Can you listen to lightning?

[scanrrman]

So, I'm watching the lightning in my area tonight and can hear a slight interference through my scanner on most freqs. My question is is there a frequency that you can actually listen to the lightning. The voice of lightning, the personification of lightning through the radio waves..... Is this possible and ,if so, with a scanner or only with more complex equipment? Wasn't sure if this went in the severe weather forum???

[justinnmr]

Interesting question... decided to look into the idea myself seeing as how I HAVE NO IDEA lol.

From http://library.thinkquest.org/2784/propagation.html :
"Lightning causes the simultaneous emission of a broad band of radio frequencies. The signals can be heard from a few hertz to hundreds of megahertz... Most of lightning's effective radio energy is concentrated in the 1 to 30 kilohertz region. This region of the radio spectrum is considered the VLF, or Very Low Frequency, radio range."

[zz0468]

Yes, you can listen to lightning. In fact, there is a whole sub-culture of the radio hobby that consists of folks who listen to the various natural rf signals that the earth makes. It's generaly in the VLF, like the previous poster mentioned.

I haven't spent a great deal of time listening, but I do have a high end receiver that will tune down to 10 KHz. I've heard all manner of interesting noises, whistlers, lightning, etc. There is an aircraft instrument called a Stormscope that is essentially a lightning receiver.

In general, you want an AM (in that, I mean Amplitude Modulation, not AM broadcast) receiver. Although you might hear noises on an FM scanner, the limiter stages and the FM detecter wash out most of the noises yoou might hear. Come to think of it, though, an AM broadcast receiver works just fine to hear lightning...

[wogggieee]

Is this how the lightning detectors you see on internet weather pages and TV work as well? Or is that completely different?

[zz0468]

Originally Posted by wogggieee

Is this how the lightning detectors you see on internet weather pages and TV work as well? Or is that completely different?

Could be, but maybe someone else can answer that. Since I don't watch the weather on tv,I've never seen any 'lightning detector'. Haven't seen it on any of the internet weather sites I go to, either. I look for lots of red paint on the weather radar maps.

[z96cobra]

I have a "lightning radio" connected to my PC right now... Its a Boltek Lightning Detector, and it operates by "listening" for lightning. If you want to listen to lightning, just tune your AM radio to a station or even to a frequency that isn't "occupied" (static) and you'll be able to hear it if there is any in your area. Go to http://www.boltek.com/faqs.htm to learn more about how it works.

Roger

[rvawatch]

this is probably the white noise people hear when they think they are hearing the dead or some sort

[scanrrman]

So the scanners I have are not capable of doing such tuning? This is all started when I was watching lightning and remembered a show on the discovery channel about scientists launching rockets with copper wire attached and causing a lightning strike. I remembered them talking about the sounds of lightning. I just wanted to hear these sounds. Tell my fiancee "Well, at least I know what lightning sounds like!!! HAHA" Thanks for all the informative replies.

[TXFirefighter112]

I used to think listening to lightning was called thunder.....


Has this changed?

[eorange]

Yep, AM Shortwave will let you listen to lightning - only problem is that you'll hear it from many 100's of miles away, even though your local weather is clear.

Way back in 2001 or so, Pop Comm published an article about listening to the planet Jupiter (specifically, monitoring the natural RF emitted by the planet).

[bpckty1]

Several years ago, one of the local weathermen (they weren't called meterologists then), told his viewers that when bad weather is approaching, tune an AM radio to an unused area on the band, somewhere between 600 and 900 KHz. You will be able to hear the storm approaching since the lightning strikes will make noise. The noiser it becomes, the closer the storm. An old RatShack AM-FM radio works well for me.

[Quickcall]

Originally Posted by rvawatch

this is probably the white noise people hear when they think they are hearing the dead or some sort

See this topic for that http://www.radioreference.com/forums...ad.php?t=49575

[kb2vxa]

Right now I'm hearing so many static crashes on 40M from about 150 miles away the band is useless. They're the bane of hams in the summertime so maybe that answers your question.

Then there's another interesting approach, the lightning meter. If you connect a sensitive microammeter (preferably a 50-0-50 center zero) between a long wire antenna and ground you can watch the electric charge travel back and forth even on a clear day. If you put a diode in series with it you can see it twitch as it detects the AC component when a storm is near. If you wish to view the waveform there's always the trusty oscilloscope.

DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU TO DISCONNECT THE METER AND GROUND THE ANTENNA WHEN IT'S CLOSE ENOUGH FOR YOU TO HEAR THE THUNDER?

[scannerrail]

Originally Posted by scanrrman

So the scanners I have are not capable of doing such tuning? This is all started when I was watching lightning and remembered a show on the discovery channel about scientists launching rockets with copper wire attached and causing a lightning strike. I remembered them talking about the sounds of lightning. I just wanted to hear these sounds. Tell my fiancee "Well, at least I know what lightning sounds like!!! HAHA" Thanks for all the informative replies.

I remember that show like 5 years ago.. man that was cool and scary at the same time.

[boatbod]

Listen to lightening? Hmmm, in my experience it always sounds like "ka-ching"...

I'd estimate so far I've lost $15,000+ marine electronics when my boat was struck directly on the mast, one laptop computer damaged due to a nearby strike at my house, and most recently, a cable modem and VoIP adapter to another nearby strike at the house.

All this and I don't live anywhere near Florida!

So please count me out from wanting to listen to lightening

[pogbobo]

Originally Posted by z96cobra

I have a "lightning radio" connected to my PC right now... Its a Boltek Lightning Detector, and it operates by "listening" for lightning. If you want to listen to lightning, just tune your AM radio to a station or even to a frequency that isn't "occupied" (static) and you'll be able to hear it if there is any in your area. Go to http://www.boltek.com/faqs.htm to learn more about how it works.

Roger

this thing is awesome!

http://www.weathershop.com/boltek_ld250.htm

too bad its $800

[z96cobra]

Originally Posted by pogbobo

this thing is awesome!

http://www.weathershop.com/boltek_ld250.htm

too bad its $800

Just go to www.provantage.com and buy it for... $592.23! Or get the PCI version (what I have) for only $349.36. I've read that the PCI version is actually better, but it isn't as portable as the "black box" version. It works pretty well, but don't pay the $70 for maps... you can make those yourself for free!

Roger

[k9rzz]

Tune your shortwave receiver to 4 or 5 mhz when there are storms within range (varies day or night) and you'll hear all the lightning you can stand. I've got a recording at home from last year, the S meter sat at S9+20 with steady lightning crashes from a line of storms 75 miles away. It was deafening.

[ScannerSK]

I started a discussion group in 2001 regarding this subject:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/VLF_Group/

I've attached a spectrograph showing about fifteen seconds of lightning activity I recorded. On the real lightning channels (below 20 khz) lightning rings during the night. The duration of the ring cooresponds with the distance traveled. Lots of mysterious sounds to capture and record many of which are still unknown as to what causes them.

A scanner will not receive these type of signals. If you have a sensitive microphone amplifier lying around just take it as far as possible away from powerlines and hook a 100' piece of wire to the center or hot wire input of the mic jack and hook the ground of the jack input to your vehicle or a ground stake. This is about the best lightning receiver you might just have lying around the house. If you want something better refer to the above group. Have fun and stay safe!

[mkh]

Lightning is just another form of static. Not sure why anyone would enjoy listening to it but I guess we all have different interests.

The current issue of Monitoring Times has an article on listening to noise from Jupiter.