All this fun stuff to do.
Enjoy your semester. What you studying?
I have had a Boltek PCI card for many years. I have the NexStorm and Anisoquasi (sp?) software both. I also used the Boltek 'out of the box'.
I have WD and used it to just upload an .jpg image to my wx site. I don't share or send data off to the other services.
You don't HAVE to join strikstar as far as I know, my Boltek runs just fine.
I've had more problems plinking with the software to get displays as I like them, and have had more problems with later versions of the softwares not showing nice groupings of strikes passing by. What I mean is once a storm gets so close, the display does a lot of ghosting with strikes indicating 180 degrees from their true position, and also having the strikes make a donut ring around my location, when in truth that really wasn't happening.
I have diddled with the software when we've had the rare storm pass by in the last couple months. And more this spring, and while I would still get a Boltek and use the native display, have lost a bit of faith in the 'improved' software offerings.
Maybe some of the other users here can help with their experience, especially if they have newer systems and have the time to tweak the software packages. I like the counters, the strike indicators, and all that goes with it and the native display, while rudimentary, isn't bad.
Hope this helps some.
PS The Blitz is a single point receiver and gives NONE of the indications by itself. You get a strike indicator as a blip on an LED or buzzer, but the data depend upon others in the country you're in to send data to the servers in Germany and then they create the maps after digesting all the data from as many receivers as they can. I've only started dabbling in this, but you can go to USAToa.org to see more.
I'm getting started on building my reciever this weekend and getting my antennas wound. Love twiddling with build it projects and this is one for soldering and rolling your own antennas, etc.
Good luck at school. Dale