My faithful 13 old General and I manned a station during today's eclipse at the Kopernik Observatory & Science Center in Vestal, NY. One of the clubs I belong to have their club shack at the observatory.
We had our table set-up by 1000 hrs and made our first contact on 20 meters. All the bands were awful. Noisy does not describe it.
Eventually we moved to 40 meters where we made the rest of our contacts - All nine of them.
It was like pulling hens teeth getting a contact with anybody. Many times we had someone coming in 5/9, and they would acknowledge our call but seconds later POOF! We would loose the connection.
The antenna we used was not optimal either. It was the clubs G5RV dipole and it was only strung about 10-20 feet above the ground. It ran north to south. In retrospect if we used my shack and my G5RV antenna which is up at 70 feet, I know we would of had many more contacts. With that written we were mainly there to promote the club and help out our landlord.
There were over 1,000 eclipse visitors at the observatory. They gave out 1,000 pairs of glasses within one and a half hours of opening at 1130 hrs. The glasses cost was a $5- donation to the observatory.
We answered a lot of questions about ham radio and may have perked the interest of a half a dozen eclipse gazers.
Anyway my radio partner in crime and I had a good time. He may have picked up a potential girlfriend too.
She kept coming back asking him questions.
Weather was perfect. 78 degrees, sunny with a slight breeze. Enough of a breeze to keep away the bugs. It did rain for ~3 minutes. We were protected under an array of solar panels but I still threw my shirt over the equipment which worked fine for any stray rain drops.
I didn't take one picture so I have none to share. BUT many friends did so if they share any I will post here.
73...
