144 MHz signals from Minnesota & Illinois heard in Newfoundland (3100kms) - 14th July 2021

14th July 2021: The VO1FN receiving station in Newfoundland is currently listening for 144 MHz trans-Atlantic signals from Europe. On the 14th of July, some amazing FT8 signals were heard in the opposite direction with some off the back of the beam.

The map above shows how the receiver at VO1FN caught a Sporadic-E opening in progress to the west.

The cluster of FT8 stations in the centre are all single hop Sporadic-E but the two of real interest are the double hop signals further west.

KA9CFD in Illinois was at a distance of 3,109 kms. 

W0ZQ in Minnesota was at a distance of 3,102 kms.

These are the FT8 reports from the PSK Reporter website in order of time...

Txmtr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
VE3ELL 2m FT8 2118 km 19:52:41

W0ZQ 2m FT8 3102 km 19:22:44
N1BUG 2m FT8 1270 km 19:19:26
N2OA 2m FT8 2047 km 19:18:56
VE3WWR 2m FT8 2159 km 19:18:11
W1FKF 2m FT8 1531 km 19:13:26
K2TER 2m FT8 1984 km 19:07:26
KA2LIM 2m FT8 1984 km 19:05:26
NA2NY 2m FT8 1681 km 19:02:26
VE2PN 2m FT8 1389 km 18:59:57
VA3KA 2m FT8 1806 km 18:54:56
VE2UG 2m FT8 1590 km 18:48:11
VE3FN 2m FT8 1767 km 18:47:14
VE3DS 2m FT8 2120 km 18:46:56
VE2DFO 2m FT8 1658 km 18:44:59
VE3CIQ 2m FT8 1811 km 18:44:29

K1KA 2m FT8 1559 km 18:24:26
WA1T 2m FT8 1496 km 18:23:26

KA9CFD 2m FT8 3109 km 17:14:26

It's interesting to note that the opening seemed to be in different phases rather than in just one short window. 

The station manager of VO1FN is Frank, VO1HP and he did mention that the beam was turned west during the opening so there would probably have been even more stations heard if the beam was pointing west from the start.

I should also point out that the PSK Reporter site only shows the last heard signal. Some of the stations around 19:00 UTC may have been heard earlier at 18:23 UTC but the site only shows the most recent signal.

What I found interesting was that there was almost two hours between the two double hop signals.

I did check to see if the International Space Station was in the sky at the time and it wasn't so that's not a factor.

Trans-Atlantic on 144 MHz??... If there can be a 3100km opening from Newfoundland to the West then why not to the East across the North Atlantic?

The map above shows two beam headings from VO1FN in Newfoundland. 279 degrees and 3100kms to the West and 81 degrees and 3100kms to the East.

Surely there are times when there is a path at 144 MHz between Newfoundland and Spain???

Links...

1) Earlier post about the VO1FN trans-Atlantic monitoring station.

2) See my 144 MHz page for more examples of long distance paths at 144 MHz.

Newfoundland 144 MHz monitoring station VO1FN hears US station at 1760kms - 13th June 2021

Normally, a reception report of a station at 1700km on the 144 MHz band isn't all that special as we're in the middle of the Summer Sporadic-E season but I found this one of interest.

13th June 2021: The VO1FN station at St.John's, Newfoundland was set up to monitor the 144 MHz for Trans-Atlantic signals. On the 13th of June, it heard a FT8 signal from K1TEO in Connecticut in the USA.

The distance was just over 1760 kms which is pretty typical for Sporadic-E or meteor scatter at 144 MHz.

This is the tropo prediction map for the day from Pascal, F5LEN...

It shows some enhancement on the 1760 km path but probably not enough to explain the propagation mode.

Propagation Mode: Frank, VO1HP outlined in the update at the end of this post how the signal was heard off the back of the beam. As there was just one decode, I don't think it was tropo. If it was meteor scatter then it required a burst that was at least 15 seconds long. The other option was a very short Sporadic-E opening. 

