An idea for a poor mans lightning detector.... :) (number 2!

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Shepherds Valley WX
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An idea for a poor mans lightning detector.... :) (number 2!

Unread post by Shepherds Valley WX »

Gidday guys....

Have been thinking about this all day and initial experimaents are quite promising...however, I am interested to hear your opinions...

I have a old multiband reciever 30khz - 30Mhz which is capable of recieving "sferics" from local TStorms. What i have done is taken a line out from the reciever to my PC's sound card and utilised my soundblaster software to view the incoming signal. Interestingly, it will pick up the 9000V DC pulse of my farms electric fence and show a "regular "spike" on the audio signal level display in time with the fence pulse.... do you guys reckon it could show a sferic in the same way? And if so, I am guessing it is possible to record the line signal over a specific event, and thus have a record of all sferic activity during the TS event. Obviously I need to have my electric fence turned off to ensure minimal interference and flase readings.

I am not sure if it will work or if it means anything, but would be interested in what you guys think? :)
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ricky
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Unread post by ricky »

Yes this would be a very useful detector for especially for very long range sferics i reckon.. :) and the country location would be good for it even with the elctric fence!

If you had some software like WD or a general graphing app that can plot long term analog data then a simple detector and integrator on the audio output would give a graph of general activity.. without this you would probably have to develop something to use the soundcard as an input, to avoid having to store large ammounts of audio sample data..
Shepherds Valley WX
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Unread post by Shepherds Valley WX »

Gidday ricky,

I was hoping you would reply!

I have downloaded some free oscilloscope software from the net which works as a analog data recorder and that works adequately... now, if Brian is watching, I wonder what the possibility would be of building some small scope code into the WD software package and enabling a graph/logging window for the soundcard output?

Hard to believe this came to me while felling some poplars this afternoon! lol;)

Look forward to your response.. ;)
Four Oaks Farm - West Taratahi AWS
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Davis VP2+ with Solar, UV and 24hr FARS and complete 1-Wire WX System
http://www.cartertonweather.org.nz
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Michael
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Re: An idea for a poor mans lightning detector.... :) (numbe

Unread post by Michael »

Keep your wireless away from the P.C it ill pick up lots of hetrodynes but above 7MHz its not so bad.ie you put yor AM radio near the TV for example on 1251 or 1080 or 1593 you will gt a varying tone or 531just a rumble.I often use tha to differentiate the US signals if they present from the 9kHz local ones :roll:
Shepherds Valley WX wrote:Gidday guys....

Have been thinking about this all day and initial experimaents are quite promising...however, I am interested to hear your opinions...

I have a old multiband reciever 30khz - 30Mhz which is capable of recieving "sferics" from local TStorms. What i have done is taken a line out from the reciever to my PC's sound card and utilised my soundblaster software to view the incoming signal. Interestingly, it will pick up the 9000V DC pulse of my farms electric fence and show a "regular "spike" on the audio signal level display in time with the fence pulse.... do you guys reckon it could show a sferic in the same way? And if so, I am guessing it is possible to record the line signal over a specific event, and thus have a record of all sferic activity during the TS event. Obviously I need to have my electric fence turned off to ensure minimal interference and flase readings.

I am not sure if it will work or if it means anything, but would be interested in what you guys think? :)
Shepherds Valley WX
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Unread post by Shepherds Valley WX »

Gidday Michael, interesting points you raise. What is the ideal freq for picking up local sferics? I am using my Yaesu FRG-7 Comms reciever which is connected to an external antenna and is isolated from my PC/TV systems. The reciever then feeds into the PC soundcard and the line in is monitored by my scope software.

I am thinking of making a better antenna to pick up "sferics" rather than my single line dipole.that was made for DXing... any ideas lads? so far I am quite pleased with how the experiment is going, however ricky is right, we need to work out a way to record the data as the file quickly becomes huge... some sort of realtime graph could be useful.... :shock:
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Unread post by Michael »

The FRG7 was made in 1973 and are good recievers,The broadcast band suffices bu 2-3Mhz works equally well and on Longwave you get really "deep" clicks from the storms too but high up yo get little unless its very local and you can see the lightning.It effects FM then too.You need a quite location away from power etc with long wires 8)
Shepherds Valley WX wrote:Gidday Michael, interesting points you raise. What is the ideal freq for picking up local sferics? I am using my Yaesu FRG-7 Comms reciever which is connected to an external antenna and is isolated from my PC/TV systems. The reciever then feeds into the PC soundcard and the line in is monitored by my scope software.

I am thinking of making a better antenna to pick up "sferics" rather than my single line dipole.that was made for DXing... any ideas lads? so far I am quite pleased with how the experiment is going, however ricky is right, we need to work out a way to record the data as the file quickly becomes huge... some sort of realtime graph could be useful.... :shock:
Shepherds Valley WX
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Unread post by Shepherds Valley WX »

Gidday again Michael.... I have more questions than anwsers...but have to hit the sack...I'll post more tommorow...but just one more q, what sort of antenna do u think would be best for sferic detection?
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NZ Thunderstorm Soc
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Unread post by NZ Thunderstorm Soc »

I don't know anything about electonix but I do do know that lightning sfreics makes a different sound from 'artificial' lightning, like arc-ing from wires/switch etc.
Trevor McGavin's lightning counter at Lower Hutt is good at that as it dosen't pick up arc-ing from the EMUs that pass through his area.

JohnGaul
NZTS
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