Cheap hardware alternatives?

[GeezerD]

Hello!
Are there any designs with inexpensive components...

If you want a system blue mini, I describe how I got one this year, complete with pricing, in this thread:

https://forum.blitzortung.org/showthread...4#pid27054 

If you're looking for alternate, cheaper hardware, realize that you'll have a single receiver, and will not be able to leverage an entire network of cooperating stations. 

If you wanted to submit to the blitzortung with your cheaper hardware, you would need to reproduce the data format and interface of the blitzortung network. You'd have to buy a blitzortung receiver to obtain access to the network, as well. Nobody would pay you to do that!

Of course, one of the advantages and basic values of the network is the uniformity of the receivers, and the administrators might not look kindly at your homebrew efforts. 

That said,i t is well known that VLF can be observed using a "sound card" on your computer, up to about 20 KHz. The days of "sound cards" are mostly gone: modern computers use integrated audio, but I would be surprised if you not use your microphone jack and an antenna and some kind of <hand-waving> interface to observe lightning emissions in the VLF Band.