Historic first Trans-Atlantic contact made on 432 MHz - Tues 7th April 2020

On Tuesday the 7th of April 2020, a remarkable contact was made with the FT8 digital mode on 432 MHz between D4VHF on the Cape Verde Islands off the coast of Africa and FG8OJ in Guadeloupe in the Caribbean.

This was the first 70cms trans-Atlantic contact without using satellites or the moon. The most likely mode of propagation was marine ducting with the signal being trapped close to the ocean.

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Update: Saturday 11th April 2020 - D4VHF in Cape Verde and WP3ND in Puerto Rico complete a contact with FT8 on 432 MHz. This extends the trans-Atlantic distance to approx 4,367 kms. Full info further down this post.

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(Make sure to scroll down for updates)

SEARG IRTS news moves to 8pm from the 14th of April 2020

The news from the Irish Radio Transmitters Society is broadcast every Tuesday evening on the Southern Ireland Repeater Network on 2m and 70cms.

As of the 14th of April 2020, they will be moving the time from 9:30pm to the earlier time of 8pm.

Opening to St Helena on 28 MHz - Sat 11th Apr 2020

Saturday 11th April 2020. There was perhaps a sign of things to come with a weak Sporadic-E opening on 28 MHz to the Iberian Peninsula.

The morning seemed pretty quiet with just a few signals heard.

In the afternoon, ZD7JC on St Helena Island was heard at about the same time as EA7HPI in the south of Spain.

It's likely that there was a Sporadic-E opening from Ireland to Spain around this time and then the path was either F2 or TEP (Trans-Equatorial Propagation) down to St Helena in the South Atlantic.

I saw a report of a TEP opening on 50 MHz between the USA and Argentina on the 11th so TEP is certainly a possibility.

In the evening time, there was a weak Sporadic-E opening to Spain and Portugal which lasted until 22:00 UTC.

The full list of stations heard on FT8 are shown below.

Txmtr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
CT1ADT 10m FT8 1546 km 21:59:14
EA3GXK 10m FT8 1623 km 21:39:00
CT1CLO 10m FT8 1470 km 21:24:59
CT7ADH 10m FT8 1399 km 21:21:59
CT1IUA 10m FT8 1649 km 21:19:59
CT1AGS 10m FT8 1369 km 21:14:44
CT1BWU 10m FT8 1406 km 21:13:59
CT1HMN 10m FT8 1478 km 21:05:44
CT7AQS 10m FT8 1340 km 20:56:45
F5NTD 10m FT8 1160 km 20:49:14
EA8DFQ 10m FT8 2705 km 20:41:29
EA8AJC 10m FT8 2729 km 20:37:59
EA7KHU 10m FT8 1617 km 20:02:59
IZ8WGU 10m FT8 2389 km 19:56:59
EC5W 10m FT8 1626 km 18:54:59
EA5AD 10m FT8 1650 km 18:35:14
EA3GJO 10m FT8 1053 km 18:31:44
EA4AAI 10m FT8 1324 km 18:03:44
EA4AD 10m FT8 1321 km 18:01:14
EA4GWT 10m FT8 1330 km 17:50:29
EA3IGW 10m FT8 1352 km 17:33:44
G4DBW 10m FT8 657 km 17:20:14
EA5HEN 10m FT8 1616 km 17:09:14
EA5KN 10m FT8 1529 km 17:07:14
EA6AAB 10m FT8 1607 km 17:03:29
EA5DIC 10m FT8 1577 km 16:52:14
G0IUE 10m FT8 427 km 16:51:14
ZD7JC 10m FT8 7542 km 15:21:14
EA7HPI 10m FT8 1728 km 15:18:53
M0BJL 10m FT8 484 km 12:52:14
MW0ZZK 10m FT8 283 km 12:03:00
DJ5JD 10m FT8 1069 km 11:14:59
M0ADH 10m FT8 551 km 10:37:50
M0SSK 10m FT8 608 km 09:59:29
M0AHN 10m FT8 452 km 09:26:29
PD3LPA 10m FT8 862 km 09:00:59
F4CIB 10m FT8 1177 km 08:18:16
DO1RJB 10m FT8 1010 km 07:46:59
G7BXU 10m FT8 512 km 07:43:30

Trans-Atlantic Opening on 144 MHz from Cape Verde Islands to the Caribbean - Apr 2020

The trans-Atlantic path from Cape Verde Islands to the Caribbean on the 144 MHz band opened on Sunday the 5th of April 2020 and closed on Sunday the 12th of April 2020.

