Back about 2002, Egon Wanke got frustrated because 'lightning data' was very expensive, he got tired of paying for it, it wasn't very good at best, so he set out to "roll his own".... The original green systems developed over the years, and a couple of folks came on board with him, Richo, Tobi a few years ago, some other great folk 'behind the scenes' who get little recognition for their gifts of time'n'talent...
A Texan named Gerry discovered the European TOA Blitzortung Greens, and induced a dozen or so folks in US to get online with Green systems...
Roll forward to spring/summer 2013. I think there were 12-18 greens in the US... A few of us RED folks may have stumbled on Gerry's TOA site with the same motivation Egon felt back in 2002... checking it out, we found they were announcing "new" RED system. and by August of 2013, a handful of us in the US were running with the "GREEN pioneers..." Can't tell you exactly when it was, but I remember distinctly 2 landmarks... Region 3 hit 25 operators total, and then we jumped to 30. And a few of those were ops that were also running greens!
Gee Whiz! Getting a stroke caught up at Great Bear Lake, or West of the Rockies gave you bragging rights for awhile, and it only took 4 stations to peg one. Of course, that 'peg' was often 20 miles in diameter, depending....
Now, I just spent about 10 minutes looking at the WORLD WIDE MAP at BT, and a few more minutes watching Region 3... and was virtually overwhelmed. Thomas (Knickohr) has fired up the first Africa station, 1305, in Namibia, Africa. I understand he's also paired with Region 3 strokes, which is going to help "Solitary Cedric" 913 and 939 down in Rio... our furthest East Operator, George, in the Netherlands Antilles... noticed Atlantic strikes really flaring, -- strokes flashing in geographical areas I've never seen lit up... any stroke that's above a few megavolts has slim chance of sneaking by it seems. Incredible when you consider we're generally only supposed to be able to detect "C-G" bolts.
But, I have a suspicion that we may find out differently within the next year... I think as lot of our 'strokes' are already other types... RED's a fantastic hardware, and the server is getting smarter by the hour, I believe... but, then, who knows?
Now, Thomas may sit there at Farm Tivoli in Namibia all alone for a bit.... just like "Lonesome Stan" Silversword out in Maui (Paired with Oceania, also), "Solitary Cedric" in Rio, and the ever faithful Carlos in Columbia and other geographical pioneers and steadfast souls... don't mean to leave anyone out, but... gotta' move on...
Here's the grit..
Every station strengthens the network... and if you feel like you don't contribute that much, or have 'too many ' signals, and a pesky 62.5kHz, or dog fence next door... optimize and accept the environment. It exactly because of such things that such amazing server programming has happened over the last few months! They've been able to take a lot of the junk, for example, and separate it from the prime...
And now those pegs aren't 20 miles thick... they' running much less than 2 .... and I've seen a few deviations that are literally in 'Meters"...
that blows my mind... after all, we're running pretty much the same hardware we've run for about a year and a half (reds) and the handful of active Greens that remain.
How can this be?
The forum threads are full of folks trying to optimize and perfect their installation, and learn to live with their environment as it is.
There are over a hundred region 3 stations, most of which are actually running.
There is a small handful of Very Smart Developers in Europe who actually know what the hell they're doing.
And guess how they know what-the-hell-they're-doing is working?
It's because folks like I mentioned above... and others, sitting there, wondering if they're contributing,
Hang in there... your time to celebrate will come.... and your contribution is "Not Invisible"... it's incredibly important and valuable! Even if all you think you're sending is 'junk',... I can guarantee you're doing better than you might think, as far as the network is concerned.
Ya'll ready for "Blue"? Ain't off the drawing board, yet.... but look out....
by this time next year, old "Thor" and them-who-ever-they-are expensive-commercial-systems ain't gonna be safe playing games anymore.
Heck, even today, most every time Thor tosses one, he's getting jumped on by 35 or more "flash sucking" receivers... he laughed when he'd only get 6-14... no sweat.
Things have changed, Big Guy.