{"id":12200,"date":"2015-03-23T14:24:24","date_gmt":"2015-03-23T14:24:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/?p=12200"},"modified":"2015-03-23T14:24:53","modified_gmt":"2015-03-23T14:24:53","slug":"solar-eclipse-experiments-great-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/blog\/news\/gb2rs\/headlines\/2015\/03\/23\/solar-eclipse-experiments-great-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Eclipse experiments a great success"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Solar

The partial eclipse of the sun as witnessed from RSGB HQ on Friday, 20 March 2015.<\/p><\/div>\n

The RSGB’s solar eclipse radio experiments on Friday, 20 March were deemed a great success.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many listeners in the UK using medium wave radios reported hearing a big increase in signal strengths from distant stations, such as BBC Radio Scotland on 810kHz, around 09.30\u2014the time of maximum eclipse.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, licensed radio amateurs took part in a wide range of experiments on many bands, including a QSO party on 160, 80m and 40m.<\/p>\n

The use of the reverse beacon network (RBN) and Morse code meant that the received signal to noise ratios of those taking part could be automatically logged.<\/p>\n

Other stations, including some in Iceland and the Faroe Islands, used WSPR\u2014the Weak Signal Propagation Reporter\u2014to test propagation on paths around Europe.<\/p>\n

All this data is now available for RSGB members to download and analyse themselves on the RSGB’s Radio Propagation Questions forum<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The early indications are that propagation around the UK on the lower frequencies improved as predicted as the D region of the ionosphere diminished during the eclipse.<\/p>\n

This meant that skywave signals were not attenuated as much and were able to be returned from the higher layers, just as they are at night.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, propagation around the UK on the higher bands, including 5 and 7MHz, became noticeably worse as the F region declined and the critical frequency reduced.<\/p>\n

Signals going straight up were unable to be returned back to Earth due to lower ionisation levels in the E and F regions.<\/p>\n

Conditions returned to normal as the eclipse ended.<\/p>\n

A lot of analysis can now be done to look at specific paths and times using the data that were collected and Propagation Studies Committee<\/a> Chair, Steve Nichols G0KYA, would like to thank everyone who took part in the experiments.<\/p>\n

A full report will appear in a future edition of RadCom<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The RSGB’s solar eclipse radio experiments on Friday, 20 March were deemed a great success. Many listeners in the UK using medium wave radios reported hearing a big increase in signal strengths from distant stations, such as BBC Radio Scotland on 810kHz, around 09.30\u2014the time of maximum eclipse. Meanwhile, licensed radio amateurs took part in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[274,47,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-front-page-news","category-headlines","category-rsgb-notices"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12200\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}