Parting the Ionosphere - Exploring Radio Signals During an Eclipse

An experiment to see if AM broadcast (mediumwave) radio signals will skip during an eclipse and act as they do at night. #radiowaves #ionosphere #eclipse

[@WECB640]

BRILLIANT! This is the scientific method at work. We have a hypothesis, create an experiment to prove or disprove the theory, and we have a backup plan just in case Murphy shows up. I did a similar experiment from the coast of MA. I could hear some zerobeating from DX MW stations on the same frequency that ordinarily would be absent. I also found that the MW DX peaked a few minutes AFTER totality as it took time for the D layer to thin out once the electron exposure was blocked by the moon. I also monitored 160M and had even better results there. Stations that I would never be able to hear in daytime, were S7-8 about 15 minutes before totality, and increased up to 20db/S9 at the peak. The peak on 160M occurred faster than the MW peak, but both were slightly after the eclipse peak of totality. Keep up the EXCELLENT work Walt! 73 OM

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Thank you so very much my friend!

[@Retired_Five-0_W4WAG]

Cool experiment! When I use to work the Midnight to 8am shift as a Police Officer, I use to love listening to AM Radio in the Summer. I use to pickup some great far off stations. I don’t know if there is any connection or not but HF is in the 🚽 today! I went out for a POTA Activation and 3 hours and 2 antennas later I barely got the Park Activated with 11 contacts.

[@Inkling777]

After this eclipse it came to me that WSPR would offer an excellent way to study the impact of such an event on HF propagation. Have WSPR stations under and on either side of totality transmit and see what changes as totality passes. It'd be a good measure of how quickly different layers respond to changes in solar radiation.

[@agoraphobicadam1171]

Off Topic: Hey Walt, Today on our local repeater we were talking about our favorite you tube ham radio channels and yours was not only mentioned by everybody But was easily in their top three including myself. Keep doing your thing man. KO4HPC. 73

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Thanks for that! 73, Walt

[@N1ERA-73]

Nice Experiment Walt! Your videos contribute and supports to our great hobby of ours.. Keep them coming! 😎

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Thank you so much my friend!

[@kennethblackwell1137]

Kool....and fun too. Lots of fun and science explored over this eclipse. A friend here in SE AL did a WSPR experiment. He operated his little WSPR beacons over a time period from before to after the eclipse then checked station signal strength in grids along and on the other side of the path. He saw improved signals during the eclipse varying a bit with bands.

[@nosbor5085]

Another excellent experiment. Thank you for taking the time to do it.

[@CC-hk6vy]

Great idea! I'm in Dayton, while traveling have heard 700 WLW all over the country at night, as far as Colorado. 73 de WO8USA🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

[@vladtepes481]

Walt, I ran a WSPR station on 15m all day yesterday. I noticed fewer stations being reported during the time the Eclipse was going across the US. The Eclipse was total in my location. The black evil sun was cool to see.

[@frasermderry]

Hi, Walt. Very interesting experiment! I think your concept is reasonable and may have been proven if totality could have lasted somewhat longer. In any event, another well thought out video from K4OGO! Thanks and 73, Marc (N1QGM)

[@KevinW8BRY]

That’s cool Walt. I didn’t think about doing AM. I love AM radio DXing

[@nmfd31]

Great experiment Walt! WABC’s monster transmitter is 3.94 miles from my QTH. You should see what it looks like on my 7300’s waterfall. I could tune them in with a wet napkin as an antenna on my microwave 😂.

[@joeblow8593]

Thanks for doing this. WLW is my local. I got the 50,000 watt power houses from Nashville, Chicago and Cleveland during the eclipse.

[@davidszasz1335]

I live northwest of Indianapolis in the path of totality yesterday and had set up my radio and 3ft. loop antenna toward St. Louis tuned to 1120khz KMOX which was also in the path. Normally it only can be received late at night but during the eclipse it came in clearly, but not "5x9" as they say. So I think it worked for one skip into the ionosphere. It faded out again after the eclipse, only to return late in the evening when the F layer skip returned.

[@Zapruderfilm1963]

Walt, fantastic experiment!!! I was putting up a Palomar Engineering 80-6 OCF dipole at the time yesterday or else I would have been on HF conducting my own experiments with that. 73 and thanks for all you do!!😀👍 De N1XV Montague, New Jersey

[@johnhnkp]

Hi Walt - I tried the same experiment here in Cleveland with my Tecsun receiver, specifically trying to receive WBBM (780khz) in Chicago. It's a 50kw clear channel station 330 miles west of us and is always pretty strong here at night. Using the smaller rotatable ferrite rod antenna that plugs into the top of the Tecsun, I didn't have any luck hearing it, either before, during or after totality. I have to agree with your idea that the D and E layers don't have quite enough time to fade out during an eclipse due to the relatively short period of near and compete totality. Thanks and 73s! John NI8M

[@janhenkins]

Wow, amazing experiment! Thanks Walt!