Ongoing reports below...

Details about the trans-Atlantic 432 MHz contacts are in a separate post.

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Sunday 5th April 2020:

Breaking news! The FT8 signal from the D41VHF station in the Cape Verde Islands off the coast of Africa has just been reported in Martinique in the Caribbean on 144 MHz!

Screen showing FM4SA receiving the FT8 signal of D4VHF

The distance is approximately 3,864 kms.

Scroll down for updates...

Minor opening to Spain & Portugal on 28 MHz - Fri 10th April 2020

Friday 10th April 2020. Another pretty quiet day with just a minor Sporadic-E opening to Spain and Portugal.

These are the stations heard on FT8 on 28 MHz...

Txmtr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
DO1RJB 10m FT8 1010 km 12:21:44
DL4CQ 10m FT8 1028 km 13:32:38
CT1ADT 10m FT8 1546 km 14:06:16
EA1IEA 10m FT8 1131 km 14:07:59
CS7ARF 10m FT8 1456 km 14:26:44
CT7AQS 10m FT8 1340 km 15:00:14
EA5HEN 10m FT8 1616 km 15:08:14
EA4WD 10m FT8 1447 km 15:57:29
MW0ZZK 10m FT8 283 km 16:03:14
CT1EVE 10m FT8 1640 km 16:29:29
EA7KJF 10m FT8 1704 km 16:29:59
EA7HTE 10m FT8 1699 km 16:33:30

Short opening to Brazil on 28 MHz - Thurs 9th Apr 2020

Thursday 9th April 2020. Another pretty quiet day with just a handful of stations heard on FT8 on 28 MHz.

Txmtr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
PY2BL 10m FT8 9120 km 15:52:44
EB4ADC 10m FT8 1330 km 16:04:14
EA4D 10m FT8 1318 km 16:02:14
DL4CQ 10m FT8 1028 km 12:22:59
PD1BHZ 10m FT8 961 km 10:31:01
G7BXU 10m FT8 512 km 13:30:46
G8DX 10m FT8 429 km 15:59:59
GW7KNF 10m FT8 305 km 20:52:29

Just one lone signal from Brazil in South America.

As we head towards the middle of April, I'd expect to see some decent Sporadic-E openings on the band soon.

144 MHz Trans-Atlantic record extended to almost 4,760kms!

The incredible tropo conditions between Cape Verde Islands and the Caribbean continue to amaze with trans-Atlantic contacts on 144 MHz and 432 MHz being made.

On Wednesday the 8th of April 2020, D4VHF in the Cape Verde Islands managed to work PJ2BR on Curacao on 144 MHz using the FT8 digital mode.

The distance was approximately 4,759 kms which is roughly 300 kms further than the previous trans-Atlantic record of 4,460 kms between D41CV and NP4BM on Puerto Rico in June of 2019.

The new 2m trans-Atlantic record distance was just 10 kms or so short of the IARU Region-1 144 MHz tropo record of 4,769 kms.

The map below shows the limit of the current IARU Region-1 record...

Update: Friday 10th April 2020 - It looks like conditions on the trans-Atlantic path improved to the point where a SSB contact was possible. While you watch the video below, remember that the distance is over 4,700kms. The distance across the North Atlantic from Newfoundland to Ireland is 3,000kms.

<iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FD4VHF%2Fvideos%2F233328531361878%2F&show_text=1&width=261" width="261" height="716" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" allow="encrypted-media" allowFullScreen="true"></iframe>

Quiet day on 28 MHz - Wed 8th Apr 2020

Wednesday 8th April 2020. This was a quiet day on 28 MHz with just four stations heard on FT for the whole day.

