Eclipse thoughts?

[schmave]

I had no chance to check here in central Ohio, about 20 miles south of the southern edge of totality.

 

[Bouncer]

The upper half of the AM was definitely better. I will have 90 minutes of SDR recordings to review, but at times it looked like the middle of the night on the waterfall, excited to listen. I know already I got Toronto (Zoomer) from Springfield, will update as I have time to listen...

 

[crainbebo]

Wrapping up in Indiana as the eclipse heads towards the Maritimes and out to sea.

Here's the rest of the logs via notes. Totality was at 1507 ET. Starting after logging WBXR-1140 and WHFB-1060...
850 KFUO St. Louis mixed with WKNR
1110 WUNN Mason MI with Family Life Radio
1110 KGFL Clinton AR // stream 'Lucky Star' Madonna, and I think KFAB was under.
880 WIJR St. Louis under WRFD
1350 WCHI Chillicothe OH // stream 'You're So Vain' Carly Simon. A country station faded up at times. Other talkers mixed. 4-5 stations deep
1700 KKLF Richardson TX SS music u/ KBGG
1610 CHHA Toronto got up to S9+15DB!
1070 UNID with Sean Hannity. Assuming WAPI Birmingham.
750 WSB Atlanta also w/ Sean Hannity. Then WWVA-1170, ALSO with Hannity.
1180 WHAM Rochester local eclipse coverage as Rochester went into totality. Mixed with them was WKCE Knoxville
1070 CHOK Sarnia ON
1210 WPHT Philly with WDAO buried
UNID 1200 with Stacey Q 'Two of Hearts' - who is this? identified! This is WKST New Castle PA. 5KW, alone for a time
1510 WWHN Joliet IL // stream Black Gospel
1530 UNID Spanish sermon, probably WJDM NY, under WCKY
1700 WRCR NY // stream
880 WCBS under WRFD
1250 unid with cover of 'Chainbreaker' by Zach Williams. Assuming Ontario. Then heard Sebastian Gorka = WPGP Pittsburgh
1680 WTTM NJ
1690 CHTO Toronto
1560 WWYC Toledo w/ Allen Jackson Ministries

Hopefully Bob recorded the whole band while I was DXing. There's tons of other gems that I'm sure are missing from this list. DXing live has its limits.

PS: Glad I got on early (like 2 hrs. before totality) - all availabilities were taken!

 

[Mark Roberts]

From Leander, Texas, in the far northern Austin suburbs, with 3+ minutes of totality starting at 1335 - I started at 1325 with 1620 WTAW, which was having enhanced reception. There was a lot of electrical interference. There was a little bit of enhancement of Dallas and San Antonio before totality. The fun really started about 3 minutes after totality. Here are my notes:

* = San Antonio area; ** = Dallas/Fort Worth area; *** = Houston area

1329 - Quick scan from 540 to 970 then from 1560 (local) to 1620. Nothing unusual except for a bit of enhancement.
1330 - Emergency weather notification, tones and all, on WTAW.
1335 - WTAW gets slightly stronger.
1339 - Starting dial scan at 540. Non-locals: 550 KTSA*, 570 KLIF**, 630 KSLR* ??, 660 KSKY**, 680 KKYX*, 700 KHSE (probably not KSEV from the Houston area), 680, 700, 720 KSAH*, 740 KTRH***, 770 KAAM** (faint), 790 KBME***? (would be odd)
1342 - 820 WBAP** - in the midst of their totality, a live broadcast from planetarium
1345 - 860 KONO*, 950 ??, 960 ?? (splat from local 970 KIXZ), 1000 KTOK Oklahoma City, 1010 KBBW Waco, 1030 ??, 1080 KRLD** (post-eclipse, encouraging listeners to call in with their experiences), 1090 KAAY Little Rock (strong w/ deep fades)
1355 - 1100 KDRY* w/ ID, 1130 - KWKH Shreveport, 1140 - ??? (español), 1160 KBDT**, 1170 - KTSB Tulsa, 1190 - KFXR**, 1200 WOAI* (strong, no interference at all), 1230 - probably KWTX Waco, also quite strong
1401 - 740 KTRH again, then not a whole lot other than locals until reaching 1420, 1430, 1460, none of which I could identify
1405 - stopped; pretty much fizzled out, might have been able to do more had there not been so much atmospheric noise due to stormy weather - I also kind of expected more but Little Rock seemed to be the farthest reception.

Some of these are guesses - most standard-issue news, sports, and religion continued on as usual. Local 1060 KTSN did a mix of sun-oriented music - I caught the end of that set while dial-scanning. Only Dallas-Fort Worth stations appeared to do any live-and-local programming during the actual period of totality.

Coverage maps show Houston's KTRH with daytime coverage in Austin but, at least in far north Austin, it did not come in much at all aside from the period of the eclipse.

It was cloudy with breaks, but as the sunlight dimmed, it seemed that some of the energy feeding the clouds diminished, and we were able to see the whole period of totality. Something similar happened with the 2017 eclipse in Columbia, Mo.; so now I've seen two total eclipses in their areas of totality. Crowds in Leander were not nearly what were expected; we believe that all the talk of cloudy weather caused some people to give up or go elsewhere.

I recorded these dial scans but it will be next week before I can post them.

 

[jim-satx]

I was in northwestern Burnet, TX, close to Lake Buchanan, about 40 miles NW of Mark’s location in Leander. We had some intermittent clouds, but the ones around the sun dissipated by the time of totality, which lasted about 4 minutes, 20 seconds.

