Be A Participant in The North American Solar Eclipse On April 8, 2024!!

HAMSci amateur radio operator John Landrigan, KA4RXP will be operating Maritime Mobile off the Mazatlán, Mexico coast at the beginning of the total solar eclipse as it transits to the Maritime provinces of Canada.

The 2024 total solar eclipse will begin at the following UTC times on April 8, 2024:

• Partial eclipse: 15:42 UTC (11:42 AM EDT)
• Total eclipse: 16:38 UTC (12:38 PM EDT)
• Greatest eclipse: 18:17 UTC (2:17 PM EDT)
• Total eclipse end: 19:55 UTC (3:55 PM EDT

The maximum eclipse will be at 12:17:19 local time and totality duration will be 4m 29s.

The HamSci organization is seeking to measure and record the ionospheric radio propagations that are influenced by this solar event.

In order to do so, KA4RXP/MM will be operating as a special event station, seeking your signal reports from all locations, especially in the 70-mile-wide path of the eclipse, during this rapidly changing ionospheric propagation spectacle. To maintain a sense of continuity, all radio activity will be confined to the 20-meter Amateur Radio band at approximately 14.265 MHz.

Just a simple signal report and Maidenhead Grid Square location is all that’s requested. The data will then be collated and analysis of the signal reports and their locations will be done in the post Eclipse interval. The station will be operating with 100 Watts of RF power and recording the entire session to make a continuous log, keeping details as seamless as possible.

Contact via ka4rxp@aol.com

 

On Monday, April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse will cross North America, passing over Mexico, the United States, and Canada. The total solar eclipse will begin over the South Pacific Ocean. Weather permitting, the first location in continental North America that will experience totality is Mexico’s Pacific coast at around 11:07 a.m. PDT.

The path of the eclipse continues from Mexico, entering the United States in Texas, and traveling through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Small parts of Tennessee and Michigan will also experience the total solar eclipse. The eclipse will enter Canada in Southern Ontario, and continue through Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Cape Breton. The eclipse will exit continental North America on the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland, Canada, at 5:16 p.m. NDT.


Quick Facts visit: https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/future-eclipses/eclipse-2024/
The ROC-HAM Radio network has secured the special event call: W2E
Allstar - 2585,47918,4762,53131....echolink - roc-ham echolink conference 531091
hf bands be on the look out on 20 meters and 40 meters for the special event callsign W2E
Special event qsl ard will be available upon request more info on the www.roc-ham.net website
Being in the Rochester,NY area we will be transmitting around 2pm

W2E April 8, 2024 April 8, 2024 Solar eclipse 2024


This table provides the time that totality begins in some U.S. cities in the path of totality. These areas will also experience a partial eclipse before and after these times.


Location

Partial Begins

Totality Begins

Maximum

Totality Ends

Partial Ends
Dallas, Texas
12:23 p.m. CDT
1:40 p.m. CDT
1:42 p.m. CDT
1:44 p.m. CDT
3:02 p.m. CDT
Idabel, Oklahoma
12:28 p.m. CDT
1:45 p.m. CDT
1:47 p.m. CDT
1:49 p.m. CDT
3:06 p.m. CDT
Little Rock, Arkansas
12:33 p.m. CDT
1:51 p.m. CDT
1:52 p.m. CDT
1:54 p.m. CDT
3:11 p.m. CDT
Poplar Bluff, Missouri
12:39 p.m. CDT
1:56 p.m. CDT
1:56 p.m. CDT
2:00 p.m. CDT
3:15 p.m. CDT
Paducah, Kentucky
12:42 p.m. CDT
2:00 p.m. CDT
2:01 p.m. CDT
2:02 p.m. CDT
3:18 p.m. CDT
Carbondale, Illinois
12:42 p.m. CDT
1:59 p.m. CDT
2:01 p.m. CDT
2:03 p.m. CDT
3:18 p.m. CDT
Evansville, Indiana
12:45 p.m. CDT
2:02 p.m. CDT
2:04 p.m. CDT
2:05 p.m. CDT
3:20 p.m. CDT
Cleveland, Ohio
1:59 p.m. EDT
3:13 p.m. EDT
3:15 p.m. EDT
3:17 p.m. EDT
4:29 p.m. EDT
Erie, Pennsylvania
2:02 p.m. EDT
3:16 p.m. EDT
3:18 p.m. EDT
3:20 p.m. EDT
4:30 p.m. EDT
Buffalo, New York
2:04 p.m. EDT
3:18 p.m. EDT
3:20 p.m. EDT
3:22 p.m. EDT
4:32 p.m. EDT
Burlington, Vermont
2:14 p.m. EDT
3:26 p.m. EDT
3:27 p.m. EDT
3:29 p.m. EDT
4:37 p.m. EDT
Lancaster, New Hampshire
2:16 p.m. EDT
3:27 p.m. EDT
3:29 p.m. EDT
3:30 p.m. EDT
4:38 p.m. EDT
Caribou, Maine
2:22 p.m. EDT
3:32 p.m. EDT
3:33 p.m. EDT
3:34 p.m. EDT
4:40 p.m. EDT

 

The ENTIRE United States is capable of being your experiment folks: the penumbra and umbra connote temporary 'nightime' propagation conditions as the UV and xray emissions from the sun gets attenuated. How FAST the ionosphere responds is one of the many interesting issues addressed by eclipse work, that you can't answer by gray line, for example. Eclipses are fun AND useful.

