Five days ago (July 25th), there was an interesting thing visible in the blitzortung strokes: quite a number of strokes were detected in what appears to be the outer bands of hurricane Hilary that was at that time close to Baja California. In the image below you can see a half circle of strokes at that position. Normally, hurricanes are not strong sources of lightning except when they are in a strengthening phase, which may have been the case for this hurricane. Since the hurricane seasons for the Atlantik is just starting, we may be able to observe similar behaviour in other cyclones as well.

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For the system blue H-field pre-amplifier PCB - a few questions:


1.  Do the ferrites connect between just the a and b ports with the ground port left unconnected unless additional shielding is needed?

2.  Is there any polarity to the ferrites - I see references to one enameled wire with a knot being + or is this for the old system only.

3.  For ferrite antennas do the PCB jumpers need to be soldered (closed).


Thanks in advance!

I just assembled my new system blue and cannot access the web interface.

I am able to ping the system and was able to see the web interface long enough to read my station ID, however I keep getting the message "The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading."

I believe the system is working correctly to the network because I can see my station statistics online and my DHCP address is coming up in my router.

Need help please...

In the list of detected strokes, I get a number of entries where the signal and the spectrum is missing. Instead there is a text saying: "Signal not found! Tolerance of 15674 microseconds bigger than allowed 8000 microsecs.". What does this mean? Is the assingment of the signal from my station false? Since this list is my main tool to check that the station doesnt send garbage signals, this missing signal info is really anoying. Anybody has got a clue?

Got my case yesterday (very nice) and soldered in the LEDs. Followed the Instructions (as they were on July 25) and upgraded the firmware via DfuSe. It displayed " target 00: Upgrade successful !"  The Instructions say that I should now be able to access web interface - - - - - and I say how do I do that?

I powered the board by a 2A USB supply, connected the Ethernet port to my WIFI modem (light flashing at board connector), connected GPS antenna, no lightning antenna yet. After reset and a few flashes and beeps, the Power, Mode, and Network lights are ON; the GPS light flashes; the Signal light flashed twice (I assume due to stray RF pickup).

I was amazed to see a station icon appear on the map near my town. So I think things are working, - - - - but please help me find my web interface?

Peter

Where can I found the schematic and partlist of the blue system ?

Hey, so I came upon http://www.lightningmaps.org while browsing reddit today and I'm interested in setting up a station in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

I just moved to a new apartment (still moving in) that would make an excellent location (west Winnipeg, west facing balacony) for a station. https://www.instagram.com/p/BWP6zkXF4KC/...by=ristake
I'm on the top floor and the building is wood, new construction. The only nearby metal would be the balcony railing which would be the ideal mounting point for it due to the small space. 

This location often sees the heaviest rain in the city. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/w...-1.1329480
If I remember correctly, that neighbourhood got hit with 80mm of rain in an hour or two. Sadly I was still living with my parents in the south-east. I had set up in the garage with some chairs and a beer I was anticipating a good storm to watch and got a light drizzle! 

I wasn't able to find a tutorial laying out what is required to volunteer to operate a station so I have few questions before I pull the trigger.

Questions:

1. Time commitment: set up and continued operation
2. Initial and upkeep costs for a station 
3. Other equipment required?  


I haven't done any soldering or programming since high school so it's been nearly a decade however I am fascinated by thunderstorms and severe weather in general and learning new things is always fun. If this hobby pans out I'd eventually want to set up an HD camera to record/stream thunderstorms rolling in

Kevin

Hi Members,

I'm new and want to find out if there is any experience with export regulations. I'm thinking about building up a system and shipping it afterwards to friends in India that are doing hard to assemble a divice but would be able to operate it. Is it possible to export a device e.g. to india easily? Are the parts or the complete product "safe" or will it be treated as a critical device and blocked at the customs?

Any info is appreciated.

Michael

Hi All,

New Station installation completed a few hours ago & looking forward to feedback.

E-Field went in yesterday, about 150mm from memory.

First attempt at making a H-Field was completed a couple of hours ago.

To get started I make a 4 turn Moebius Loop with RG6 Coax.
It's just hanging in the outdoor area ATM & plan to re-site everything later in the week.
Right now the GPS is  shaded by a double iron roof.

Don't mind the idea of building another, better H-Field, but at least it's going now.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.


Thanks

Phil.

             

We are advised not to make our own ferrite antennas. How hard can it be? I ordered two of 20 cm manganese zinc ferrite rods from China at
$7 each. I gather that we should wind the core with one diameter spacing along the whole length for minimum inductance and maximum Q. The only missing information is wire gauge. Anyone have advise?

Peter from High River, Alberta, Canada