[AReU] AReU Digest, Vol 95, Issue 3

Sun Apr 22 18:11:13 EDT 2012

You know Bob,
I have noticed that you come up with some odd stuff. Heathkit would have loved you. I have the best recommendation for you. PULL THE PLUG.
Power cord and coax, save yourself the embarrassment of having to tell your friends,MY LIGHTING DETECTOR DID NOT WORK. BOO HOO. Didn't the class on grounding and lighting sink in. I will suggest to Ron to do it once more for you.Certainly hope that was not toooooo scathing for you?

I hope you had a nice Third Sunday after Easter Sunday,Sunday?
As always,
George

--- On Sun, 4/22/12, areu-request at mailman.qth.net <areu-request at mailman.qth.net> wrote:

> From: areu-request at mailman.qth.net <areu-request at mailman.qth.net>
> Subject: AReU Digest, Vol 95, Issue 3
> To: areu at mailman.qth.net
> Date: Sunday, April 22, 2012, 12:01 PM
> Send AReU mailing list submissions
> to
>     areu at mailman.qth.net
> 
> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
>     http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/areu
> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help'
> to
>     areu-request at mailman.qth.net
> 
> You can reach the person managing the list at
>     areu-owner at mailman.qth.net
> 
> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more
> specific
> than "Re: Contents of AReU digest..."
> 
> 
> Today's Topics:
> 
>    1. Lightning Predictor (Bob Haynes)
> 
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Message: 1
> Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2012 20:53:10 -0400
> From: "Bob Haynes" <rhaynes5 at tampabay.rr.com>
> Subject: [AReU] Lightning Predictor
> To: "AReU Reflector" <areu at mailman.qth.net>
> Message-ID:
> <[email protected]>
> Content-Type: text/plain;   
> charset="us-ascii"
> 
> I would like to buy an instrument that will detect lightning
> within about 20
> miles of my home - not further away.  
> 
> I do not want to have it sounding off when storms are
> further away.
> 
> Perhaps you know of a lightning detector on the market which
> I could buy
> that makes a  pleasant tone when nearby lightning is
> present.
> 
> Maybe you know of something simple I could build such a
> detector.  I said
> simple.  No surface mount parts.  Few, if any
> dental tools.  I like easy
> projects.  
> 
>  
> 
> Of course one way to know if there is lightning in the area
> is for me to
> turn on an AM radio.  I could tune it to where there
> are no stations and
> listen for static crashes, but someone I love would not like
> the crackling
> noise.
> 
>   
> 
> Maybe there is a way I can use an AM radio with an earphone
> jack that
> disconnects the speaker, and somehow turn the static crashes
> into a pleasant
> tone.
> 
> I do not want to walk around all day with my Walkman radio
> and earphones.
> Something that sits on the table top and sounds a tone is
> the goal.  
> 
> Your suggestions are welcome.  
> 
>  
> 
> I saw a lightning detector once that I really liked. 
> It was a metal box
> about four or five inches across that had a meter on the
> front that would
> jump a little or a lot, depending on how powerful the signal
> from the
> lightning was.  I remember there was a knob or two on
> the front.  Perhaps
> one of the knobs controlled volume.  
> 
> When a strong enough spike from lightning was received, a
> sonalert would
> sound off.  Some lightning strikes made little, less
> loud beeps, and strong,
> nearby strikes made louder beeps.  I remember the
> sonalert started at good
> volume with each strike, and tapered lower until it went
> silent again over a
> period of a few seconds.  
> 
> I am trying to figure out how that one worked, and my theory
> is that there
> was a simple radio receiver, tuned between stations that
> would instantly
> charge a capacitor when there was a strong lightning
> signal.  The capacitor
> would discharge into the sonalert, which would decrease in
> volume as the
> sonalert used up the stored energy in the capacitor. 
> This lightning
> detector had an antenna inside a one inch PVC pipe about two
> feet long, and
> I think there were two wires connecting the metal box to the
> antenna - this
> looked like speaker wire to me.  There may or may not
> have also been another
> pair of speaker wires to make a long ground for the
> box.  
> 
> Does this lightning detector sound familiar to you?
> 
>  
> 
> About ten years ago I spent too much on a Strike Alert Model
> LD-1000 made by
> Outdoors Technologies, Inc.  It is the size of a pager,
> and has a belt clip.
> It looks a lot like a pager.  On the top of the
> lightning detector is one
> light for power, and three lights that represent the
> distance of the
> lightning - 24 to 40 miles, 17 to 24, 6 to 20, and 0-6
> miles.  It is powered
> by two AA cells.  I never liked it.  This unit did
> not sound an alert, and
> sometimes I could hear the thunder and it would register
> that it was further
> away than timing the flash to boom interval would
> indicate.  
> 
>  
> 
> Any recommendation would be appreciated.  I like to
> know ONLY when lightning
> is close, so that I should be disconnecting antennas. 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks & 73,
> 
>  
> 
> Bob WB4AKA
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> _______________________________________________
> AReU mailing list
> AReU at mailman.qth.net
> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/areu
> 
> 
> End of AReU Digest, Vol 95, Issue 3
> ***********************************
> 