Eclipse thoughts?

[schmave]

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?

I had zero desire to get caught in traffic, and had plenty of work to do otherwise once everything passed. 99 percent was almost as good as 100, and it was a neat experience in any case.
I meant more that I had no chance to DX yesterday. Had I been in an open field, parking lot away from interference, etc., I probably would have.

 

[Mark Roberts]

You sound like 90's hipsters

Because DXing is such a a hipster thing?

 

[billmich]

I had zero desire to get caught in traffic, and had plenty of work to do otherwise once everything passed. 99 percent was almost as good as 100, and it was a neat experience in any case.
I meant more that I had no chance to DX yesterday. Had I been in an open field, parking lot away from interference, etc., I probably would have.

if its not 100, then you don't see the "magic" - the corona

I hope you enjoyed your 99, but you missed out on an amazing experience... and this didn't just sneak up, I took the 1/2 day off months ago, and it was all worth it

but hey, you do you.....

 

[fybush]

if its not 100, then you don't see the "magic" - the corona

I hope you enjoyed your 99, but you missed out on an amazing experience... and this didn't just sneak up, I took the 1/2 day off months ago, and it was all worth it

but hey, you do you.....

Yup. 99.9 percent still rounds to zero. We didn't even have clear skies here but we still got the profound darkness of totality, the colors, the sounds - all the things you missed out on anywhere other than in 100 percent.

 

[billmich]

Yup. 99.9 percent still rounds to zero. We didn't even have clear skies here but we still got the profound darkness of totality, the colors, the sounds - all the things you missed out on anywhere other than in 100 percent.

amen

either you saw the magic of totality, or you did not see the magic of totality - can you imagine being so close (20 miles) and let a once in a lifetime event just pass by because you couldn't be inconvenienced... maybe the guy was on call at the hospital as a surgeon,

as I said before "you do you"

love that line, 99.9% rounds down to zero when it comes to the magic

 

[schmave]

Or if you guys have an issue, talk to me directly when I'm right in the discussion.
I'm also a journalist and had to be on call in case I was needed for some coverage.
My original plan was to visit an area of totality, and then I couldn't. Is that good enough?

 

[Mitch Brewer]

In 2017 I was about 30 miles from totality. It was cool. However, instead of fighting traffic and crowds to go see the eclipse in totality, I fought traffic and crowds a few hours later to go see Edgar Winter, Deep Purple and Alice Cooper. I do not regret my decision. @schmave good enough for me.

 

[billmich]

Or if you guys have an issue, talk to me directly when I'm right in the discussion.
I'm also a journalist and had to be on call in case I was needed for some coverage.
My original plan was to visit an area of totality, and then I couldn't. Is that good enough?

as a journalist, you understand that "it provides context" to your answer.

 

[billmich]

In 2017 I was about 30 miles from totality. It was cool. However, instead of fighting traffic and crowds to go see the eclipse in totality, I fought traffic and crowds a few hours later to go see Edgar Winter, Deep Purple and Alice Cooper. I do not regret my decision. @schmave good enough for me.

was seeing those guys something that would only happen maybe once every 100 years?

.... asking about the frequency about how often those bands put on shows together, and how often they visited your area

...."you do you brother".....

 

[CTListener]

For bits and pieces of eclipse (and some earthquake) coverage from Texas to Maine to the Maritimes, check this out ...

 

[cyberdad]

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.

My KTRH` experience in Austin exactly. 24/7.

 

[gr8oldies]

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 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!

Yes he did record the whole band. I guess it'll be a massive file. If you haven't already, you might consider joining his Facebook group. Log into Facebook

 

[gr8oldies]

Back in town from my eclipse soujorn with family from the central and Western U.S. in Mena, AR.
The good news was the wonderful eclipse experience, both alike and different from 2017(and someone down the road just had to set off fireworks as totality hit).
Bad news: Even though our relatives' house is in the boonies, the power pole in the backyard blanked out AM reception.
A few things that made it above the noise: WOAI-1200 San Antonio, KFXR-1190 Dallas, and something on 1380 with a weird fade pattern...this after totality.

 

[crainbebo]

Please let me know if Bob's recording will be available to inspect further. There were several UNIDs throughout the band that were interesting. Like that 1410 that may have been a 500-watter in NJ. I didn't check the graveyards because I knew they would be a dozen deep or more. 1600 sounded like a graveyard channel. You can only pick up so much doing it live and scanning the band. Perhaps Dallas was skipping through on other frequencies. I had KRLD and KKLF. And with everything on day pattern, it enabled reception of a lot of daytimers (or flea-powers at night) normally not available on the dials.
Does he only have the one HF antenna on that tower?

