Was at dinner with the kids. That page works fine for me.
–Dave
I have always had excellent support from Nexstorm! Also, Relko is on European time.
Maybe that explains why no reply to my request yet. Mark Mears of Lightning 2000 has sent several emails. He has been most helpful in helping me out. Lack of any response from Nexstorm sends up red flags. If they don’t answer sales requests, how will the tech support do???
Mark
I understand what you mean about the red flag, but based on my experiences there has to be a very good reason for the delay. Based on my experiences with the program and the company I would not hesitate to buy from him again!
My website is in bad need of an update, but the lightening uploads worked fine during the storm last week.
I’ve had replies back from Relko the same day, the note on their contact form says “We always reply to emails so if you have not heard back from us within two business days, chances are there is a problem on your end.”
If you have a strong interest in website display of your lightning data, NexStorm’s StormView is VERY nice. If you are not familiar with it, you should find a site that has a NexStorm StormView display of somewhere that has currently active lightning before you make your choice.
It is basically a Java applet that you put on your page, which will display the last hour’s strike data in an interactive animated manner. When you open the page, and it loads the applet, it kind of looks like a static lightning map. But if you press the [Run] button at the top, it will play through the lightning data just like you were watching the real time NexStorm display, but compressed into about 30 seconds. The newest strikes are bright yellow, but as they get older they darken to orange to red to brownish. You can select from 30 min or 60 min and Full or Zoom range, and can start and stop it at will.
This is not an animated gif, which would take a large amount of bandwidth to continuously upload. Rather, NexStorm uploads just the strike data, and the Java applet creates the display in the visitor’s browser, on the fly, directly from your strike data.
Personally, I like this much better than a static lightning map, and this is the main reason I’m planning on getting NexStorm.
Steve
Good point. I had not considered bandwith.
Mark
Got a reply back from Nexstorm. He makes the point that Nexstorm is about sharing and L2K is about statistical analysis.
Mark
If still unsure which to get, purchase a user manual for each system. L2K’s manual is very informative in explaining the diff. between lightning strokes and what they mean to a thunderstorm. With L2K you have complete control over its looks (fonts. titles, displays, etc.). It looks cool to see a lightning storm and see the screen come realtime alive. Best of luck in choosing.
I run Nexstorm and L2K. This is my experience.
Both packages are pretty amazing considering the major limitations of single antenna lightning detection.
Nexstorm Pros:
*Very Web friendly.
*StrikeStar is an excellent resource for getting visitors to your site.
*Stormvue applet.
Nexstorm Cons:
*Ranging is difficult to adjust and not very repeatable from storm to storm.
*Lack of reflection detection and rejection.
*Map zooming is in large fixed steps.
*Maps and email alerts are add-on costs.
L2k Pros:
*Ranging is easy to adjust and is quite stable.
*Excellent reflection detection and rejection.
*Map zooming is in one mile increments.
*An extensive array of built-in analysis and alert tools including email alerts.
*Background map is included in package.
L2K Cons:
*A large amount of web data is available but it isn’t neatly packaged like Nexstorm’s.
*Basically standalone. Doesn’t have the ability to participate in a StrikeStar type network.
Based my experience with both packages L2K’s lightning detection and ranging engine is much better than the engine in Nexstorm.
I like the web features of Nexstorm better.
StrikeStar is a nice web traffic generator but the displayed data is only as good as the info fed to it.
Both packages have excellent support.
For my needs L2K has been the better choice.
Tom, do you have NexStorm and L2K running on one antenae? If you do how do you accomplish this? I have both programs but can only run one at a time.
I am watching a large storm near the Kansas City area. Carter Lake and other Nexstorm users are not showing it yet. But the strange thing is, I am. It is well outside my 300 mile radius. But the radar images and my plots are the same. Is this Normal?
Mark
I am looking at several Nexstorm users web pages. All of them show the storm in different locations??? The Strikestar main page shows the storm much larger than radar images.
http://www.carterlake.org/wx6.php Cater Lake
http://www.shelleys.net/NexStrm/StormVue.html Ballwin MO
http://www.tuvaclub.org/weather/javaapp.html Muskogee OK
http://www.strikestarus.com/ StrikeStarUS
Is this normal?? All of the sites do not seem to be able to correctly range the storm. Or am I looking at a delayed images?
Mark
Lightning 200 does not seem to do much better #-o
http://www.houseofstauss.com/weather/lightning/lightning.html Trimble MO
http://www.llion.org/weather/page4.htm Lebanon MO
http://www.rdaines.com/dwc_lightning.htm Dardenne Prairie MO
http://www.aninoquisi.com/live_lightning.htm Aninoquisi’s US Map
So I’m guessing this is not an exact science???
Mark
No, distance is an estimate at best and isn’t factored in very heavily, if at all during the StrikeStar process. The reason I chose NexStorm is the collaboration that StrikeStar provides. If I’m not mistaken, this is the lightning data that Wunderground uses so you can use their Nexrad radar products to get another view of that strike data.
- Jim
I would have thought that StrikeStar would “even” the data out. Heck, I more confussed now than when I started #-o
Mark
So much for that 
Does either of the two software packages do very well at removing false strikes?? Can they tell the difference from static or lightning very well? And yes I know lightning is static. But I hope you know what I mean 
Mark
If the accuracy of the lightning data is of paramount importance,
you can get that by using GRLevel3 ($80)
and subscribing to the Allison House data feeds. ($10/month)
In addition to lot of other data, the Allison House
feed carries USPLN Lightning data, albeit averaged into 2 mile boxes.
This will display the live lightning data on top of the live radar display,
but you can turn off the radar and show only the lightning,
if that is what floats your boat. It will also let you zoom in to any
degree you want, and you can even import a street level database
and show the street map when you are zoomed way in.
Steve
I have 2 StormTracker installations complete with their own computers, one for Nexstorm and one for L2K. I am not aware of a way to run both packages simultaneously on a single system.
Accuracy is what I am looking for. I am leaning toward the Lightning 2000 system. It may not be as internet friendly, but I think that is going to change.
Any one have either system for sale? Price is also a factor :lol:
Mark