ZP9HTL in Paraguay reports on 5000km TEP opening on 144 MHz to Puerto Rico - Jan 2022

Juan, ZP9HTL in Paraguay sent on some interesting information to me about his experience with Trans-Equatorial Propagation (TEP) on 144 MHz.

With TEP propagation, signals on the 144 MHz band usually cross the Geomagnetic Equator close to 90 degrees i.e. a right angle. This means that openings tend to happen to the exact same area when the band is open.

This can be seen as the TEP pipeline from Buenos Aires in Argentina to Bonaire, Curacao, Aruba & the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean. Likewise, stations in the south of Brazil have a pipeline to Puerto Rico & Guadeloupe.

For ZP9HTL, his pipeline from Paraguay is to Puerto Rico where he is often heard on SSB on 144.300 MHz.

Video... The following clip was sent to me by Juan. 

It shows that what a TEP signal on SSB can sound like. Note the distortion and the very rapid flutter.

Remember, this is a signal on 144 MHz over a 5000km path!

Antenna... On 144 MHz, Juan is using an 11-element LFA Yagi.

DX-Cluster Spots... I have included below the DX Cluster spots for ZP9HTL from the Caribbean. As you can see, they are all from Puerto Rico and they range from the start of the TEP season in September 2021 to now, mid January 2022.

It's interesting to see that the TEP openings happen at pretty much the same time i.e. 00:00 UTC which is about 8pm local time in the evening for the stations concerned.

From these spots, the earliest time is 23:45 UTC and the latest time is 00:39 UTC, a window of about one hour.

DX-Spots...

Spotter Freq. DX Time Info Country

WP4KJJ-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 23:54 21 Jan 22 59 Paraguay
NP4BM-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 23:54 21 Jan 22 59 tnks tep qso Juan Paraguay
NP4BM-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 00:06 14 Jan 22 59 tks qso Juan Paraguay
WP4G 144300 ZP9HTL 00:39 13 Jan 22 55 in FK68 Paraguay
NP4BM-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 00:30 13 Jan 22 still 59 Paraguay
WP4KJJ-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 00:19 13 Jan 22 Paraguay 
KP4EIT-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 00:10 13 Jan 22 5/2 swl Paraguay
NP4BM-@ 144300 ZP9HTL 00:05 13 Jan 22 58 tks tep qso Paraguay

5000km+ opening on 144 MHz between the Canary Islands and the Caribbean - 19th Aug 2021

On the 19th of August 2021, there was an impressive opening on 144 MHz between the Canary Islands and the Caribbean, a distance well in excess of 5000kms. It's interesting to note that there was a similar opening from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean on the 29th of August 2020.

It looks as if the mode of propagation is tropospheric ducting over the North Atlantic as shown by the forecast below from F5LEN - 19th Aug 2021 @12:00 UTC.

FT8 & SSB: The opening on the 19th seems to have been mostly via the FT8 digital mode but a few SSB contacts were made.

These are the paths and reports that I could find for three stations in the Canary Islands...

EA8CXN
Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
EA8CXN NP4BM 2m FT8 5237 km 18:22:14
NP4BM EA8CXN 2m FT8 5237 km 15:50:29
EA8CXN KP4EIT 2m FT8 5189 km 10:50:15
EA8CXN WP3DN 2m FT8 5158 km 12:19:12
WP3DN EA8CXN 2m FT8 5158 km 12:17:29
EA8CXN WP4G 2m FT8 5153 km 10:04:41
EA8CXN FG4ST 2m FT8 4813 km 17:20:14
EA8CXN FG5GH 2m FT8 4809 km 18:22:41  

EA8RH
Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
NP4BM EA8RH 2m FT8 5204 km 14:24:29
EA8RH NP4BM 2m FT8 5204 km 12:49:14

EA8DEC
Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
EA8DEC NP4BM 2m FT8 5237 km 11:23:14
NP4BM EA8DEC 2m FT8 5237 km 11:22:56

