WWVB experiment for 2017 total solar eclipse over US

[Bill]

Folks, in my talk at AMRAD on solar eclipse and propagation, I mentioned trying to redo the experiment of Eccles done in 1912 in the UK.

Since that time I have discussed it with about a dozen faculty members of various universities. All except one thought it was a good idea and should be explored further. Some have even offered support. 

One prof at MIT offered to include building a receiver, antenna and software as one of his student projects for next school year so we could collect data across the U.S. day and night, so we could have some idea of what to expect during the eclipse. 

The is a catch.  He needs a circuit design by the end of May so that his summer team can prepare instructional material around it. Any volunteers?

Another issue that came up multiple times is choice of antenna.  My original idea was a shielded loop.  Some of the profs were afraid that high school students may place the null in the direction of the signal and then be disappointed and it would be better to have a design more foolproof. AMRAD active whip? But that raises the cost. Any thoughts?

Whatever we do, some will receive a combination of skywave and ground wave.  How should we handle that case. 

I have attached the URL of a paper that did a similar study using the Navy's VLF transmitters. In the paper, both amplitude and phase were measured. I was thinking of only doing amplitude so that a good phrase reference would not be needed. 

I am open to any thoughts and comments. 

Thank you,
Bill NQ6Z
http://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/jres/69D/jresv69Dn7p947_A1b.pdf


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