Hi,
I’ve used a forum search but found relatively old topics about the LD-250. I’m using Franklin AS3935 detectors to detect nearby lightnings but am interested in the Boltek’s system.
To owners: Does anyone has this detector installed in the valley and surrounded by mountains? How well does it detect the storms that are “over the mountains”? My location is not ideal that’s why I’m asking before making a purchase. I’ve read that it does not detect nearby lightnings well. Is it completely “deaf” for lightnings in e.g. 10km range or just counts less events? Last question: one of the major advantages Boltek offers is the lightning direction. Does the default software provide this function? Can the map be exported?
Thanks!
Good morning.
I’ve only used the PCI board,but I think that the principles and electronics behind the units is the same.
I had gotten a Boltek from the very earliest, and despite several secondary software (Astrogenics was very good) I still had major challenges with calibration especially for distance. Yes, you get a display with dots that are in the area of the strike, but it is basically like an old aircraft automatic direction finder, and not too precise. I spent every summer trying to tweak the direction and range settings and the more I did, the more frustrated I became. There are some users who are very happy with their systems, and they are indeed stand alone, vs. the TOA and Blitzortung systems which use entirely different methods, and depend upon many users feeding data to a central organization to analyze.
I loved watching a single cell move in, and the counters and number of strokes was a lot of fun to watch.
That being said, it was, in my relatively flat area, very prone to ghosting, where a ghost cell of reflections or secondary signals was thought to be 180 degrees from where the real signals were. I knew the problem and ignored the display, but it certainly wasn’t pretty or something I’d post on my web page.
I learned a lot and fiddled a lot and finally when PCI systems were harder to find, sold my setup to an enthusiast just west of me. I think that Lorrick weather here in Eau Claire still has the original on line, and is working with the Astrogenics folks to come up with a Time of Arrival network, too.
I know when the 3M StormScope for airplanes was developed and cost many times more than Boltek that the reviews by the airplane magazines had the same problems, and the display was a grid of dots that would light up, rather than a more precise picture, so the technology was only able to deliver so much.
As far as distance within 20 km or so, that was always very iffy, and the closer the strikes, the more the ghosting seemed to occur no matter how much I fiddled with the software settings. I would get one storm looking pretty good, then next one was off the wall.
I think that the frequencies these automatic direction finders use probably are ground wave, and that mountains some distance away would have little effect on hearing the strikes, but I’m speculating. Other enthusiasts here might know better. I know visiting my friend in Jackson, WY their TV and FM radio before satellite, was god awful. The AM bands were pretty good (as far as AM can be)
I think there are still a goodly bunch of Boltek users on these forums, and that the unit you were asking about was used by some storm chasers. I know that the images or indications I got on my system was like 50s black and white TV compared to 4k HD displays now, so that is about how starkly different the resolution is.
Hi Dale,
thanks for your comprehensive report! I actually like that old view from the 50s and I’d even like to use it. There are just few things I’d like to clarify before I make a step further (or not):
- performance (just number of strikes, not distance & direction) when a storm is over me. I don’t want to log just 10% of real strikes when the storm is over me
- how much is the range limited if I’m surrounded by mountains
- does the original software provide the direction & distance on the map (do I need to purchase it separately?)
Thanks.
Easy part first… I don’t live near mountains (highest hill in state is something like 900’ or so above average terrain.
What I got with my original Boltek and the updates was a graphic program which did show a ‘radar’ scope like appearance, with range circles which were changeable, out to Ihink 600 miles.
I did purchase an additional map overlay which was centered on my location and was scaled to show the rivers and lakes, and some major towns and state borders. It was well worth it, and was indeed an overlay with the fiducial marks and the range circles still visible. It really helped to look at lightning data (which was rare back then) and correlate with where the storms were and adjust the few things I could tweak to make it display more accurately. I’m not sure if that is an add on or part of the purchase price now. Obviously this won’t work with a mobile installation that chasers used.
I’m thinking if a stroke is heard, it will be plotted, so if the hardware only sees come cloud to ground and one kind of cloud to cloud, then the others may be happening and you won’t see them on your display.
My best recollection is that as a storm is in progress, nearby like tens of miles or directly around you, there was a beehive of activity showing. I’m going on memory a while here, so current software may be different on the comes-with-basic-package purchase, but my recollection is that the display would show the storm approaching, hover about the station, and then sort of move away. I was anticipating that it would come in like a herd of bison, and pass through and by the station, exiting sort of intact on the side in the direction of travel, and thinking that it did not do that as cleanly as I thought it should.
Even with the purchased Lightning 2000 (2K) and the Astrogenics Nexstorm, there were improvements but not as crisps as I had thought, but it has been at least 5 or more years.
Have you looked at the data from Astrogenics, who run a nice web site and have various areas available to zoom in on?