DX-Cluster: As you can see from the spots below, there were at least two SSB contacts

EA8CXN 144174.0 NP4BM 15:33 19 Aug Fk68 IL18 Puerto Rico
EA8BPX 144250.0 NP4BM 11:16 19 Aug 55 fk68 il18 Puerto Rico
NP4BM-@ 144174.0 EA8DEC 10:57 19 Aug tnks ft8 qso Canary Islands
EA8CXN 144174.0 WP3DN 10:07 19 Aug FK68 TR il18 Puerto Rico
EA8CXN 144250.0 NP4BM 09:50 19 Aug fk68 tr IL18 THANKS SSB Puerto Rico 
EA8CXN 144174.0 NP4BM 09:45 19 Aug FK68 IL18 Puerto Rico

Path between FG & CT: It also seems as if there was a path open on 144 MHz between Guadeloupe and Portugal.

This is the first time a signal from mainland Europe has been heard in the Caribbean on 144 MHz. Note that EB1DJ did hear KP4EIT in Puerto Rico in August of 2020 so this more northerly path has been open before. See LINK

This is the FT8 screen from FG4ST showing two FT8 decodes from CT1ETL/1 at -20dB. No QSO was completed.

It looks as if this tropo duct might open up again so it would be worthwhile for stations in Spain and Portugal to beam towards the Caribbean.

More reports on previous 144 MHz openings across the Atlantic can be found on my 144 MHz page HERE

3000km+ opening on 144 MHz between the USA and the Caribbean - 13th July 2021

In this post, we'll look at what looks like an unusual 3000km+ opening in North America between the USA and the Caribbean on the 13th of July 2021.

There seems to have been two very active Sporadic-E regions that were both capable of supporting propagation at 144 MHz. The map above shows the paths on FT8 from WP4KJJ in Puerto Rico to the USA. Most of the stations in Florida, in the SE of the USA and up the east coast are all likely to be one hop Sporadic-E. That cluster of stations out around the 3000km mark are probably double hop Sporadic-E.

The longest path that I found on the PSK Reporter website was between WP4KJJ in Puerto Rico and K2DRH in the NE of Illinois, a distance just over 3470kms.

The double hop part of the opening seems to have been mostly confined to Puerto Rico (KP4) and the Dominican Republic (HI8). The map above from HI8DL shows the same single hop and double hop Sporadic-E pattern.

K2DRH seems to have been the furthest away from the Caribbean stations and this is the FT8 map for him...

As you can see, it shows some single hop Sporadic-E to Florida as well as double hop to the Caribbean.

I also found another 3000km+ opening between K2TXB in New Jersey and PJ4NX in Bonaire at 15:02 UTC.

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)

K2TXB PJ4NX 2m FT8 3172 km 15:02:30

NV4B also reports that he made a FT8 contact with J79WTA in Dominica, a distance of just over 3370kms.

J79WTA

NV4B 2m FT8 3381 km 15:51:30

WB4OMG 2m FT8 2548 km 17:05:29

On the DX Cluster, N0JK in the east of Kansas reported hearing WP4KJJ at -18dB although the report didn't appear on the PSK Reporter website. The distance was just under 3650kms.

N0JK 144174.0 WP4KJJ 17:05 13 Jul EM28IX<>FK68XF copied -18 rpt

While there were some SSB contacts made, most if not all of the double hop ones were via FT8.

Propagation Mode: It does seem that in this instance, it really was a case of a double hop Sporadic-E opening. The tropo forecast shows some enhancement over the ocean but I suspect it was mostly double hop. 

Whether it reflected off the Atlantic ocean at the mid point or was chordal hop (Sp-E cloud to cloud) is open to debate.

There did seem to be another smaller double hop opening around 22:00 UTC but the data I have presented here is after the first one.

These are the FT8 reports that I saw over 2500kms for the opening around 17:00 UTC...