My interest in this reception report is how it compares to the distance from Newfoundland to the Azores Islands.

The beam heading from VO1FN to K1TEO is 254 degrees which is 16 degrees south of West. I calculated what the equivalent point is at 16 degrees south of East and it is shown above.

As you can see, the distance to the Azores is just a few hundred kms.

It's my opinion that proof of a 144 MHz path between Newfoundland and the Azores would be a valuable first step in the eventual goal of a Trans-Atlantic 144 MHz contact on 2-metres. I think this is most likely to happen between the north-west of Spain / Portugal and either Newfoundland or Nova Scotia in Canada.

Update 15th June: From Frank, VO1HP... "The antennas were pointing at Ireland. I regularly monitor 144.174 even though EI2DKH is opearting on 144.488Mhz Q65 every time there is an opening on 6M.  The actual decode took place on Jun 13 2021 not Jun 14.  Jun 14 was the date displayed by WSJT-X on Monday when I logged on to the PC using Anydesk.  The time stamp of the recording is 20210613_101845"

Update 16th June: VO1HO informs me that K1TEO was using 1 kilowatt to a 4 x 9-element Yagi array at 25 metres above ground level.

VO1FN 144 MHz Trans-Atlantic Project mentioned on Radio DARC broadcast on the Short Wave Band

Radio DARC is a short program broadcast on 6.070 KHz with 100 KW on Sundays at 09:00 UTC (11:00 CEST) about amateur radio with a lot of music.

On Sunday the 18th of April 2021, the VO1FN Trans-Atlantic project on 144 MHz gets a mention in their news items at about 10 minutes in.

While the program is broadcast in German, it does raise awareness about the 'VO1FN Trans-Atlantik Projekt' among a much wider community.

Radio DARC broadcast locally via FM and DAB in Germany, Austria and Italy. It is also broadcast on 3955 kHz and 9670 kHz for an audience outside of Germany. If you hear the broadcast then you can send them a reception report.

You can find out more about Radio DARC and their transmission times here... https://www.darc.de/nachrichten/radio-darc/

More information about the VO1FN Trans-Atlantic Project can be found in this previous blog post.

Thanks to Joerg, DM4DL for the above information.

VO1FN : The 144 MHz Trans-Atlantic SDR Monitoring Station - Update 2021

 

Frank, VO1HP reports that the VO1FN 144 MHz Trans-Atlantic monitoring station will be reactivated by the end of May 2021!

This SDR receiver will be using SDR Console V3 and WSJT-x and will report to the PSK Reporter website as VO1FN.

The station will be located in St.John's, Newfoundland and will use two stacked 5-element 144 MHz LFA-Q quad style Yagis from Innovantennas.

The antennas will be pointing at western Europe and the receiver will be listening on 144.174 MHz which is the FT8 frequency.

Trans-Atlantic on 144 MHz: Is it possible??? ...As can be seen from the map above, the distance across the North Atlantic between Newfoundland and Ireland is just over 3000kms. This is well beyond the normal 2300km or so range for normal Sporadic-E or meteor scatter and it seems unlikely that it would be spanned a marine tropo duct going all of the ways across.

I emphasize the work unlikely but it's not impossible. The North Atlantic is not noted for its fine calm weather and there is nearly always some low pressure system in there stirring things up.

What is likely to happen a lot more often are shorter ducts that are in the region of 1000kms in length and these could happen at either end although the eastern end seems more likely. If there is a Sporadic-E opening or a major meteor shower at the same time as a good 1000km marine duct then it may well be possible.

It seems to me that the path from Newfoundland to the north-west coast of Spain as the most likely one even if it is a bit further away. The number of stable marine ducts in that part of the Atlantic are higher than further north closer to Ireland.

Updates... More news as it comes in!

Links...

1) VO1FN page on QRZ

2) F5LEN's tropo forecast