The first photo shows the first attempt on the left, with the second version functioning attempt on the right. To my surprise the receiver came to life - a loud hum from nearby a/c cables, but the crackling of lightning was there to be heard. I didn't find any, however I did find a connection to earth that should not be there, so I cut the rail. However an unfinished project does irk me, so earlier this afternoon I got it out and used the multimeter to try and find if there were any accidental short circuits messing things up. At this point I put it aside in annoyance and did something else for a week and a half. There was a burst of noise when turned on, then nothing. After a day's soldering I turned on Attempt 2. So I started again (and decided I really should buy a multimeter) with the strips going along the length of my board and not across it.
![vlf receiver vlf receiver](https://d3i71xaburhd42.cloudfront.net/3284c1b35b71f4a7ef11337efca17bb26a244fbb/1-Figure1-1.png)
I started trying to debug the circuit and found that the way I had laid it out was rather difficult to follow - rather than using the line of the copper strip to get the current to earth I had used wires to jump across them, so there were a heck of a lot of additional solder joints that could be avoided with better circuit layout. I carried on soldering and found that it did not work. The prototype is not very rugged as the earth and aerial keep falling out, so the next part is to replicate it on veroboard and fully solder it.Īnd that I think is where everything will get rather more tricky! So if you have ever wondered about trying it, give it a go. I took it out into the garden and I think that all the A/C power cables nearby are interfering, but I could start to hear the frying pan sound of lightning.įollowing the schematic was fun, and although the circuitry is all over the place it wasn't as difficult to do as I thought it would be - a bit like a crossword or sudoku. To my considerable surprise when I turned it on I could hear it making a humming noise. The aerial is the looped wire with the knot in the end, while the wire seemingly connected to nothing is the earth.
![vlf receiver vlf receiver](https://dms-discourse-static.s3.amazonaws.com/original/2X/5/5c944ccbee3f525bc899b96f9e1710a951c750a8.jpg)
I then ordered a breadboard and enough components to make four (insurance from accidents, dodgy soldering, rabbit attack etc).Īfter a day of poring over the diagram and adding components to the breadboard the creation in the photo came into being. In the end I opted for the peanut butter radio in the following link Electronics has always been a bit of a mystery to me, I understand what the individual bits do but arranging them to do something useful other than lighting up a LED is beyond me. I had stumbled onto some websites showing circuit diagrams for VLF radios to listen for lightning - the astronomy bit is that they can also apparently pick up the effects auroras :). So I had been thinking about a little project for my holiday. I need to get round to building a case for my ST102, but with a lot of diy recently I can't quite face any more sawing.