Always have been fascinated by the lightning and knew i could detect it on VLF (very low frequencies). First thought was to build a receiver and get some signal out to drive a led, a meter etc. Suddenly, googling for' lightning', i found a circuit from Mr. Charles Wenzel on the internet. It's very easy to build and if you have some electronic components in your junkbox, it really is cheap too! A whip from an old Fm-receiver, a speaker from a tv-set, a signal meter from an old taperecorder and some perfboard, a box from a candyshop, some black paint...There we go! The only things i missed were two coils : 10 mh and 1 mh. Found them in the local shop for less then € 2. Hi hi!

 Its works just amazing and is very sensitive. With a whip of about 90 cm indoors, this thing detects lightning within about 20 km before you even see or hear something. Tried connecting it to an outside ham antenna (shortwave vertical) and it was possible to detect lightning  for a range of about 60 km as far i can check it out with weather stations on the internet. It also reacts as a visual cw-decoder for a local ham operator on shortwave. Hi Hi. but no problem, The OM stops when lightning comes!

If you wanna try it out also, check this link for the schematics on the website of Mr. Charles Wenzel. A genious on VLF ! After the good results, i also added the metersection and the audiocircuit. Hey, i' m missing some leds! So, found a LM3914 to drive 10 leds coming down... (circuits on the internet)

And what if we added a counter too? Have some 7-segment leds common anode and a 74LS47 display driver connected to a 74LS90 BCD counter and all TTl. Just what a needed with the 5 volt power supply!

I changed the transistors to 2N2905 and BC547B. Tried a BC547C but tankcircuit was oscillating even with the 270K resistor in parallel. So didn' t wanna loose sensitivity and took the B ! The 1N4148 replaces the 1N914.Also changed the driver fot the bulb. Connected a BC559 to the 2N2905 so we got a darlington with a much higher amplification. Bulb flashes greatly now! Thats what's lightning all about! Isn't it?

Lets finish with a grafic from the old electrical central on top of the box. Some changes in Photoshop and there's the front of the plastic case.

Coming soon: version 2: a UFO-lichtning detector. First parts are ready yet. A knightrider ledcircuit and more LED-fun!

Just click here if you wanna take a look at the pictures!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Best 73's de on4arz