K
kf4rca
Guest
Might be some interesting daytime DX as the eclipse passes overhead form Oregon to S.C.
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It would be neat to be listening in a spot where the totalality occurs near the top of the hour IDs.
Your mileage on that will vary.
https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/eclipse-who-what-where-when-and-how
The event is on a Monday and (if I have my primitive figures right) will last some two hours for the USA. So a DXer in a car pursuing this as if it were a tornado will have to hit a mere 1500 MPH to tag along and hear some good stuff.
So there are 51 shopping days left to get your car tuned and arrange for a leisurely lunch to pack.
It would be neat to be listening in a spot where the totalality occurs near the top of the hour IDs.
Your mileage on that will vary.
https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/eclipse-who-what-where-when-and-how
The event is on a Monday and (if I have my primitive figures right) will last some two hours for the USA. So a DXer in a car pursuing this as if it were a tornado will have to hit a mere 1500 MPH to tag along and hear some good stuff.
So there are 51 shopping days left to get your car tuned and arrange for a leisurely lunch to pack.
R
rbrucecarter5
Guest
Hate to bust everybody's bubble, but I've done eclipse DX before. We had near totality but not complete in Houston in the early 80's. It was dark like twilight, I heard roosters in the background. It cooled noticeably. I was ready in my car - and started a band scan. We have (or had) many good DX candidates. WBAP - did not get stronger, did not have groundwave / skywave cancellation. WWL - only slight improvement. WNOE - did not start coming in. WLW - did not start coming in. The Chicagos - did not start coming in. Frequency after frequency - same story.
My theory is that the atmospheric shifts that characterize nighttime skywave take longer to set up than the eclipse offered. That, and the narrow path of the eclipse doesn't allow the atmosphere to re-arrange in the presence of non- blocked portions of the atmosphere to each side.
If I hadn't had work that day, I'd have driven the couple of hundred miles to be under totality, but I don't think the results would have been much different. Plus - I would have been busy photographing and not DX'ing. Some articles from DX'ers say you could expect enhanced DX within 400 to 800 miles of the eclipse, but based on my experience, I just don't think it will happen. The article said that stations to the West should propagate East. I didn't have too many stations to the West to use as test frequencies - KOB is one, but didn't come in. WOAI was too close to really use. XEROK did not come in, and the LA stations are too far.
I tried to look up historical eclipses but couldn't find the one Houston was under. It may have been annular or something and not show up in the list, but I remember it was a big deal in the news at the time.
My theory is that the atmospheric shifts that characterize nighttime skywave take longer to set up than the eclipse offered. That, and the narrow path of the eclipse doesn't allow the atmosphere to re-arrange in the presence of non- blocked portions of the atmosphere to each side.
If I hadn't had work that day, I'd have driven the couple of hundred miles to be under totality, but I don't think the results would have been much different. Plus - I would have been busy photographing and not DX'ing. Some articles from DX'ers say you could expect enhanced DX within 400 to 800 miles of the eclipse, but based on my experience, I just don't think it will happen. The article said that stations to the West should propagate East. I didn't have too many stations to the West to use as test frequencies - KOB is one, but didn't come in. WOAI was too close to really use. XEROK did not come in, and the LA stations are too far.
I tried to look up historical eclipses but couldn't find the one Houston was under. It may have been annular or something and not show up in the list, but I remember it was a big deal in the news at the time.
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@ RBruce: Might that lack of totality have blunted the DX effect by you more than the speed of the atmosphere re-arranging conditions is considered?
I mean, we've all seen the sun go behind a big cloud, and that never changed reception. This is a 3000-mile swath, though.... supposedly 70 miles wide .... going in motion to be sure, but lasting at its peak for (so says NASA) 2:40 at some place in Illinois. Those living or driving right along that thin medial vein, with 35 miles of elbow room on either side of them, would provide the best summaries ; what actually happens to the dial.
(Non-DX-wise, but doubtless interesting to some, would be the effect on the tides in Oregon and South Carolina).
