Somehow I lost my thread about tweaking a new RED system. Those who might have read the tread will remember that someone asked why my screenshot did not show the gain settings on the live signals page
In the manual is written that you can choose between manual mode with gain settings on the amplifier or automatic mode with gain setting for each channel by software.
Maybe I'm overlooking something but where can the gain be set by software? As far as I understand automatic gain and treshold control from the Blitzorting servers is not available yet so they should not have any influence yet. Do I miss a TAB or page somewhere where I can adjust the gain?
By the way... it makes no difference is not showing gain setting on Live Signals page toggling between manual / automatic mode.
Where is the appropriate place to email / post regarding errors I get when clicking links in the forum?
Basically, I get "You do not have permission to access this page....." among other things suggesting I haven't activated, etc. I have.
Now that I know that the fixed circles shown when zoomed in the maximum amount on the real-time map indicates the range of error on a strike, I have been zooming in around North America to see how small those circles can be - to find the highest accuracy for strike location. The best accuracy I found was in the Gulf of Mexico where the circle radius is down to about 1/2 km. Though I found circles this small in other places in the CONUS, I haven't been able to find any smaller. Does that mean that this amount of error in strike location is the limit for the system?
Is there a limit on how many reporting stations are taken into account for calculating strike location? Watching the strikes in the Gulf of Mexico showed many (10 or more) reporting stations for a given strike. I ask about this because I wonder if there is a certain density of stations beyond which there is no improvement in the determination of strike location. Since the great majority of strike circles are far larger than .5 km in radius, there is obviously room for improvement right now (more stations would help).
A few days ago I finished the build of a system RED. Initial hardware and software went smoothly and so far there is no indication that the receiver is not doing what it is supposed to do.
However, a receiving station is only working when all parameter are set to the right values so I started looking around in all data that is available.
When I first set up the station I noticed it went into INTERFERENCE and I have responded by lowering the gain as my ferried rods (the antenna) are located indoor as the amplifier is easier to access when needed.
Yesterday, August 29, the station ran for several hours and in one case a signal was used to locate a thunder. As thunder levels were low in a 500 km range of the southern part of the Netherlands, it seems normal behaviour as you can not expect the same performance from an indoor antenna as from one on an outdoor, suburban, located antenna.
However, today, there were some thunders within acceptable range and I saw relative close stations (40-50 km) receiving strokes. I decided to look at the Live signals that are visible by accessing the controller via IP.
I noticed "strange" behaviour of signals displayed as they looked like an almost perfect sinus and random noise should not look like that. I have attached 3 pictures showing the signals and when I manually turn the antenna I can "beam" the signal or not. Actually I was expecting that the "noise" on channel 1A would disappear and appear on channel 1B when moving the antenna around.
I this behaviour I can expect in a high noise urban environment and will it disappear when my antenna will be located in a 20 meter high tower? Is this an example of the feared robotic lawnmower?
I must admit that I have not used yet a high quality shielded CAT5 cable but a normal 3 meter long "of the shelf" CAT5 cable.
Anyone have had seem during setting up his station?
Looking at the maps, it appears there are no stations in South America. My daughter lives in Lima, Peru and it occurs to me that a station there might be more useful than one more station in the U.S. midwest.
The impression I have from what I've read here is that the kits are dispensed first to those in the most sparsely covered areas, so were I to install a station in Lima, I would be far more likely to get a kit?
What about access to a server? Getting data from Peru to North America might involve a significant delay. If it's any indication, using Skype between Lima and Chicago is a very iffy thing.
Would there be a difficulty in maintaining the station since I would not be there to tend to it regularly? I know the kits are not plug and play, but once I built it and tested it for proper operation, could it be left alone for extended periods?
A final challenge would be customs - I can only imagine trying to explain what I am doing with the the circuit boards to people at the airport.
As an aside, lightning is alien to Lima. My daughter's husband, from Lima, was fascinated by a thunderstorm when he came to the states as he had never seen one! The weather there is entirely driven by Pacific Ocean on shore winds - lots of humidity, mild temps, little rain, wet pavements every morning from surface cooling and no real convective activity, in other words, for any weather buff - BORING!
I have been making assumptions about what I see on the real-time display at the Lightningmaps site, as I haven't come across any explanation. Can anyone confirm the following speculations?
When I am zoomed in to a certain point, white circles appear that expand and ultimately fade. I assume these indicate the sound front from a strike. When strikes are close to my location, I will normally hear thunder just before the white circle reaches my location. I note, also, that these white circles first appear with a certain radius and do not originate as a point. I assume this is to take into account the processing delay from the actual time of the strike to when the circle first displays.
If I zoom in to the maximum possible, fixed circles appear with each strike, of the same color as the dot that locates the strike and fading to brown along with the strike-dot as time passes. I assume that the radius of these colored circles (and they are fixed) is an indication of the strength of the strike.