Enhancement was first noted at 1:22 p.m. CT (12 minutes prior to totality) with 1700 KNVS in Brownsville, TX, starting to come up. It lasted about 45 minutes, and I focused on stations I’m unable to hear in the daytime. Here’s what I managed to log using my Sangean HDR-16 portable:

1:23 - 1520 KOKC Oklahoma City, OK
1:28 - 1650 KSVE El Paso, TX
1:31 - 1640 KZLS Enid, OK
1:32 - 1630 KKGM Ft. Worth, TX
1:40 - 1480 XETKR Guadalupe, NL
1:41 - 1230 XEIZ Monterrey, NL
1:47 1210 KGYN Guymon, OK, eventually fading to WMPS Bartlett, TN, which faded into an UNID station
1:52 1170 KTSB Tulsa, OK w/HD indicator flashing (but not fully decoding)
1:53 - 1130 KWKH Shreveport, LA
1:57 - 1000 KSTA Coleman, TX
2:03 - 1650 KCNZ Cedar Falls, IA

WMPS (573 miles) and KCNZ (856 miles) were the biggest surprises.

 

[Mark Roberts]

I was in northwestern Burnet, TX, close to Lake Buchanan, about 40 miles NW of Mark’s location in Leander. We had some intermittent clouds, but the ones around the sun dissipated by the time of totality, which lasted about 4 minutes, 20 seconds.

Enhancement was first noted at 1:22 p.m. CT (12 minutes prior to totality) with 1700 KNVS in Brownsville, TX, starting to come up. It lasted about 30 minutes, and I focused on stations I’m unable to hear in the daytime. Here’s what I managed to log using my Sangean HDR-16 portable:

WMPS (573 miles) and KCNZ (856 miles) were the biggest surprises.

That KCNZ logging is mind-blowing.

I seemed to have very little in the expanded band, with best results in the 1000-1200 kHz range. I parked on WTAW hoping for more expanded band action but that didn't seem to pan out.

Hopefully you didn't have traffic problems coming back.

I should have noted what I was using: a Digitech AR-1780 radio (Australian version of the first version of the XHDATA D-808), using a 4 kHz audio bandwidth.

 

[crainbebo]

As mentioned before, I had XEPE 1700 Tecate (980 mi) during the 8/21/2017 eclipse that put totality over Oregon. KKLF-1700 from the Indiana SDR was about 740 miles or so.
Texas just didn't have that much DX for some reason. Interestingly, as soon as 'the lights went out' on Dallas, KRLD-1080 shot up to listenable levels on the New Braunfels SDR. You could hear the cheering and spectator/reporter reactions.

Far better results in the northern totality states.

 

[davideduardo]

Coverage maps show Houston's KTRH with daytime coverage in Austin but, at least in far north Austin, it did not come in much at all aside from the period of the eclipse.

What coverage maps?

 

[K8PLW]

Just west of Detroit, MI. 98.8% totality. Ran down to the shack several minutes after eclipse peak (~3:15pm EDT). KMOX, WHAS, WLAC, WCCO and others were all present, with noise.

 

[crainbebo]

Checking my recordings again and may have a tentative on 1410. It sure sounds like "...TG 100.7 (or 100.9) FM and 1410 AM" at 1500 ET, a few minutes before totality. Perhaps this could be 500 watt WHTG Eatonville, NJ. That would be one heck of a catch at 635 miles from the Edinburgh IN KiwiSDR. An UNID Country station mixed with them (with Rodney Atkins). Maybe KTCS in Arkansas.
Also slow hymns on 1060, shortly after Benton Harbor MI faded. Tentative on WILB Canton OH.

 

[schmave]

What coverage maps?

Probably Radio Locator. Sure it's not official but it's a good enough resource.
I used to go to Austin several times a year for work when I lived in Houston and heard KTRH day and night on every visit, never with much difficulty.

 

[MarioMania]

Really, Your annoying me by saying "totality"

You sound like 90's hipsters

 

[davideduardo]

Probably Radio Locator. Sure it's not official but it's a good enough resource.

Of course, the outer two contours in Radio Locator are not coverage maps in any aspect. They are just calculated curves for two lower (and pretty much unlistenable) signal area.

 

[Mark Roberts]

What coverage maps?

Ones I have, one of which I posted in the Houston forum a few months ago, the comparative map of the major Houston AMs that KTRH published in the 1970s. I'm doing typing this on the phone so no direct link. Another version is also in the worldradiohistory collection of coverage maps.

Also note that my reception location has been in Williamson County, on the north side of the metro.

 

[Mark Roberts]

Probably Radio Locator.

Not at all.

I used to go to Austin several times a year for work when I lived in Houston and heard KTRH day and night on every visit, never with much difficulty.

My reception location this time has been in Williamson County, on the north side of the metro. Leander was just 20 minutes away, on back roads to avoid 183A.

There's also been severe weather, yesterday and this morning.

 

[Mark Roberts]

Really, Your annoying me by saying "totality"

You sound like 90's hipsters

That's the official term.

 

[CTListener]

Really, Your annoying me by saying "totality"

You sound like 90's hipsters

Throwing stones from inside the glass house of "your/you're" obliviousness, are you?

 

[billmich]

I had no chance to check here in central Ohio, about 20 miles south of the southern edge of totality.

I drove from detroit to south of toledo to see a once in a lifetime event

why didnt you drive 20 miles and see it for yourself?

 

[billmich]

Just west of Detroit, MI. 98.8% totality. Ran down to the shack several minutes after eclipse peak (~3:15pm EDT). KMOX, WHAS, WLAC, WCCO and others were all present, with noise.

you missed out, was totally worth it to road trip to toledo and see a once in a lifetime magoical moment

100% is WAYYYYY better than anything less than 100%

 

[ksradiogeek]

Really, Your annoying me by saying "totality"

You sound like 90's hipsters

That’s literally the scientific term used. Don’t like it? Go argue with astronomers.