095215 -14 -0.1  959 ~  CQ PA9CC JO32
102430 -15 -0.2 2009 ~  CQ DJ5JD JO33
121145 -20 -0.3 1165 ~  CQ EA5AD IM87
153530 -12 -0.2  622 ~  CQ PD2WL JO22

The Geomagnetic Kp index was at 2-3 for most of the day which isn't good for Sporadic-E. Some of the signals heard may well have been from meteor scatter as only there was only one decode from each of the stations.

Opening to Algeria and Saudi Arabia on 28 MHz - Tues 7th Apr 2020

Tuesday 7th April 2020. This was one of those days where there was hardly a murmur out of the radio on the FT8 frequency on 28 MHz yet there were still a good number of stations recorded.

Most of the 59 stations heard were probably via Sporadic-E although it's heard to be sure about HZ1SK in Saudi Arabia as that could have been multi-hop Sp-E or F2.

As we move further into April, we should start seeing more Sporadic-E openings.

List of stations heard in order of distance...

Small opening on 28 MHz - Mon 6th Apr 2020

Monday 6th April 2020. Another quiet day on 28 MHz with just a few FT8 signals via Sporadic-E from Europe.

Quiet day on 28 MHz - Sun 5th Apr 2020

Sun 5th Apr 2020. Another reasonably quiet day on 28 MHz with 18 stations heard on FT8.

Txmtr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
IS0FWY 10m FT8 1930 km 13:45:14
RA2FL 10m FT8 1920 km 10:22:44
EA7HHJ 10m FT8 1729 km 14:13:14
DG5HR 10m FT8 1301 km 10:14:14
OZ1ADL 10m FT8 1284 km 13:43:29
F5RRS 10m FT8 1251 km 10:09:59
F5CUN 10m FT8 1109 km 14:25:59
DH2DAM 10m FT8 1082 km 13:10:14
DM1FL 10m FT8 1076 km 09:22:14
EA3GJO 10m FT8 1053 km 08:45:29
DL4CQ 10m FT8 1028 km 13:01:29
PD3EDA 10m FT8 1027 km 14:34:59
PD2WL 10m FT8 913 km 13:00:14
PD1EVP 10m FT8 873 km 13:01:44
G0MBL 10m FT8 675 km 10:26:59
G3PXT 10m FT8 664 km 08:44:29
M0ZJQ 10m FT8 624 km 16:31:58
GW1JFV 10m FT8 229 km 14:07:29

When is the next sunspot cycle likely to start???

As we bounce along the bottom of the sunspot cycle in the Spring of 2020, the big question now is when will cycle 24 end and when will cycle 25 begin? We won't know for sure until we have gone past the minimum and we look back but the chart above provides some clues.

The chart compares the duration of solar cycles 21 to 24 and as you can see, 24 has already gone beyond cycles 21 and 22 as of the start of April 2020.

The end of sunspot cycles 21 to 24 are shown in more detail below...

As of the start of April 2020, cycle 24 has gone about 10 months further than cycle 22 and 4 months further than cycle 21. On the other hand, it is still about 7 months shorter than cycle 23.

Back in December of 2019, a NOAA/NASA Solar Cycle prediction panel said that a solar minimum would occur in April of 2020 +/- 6 months.

Considering that the 'April 2020 minus 6 months' has now passed, we are now into the 'April 2020 plus 6 months' timeline. Surely we are very close to the minimum now if not at it?

Quiet day on 28 MHz - Sat 4th Apr 2020

Sat 4th April 2020. A pretty quiet day on 28 MHz except for a few signals on FT8. The highlight was Canary Islands and ZD7JC from St.Helena Island in the South Atlantic.

List of stations heard by distance...
Txmtr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
EA8EE 10m FT8 2733 km 18:18:59
EA8DFQ 10m FT8 2705 km 18:18:29
IZ0BAV 10m FT8 1997 km 14:04:15
IK0VJH 10m FT8 1924 km 15:19:15
EA5AD 10m FT8 1650 km 17:48:59
EA7AH 10m FT8 1640 km 15:23:14
DJ5JD 10m FT8 1069 km 11:11:29
DJ8QX 10m FT8 1058 km 13:17:00
PD2VE 10m FT8 877 km 15:45:30
2E0XXO 10m FT8 551 km 19:15:17
GW0GEI 10m FT8 287 km 17:25:04
MW0ZZK 10m FT8 283 km 11:26:15

There were two decodes from ZD7JC but these didn't appear on the PSKReporter website.
173500 -18 -0.0  480 ~  OA4DOS ZD7JC RR73
181430 -18 -0.3  974 ~  EA3FCQ ZD7JC +02

Modest day on 28 MHz - Fri 3rd Apr 2020

Friday 3rd April 2020. There was hardly a murmur from the radio on the FT8 frequency on 28 MHz for most of the day except for  two local stations.

