Topic: Phantom Lightning strikes and noises?

[AZmonsooncats]

I been observing a interesting development   with my lightning dectector since last Friday I have been observing a moderate rate of consistent cloud to ground strikes and noises over the same two areas at a range of about 200 miles they always appear over the same area to the sw or ne or both sometimes.   I do not see this issue occuring on nearby dectectors just mine.  I never have had a noise issue like this before wondering what might be causing this?  There is usually little activity this time of year and no storms nearby to cause this.

I checked the computer connection and even temporary unplug the antenna from the computer it's all quite again when I plugged it back in it started all over again . I am surprised because I just replaced everything last June on the system because the opposite issue no detection that ended up being a cracked antenna issue so I am hoping the attenna hasn't failed again. Next I have to check the attenna itself more carefully the crack last time was very hard to see.

Let me know if anyone else has experienced a isssue like this you can view the status of my dectector at http://www.pepperridgenorthvalley.com/lightning.php



Jeanette

[dalecoy]

Good diagnostics, and I'm betting your equipment is just fine.

Almost certainly some "local" source of "electrical noise".  Local meaning somewhere between 2 feet and 20 miles.  Noise meaning sparks or equipment turning off and then turning on, or similar.

1.  Have you added or moved anything electrical/electronic in your house, since Thursday?

2.  How about neighbors?

3.  Power lines or industrial facilities in the neighborhood?  Repair shops (welding, etc.?)

[prmullen]

AZmonsooncats:

All it takes to create phantom lightning strikes is a poorly shielded florescent light ballast.  Our office lights cause a false "hit" with a range of 200 miles to the NW everytime they are turned on or off.

The other major source of noise is AC power lines -- If the Boltek antenna cable is allowed to come in contact with a typical AC power line, this will generate all kinds of false detections and noise.

Looping the Boltek antenna cable into multiple tight coils will also cause problems -- We discovered this can lead to an increase in 180-deg lightning strike reflection errors [this drove us nuts for months until we figured this out].

Software plays an important part too -- We operate two Boltek Stormtracker systems.  One is tied to a computer running "NexStorm", the other is running "Lightning 2000" from "Aninoquisi" :

http://www.aninoquisi.com/lightning2000.htm

We get fewer false strikes and far less bearing / range errors with "Lightning 2000" [than with NexStorm].  "NexStorm" though connects us directly to the StrikeStar network [which uses lighting reports from multiple Boltek stations to filter out false "hits"].

Cheers!

Patrick R. Mullen
Dir. of Engineering
Mullen Scientific Software

1686 State Route 69
Parish, NY  13131

Office: (315) 625-4660
Cell:   (315) 314-1234

prmullen@dreamscape.com     [Office]
prmullen@hughes.net              [Backup]

[AZmonsooncats]

Update:

The phantom noise and cg flashes and strokes continues, I am unaware of what is causing this new issue after 5 years without issues I haven't changed anything at my house at all to produced a new noise source. The antenna is outside at about a height of 20ft in a pvc enclosure.

Good diagnostics, and I'm betting your equipment is just fine.

Almost certainly some "local" source of "electrical noise".  Local meaning somewhere between 2 feet and 20 miles.  Noise meaning sparks or equipment turning off and then turning on, or similar.

1.  Have you added or moved anything electrical/electronic in your house, since Thursday?

2.  How about neighbors?

3.  Power lines or industrial facilities in the neighborhood?  Repair shops (welding, etc.?)

Yesterday the rate was up to 6,000 noises, strokes and flashes with a squelch=1 today it is less around 600 with a squelch =2  I used to have no issues with a squelch = 0 setting.

I should note a dectector 1 1/2 s.e of me is having none of these issues.  One good thing it seems to be that the disturbance to N.E. quad is less now it just in the S.W quad now

Jeanette.

P.S Thank you dalecoy and prmullen for your information and explainations now if I could just figure out the source  

[Scalphunter]

maybe bad street light in your area ??? just an thought

John

[DanS]

AZmonsooncats along the same thought as Scalphunter's possibilty, if you have overhead power lines passing nearby their insulators can begin arcing due to dust/dirt build up and create interference. See this quite often over here. A clue to this being the cause would be a reduction in interference after a good rain (washed insulators).

[dalecoy]

You're certainly located in a mixed residential/commercial/retail area of the city.  Unfortunately, that leaves lots of candidates.

Is there any correlation between strikes and the time of day?  or with Weather (including wind)?

If you have an AM radio available, tune it to "between stations" where you can hear nothing but noise, and listen to hear if you can notice any correlation between periods of high noise or static, and the false lightning.

[AZmonsooncats]

Update:  As as abot 9:45pm last night the issue seems to have disappeared   the source remains a mystery never have located it   hopefully it won't come back now strange that it lasted a whole week

I been running the l2k back down on squelch=0 for two hours and only 1 strike in that time


Thanks for all your ideas and suggestion on what might be the source.

Jeanette