04/09/2020

History appears to have been made on April 7, when an operator at D4VHF in Cape Verde off the African Coast and Burt Demarcq, FG8OJ, on Guadeloupe in the Caribbean completed a contact on 70 centimeters using FT8 - a distance of 3,867 kilometers (2,398 miles). This would mark the first transatlantic contact on that band that did not involve satellites or moonbounce. The most likely mode of propagation was marine ducting, with the signal being trapped close to the ocean surface.

One day earlier, 9Y4D in Trinidad copied D4VHF over a distance of 4,006 kilometers (2,484 miles), but no contact was made. D4VHF is the VHF-UHF contest call sign of the Monteverde Contest Team (D4C).

Perhaps not coincidentally, FG8OJ was the first to span the Atlantic on 2 meters over the same path, when he worked D41CV in Cape Verde on June 16, 2019.

The EI7GL blog includes more information[1] on the 70-centimeter contact.


[1] https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/2020/04/first-trans-atlantic-contact-made-on.html

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