faroe Islands, a distance in excess of 5,000kms. Is it possible?

Just how far is the new record?... As outlined in previous posts, it's fine to be quoting numbers for new records but sometimes you need a map to put things into perspective.

If the record was say east-west over the North Atlantic, a signal from St.Johns in Newfoundland, Canada would reach this far into Europe...

...and a signal from the south-west of Ireland would reach this far into North America...

Addendum... Here are some screenshots of the FT8 QSO courtesy of Calum, GM0EWX.

4,400km opening between Cape Verde Islands and the City of London on 144 MHz - 30th Dec 2019

On the afternoon and evening of Monday the 30th of December 2019, there was another amazing tropo opening on 144 MHz from the Cape Verde Islands off the west coast of Africa to the UK.

On previous occasions, the openings have been mostly confined to the western parts of the UK where there is almost a complete sea path to the Cape Verde Islands. On the 30th of December however, the opening was further east.

The map above and below shows the stations that heard the FT8 signals from D41CV or were heard by D41CV.

As you can see below, the opening seems to have been confined to a narrow corridor and had to cross over Brittany in France and the north-west part of Spain.

In a separate tropo opening a few months back, only the most westerly French station on the Brittany peninsula managed to work D41CV as they could just about clear the Spanish coast for a complete sea path. On the 30th of December however, more French stations got in on the action.

The most amazing reports however were those from around London. Up until the 28th of December 2019, the IARU Region-1 tropo record for 144 MHz stood at 4,431kms.

Now look at the map above. The distance from D41CV to the stations in London is...
G7LRQ (4,436kms), M0HRF & M0ICR (4,427 kms) and G7LXP (4,435kms).

In terms of making a two way contact, I believe G4DCV, G7LRQ and M0ICR were successful. Others may have been as well but I don't have any further info.

Now consider this. The distance from London to St.John's in Newfoundland, Canada is 3,735kms. The signal from Cape Verde Islands is an extra 1,000kms further.

It is really incredible that a signal a VHF signal at 144 MHz could travel 4,400+ kms from some islands off the west coast of Africa and get as far as the capital city of the UK.

Tropo ducting... The map below shows the tropo forecast from Pascal, F5LEN. As you can see, there is a maritime path from the west of Africa to the UK and Ireland.

Links... 
1) F5LEN Tropo Forecasts

D41CV and GM3SEK set new 144 MHz tropo record of over 4500 kms

In what was probably the best tropo opening to Cape Verde Islands to date, Ian White GM3SEK in Scotland managed to work D41CV on the Cape Verde Islands on FT8 to set a new IARU Region-1 tropo record for 144 MHz. The contact was made on the 28th of December 2019 and the distance was estimated to be in the region of 4565 kms which is about 130 kms further than the previous record which was set by D41CV and G3SMT in September of 2018.

GM3SEK used 400 watts into an 11-element beam to complete the record contact.

A number of other stations in England, Wales, Ireland and the Isle of Man managed to complete contacts with D41CV as well.

To put the opening into context, the stations that heard D41CV on FT8 on Saturday the 28th of December 2019 are shown below. Also shown is the limit of the previous record.

What really stands out is the number of stations that heard the signal from D41CV and were further than the old record.

Of these, GD3YEO and GD6ICR both managed to complete a contact for what were probably the first ever contacts between Cape Verde Islands and the Isle of Man on 144 MHz.

John, MW1CFN on the Isle of Anglesey did not make a contact but managed to hear D41CV with a small 3-element yagi!

MI0XZZ to the north of Belfast managed to hear D41CV despite the fact that the signal had to travel over the island of Ireland.

Possibly the most interesting reception report was that of 2M0TNM in the far west of Scotland. The distance was an impressive 4,710 kms and was almost completely a sea path. If anyone is likely to break the new record then it's likely to be from there.

432 MHz... Amazingly, GM3SEK also managed to work D41CV on 432 MHz for a new world record distance for tropo. That report is in a separate post HERE.

Mode of propagation... As you'll notice, it's those with a sea path that were able to avail of the opening. It was likely to have been the usual maritime ducting.

The tropo prediction map below from Pascal, F5LEN shows the path from Cape Verde to the UK and Ireland.

Links...
1) F5LEN tropo prediction website
2) Excellent end of year tropo opening results in new world record 432 MHz contact of 4562 kms