RF-Seismograph did not record any changes in the popagation

I still use an ancient SS Ray Jefferson 630 at home when trying to dig out a weak or QRM buried BC station that the HQ-180 or SX-73 cant pull thru, nothing automatic about it.
The radio covers AM FM CB LW and 145-175mHz VHF. It is also a backup when we lose power.

Carl

 

I was running 5 watts on 40 meters during the eclipse. Despite a lot of calls, I didn't get picked up by RBN, but I did work 3 QSO's. The greatest distance was over 700 miles, which is very unusual for QRP on 40 meters at noon. So I suspect something was going on due to the eclipse. That's just three data points, but I suspect there will be some effect when they crunch all of the data.

 

The sun was extremely active during the eclipse and it was having multiple M and C class flares which caused a G2 solar storm right after the eclipse. The propagation you got was not caused by the shadow of the moon! 40m propagates well during the daytime.

Actually NOAA send out warnings that where displayed by the RF-Seismograph and the G2 storm was also predicted and announced by NOAA!

All the best;

Alex

 

I've briefly poured over my transmit and receive logs for 40m WSPR before, during and after the eclipse, (we had 100% totality) and did not notice anything out of the ordinary -- yet. I'm thinking I need to look at azimuth and distance and see if the signals in one direction or the other were suppressed during the totality.

 

Hi Alex,

KF5FEI's response reminds me:

It is simply not possible to say with any degree of certainty at this time that "The propagation you got was not caused by the shadow of the moon". We do not know yet. Such a conclusion would require detailed raytracing with an appropriate model of electron density, tied to real observations where available. That effort has not occurred yet as it is way too early. The science community is still in data gathering mode, and it will be a while before preliminary results are available for peer review in scientific journals.

So it's important to emphasize to this community that _any_ observations, whether you saw an effect or not, are important to provide for better understanding. Please see the SEQP instructions for uploading logs and other data uploads through the HamSCI website:

http://www.hamsci.org/basic-project/2017-total-solar-eclipse

73
Phil W1PJE

 

Yes, it's quite possible that it was normal propagation. But 700+ miles seems unusual (but not totally impossible) for a normal noontime on 40 meters running 5 watts. I only had three data points to contribute. I wished I could have used 80 or 160, but setting up a good portable antenna for those bands would have been problematic, and I figured 40 would be the best compromise to generate some interesting data.

The anecdotal reports I've seen so far seem to indicate that something was going on on 160 and the broadcast band, and that seems to be consistent with what was seen during other eclipses.

My plan was to contribute a few data points, so hopefully my 3 QSO's will add a little bit more data for them to analyze.

 

From here in Lakeland, FL where the sun was covered approximately 80% max, I did my solar eclipse observations on the AM broadcast band for the obvious reason that the broadcast signals were continuous. I did it the old fashioned way with direct real time observations using my 1/4 wave 160 meter transmit antenna and 4 different receivers fed in parallel.

I was able to watch 50 kw broadcast band signals rise and fall as the solar eclipse tracked from NW to SE to my north.

I heard the following stations rise and fall in the following order. Each station was audible for different periods of time.

1. KMOX 1120 St. Louis, MO, 2 minutes
2. WSM 650 Nashville, TN, 5 minutes
3. WSB 750 Atlanta, GA, 6 minutes
4. WBT 1110 Charlotte, NC 7 minutes

WSM 650 and WSB 750 were audible at the same time.

73,
Thomas F. Giella, W4HM
Lakeland, FL

W4HM daily HF radio wave propagation forecast & solar, space & geomagnetic weather discussion
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/spaceweather
https://www.facebook.com/thomasfranklingiellaw4hm

 

Thanks for your hard work on your eclipse project. I'm sure your raw data will become an additional data point among hundreds of others in the ever growing and congealing sets of similar data. We all look forward to the researchers' conclusions made form the aggregate data.