Weather Station Hardware > Boltek/NexStorm Lightning Detectors

Boltek ld-250 installation questions.

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Skywatch:
I am hopefully about to pull the trigger on a Boltek LD-250 from Scaled Instruments soon. While I've obtained most of my information from the folks of Astrogenic as well as Ryan, I'm facing a delima regarding installation.


Here's the problem. According to the LD-250 manual the outdoor unit should be placed away from or above metal objects which in my case is the steel weather station mast. But due to my station's height above the roof and distance from where the main unit will be the 50' of cable won't reach.

If I mounted the outdoor unit on the side of the mast, how close can the antenna unit be to the mast without there being any issues from the mast itself?

Thanks.

miraculon:
It might be worth a call to Boltek to be sure. I have a UHF/VHF dual band antenna (I am a Ham) mounted on 3 foot standoffs (actual distance is a bit lower due to brackets) and I can transmit and receive VHF OK, but lightning is much lower in frequency. There may be a bit of a blind spot in the direction of the mast from the sensor, possibly.

I would have the mast direction WRT the Boltek in a direction that you typically do not get storms from.

Here is a pic of my antenna and mounting. My apologies, but this is the best closeup I have and it was when the solar panels on my Davis anemometer transmitters were covered by snow.

I got the aluminum tubing from DX Engineering. You might want to get fiberglass for this though.

Greg H.

Skywatch:
Awesome. Thanks!

Skywatch:
The Big Brown UPS truck came by yesterday bringing 2 boxes. Spent last night and today setting everything up. Due to accessibility issues and the cable being a bit too short plus the issues with the station mast itself I chose to rig it up at the other end of the apex of the roof away from the main weather station.

I tested everything using a Victor electic rat zapper and made some artificial lightning. Sure enough they registered on the detector. Made some financial adjustments and orientation using a compass. Everything works perfectly! There's a chance of storms this weekend so hopefully I'll really get to see some action.

mihec:
I am about to get the LD-250 and have a question about installation. I’d like to install the antenna just below my Davis anemometer. Will the inox mast cause any problems to lightning detection? See attached picture.
Thanks!

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