5th June 2021: Just as European stations are currently experiencing multi-hop openings on 50 MHz to Japan & China, stations in North America are experiencing similar openings to the Middle East.
Chris, VO1CH in Newfoundland sent on an interesting example of this with his 50 MHz FT8 contact to 9K2OW in Kuwait, a distance of approximately 8376kms.
Chris reports other contacts with OD5ET in Lebanon and 4Z1UF in Israel at around the same time... i.e. 13:00 UTC.
As the screen shot below shows, the contact with 9K2OW was down around -20dB which is well below what is audible to the human ear. It's a nice example of how the digital FT8 mode opens up paths which would be impossible on SSB or CW.
