Detecting lightning strikes on 28 MHz - 4th Apr 2019

While monitoring the FT8 frequency on 28 MHz, I noticed the tell tale crackle of a lightning strike. They are usually less than one second long and are pretty distinctive once you get used to hearing them.

There was no sign of any lightning where I live so I knew it had to be some distance away.

The dots shown above are those I heard on SSB on 28 MHz.

I have heard lightning before on 28 MHz but they were about 70 kms away. This time however, I was hearing lightning strikes which were up to 130 to 160 kms away (80-100 miles).

Pretty amazing considering that the radio energy is spread out over all of the LF and HF spectrum and up into VHF as well.

One obvious advantage of this reception is that you can hear a lightning storm approaching on the radio long before it actually arrives at your location.

It also raises the question... what is the maximum distance a lightning strike can be heard on 28 MHz???

If anyone would like to give it a go then there are some links below for tracking the lightning strikes. Just be careful to make sure the delay on the websites is low and what you seen on the screen is actually the lightning strike that you heard. You should hear the crackle and then see the dot appear on the screen a few seconds later.

By the way, this will also work with a simple medium wave radio as well. Just tune to a quiet frequency during daylight hours and you should heard the crackle from the distant lightning strikes.

Links...
https://www.lightningmaps.org/
http://en.blitzortung.org/live_lightning_maps.php?map=10