I finally got around to adding a ground wire for the lightning sensor.  I had a spool of solid 16 gauge wire in my collection that fit the bill perfectly.  I attached one end to the 4 foot copper ground rod I already had installed.  Then I ran the wire across the ground and up the weather station pole to the lightning sensor.  I attached the wire to the pole using wire ties.  Where the wire ran across the ground, I secured it by cutting short pieces of wire and bending them into staple shapes.  I then pushed these into the ground over the lightning sensor ground wire to secure it.  By Spring time, the wire will be embedded into the lawn.

During the process of adding the ground wire, the lightning sensor detected a few false strikes due to my attaching the wires without shutting off the sensor.  This pointed out a few problems with the lightning stats on my Web page which I quickly fixed.  Now I just need to be patient and wait for some real lightning.  That could be several months, as we don’t typically get a lot of lightning during the Winter, although it has been known to occur.

I looked a little more at new CSS templates for the Web site.  But I’m getting more interested in setting up a WEFAX receiver.  I have an ICOM PCR-100, which is capable of receiving the signals.  However I don’t know that it has sufficient bandwidth to get quality images.  But in the interest of cost and experimentation I plan to connect an appropriate antenna to it and see how it does.  I can choose to add a dedicated WEFAX receiver later if it goes well and I decide this is something I want to pursue further.  I found some plans for home-built antennas made using PVC tubing.  That sounds right up my alley.

I found a copy of the ARRL publication Weather Satellite Handbook by Dr. Ralph Taggart.  It’s out of print and some of the information is pretty dated.  But it does have plans for building some of your own equipment.  I even ran across some special interest groups on the Web for weather satellites that sell receiver and antenna kits.  Although no new WEFAX satellites are being launched, the ones in service should remain that way for a number of years to come.  So as dated as this part of the hobby may be, I can still get quite a bit of enjoyment out of it.