NorthPine: Upper Midwest Broadcasting

Listen for Distant AM Reception During Eclipse, Even If It’s Cloudy

Jon Ellis
 Jon Ellis
The Moon is seen passing in front of the Sun during a solar eclipse from Ross Lake, Northern Cascades National Park, Washington on Monday, Aug. 21, 2017.

Even if it’s cloudy on Monday, April 8, people will have a chance to “hear” the solar eclipse on AM radio.

Though the Upper Midwest is outside of the path of totality, a partial eclipse will last for more than two hours. According to NASA, it will begin shortly before 1 p.m. Central time, peak just after 2 p.m., and end after 3 p.m.

One lesser-known fact about eclipses is that the lack of sunshine leads to distant AM radio reception due to skywave propagation (which also happens every night, but few seem to know about that phenomenon these days).

While many AM stations have to reduce power or switch to more directional antenna patterns at night, there is no such requirement during an eclipse — creating the possibility for interesting reception.

Your reporter was in Grand Marais, Minn., during the 2017 eclipse, which had a path of totality through Nebraska and Wyoming. From Grand Marais, I heard several stations from Nebraska and Colorado with weak signals during the eclipse. It sounded similar to “critical hours” reception (the normal fading in and out of skywave signals that occurs in the hours before sunset and after sunrise).

With skywave reception, any station in or near the path of totality could receive some skywave enhancement during the eclipse. Listen for distant signals on any AM frequency that doesn’t have normal daytime reception in your area (if you’re not familiar with what’s “normal” for your location, check Radio-Locator to see what stations you should normally receive).

There are several large 50,000-Watt stations in or near the path of the eclipse that can already be heard on a nightly basis in the Upper Midwest, and are likely to be heard during the eclipse as well. They include:

For DX’ers (people who listen for distant radio signals), the bigger catch will be stations that can’t normally be heard here because they are off the air or at greatly reduced power at night. Here is a look at some larger signals that seem to have potential to be new loggings for Upper Midwest DX’ers:

However, a station doesn’t have to be in the direct path of totality to receive skywave enhancement, as evidenced by my reception of Colorado stations in Minnesota during the 2017 eclipse that didn’t directly pass over either state. Wikipedia has a full list of AM stations which operate at 50kW during the day.

According to NASA, these are the approximate times the path of totality of this year’s eclipse will reach cities and states around these times (all listed in Central time):

Keep in mind that skywave enhancement will begin well before the time of totality as the sky gets darker. The totality times listed above are essentially the peak times for possible reception.

Several broadcast TV networks will pre-empt regular daytime programming for live coverage beginning at 1 p.m. Central time, including ABC, CBS, NBC, Telemundo, and Gray TV’s Local News Live. In Canada, CBC’s main network will begin coverage at 1 p.m. Eastern.

Despite being a visual phenomenon, some radio stations are also providing a soundtrack to the eclipse. Live coverage from “Here & Now” will air on some NPR stations.

Cumulus Classic Hits outlet WVBO/103.9 (Winneconne-Oshkosh-Appleton) will feature a playlist of songs about the sun, moon, and space.

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