Station 1745 is online

[cbhiii]

There letters L, A, and P show up next to the two Channel numbers. That seems to correlate to strikes in the screen

This information on "L A P" was passed on to me yesterday from another Forum via 'miraculon' via Cutty (Mike):

L = Signal is below the threshold
P = Signal is below threshold * adjustable_percentage
S = Spike detected
M = Amplitude too high (currently not enabled)
A = Automatic filter by amplitude
These indicate the status on that channel for that signal in controller firmware filters, (NOT the optional LP filters for BLUE).  

If the time above the graph is red, than NONE of the channels were sent.

If a channel is marked red, then it might not be used for sending:  

If filters flags like "L" or "A" are present on all channels, no signal will be sent ("AND" condition).

Others, like "S" need only one filtered channel, and the whole signal won't be sent.
40 is the fixed gain of the amplifier channel, which is hardware, firmware established and not adjustable.

I've also found that the WXForums Blitzortung section to be useful for questions too. Give it a try if you're interested here.

[Mike6158]

I've been on that site for about 24 hours. I saw your post just now. I think a lot of my signals don't get sent. Maybe that's normal. I have a lot of activity all around me right now, ranging from 50 - 200 miles. I have also have Auto Adapt to Noise and Auto Amplitude Filter checked.

I see lots of L and A right now, also red channels

[cbhiii]

I've been on that site for about 24 hours. I saw your post just now. I think a lot of my signals don't get sent. Maybe that's normal. I have a lot of activity all around me right now, ranging from 50 - 200 miles. I have also have Auto Adapt to Noise and Auto Amplitude Filter checked.

I see lots of L and A right now, also red channels

Yes, when the activity is close the noise floor goes up. I haven't experienced that yet first hand in Michigan. Auto adapt to noise might be good in that situation. I'll try that when the time comes for me. I have yet to find a place for my E-field antenna as well and play with how that works too. I'm guessing that when the H-field noise goes up, that the E-field antenna will be more useful since it's for closer signals, but I could be wrong.

[tbaggett]

Hello Mike,

Glad to see a station between Austin and Houston as it will help cover the metro areas. I'm just up Hwy 71 in Austin where I've been testing out the three Oakhill stations for a few weeks.

Automatic mode doesn't seem to be much use. It seems to place receivers into interference mode too often which tends to cause lots of signals not to be sent. I've been keeping mine in manual mode where a gain of 8x5 seems to work well when I look at the statistics from the server online.

Note that when storms are within a hundred miles or so of your receiver then you will experience a lot of atmospheric interference. Don't expect your receiver to be used in locating strikes as this frontal system passes through today. You need other stations outside the hundred mile area around the storms to do the locating instead. Just let it ride it out; there is no need locating the stroke that hit the tree in the front yard - you will know! I noticed my receivers going into interference mode with their fixed gains when the lightning approached Fredericksburg both times this week.

Using a shielded ethernet cable from the H-preamp to the controller made significant improvement over my noise floor. It shouldn't matter if you use CAT-5 or CAT-6 cable; their impedance does not matter given our frequency range of interest. 

I've since moved two receivers out to a shed away from houses and buildings where it is very quiet. Even with their fixed gain, I was receiving strikes ~2000 miles away (although only locating out to >1000 miles - but that is okay as there are better stations for those far-away strikes). The ferrite antennas are just laying on the bench with the pre-amp between them and 14 feet of shielded ethernet cable to the controllers. One system is inside the house still and seems to be performing just as well as the other two. Adding the shielded cable and moving the ferrite antennas away from the A/C power mains and breaker panel is all that I needed.

Regards,
Tim (AA5DF)

[Mike6158]

Just let it ride it out; there is no need locating the stroke that hit the tree in the front yard - you will know!

:-) True!! lol

Thanks for the info Tim. It helps me understand what to expect from my system. My antenna install sounds like yours except I used some candles (non-conductive and handy) to elevate it off the top of the furniture it's sitting on.

I've been trying to get a system from very early on. I was pretty happy when I received the email that I was inline to be able to order. In hindsight I wish I had bought one more. I'd love to put one out in the Big Bend area.

Should I be using H and E field? I am not using the E-field amp at the moment

Shielded ethernet cable sounds like a good idea. I've got an old barn about 100m from my house. It doesn't have power but I was thinking about installing a small solar system there and running my lightning detector and a couple of WSPR beacons (QRP Labs) on it. No AC will make for a much quieter environment.