Solar Eclipse QSO Party 2017

SEQP Logo

On August 21, 2017, a total solar eclipse caused the shadow of the moon to traverse the U.S. from Oregon to South Carolina in just over 90 minutes, causing dramatic changes in both the ionosphere and HF propagation. The Solar Eclipse QSO Party (SEQP) was a HamSCI-ARRL sponsored operating event to generate data to study ionospheric changes during the eclipse. Not a ham radio operator yet? Learn more about it from the American Radio Relay League.

 

SEQP Rules

Science Results

  • Initial SEQP Science Results using RBN data have been published by Frissell et al. (2018) in Geophysical Research Letters. The figures below are excerpts from the paper, showing RBN spot coverage during the SEQP and propapagtion effects relative to maximum eclipse time on the 1.8, 3.5, 7, and 14 MHz bands.

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SEQP Data and Software

Contest Results

The results are in! Congratulations to the top single operators, multi-operators, and RBN recievers. The SEQP was scored by W2NAF and K2AEM, with final write-up by N0AX. Thank you to all who participated!

Full results PDF: Solar Eclipse QSO Party - Full Results - Version 1.1.pdf

SEQP Winners
  Single Op Total Score Multi-Op Total Score
1 AA3B
Bud Trench
Boyertown, PA
403,975 W0ECC
Elayer Contest Club
St. Charles, MO
(N0AX, N5OT, & KD0YJN)
191,625
2 K4BAI
John Laney, III
Columbus, GA
224,502 W0D
DeSoto, MO
(WB0SND & WB0TUA)
112,553
3 W1SJ
Mitchell Stern
Essex Junction, VT
180,882 W5GAD
Jefferson Amateur Radio Club
Metairie, LA
(N5LIT, KG5GJT, N5HZ, & NO5W)
93,651
Top RBN Receivers - 10,000+ Spots During SEQP
RBN Call # Spots Operator QTH
WE9V 54,874 Chad Kurszewski Bristol, WI
AA4VV 40,574 Thomas Berry

Lexington, NC

KU7T 31,762 Andreas Hofmann North Bend, WA
N4ZR-3 28,692 Pete Smith Phoenix, MD
NC7J 28,564 Utah Contest Club Layton, UT
W3OA 28,057 Dick Williams Mooresville, NC
N2GZ 18,623 Greg Zenger North Stonington, CT
N0TA 14,751 John Reilly Louisville, CO

 

 

2017 Hamvention SEQP Presentation

 

The SEQP was coordinated by Nathaniel Frissell, W2NAF, at the New Jersey Institute for Technology Center for Solar Terrestrial Research (NJIT-CSTR) with support from the National Science Foundation grant AGS-1552188/479505-19C75 and the NJIT-CSTR. Thanks to the many collaborators, including those at Virginia Tech, Montclair State University, the MIT Haystack Observatory, the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Special thanks to the American Radio Relay League for publicizing the SEQP and the Reverse Beacon Network and PSKReporter for extra support in data collection.
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