However, the band came to life in the evening with an opening to Gabon in central Africa, St. Helena in the South Atlantic, the Canary Islands, Brazil and Argentina.

There was a signal from Spain around this time so perhaps a Sporadic-E hop to the south from my location helped out.

In two to three weeks time, things should improving a lot as we head into the Sporadic-E season.

Stations in order of distance...
Txmtr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
PU2OOC 10m FT8 9186 km 19:09:59
ZD7MY 10m FT8 7542 km 19:06:44
PP6EW 10m FT8 7456 km 19:27:14
PY7AHA 10m FT8 7161 km 20:31:59
TR8CA 10m FT8 5948 km 17:52:29
EA8DFQ 10m FT8 2705 km 19:32:44
LA5VSA 10m FT8 1382 km 11:25:14
EA1AF 10m FT8 1141 km 19:27:59
GM4FVM 10m FT8 604 km 11:57:59
2E1RDX 10m FT8 485 km 17:15:29
G8IXN 10m FT8 284 km 09:52:31
EI9FVB 10m FT8 14 km 16:34:30
EI5FK 10m FT8 12 km 10:40:14

These are the stations in Brazil and Argentina that were heard but didn't appear on PSKReporter...
190430 -15 -0.1 2005 ~  EA1AF PU1JSV +05
190845 -19 -0.1  681 ~  EA1MX PU1KAQ -20
202015 -17 -0.1  680 ~  EA1AT LU1YT -13
202630 -19  0.1 1177 ~  KW7E PY2WLM -17

Opening to Africa on 28 MHz - Thurs 2nd Apr 2020

Thursday 2nd April 2020. There was a modest opening on 28 MHz today but most of the FT8 signals were buried in the noise.

The map above shows what was heard on FT8. 3B8CW in Mauritius and 5Z4/G3AB in Kenya were heard but the reports didn't show on the PSKReporter website.

133630 -16  0.1 1638 ~  M0BPQ 3B8CW -10
133630 -16 -0.0 2515 ~  CQ 5Z4/G3AB

These are the stations that were shown on the PSKReporter website....
Txmtr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
ZS3SH 10m FT8 9352 km 13:25:14
RA2FL 10m FT8 1920 km 14:53:45
I4SJZ 10m FT8 1727 km 13:29:29
IW5EID 10m FT8 1642 km 14:43:14
IZ4DYU 10m FT8 1620 km 14:38:59
DO2SBS 10m FT8 1537 km 12:21:47
IZ1JLG 10m FT8 1521 km 14:47:29
IU2FDK 10m FT8 1499 km 13:11:13
IU2KXV 10m FT8 1489 km 14:52:44
IW1FWB 10m FT8 1452 km 14:27:59
IZ1GLT 10m FT8 1450 km 13:45:29
I2SVA 10m FT8 1438 km 14:21:03
IU2NIR 10m FT8 1412 km 14:36:59
DO3LZ 10m FT8 1190 km 13:57:29
F5CUN 10m FT8 1109 km 15:10:44
DJ5JD 10m FT8 1069 km 10:36:34
EA3GJO 10m FT8 1053 km 10:02:01
DM8MM 10m FT8 1000 km 14:48:14
PD9X 10m FT8 983 km 10:44:59
PD2WL 10m FT8 913 km 14:49:29

Experiments with Slow Scan TV apps

Every Tuesday evening, we have a local net here in Cork on the VHF bands. This follows the following pattern... 1st Tuesday of the month (2m), 2nd Tues (70cms), 3rd Tues (4m & 6m) and 4th Tues (Digital).

On some months, there is a fifth Tuesday and we decided to use this for experiments.