73,
The firm of Carly (Total Eclipse of the sun) Simon
Cat (I'm Being Followed By A Moon Shadow) Stevens
Bonnie (Total Eclipse of The Heart) Tyler
* * * * * * *
On Long Island we saw a partial solar eclipse in early 1979. We used the cardboard-box method of viewing it; worked pretty good! Reception didn't budge one bit on AM, though.
It'd be real cool if the event along the path also happened to coincide, independently, with some of that daytime skywave stuff.
No doubt, some FM DXers here will have their ears Q-tipped, their headsets on, and the tape rolling, hi
@ RBruce: Might that lack of totality have blunted the DX effect by you more than the speed of the atmosphere re-arranging conditions is considered?
I mean, we've all seen the sun go behind a big cloud, and that never changed reception. This is a 3000-mile swath, though.... supposedly 70 miles wide .... going in motion to be sure, but lasting at its peak for (so says NASA) 2:40 at some place in Illinois. Those living or driving right along that thin medial vein, with 35 miles of elbow room on either side of them, would provide the best summaries ; what actually happens to the dial.
(Non-DX-wise, but doubtless interesting to some, would be the effect on the tides in Oregon and South Carolina).
73,
The firm of Carly (Total Eclipse of the sun) Simon
Cat (I'm Being Followed By A Moon Shadow) Stevens
Bonnie (Total Eclipse of The Heart) Tyler
* * * * * * *
On Long Island we saw a partial solar eclipse in early 1979. We used the cardboard-box method of viewing it; worked pretty good! Reception didn't budge one bit on AM, though.
It'd be real cool if the event along the path also happened to coincide, independently, with some of that daytime skywave stuff.
No doubt, some FM DXers here will have their ears Q-tipped, their headsets on, and the tape rolling, hi
R
rbrucecarter5
Guest
It is possible, but totality was pretty darn close. We were in pretty deep twilight. When cocks start crowing it is seriously close. I had higher hopes. Not the only time I have been disappointed. I don't think the eclipse will have an effect on FM DX. Maybe if it creates an inversion layer.
The actual 'spot' of totality is fairly small. One would think that if an eclipse actually effected the ionosphere, the area of the ionosphere affected would be as big as the swath -- a circular area the size of the width of the path, which -- according to Wikipedia -- is around 100-160 miles wide (over 250km), which really isn't much bigger than local reception, I'd think... Maybe enough to enhance a regional station a bit -- but stations you could probably hear anyway. But I've never solar eclipse DXed, so I'm just tossing out a guess.
EDITED TO ADD:
I found this PDF online, looks like daytime DX may indeed be possible during a Solar Eclipse, so I stand corrected in my guess....
There were apparently experiments done in Europe during a Solar Eclipse that went over Cornwall (and other areas) in the late 1990's.
https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1703/1703.01491.pdf
There are charts of some stations that were received with higher signals than usual. Interesting.
EDITED TO ADD:
I found this PDF online, looks like daytime DX may indeed be possible during a Solar Eclipse, so I stand corrected in my guess....
There were apparently experiments done in Europe during a Solar Eclipse that went over Cornwall (and other areas) in the late 1990's.
https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1703/1703.01491.pdf
There are charts of some stations that were received with higher signals than usual. Interesting.
Last edited:
R
rbrucecarter5
Guest
Interesting read.
Figure 11 - low band 639 kHz, shows results similar to what I got with WBAP. Slight improvement - be careful with the scale of the figure om the left and right! The Radio Luxemborg 1440 results were impressive - I did not test any high band stations because, frankly, in the US high band is characterized by regionals and graveyards. I suppose I could have gone for KOMA at the time, but I didn't. But it wouldn't have been along a line of East West totality anyway. Not sure if the 50 kW in Ft. Worth on 1540 was on the air at the time, a lot of the stations in the 1500 -1600 range didn't fire up until after the early 80's. We got a 25kW on 1520 in Houston now, along with a 1560 that I think is 50kW.
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