[@M0_KNQ]

You are not just a Radio Geek, you are Radio Geek Royalty, Walt ! That was a worthwhile experiment and the results do make sense . It was theoretically possible to see a partial eclipse in Northern Ireland just at sunset, but mt friends there tell me it was wall to wall cloud. 73, Pete

[@indridcold8433]

I do not know how this happened. With an antique RadioShack® CB walkie talkie, with the RadioShack® rubber duck that fit over the collapsed antenna, not even using the long extended antenna, I called out during the glorious show to wish others a magnificent eclipse viewing, I was able to contact Northern Mexico from Nova Scotia. It did not last long. But it was just a treat to add to the most spectacular show on the planet! 73 de KBX-1339

[@BurtonChristmasLites]

This was cool! I listened to WWV on 15000. I watched the signal change from pretty weak to strong to weak. This was from Atlanta. Robert KD4YDC

[@user-wo1cn7ht1w]

Neat experiment! Zoomer radio is the best station I get it 24/7 that night dj gets naughty at night !! Good work Walt we got robbed too many clouds 73

[@markviers998]

I'm jealous of your t-shirt! 😆I have a bumper sticker and QSL card from them but never snagged a shirt.

[@MirlitronOne]

Definitely a positive result, Walt. I did the same experiment with Radio España from the south coast of the UK during the 1999 eclipse.

[@cWatts-zv3oo]

Brother, your experiments never stop amazing and teaching me! Thanx for what you do!

[@paulgrindley8192]

That was a cool experiment. Here in Illinois-Indiana border area we had a rather large band opening on 2 meters, a couple hours before the eclipse started. Related? Maybe….Cool none the less.

[@steveburnham5073]

I also have a Tecsun PL-368 and Tecsun PL-660 every chance I get, I will tune AM 740 Zoomer Radio at night before I go to bed and I live in Central Pennsylvania.

[@chuckrann9784]

Cool Walt. Good analysis.

[@JoeEbnerTuscWeather]

Brilliant! You do cool stuff, Walt!

[@Don008Ramon]

Walt you are a true radio nerd, in a good way !!!

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Hahaha yes I am

[@Don008Ramon]

Keep on nerding my friend, I love all your content ! I’m the same way, was wondering how would eclipse affect radio, but I was at work and could not test it myself

[@Superacerc]

Very cool experiment. I like it. I think you mention that at night Wburg turns down the power. I wonder if leaving that power full kept toronto from coming in better. Seemed definitely to make a huge difference for NY transmissions though. I love this hobby. Every week I am doing some kind of antenna home build and your videos are fantastic advice for many of them. Keep em coming! K4OGO de AJ4MY 73s

[@mikewilliams5650]

Fun experiment! I’m thinking that one potentially-large factor affecting this is that a total eclipse, while amazing in the places it crosses, is still more of a “dimple” in the ionosphere, as compared to the complete half of the earth that is darkened at night.

[@FromthehamshackwithNJ4Z]

really Cool experiment... nicely done!

[@jstrunck]

I noticed that the noise floor at 28.410 completely disappeared for 30 seconds or so. Then after that, 10m was back to business as usual. John

[@NC1F_Matt]

It would not surprise me at all that the signal would get stronger after your local peak eclipse time. If the signal is a bounce, it's looking for a hole in the D and E layers. You reminded everyone of that as you were talking. That ionospheric bounce is at an angle. I would expect the strongest signal when the peak shadow is past you and approaching NY, not when peak shadow is over you or peaking over them. That put you both roughly in a similar portion of the "grey line" of the event, with the hole being punched through the locally collapsing D and E layers lagging just a little behind the shadow of the moon. You get your best DX not when you or your target are on the grey line, but when both of you are.

[@corsavic1]

keep them experiments going keeping ham alive...this is the way of the ham

[@mikehemeon2473]

You do all of the experiments that interest me. Thanks!

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Thank you for watching!

[@MikeN2MAK]

Very cool experiment!

[@bearbpm]

You barely got “radio geek” out of your mouth and I was hitting the thumbs up button. 👍🏼👍🏼

[@EricMarshallva]

Nice man, good on you for the science. thank you for all the cool videos

[@MrCSRT8]

Thank you for taking the time to prepare and carry out this interesting experiment!

[@tomshannon3921]

As a kid in Northern Ohio at night, I'd listen to WLS and WCFL Chicago, plus KOMO OKC with transistor radio in my bed. Thanks for another great video. Summer of 2015 I volunteered at Camp Hatteras Lighthouse and Kitty Hawk for free rv hookups. Wasn't a ham them,wonder if Lightouse ever activated ?

