The day before the eclipse, Tuesday 10th August

Why the day before?

It is essential to have at least one non-eclipse day reference in order to see what difference the eclipse made. It is also helpful to have a dry run the day before.
This must be for the same time of day, the same broadcast over the same frequencies and the same link  as you intend to do on eclipse day.

Having made prior arrangements with your contact about broadcasting times, you'll want to be ready to start by 8:30 or 9:00 am (British Summer Time, BST).
Remember Continential Countries local time will  be 1 hour ahead.
 

8:30 am to 13:00

On the eclipse day, about 40-30 minutes before of the moment of totality  for the radio signal, things will hopefully change much more rapidly. At this time you may want to make observations more often.

Each time you make an observation:

• broadcast your call sign (have a chat!)
• then a carrier or CW tone for about 15-20 seconds,
• then pause for a 15-20 seconds and do not transmit anything.

• note down, the time and the call sign (if you are working with more than one person),
• then note down the signal strength  on your calibrated S-meter, during the 15-20 second continuous tone.
• then note down the signal strength during the pause in transmission after the tone., i.e. the background noise level.

If at anytime your reception was affected by interference from another station, please note it down when it occurred.
If you cannot give your signal strength readings in dB (dB above noise) then use whatever units are on your S-meter is fine.

This experiment is ideal for those with computer control of their rigs. But can equally well be done by hand.

If things go wrong  you can always do this reference day again , but the day after the eclipse.

What not to do