Blitzortung.org Forum

Hello, my company (Jacobs) is a contractor for NASA and we're looking to build a station as a small side project.  Is there anyone on the forum from near our area that we can chat with to discuss their experiences so far?

(2016-03-11, 14:13)impala454 Wrote: [ -> ]Hello, my company (Jacobs) is a contractor for NASA and we're looking to build a station as a small side project.  Is there anyone on the forum from near our area that we can chat with to discuss their experiences so far?

Hi Chuck,

I am in Benton, AR and have Station 1387. It is a RED system. I have been with Blitzortung from August 2013. I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have. If there is a question I do not know the answer to, there are others here who most likely can.

John Sacrey

(2016-03-11, 15:24)John.Sacrey Wrote: [ -> ]

(2016-03-11, 14:13)impala454 Wrote: [ -> ]Hello, my company (Jacobs) is a contractor for NASA and we're looking to build a station as a small side project.  Is there anyone on the forum from near our area that we can chat with to discuss their experiences so far?

Hi Chuck,

I am in Benton, AR and have Station 1387. It is a RED system. I have been with Blitzortung from August 2013. I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have. If there is a question I do not know the answer to, there are others here who most likely can.

John Sacrey

You're in great hands, with John!   I sent you an email also...

Cheers!
Mike

Great, thanks for the email.  I'll check out that other forum as well (would it be better to post questions there or here?).

I guess our main questions would be:

1.  Which system do we get (I read about red & blue, but seems blue is delayed?)?  We have Electrical, Mechanical, and Software engineers so I don't think we'll have any problem building it.
2.  Is it better to buy or build your own antenna?
3.  Would it be ok for the setup to go on the top of a 6 story building?
4.  Would it be beneficial to the network for our station to be added?  It would be approximately at: 29.5693918,-95.1067316 .  I only see three others in the immediate Houston area so it seems like we don't have many?
5.  I noticed while watching the lightning map that during storms in our area, it didn't seem like the closest stations were used in the calculations, is that normal?
6.  Do you get access to the other stations data (i.e. so we can analyze the data and/or make our own maps in house as well)?

I'm sure I can come up with plenty more questions but for now we're just trying to write up a small proposal for the project.  Thanks!

Hi Chuck,

1. There are no more spare PCBs left for system red, AFAIK. There are some pre-production samples for system blue being built at the moment for testing, AFAIK. It's worth to wait a few weeks, please be patient.
2. Many participants in the US were successful with building their own antennas and have good results.
3. Yes.
4. There are 3 stations in the Houston area, but the station density is low in general in the US. I think it would be beneficial for the US and the Gulf of Mexico.
5. Yes. On nearby storms there are much pre-discharges detected which would overload the server.
6. You will get access to the raw data calculated by the server. But they are not for commercial use. You can make your own maps, but you must not sell them.

Regards, Robo

I'm in the process of getting my station (Blue) tuned up. Lots to learn...

(2016-03-11, 14:13)impala454 Wrote: [ -> ]Hello, my company (Jacobs) is a contractor for NASA and we're looking to build a station as a small side project.  Is there anyone on the forum from near our area that we can chat with to discuss their experiences so far?

I'm in Austin. There are two other operators in Houston.