[@gliderrider]

Hi Walt. I had about 70% or so and I tried doing ft8 at 5 watts on 3.573MHz. I got a guy down the street from me in Brookings, SD. But then I got a guy next state over in Minnesota. And then I got the guy near Dallas, Tx! Antenna was MFJ-1984 EFHW 80-10 meters. Rig was FX-4CR. I tried for awhile. All the action was in a span of about 10 minutes. Ok the local doesn’t count. But it was neat he was trying the same experiment. 73’s de n5vwn

[@BikingHikingRadio]

Cool video and experiment. I was on 80 meters here in EPA where it was supposed to be 92% and 80 meters was very active and I was working stations in the midwest up into Canada on FT8. About 30 minutes later it was back to dead again. I understand 160 meters was the same way.

[@vicmiller7191]

interesting shirt for this Video. 700 WLW could be heard as far as northern FL and Southern part of Duluth MN at night. I was in those areas years ago in the Air Force and loved hearing the Cincinnati Red play ball at night in the summer from that station. Great Video 73 Vic de KE8JWE

[@kendebusk2540]

I went with a ham friend to Indianapolis for totality. We took HF equipment with us, but honestly, it was mostly ignored because we were looking at the sky. Before totality we heard a couple of strong stations, one in S Carolina and one in Italy. But we weren't sitting there long and can't really count it as an experiment. If I go to another one, radio time will be increased, I'll just put down the mike/key and focus on the Sun right before/during/right after totality. In any case, I highly recommend seeing one in person if at all possible. It was awesome, and in the original sense, awful (full of awe) and almost indescribable. 73, Walt, and keep the videos coming! :) de Ken, KA8VLW

[@georgebradshaw474]

Thanks Walt, great experiment and thought process. AC3EA

[@RC-rv1mo]

Awesome!

[@LB7VJ]

Awsome experiment Walt. 20 years until you can do the experiment again if you want to change anything.. 🤣

[@AdamosDad]

I saw a total eclipse of the Sun from pier 7 there in Norfolk in 1970 and just saw one here in my home of Greensburg Indiana. It's a sight you won't forget. I was wondering the same about several bands. I monitored 75 meters, 70cm, 2meters, 220 and the CB band, I heard no difference.

[@ka5dwi]

Nice video.👍👍 I recorded 1300 to 1600 kHz with a cheap SDR (RTL-SDR) into a 3 Foot Box Loop. The Ionosphere didn't part here either, but was fun watching subtle changes from 15 minutes prior to Total and 15 minutes past it. I will do a short report (ha ha) on it in the future. It will be backed with Solar Data from the Austin Texas DIgisonde. TO ALL OF YOU THAT HAVE VIEWED KZbin POSTS OF MIRACULOUS EVENTS OCCURRING ... IT'S FAKE NEWS AND BS.

[@devin323323]

What an elegant experiment well planned with little chance for a redo. You more than earned my sub! 73! KG7FPH

[@IAMThankYou4BeingYou]

Very cool & exciting 5/2/24 10:20am

[@LB0FI]

That is not what I expected. I was thinking that there wouldn’t be any changes of the propagation patterns.

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

That’s why I choose MW over the HF bands as I knew that part of the radio spectrum would be the area most effected by the ripple in the ionosphere

[@g4lmn-ron401]

Interesting. I did wonder if there would be grey line propagation during the eclipse. Maybe the WSPR signals will give us a clue. The problem with these experiments are that eclipse is very rare and only last a few minutes.

[@bobr6555]

Oh well, there's always the next one!! 🙂

[@terryjwood]

I worked FT8 on 40 meters during the eclipse to see what I could hear. For most of the eclipse it behaved as usual from my perspective in Pittsburgh. I could hear stations from Chicago to NJ to Newfoundland and to North Carolina. About 30 minutes after the eclipse ended in Pittsburgh, I suddenly could hear England, Spain and Hungary. I couldn't work them however. 15 minutes later the band went back to usual. I've heard serious DX on 40 meters, but that's usually late at night. So maybe the band did change during the eclipse?

[@bevo65]

Where do your ideas come from? Really creative and fun.

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Thank you, I guess I’m just an overthinker and want answers lol

[@bevo65]

@@COASTALWAVESWIRES Well, keep overthinking!

[@johnnorth9355]

Proving conclusively that there is more than one way of filling a HAM sandwich. 73 M7BLC.

[@ArnieDXer]

I was getting a solid, stable signal from Radio Caroline on 648 AM some 1.5 hours before my sunset, good 3 hours before THEIR sunset, and some 3-4 hours before the eclipse, depending on what part of North America to take as a reference. That's UK to Poland. And it's April, so the higher up in latitude the longer the day is. Coincidence? 😶

[@mobiltec]

Well perhaps next time in 2044 or the big one in 2045 you can try it again. :)

[@EricMauney900]

Thanks! Nice to see AM BCB content. Lots of us got started with BCB DX. Always great content. DE W4ENC

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Thank you so very much! I got my start many years ago with AM BCB DXing myself. 73, Walt

[@brianfields4479]

Might have been qrm from your Karen's hair dryer hi hi.