Solar Eclipse Report

Eastern Australia was under the influence (perhaps "spell"?….) of a solar eclipse this morning. The total eclipse took place across the north eastern coastal part of the country, focusing on the Cairns/Port Douglas region, QLD.

On the beach at Cairns, QLD

Here in Melbourne, we experienced only a partial eclipse (about 50% at its maximum, which is not really enough to be able to tell with the naked eye), beginning at 7.16am EDT (2016 UTC), reaching its maximum eclipse at 8.06am (2106) and ending at 9.01am (2201).


I made a few observations on the lower frequencies, just to see if there was any effect on reception conditions. I was not expecting much difference from African signals. However, I was looking my north for any signal variation between here and Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Solomon Islands. Below are a few notes:

3 mHz: Nothing out of the ordinary for either the 90 or 75 mb. Both bands are pretty much closed at this time of the morning as we head toward summer.

4750 INDONESIA. RRI Makassar at 2048, there for a brief few minutes, then gone at 2055.

4870 INDONESIA. RRI Wamena at 2052. Gone at 2055

4780 DJIBOUTI. First noted at 2005, faded out by 2030. But, it came up again at 2043 to quite a respectable level. Gone by 2055.

5019.9 SOLOMON ISLANDS. (Max eclipse occurred at this location at 2137 - about 60%) SIBS Honiara. Virtually no signal at 2020. Usually gone by this time. Signal began to increase somewhat from 2045. Suddenly gone by 2054. Nothing. THEN…… back up again briefly at 2105 with deep fades, before disappearing at 2110. Quite unusual behaviour!

7325 PAPUA NEW GUINEA. Wantok Radio Light. (Max. eclipse occurred at this location at 2033 - about 85%) Noted here again this morning at 2015 (see yesterday's log). Became progressively stronger past 2040 and holding it's own against China on 7320 (unlike yesterday!). Still quite good at 2053, but gone when I returned at 2057!! China's Serbian service took over the frequency at 2100.

Summary:

There seemed to be a somewhat changeable level of signal strength from a few stations during the eclipse period. I found it interesting that signals were present on all the above frequencies till around 2055 UTC when suddenly everything faded out - as though a big switch was turned off. Interesting to note Djibouti disappear and then return briefly. Also Honiara (which is a little further to our north east and therefore observed the eclipse a little later) also fading out at 2055 along with the other stations, but returning a few minutes later past 2100. And finally, interesting to observe that Wantok Radio was so much better strength than the previous day. Here, I'm assuming the signal path between Port Moresby and Melbourne would be most affected by the reduced intensity of the sun due to the eclipse. Although perhaps one would expect some sort of lag time (latency) between when the sun was occurred and the corresponding response from the ionosphere. However, the physics of all this escape me and are really for much more able minds to contemplate!

Rob VK3BVW
Mount Evelyn, VIC