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The contiguous United States will go absolutely dark for 7-minutes and 12-seconds on Monday August 21, 2017, starting at 9:06 AM PDT.
Blare OnAir Lite has prepared a PUBLIC SAFETY DRILL because there are predictable hazards to be ready for.
Another question arises… what will happen to the radio bands during the exclipse… will DXing go berserk?
Blare OnAir Lite No. 522 ECLIPSE DRILL
The KDX Worldround Radio Website is not always on-line. Keep trying until it’s too late.
Total posts : 45366Well, contiguous in respect only to the eclipse path.. You can download detailed eclipse path maps of your particular state (if it crosses your state) from https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/eclipse-maps
For example, here around Savannah Georgia we are supposed to experience a “near total eclipse”, but if I drive about 60 miles to Hilton Head Island (which I may do), than I can experience the event to it’s full potential.
Joe Rao, a meteorolist, explains how we can expect our AM radios to react during the eclipse, and request that we email him: Read about it here: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/2017-total-solar-eclipse/how-to-hear-the-solar-eclipse/
He says:
“I invite you to tune around the AM dial during the eclipse. Send your results — the station you heard and the time that you heard it, along with your location — to me at skywayinc@aol.com. I’ll compile all the results and report the results of this experiment at a later date.”
Total posts : 45366I may just have to get out my Grundig 450 DLX radio. May scan the shortwave bands to see what I get as well as AM and yes FM too.
I’m willing to bet you’re going to find some real interesting FM activity because when there was a space shuttle launched back in the 90s when they set up the DirecTV satellites I do remember how FM was and I was picking up stations in Texas while I was in Michigan. Then the DX changed to Florida and I was picking up some good rock stations down there.
I made log what I find because I have a funny feeling there may be those running those low-powered shortwave stations during this event so I think you should try listening on 13.560 megahertz and see what you get there as well. Don’t forget to scan between 6.9 megahertz and 7 megahertz because this is where a lot of hobby shortwave stations will be at.
Total posts : 45366So this is Hartford CT and the sun
will be 68 % covered here. That’s
good enough for me!
Ham radio ops will be compiling
data using digital modes and I”m
sure this will be very interesting.
After reading several articles about
how this might effect the AM BCB I’m
going down there.
I want to see how fast the D layer
collapses.
Brooce Part 15 Hartford CT
Total posts : 45366Well I’ll be listening on both 1630 kilohertz and 1710 kilohertz. I’m willing to bet that I will hear somebody broadcasting on a part 15 station.
Also you might want to monitor 87.7 and 87.9 megahertz. This is where a lot of hobby broadcasters will be broadcasting on FM. You might get lucky and pick up a real far away station. I don’t know but I think it’ll be a lot of fun.
Next you might want to try 6.927 megahertz. This is where a lot of those free banders transmit down there. I can’t remember the frequency of the Crystal Ship but I did pick them up one day.
Total posts : 45366KDX Worldround Radio from the Internet Building in the Center of North America has just announce plans to carry the entire eclipse live in stereophonic sound.
Other radio stations are welcome to connect to the KDX internet stream and carry the eclipse for their listeners.
We will be using all four of our microphones.
Total posts : 45366do A Blare On Air, you know.
Don’t look at the sun. (I’m not going to.)
But you can take radio measurements and report them.
(Best done with a portable radio outside to get away from
RFI in your house. Or maybe even try your car radio outside.)
You can look at the sky but not at the sun, itself.
(I know NOTHING about sun filters.)
Sounds like a lot of fun.
Brooce Part 15 Hartford
Total posts : 45366It is not easy to set levels for an event that cannot be put through a dry run.
One thing I do know, NEVER point a microphone directly at the sun. It can give your ears a serious tan.
Total posts : 45366If you play it in your part of town and me in my part the folks midway between us get that audio-corona effect.
I’m flying into Perryville, MO to take it in at 100%.
Total posts : 45366What you need to do every now and then is mentioned the part of town that you’re in. That way if a listener wants to report that they picked you up they could. You could get a PO Box number and have them send letters to that address.
I’m sure FM will be affected as well. So this could be a lot of fun if you know what I’m talking about.
Total posts : 45366C-SPAN Radio & Television will be providing full eclipse coverage all day on Monday August 21 starting at 7 AM EDT.
For the C-SPAN Radio Stream click on “Radio”
WCSP-FM 90.1 MHz 36 kW Washington D.C.
Total posts : 45366I’ll tell about the radio aspects
in a second. I observed the eclipse
with a pin-hole projector made out
of a shoebox. Rather than explaining
how that’s made – – I’ll just say that you
can Google it if you’d like. Even though
the sun was only 68% covered here
in Connecticut – it was a blast!
There were some radio changes on
the AM BCB – – not that obvious,
however. I wish I had checked the
daytime conditions over a period of
days to get a baseline. There is a
Maryland station on 1690 a couple
of hundred miles southwest of my
location. It came up in strength when
the sun was covered to the max here
– – again – – at 68%. I found no other
obvious changes on the regional
or clear channel frequencies.
However – some of the local channels
– – 1450 and 1490 kHz – – in particular
– – DID change. THOSE channels have
many stations – – hundreds – – scattered
around the U.S. So there are multiple
signal paths involved in this experiment
– – and some were effected by the
eclipse darkness path. 1450 and 1490
started to show changes. Instead of
the normal one or two stations – the
channels started getting crowded.
There were multiple stations – three
to five – or so. It was really cool!
It sounded like sunset conditions!
Very interesting!
Best Wishes
Brooce Part 15 Hartford
Total posts : 45366What you observed makes sense, Bruce.
The eclipse removes most of the sun’s extreme UV radiation, which ionizes the atmosphere. It would be like going to nighttime conditions, and then back again when the eclipse ends.
I was monitoring the 6 meter amateur band at the time, and noted no changes (at least, no increase in signals, hard to determine a decrease when there’s nothing there), which again makes sense. That band goes dead for the most part during the evening.
Total posts : 45366As a ham, I love 6 meters. Currently,
I have nothing to receive that band, but
I read the blogs about it. I guess many
6 meter guys are transitioning to JT65.
Amazing contacts are being made with
this mode, many 6 meter ops are
using low power and indoor dipoles
in attics. Well, I don’t want to hijack
the thread. Best Wishes sir!
Brooce
Total posts : 45366I just thought I’d mention
the trusty D layer which does
it’s job every day of attenuating
upward travelling AM BCB radio
waves. When this happens, this
“D Layer” portion of the ionosphere
stops AM radio skip from happening.
So there is very little or no AM radio
“skip,” but at night – Mr. D Layer vanishes,
and AM radio DX skip occurs. DXers
love this, but it’s a big headache for
AM radio station management, who
must lower power and do other
things to minimize co-channel
interference. Artisan Radio
made reference to this layer in a
recent post here. I am part of a bunch
of people who are interested in this
sort of thing – the idea was to see
how fast the D layer would
vanish in the darkness of
the eclipse. There is much
more to this story, but it’s
late and I’ve run out of pages.
It sounds like something Carl
would say.
Brooce
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