For those hoping to SEE the total eclipse, here are a few simple cautions , based on 61 years of eclipse watching---

1) Logistics: PREPARE for WOODSTOCK. By that I mean, expect traffic that normally is associated with huge rock festivals. Get to your location EARLY. Bring SUPPLIES. Don't expect that cloudiness at your location will mean it will be easy to jump in the car and go somewhere else. You will end up in a shut down road--shut down by traffic;

2) The partial eclipse is boring. The shadows are interesting, but without totality the sky will still be bright. IOW a partial eclipse at 95% ain't just 5% away from perfect;

3) Obviously you NEVER look at the sun. Use a neutral density filter or a low power telescope with a filter at the objective. There are many,many good sites on the internet that tell you how to take pictures. But give up on your smart phone--not a good choice for pictures;

4) As totality kicks in, quickly look (just before)at the horizon and watch the shadow travel..FAST. With totality,the sun's corona will be intense and inspiring. Watch for rippling 'shadow bands'(see the internet for references). Looks for stars!

Note that the corona does not affect the ionospheric propagation--its the disc of the sun;-)

Have fun

73
Chip W1YW

 

Good website: https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/map/2024-april-8

If you zoom in on the map, more detail will be available and you can click your location to see details.

My QTH is shown as 98.7% obscured, but the YL and I are going to drive into the 100% area, which is a short 45-minute drive through a very sparsely-populated area on back roads.

 

By all means, if you possibly can, go to where you can see the eclipse in totality. It will be unlike anything you have ever experienced before. There is simply no comparison between a partial and a total solar eclipse.

For the August 21, 2017 eclipse we drove from Cincinnati down into Tennessee and stayed over the night before. The recommended spots at local parks were very crowded, but we ended up with a perfect location in a Wal-Mart parking lot with about 100 other observers. All you need is an unobstructed view of the sky. The weather was clear and we had perfect conditions. As long as you can see the sky, everyone gets the same view no matter where you are. Depending upon your exact location, you may have a few more seconds of viewing the total eclipse.

Once totality is over, that's the show. We were packed up and pulling out, within 15 minutes, back on the road for home. As the moon uncovered the sun, it was essentially a repeat of what we'd been watching all morning, and had already seen.

Unless you're a pro or at least a serious amateur photographer, don't even waste your time trying to photograph the total eclipse. For anything even remotely satisfactory, you'll need a powerful telephoto lens, and solar photography filters that you won't be able to use for anything else. Spend your time enjoying the corona, and the solar prominences. The show will be over way too soon.

Don't forget your eye protection, and be ready to take it off the second everything goes dark. But keep it handy. You'll need it again as soon as the moon begins to uncover the solar disc.

You don't need to go anywhere special. Just find an open view of the sky--even a parking lot--within the path of totality, and pray for clear skies.

Enjoy.

 

I'm thankful my QTH is in the totality....now if we can just get clear skies

I'm planning to have the radio out on the patio if the weather is nice, the smoker fired up, and the beer cooler stocked.

 

Thanks for the info, the site is pretty cool and lots of info on it, I too will be in the 98.7% -99% zone in the Southern Adirondack Mountain region of NY . Another site is the Adirondack Sky Center, the only observatory in the Adirondacks in NY. Here is the site adirondackskycenter.org

 

Glad to see it will be 100% at my QTH since my son is coming in from Colorado. Hoping for clear skies but I expect to experience some changes even if it’s not perfect skies.

Also happy that it will be on my Birthday !

 

Your lucky day!

 

Thanks. Looks like I'll be in total obscurity again, come April... story of my life! lol

 

Thanks N5AF. I am near Bandera, TX. We will be in the total obscuration zone.

 

I'm ready......

 

I'm curious to know if these event types create a pseudo-grayline effect for those radio stations within totality?

 

This is Keith, KI5VNL in Trenton Texas. I plan on being off the 8th and at my QHT. I am the President of the K5FRC club out of Bonham and we will have our net up and running.

 

We will be YouTube live April 8th 2024 for the Solar Eclipse operating W2E special event call here in Genesee County NY we are directly in the path and will see total totality. A big thanks to The ROC-HAM Radio Network in Rochester, New York for allowing us to operate here from Genesee County sharing their special event call https://www.roc-ham.net/solar-eclipse... We not only plan to stream live but have a camera outside so you can watch the Eclipse over our shack.
https://www.youtube.com/live/3Cq2iIXqb_4?si=CLyI7NOT7taYSjKe