The AMSAT News Service reports on the first-ever terrestrial transatlantic contact on 70 centimeters. It says that on April 7, Burt Demarcq, FG8OJ, in Guadeloupe, made a 432-MHz contact via FT8 with D4VHF, some 2400 miles away in Cape Verde. Last June, FG8OJ made the first non-satellite, non-moonbounce transatlantic contact on 2 meters, working D41CV along the same path. It is speculated that the contacts were made possible by marine ducting, in which signals are trapped close to the ocean's surface.
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| Path between FG8OJ and D43VHF (From EI7GL website) |
The same conditions the next day provided for a
new transatlantic DX record on 2 meters, with D4VHF working PJ2BR on Curacao,
also via FT8, at a distance of roughly 2950 miles, according to the ARRL Letter.
D4VHF, by the way, is the VHF/UHF contest call of the Monteverde Contest Team,
which is familiar to HF contesters as D4C.
