Using the amplifier only

[Jonathan.Williams]

Yes, and it's quite accurate. While I was commissioning my first station, I used this to determine the source of some interference, by taking my sensor and a laptop and taking a few readings from different locations.

Even so, using DF will require multiple stations. If you're lucky, just two, but there will inevitably be lightning along the axis of those two resulting in no solution, and a third would be necessary. Again, it's not just using the receiver and plonking a counter on the output!

Just to clarify - yes, I agree a single receiver can certainly tell you if there's lightning-like activity around.
I was saying that a single receiver of the kind suggested (a BO amplifier with no external computing) cannot reliably discriminate between
noise or lightning, and cannot accurately be set to only pick up lightning with a (say) 50km radius (ignoring lighting >50km).

Yes, precision analysis of the waveform might give you enough additional information to make a reasonable estimate of distance under many (even most) atmospheric conditions, but that is not the configuration requested by the OP (which I thought would be a given in the context)

I absolutely agree. I just thought the thread had brought up some interesting points. I don't think they'll help the OP, though. Frankly, if you're going to put the time and effort into assembling an amplifier and are interested in lightning detection, you might as well save your pennies, build the controller, join the network, and get all the frills