Historic Trans-Atlantic Contact made on 144 MHz from Cape Verde to Guadeloupe

[ChrisSmolinski]

A historic contact was made on Sunday the 16th June 2019 when the Atlantic was spanned for the first time on 144 MHz.

D41CV on Cape Verde Islands off the coast of Africa managed to work FG8OJ in Guadeloupe on 144.174 MHz using the FT8 digital mode. The distance was an incredible 3,867 kms.

To put that into context, the distance from the west coast of Ireland to Newfoundland is 3,000 kms.

https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/2019/06/historic-trans-atlantic-contact-made-on.html

[i_hear_you]

"D41CV later worked FG4ST who was slightly further away at 3,911 kms. This contact was even more amazing as this station in Guadeloupe was running just 50 watts into a simple vertical on FT8."

 

[Josh]

I wondered how they could pull this off with a mode that's "faster" than 65, here's the reason;
Tones are spaced at 6.25 Hz, and an FT8 signal occupies just 50 Hz. 50Hz is less bw than a typical cw bw.

[Pigmeat]

It took Columbus two months to get from the Canary Islands to the Bahamas and he had a ship. He didn't bump into Guadeloupe until his second trip. If they had both only had HF cw rigs, the folks in the New World could have sent, "No gold here OM. Try Antarctica." before Chris's first trip and saved everyone a big hassle.

[BoomboxDX]

Must have been some tropo to accomplish that feat.

[redhat]

Must have been some tropo to accomplish that feat.

More likely single or double hop e-skip.

+-RH

[BoomboxDX]

I mentioned tropo because of the location and the instances I've read of 2 meter contacts being made from California to Hawaii using tropo ducting. Not being a 2 meter aficionado, I'll take your word for it that it might have been e-skip.

[Pigmeat]

Lateen sails on those caravels for superior tacking. If you had the food and water it was a six week trip from Cape Verde to Guadeloupe with the wind at your back.

LMK, when these radio boys surpass the technology of the late 15th cen.

You know, the knob was invented about that time. Talk about human progress going "thud" afterwards!

[Pigmeat]

I mentioned tropo because of the location and the instances I've read of 2 meter contacts being made from California to Hawaii using tropo ducting. Not being a 2 meter aficionado, I'll take your word for it that it might have been e-skip.

On serious note, more than a few of the astronomers at the telescopes in Hawai'i broadcast dx on the way up the mountains to the telescopes. Above roughly 8,000 ft. FM stations start rolling in from the West Coast, mostly California. From what I understand it's a normal occurrence once you get above the "dx line".

[Josh]

A remote sdr at 8000 feet sounds doable. Just need a balloon and some batteries.