(2026-08-30, 19:16)Alidigitaly Wrote: Thanks, Richo.
I appreciate the honest answer.
A little background on how I ended up here.
I bought the station assuming that an antenna would be included. That was my own mistake. I simply did not pay enough attention when ordering.
My local electronics shop did not have any suitable ferrite-rod antennas, and I wanted to get the station working this weekend.
So I decided to build something myself.
At first I planned to make the coax version.
Then I found the ordinary wire-loop version, which looked even easier for a first attempt.
That is how I ended up building the wooden “anti-tank cross”.
I really am a complete beginner when it comes to antennas.
The available documentation had me confused fairly quickly, so I went to YouTube.
Surely someone must have made a complete Blitzortung antenna tutorial?
Apparently not.
There is plenty of general antenna theory and highly technical material, but I could not find anything showing the complete process specifically for Blitzortung.
I then searched through the forum. There are many discussions and photographs of finished antennas, but very little that simply says: buy this, use this amount of wire, build the frame like this, connect these wires here and use these settings.
A photograph of a finished antenna may be enough when you already know what you are looking at. For a beginner, it still leaves many questions unanswered.
With help from ChatGPT, the official documentation and fragments from old forum posts, I eventually got my antenna working.
I understand your point that there is no perfect antenna.
I am not trying to write a guide claiming that one design is the only correct solution.
Different locations and different sources of interference will always require some experimentation.
But I do think it is possible to give beginners a few complete working examples.
The important thing is to clearly separate what is required from what is merely a suggestion.
Maxi Guide Draft
(Made with chatgpt)
It covers my wire-loop antenna, the coax version, ready-made ferrite antennas, classic and compact loops, Möbius and transformer designs, and the E-field probe. It also includes estimated costs, placement, testing and troubleshooting.
Where the available information is incomplete, I have said so instead of pretending there is one exact recipe.
It is still very much a draft and I fully expect corrections. Feedback from experienced participants is therefore welcome.
If it eventually helps the next beginner get a station running without first having to become an antenna expert, I think it will have been worth the effort.
Thanks again for the honest response and the encouragement.
/Alex
Station 3304
Hi Alex,
I've skimmed a bit, and have some comments.
When you've gotten a little further, I'd like to read through it, but I don't have time right now.
I'm currently working on my "state of the art" weather station. I need to have the equipment that will be installed at a height of 10m ready before winter. I haven't made it easy for myself, and that's why it's taking up a lot of my time. I need to have a scaffolding set up, and that's why I need to be absolutely sure that it works as it should, as it's probably the last time I'll climb up there, I'm 78 and I get dizzy easily.
"The exact compass orientation is not critical."
--- Right, it doesn't matter, as it's not a direction finding system.(There are situations where it may be appropriate to rotate it so that one of the antennas has zero signal to a "noise transmitter")
"It The important relationship is the approximately 90-degree angle between the two loop planes."
--- It's not important at all! But it looks nicer! - Even if the angle is 45°, the signal is still about 71% (COS to the angle)
MOBIÜS: Mobius antennas are a curiosity - a way to exploit the stiffness of coax - It is not shielded.
IMPORTANT; Remember to mention it...The antennas must NOT be tuned, i.e. no capacitor in parallel with the input.
Ferrite antennas are close to resonance in the frequency range we use, and therefore Q* is reduced with a resistor (solder point)
The same applies to antennas with many turns, or with a transformer.
Q*- Q of an antenna is a measure of the bandwidth of an antenna relative to the center frequency of the bandwidth.
For your information: If we look at the frequency content (spectrum) of a strike, after some 1000 km it will have the highest content around 10-11kHz. If you tune an antenna to 10.5kHz you will receive signals that are delayed by the physical conditions in the atmosphere, and therefore are time-delayed - completely useless for OUR purposes, but interesting in systems that try to cover the whole earth. (Maybe another day, but I can reveal that receivers are very far from habitations)
/Richo