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I'm looking for some QRN/M audio files to "show" someone what said noise can sound like, particularly interested in static crashes or lightening bursts. Have Googled same with no joy other than definitions and what the Q signals mean. Anyone? 73, NX7D

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  • $\begingroup$ Hi Dennis, and welcome to ham.stackexchange.com! $\endgroup$
    – rclocher3
    Oct 14, 2020 at 1:16

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I don't know about recordings, but http://websdr.org/ has a directory of radios you can access through the internet and listen to real live noise.

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I did a web search myself without much luck. It's a bit surprising to me, in this era of all information migrating its way online. Maybe someone would be kind enough to make a recording from the 40m or 80m bands at night.

The American Radio Relay League, the national organization for amateur radio in the US, has shared a collection of recordings of RFI. They call these noises QRN, probably because many sound a lot like static, but I'd call them QRM, because their origin is man-made. Old-fashioned QRN from lightning doesn't seem to be present in their recordings.

Randy K5ZD has shared audio recordings he made of several of his HF contest efforts. If you listen long enough you'll probably hear QRN when he operates on the low bands. Unfortunately you might have to listen a while before you hear some, because the big HF contests are generally held in the northern hemisphere's winter, when there is less QRN.

I discovered some recordings of HF QSOs, some of which are listed as having QRN. I listened to a few, but all I heard was static rather than lightning crashes.

Finally I was able to find some recordings of lightning crashes at sigidwiki.com, a website dedicated to sharing recordings and waterfall images of strange noises for identification purposes. The lightning crash recordings aren't recordings of ham QSOs, but they do get the idea across.

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  • $\begingroup$ Is static not QRN? I thought any natural noise that interferes with reception is QRN. Static, as heard all the time when there isn't a much stronger signal, must be by far the most common type. $\endgroup$
    – Phil Frost - W8II
    Oct 14, 2020 at 18:19
  • $\begingroup$ Static is QRN, but the OP specifically requested lightning crashes. $\endgroup$
    – rclocher3
    Oct 14, 2020 at 19:14
  • $\begingroup$ Phil, Thanks for your input. You came up with a lot more than I did. The websdr.org site gave me the best sound, but,not recordings. I am looking for a good example to reference in demonstrate how loud the background noises can be when trying to copy a weak Morse signal to someone who is not a radio person. Some extreme examples of static crashes are what I was hoping for. Seems it will be hard to find such a thing. $\endgroup$
    – Dennis
    Oct 14, 2020 at 20:30
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A websdr provides more opportunity for catching lightning QRN. Go to the lightning rather than waiting for it to come to you, and as Phil mentioned its (near) live.

http://lightningmaps.org to find it, http://websdr.org to find and hear it.

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