Signal propagation increased

[dshot92]

In the last few months, signal propagation has been off the charts.

The same device in the same locations has been making really long-distance connections that were previously unreachable.

I have a T1000E with all MQTT settings turned off, but it's always connected to a device with internet access. I now regularly make connections across the Tyrrhenian Sea of over 300 km (190+ miles) from the beach, at sea level.

That never happened in previous months using the same device in the same location.

On the Meshtastic website, there's a 2024 blog post about a world-record 330 km connection achieved using specialized antennas and high-end hardware from mountain tops. Meanwhile, here we are making similar distances from sea level with a portable device and a 2 cm (1 in) omnidirectional antenna.

Is this related to the nice warm weather? Isn't hot or warm air supposed to reduce radio wave propagation?

Could this be caused by the recent bug fix regarding MQTT flags?
#9626

My hypothesis in order of probability:

1. Firmware bug derived from updating to new version and unused/default mqtt flags being misread or setted incorrectly
2. Firmware updates increased signal processing quality
3. Weather effects

What do you think?

NOTE: in second images there are 8 hops, but t1000e has stock firmware with max hops setted to 7.