Again, having watched other sites on line, I think they had better luck with settings or locations that had more of what I think you were asking about.
Finally, The window boxes you could choose showed strikes per minute, with a moving graph showing stroke activity increasing or tapering off, along with alarms you could set and so on. that was very neat and fun to watch even if the storm was some distance away, or moving by at some distance and never really getting over you.
Random thoughts, my system might power up but ran on Win XP, and the detector antenna is now down, so I can’t fire it up again easily to give you more information about it.
I’m hoping some of the more current users might answer your questions.
Have you posted this question over in the Weather Forum, which is much more general and not as focused on the Weather Display core product which drives so many add ons like Meteotemplate, WDL, PWS and others.
Here is a link to LorickWeather, which is run by an enthusiast in my town, maybe 5 to 7 miles from my location. He had his monitoring stuff on top of a two story home, and always had excellent displays.
Very quiet now but check in with our next series of storms. You can get an idea of what the Astrogenics package gives.
Like Dale, I’ve got the PCi version which is running on my Windows 10 desktop PC. I got it second hand and renewed the antenna when I first got the board but that’s it.
I run it using the Nexstorm software with extra map.
You can download a trial (free) version of Nexstorm and use your own vector mapping, but there are limitation with what it can do. I have full version and never used the trail version so I’ve no idea what it lacks.
Nexstorm does have a learning curve and takes time to set up properly. You need a few storm systems to pass you and then use the replay facility to adjust your ranging settings.
The direction of the strikes comes from the antenna, like a direction finder and is accurate. But the range is harder to obtain accuracy with only a single antenna, which is why the likes of Blitzortung and now Astrogenics are going for the TOA system which uses verious stations to triangulate the strike location.
When I first set up my Boltek PCi I lived in the Outer Hebrides off the West Coast of Scotland. I had a nice open landscape and great reception. Nexstorm is good for 750 miles or 1200 km.
I have a couple of YouTube videos of the Nexstorm software during storms back in 2015. These are speeded up but give you an idea of what you will see:
June 2015 Storm
December 2015 Storm
You should get most of the strikes when the storm is overhead, although the shear number of strikes from a violent storm can overload the Boltek sometimes and it will miss strikes when this happens.
I now live in a valley about 10 miles South of Ben Nevis in Scotland and I have mountains to my East, North and West. This does reduce the detection range quite a lot but you do still see the storms coming. Ranging is a nightmare and I now have it set to the best I’m going to get and I’ve accepted that it’s nowhere near what I had previously.
It can only do what it can do! 
You may find that you see reflected strikes, strikes you know are in one direction but Nexstorm says they are 180 degrees in the other. Nexstorm can be set to flip these around, so if you have storms come in from a regular direction, you can compensate for this effect.
Lastly, you asked about using the map on your website? There are scripts available which will allow you to do this and Nexstorm will upload the data and reports for you using FTP. You can also join StrikeStar and contribute to the map on there, which also allows you to use their map.
My best advice; try to get a second hand LD-250 and antenna if you can, especially as this is your first exploration into the Boltek and based on your location.
I hope that helps.
Martin.
Martin:
Thanks for the real-world experience report, and your experience with big hills or mountains where you live in the valley. My great grandfather came to the USA from Scotland (he was a lowlander) so any one reporting from Scotland has a special interest for me.
While watching your videos of the two storms you posted, I am guessing you had a later version of NexStorm with more functionality enabled. I could never get mine to do all those trackings, with lack of patience and understanding of what to do, along with a month of almost no storms after I got my last update.
While looking at the Youtube you have posted, I found a suggested link to another one,
which would be representative of the best I’d ever have gotten, and while not my location by a long shot, the Boltek user who posted this shows how addicting it can be to watch a storm approach and the statistics that go with it. This video also shows a bit of the ‘ghosting’ that I had so much trouble with, so I guess it wasn’t just me.
All this talk and now if I can find my antenna and I get a moment, I might just fire up mine again to see if maybe this time I can get it to work as well as I had when I first got the setup and had so much fun with it.
Dale Reid
Thank you both so much! I didn’t even think to find something on YT. The videos are great, maybe too ideal? It’s difficult to find used LD-250 on ebay, I’ll probably have to get a new one. Not that I really need one but it’s addictive to watch the storms. We have many storms over the summer so the detector would be busy.
I didn’t post any question on other forums since I’m registered only here. I think I got enough information from you two already. If there is anyone else that owns the system and is willing to share experience, that would still be helpful. I need to budget it now and find an EU/UK based seller.
Thanks!
If the PCi version would work for you, there were a couple offered in this thread back in November: Boltek Storm Tracker PCI Wanted
Note that for the PCi version to work you do need a motherboard with a PCi slot, people have had problems using the PCIExpress to PCi adaptors with these boards.