On Monday, April 8, 2024, two members of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team and their families met in Dayton, Ohio to experience the 2024 total solar eclipse.

Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, and Thomas Witherspoon, K4SWL, drove from their respective homes to Dayton, Ohio with their families to position themselves within the "band of totality" for the April 8, 2024 total eclipse of the sun. Eric was accompanied by his wife Vickie, KC8MAJ, and their two small dogs, Theo and Ginny. Thomas was accompanied by his wife Heather, K4MOI, and daughters Neva, K4TLI, and Sylvie, K4GRL.

Each family arrived in the Dayton area separately on Sunday, April 7, the McFaddens having a reservation at the Hope Hotel and Richard C. Holbrooke Conference Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base's Gate 12A, and the Witherspoons having reservations at a nearby Hilton property.

On Sunday afternoon, the McFaddens enjoyed an 85th-anniversary screening of Gone with the Wind on the big screen and the Witherspoons visited the National Museum of the United States Air Force and the downtown Visitor Center of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historic Park. While his wife and daughters toured the Visitor Center, Thomas attempted a POTA activation of Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historic Park (US-0732) but was stymied by an extremely high RF noise level at the site and succeeded in making only a single QSO.

On Sunday evening Thomas, Eric, and Theo-dog visited the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historic Park's Huffman Prairie Flying Field Interpretive Center so that Thomas could complete his activation and Eric could perform his second POTA activation of the unit. For his activation, Thomas used his Elecraft KH1 with the whip antenna. For his activation, Eric used his Elecraft KX2, a Tufteln 35' EFRW antenna, and a Goture Red Fox Super Hard 720 carbon-fiber mast. (Read about Eric's activation here.)

On Monday morning Thomas, Neva, Eric, and Vickie entered Wright-Patterson AFB at Gate 12A to show Neva the base; to visit the BX, Commissary, and Clothing Sales; and to scope out possible locations at which to view the total solar eclipse that was, at this point, only a few hours away. The group decided that the shore of Bass Lake, adjacent to the base campground, would be ideal for viewing the eclipse, but they kept in the the large grassy area behind the Hope Hotel as an emergency back-up.

About two hours prior to the start of the eclipse, with the idea of dropping Vickie off at Bass Lake, Eric and Vickie tried to enter Wright-Patt at Gate 12A only to have the guard confiscate Eric's retiree ID. It turns out that even through the ID showed an expiration date of "INDEF", on his 60th birthday in 2023 Eric's retirement status had changed from from "Ready Reserve" to "Retiree" and his ID was simultaneously marked as invalid in the database. (The reason he had been able to enter the base Monday morning was that the guard at that time hadn't scanned Eric's ID.) Thus, with Eric unable to escort his wife and friends onto the base, the hopes of viewing the eclipse at Bass Lake were dashed.

Returning to the Hope Hotel, Eric notified Thomas of the change of plans and began setting up chairs and photography gear on the grassy area behind the Hope Hotel. The Witherspoons arrived a few minutes later and set up their own gear.

The partial eclipse phase of the eclipse began with First Contact at 1:53pm, with totality beginning with Second Contact at 3:09:30pm and ending with Third Contact at 3:12:12pm. The McFaddens and Witherspoons were equipped with the proper protective eclipse glasses, binocular filters, and camera filters to safely view and photograph the eclipse during its entirety.

During the initial partial eclipse, both Eric and Thomas did some POTA hunting using their Elecraft KH1 transceivers and whip antennas. This was Eric's very first attempt to make QSOs with his KH1 and he succeeded in making a QSO on 20m with KG5CC. Thomas succeeded in making several QSOs during the same period. While this was happening during the initial partial eclipse, three small jet aircraft took off from the nearby Wright-Patt runway; Eric thinks these were T-38s launched to record the eclipse from the air.

Thomas hunts POTA.


Neva.


Theo.


Thomas and Heather.



Contrails from the jets during the partial eclipse.


Vickie and Eric; photo by Heather Pittillo.


Thomas and Sylvie; photo by Heather Pittillo.

Note: According to Tamitha Skov, as presented in her video published on April 14, the bright structure within the corona near the sun's (apparent) south pole in the two photos of totality is a prominence (info). What isn't apparent in Eric's photo is that a yet-to-be-launched solar storm is magnetically tethered to the top of this prominence.

Following totality, during the second partial eclipse phase that began with Third Contact, Thomas and Eric both again tried POTA hunting with their KH1 transceivers. Eric was very pleased to complete a QSO on 40m using his KH1, the stock whip, and the Elecraft AXE1 40m coil, with Brian Manley, K3ES, who was performing an audacious ten-band HF/MF-only activation of Pennsylvania State Game Land 086 (US-8785), using the period of totality to attempt QSOs on 160m, normally a night-time band. Read Brian's report of his activation here.

The McFaddens and the Witherspoons were very pleased that clouds didn't mar the experiences they had while standing in the shadow of the moon. Eric found that the Android smartphone app "Solar Eclipse Timer" by Foxwood Astronomy dramatically increased his enjoyment of the eclipse. The app did an excellent job of identifying when and where to look for eclipse phenomena and made it clear when it was safe to remove the solar filters from eyes and lenses. Although he wasn't quick enough to capture either "diamond ring" on camera, the app did enable Eric see the "diamond rings" at Second Contact and Third Contact.

(return)

---