For the 5th Tuesday in March of 2020, we decided to experiment with the Slow Scan TV apps for a smartphone. I was expecting that we would spend most of the first evening just downloading the various apps and trying to get them to work but it ended up being suprising easy.

The first thing we had to do was to download a SSTV decoder for the Google Play store and I think we all used Robot36 as shown above.

For sending SSTV signals, we used the SSTV Encoder app as shown above.

For the tests, we sent and received the signals on 145.475 MHz FM between members of the group and we each just held our mobile phones up to the loudspeaker and microphone of our radios.

The apps were very easy to use and we had them up and running in minutes. Using the 'Martin 1' SSTV mode, I sent out test transmissions and Don EI8DJ, Robbie EI3GGB and Jim EI8GS all successfully decoded the signals.

The photo above shows the signal that Robbie, EI3GGB decoded. The transmissions decoded by Don, EI8DJ are shown below.

Jim, EI8GS also reported successful decodes of the signal.

The original photos of the Daffodils and Gorse bush are shown below...

Obviously the quality could be better but this was our first attempt without experimenting about with audio levels for transmit or receive. The beauty of using a smartphone is that there are no wires. You just hold the phone up to the loudspeaker and it decodes the signal.

No doubt we will return to the SSTV app on another night to try and improve on the signals and picture quality. We were all agreed though that it was something new and novel to do and it was interesting to try something new.

It also struck me that this would make for an interesting activity for any club or group to try. Just go to the Google Play store and download the apps for free.

Quiet day on 28 MHz - Wed 1st Apr 2020

Wednesday 1st April 2020. This was a quiet day on 28 MHz with just four stations heard on FT8.

The two signals from the Netherlands and France may well have been via meteor scatter.

The two stations in NW Wales are probably direct via tropo.

Txmtr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
F5CUN 10m FT8 1109 km 15:31:44
PD3LPA 10m FT8 862 km 12:34:45
GW7KNF 10m FT8 305 km 15:16:59
MW0ZZK 10m FT8 283 km 10:34:46

Video: Understanding HF Propagation... by Steve Nichols G0KYA

This video was recently posted on YouTube by Steve Nichols, G0KYA and it gives a good introduction to understanding the basics of propagation on the HF bands.



Here are some of the bullet points...

• Solar Flux Index
• Sunspot Number (which is not the number of actual sunspots!)
• SSN - Smooth Sunspot Number
• MUF - Maximum Usable Frequency
• Solar Flares
• Coronal Mass Ejections
• A & K Index
• Ionosphere
• Layers
• Critical Frequency
• LUF, MUF & FOT
• VOACAP online
• Seasons & MUF

Additional links...

1) VOACAP website... https://www.voacap.com/
2) G0KYA's website... http://g0kya.blogspot.com/

Small opening to 28 MHz - Tues 31st March 2020

Tuesday 31st of March 2020. The FT8 frequency on the 28 MHz band was eerily quiet all morning with just one signal from Poland heard. Note that the lack of Sporadic-E signals may have been because the Kp index was at 4. i.e. There was a disturbance in the earths magnetic field.

A high K index is normally associated with poor Sporadic-E conditions.

Things seemed to improve in the evening with a modest opening to Brazil.

Txmtr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
PY2WAS 10m FT8 9187 km 18:03:31
PY1KB 10m FT8 8980 km 18:14:29
SQ4OLI 10m FT8 1843 km 09:26:55
CT2FZY 10m FT8 1636 km 19:35:29
EA2ESZ 10m FT8 1115 km 18:23:44

Opening on 28 MHz - Mon 30th March 2020

Monday 30th March 2020. I had the radio on in the background all day and it seem pretty quiet with only a few FT8 signals on 28 MHz audible. It was a suprise at the end of the day when the PSKReporter map showed that I had heard FT8 signals from South Africa, Chile and Europe.

It certainly wasn't an extensive opening and the map above really shows an accumulation of stations heard during the day gradually building up to populate the map.

At one stage when the FT8 signals were about S3 which seemed to be the strongest, I had a listen on the beacon part of the band and heard the German DL0IGI/B and DK0TEN/B beacons.

A total of 43 stations were heard. This is a list of the stations heard in order of distance...