 

[gr8oldies]

Please let me know if Bob's recording will be available to inspect further. There were several UNIDs throughout the band that were interesting. Like that 1410 that may have been a 500-watter in NJ. I didn't check the graveyards because I knew they would be a dozen deep or more. 1600 sounded like a graveyard channel. You can only pick up so much doing it live and scanning the band. Perhaps Dallas was skipping through on other frequencies. I had KRLD and KKLF. And with everything on day pattern, it enabled reception of a lot of daytimers (or flea-powers at night) normally not available on the dials.
Does he only have the one HF antenna on that tower?

I believe this is the download link. https://bob-on-the-job.com/. It's one 800 foot wire as far as I know. The link needs an SDR decoder, SDR Sharp or SDR Console.

 

[crainbebo]

Excellent! I will try and decode the file later this week. It's probably many, many gigabytes in total.

 

[tomservo]

Hi all, I have finally gotten a chance to listen to my band recording from Monday; I did about an hour's worth between 1:15 and 2:15 pm central time from the Alabama gulf coast where there was only about 75% totality. Interesting observations:

* Enhancement started almost exactly to the second at 2 pm, and only lasted a few minutes at best.
* It only affected roughly 1000 kHz and above. The lower end of the dial was completely unchanged.
* The expanded band lagged behind noticeably; stations above 1620 kHz didn't peak until about 2:05 and faded around 2:10.

Here are the highlights:

• 1030 - WGSF - Memphis, TN - "Ambiente 1030"
• 1080 - KRLD - Dallas, TX (2:02 pm to about 2:05 pm only)
• 1090 - KAAY - Little Rock, TX
• 1100 - KJCW - Webb City, MO - "Catholic Radio Network" / 92.1 translator
• 1110 - KFAB - Omaha, NE
• 1120 - KMOX - St. Louis, MO - Live eclispe talk
• 1130 - KWKH - Shreveport, LA - 318 area code mentioned
• 1140 - WBXR - Hazel Green, AL - "Watchmen on the Wall" program at 2 pm
• 1170 - WTSB - Tulsa, OK - "The Blitz 1170"
• 1190 - KFXR - Dallas, TX - ad for Burleson Nissan
• 1430 - KTBZ - Tulsa, OK - "The Buzz" sports talk
• 1510 - WLAC - Nashville, TN - "Talk radio 98.3"
• 1520 - KOKC - Oklahoma City, OK - "Markley, VanCamp & Robbins show"
• 1560 - KLNG - Council Bluffs, IA- "Pastor Shane Idleman" and Quality Christian Radio (Omaha area)
• 1570 - KBCV - Hollister, MO - Bott Radio Network ID (Branson/Springfield area)
• 1590 - KBJT - Fordyce, AR - TOH ID with KQEW FM; displaced Spanish programming at 2:00pm, Spanish returned at 2:11 pm
• 1650 - KCNZ - Cedar Falls, IA - sports talk; peaked late at around 2:05 pm
• 1660 - KWOD - Kansas City, KS - "You Better You Bet" podcast with eclipse talk
• 1690 - WVON - Chicago, IL - TOH ID

The biggest unknown for me was on 1160, where around 1:57 I heard Vietnamese music which led me to believe it was KBDT Dallas. However right at 2 pm it disappeared like someone flipped a switch, replacing it with a Christian teaching segment on abortion. That, in turn, gave way to another Christian teaching program talking about Revelations. I think one of them might've been WCRT Nashville since I am almost certain I heard a reference to Bott Radio right when it popped in.

All in all, an interesting experience.

 

[Bouncer]

For those looking for AM coverage maps, if you don't have this bookmarked already, please check out AM Broadcast Pattern Maps - Amateur Radio Station NF8M

It shows all stations on any one frequency on a map, along with their typical coverage area, including Canada. Great for seeing directionality of signals. You can (have to) choose between day, night, and critical hours. It's been a great resource for me. May have seen the link originally on here somewhere, I don't remember--if so a big thank you to whoever posted it.

 

[CTListener]

I brought my Grundig G3 with me to White River Jct., VT, for the eclipse (98 percent) experience. The noise floor was ridiculously high and I didn't bother with a full band scan. The strongest non-local signal I heard on the small section of the band I checked out was CJBC Toronto on 860.

 

[crainbebo]

It was almost like an AM "sporadic-E" opening, except it wasn't to one specific area. Multiple stations swapping with each other, a new area showed up, then another, before it faded for good. Once the eclipse was over the northern ME area, it was about over for Edinburgh IN.
I looked at the Rabbitears FM logger map and noticed nothing out of the ordinary during the totality event. No Ms/Es-like DX, from the south to the north. Just some tropo scatter in some spots (out to 200 mi).