In September 2021, I built a series of VLF (very low frequency) radio receivers using recipes by Dan Tapper and Mark M0WGF. These antennas took the form of loops of magnet wire housed in a bicycle tire, copper wire and a hula hoop wrapped in electrical tape, 10 meters of ribbon cable crimped in a circle. Using these antennas, plugged into an audio recorder, I made a series of recordings in several locations in Cumbria whilst on a residency with Full of Noises. The recordings are set alongside spectrograms and interpretations. Sferics appear as vertical lines; the bright horizontal line near the top of the image is inaudible but likely a 19kHz pilot signal for stereo broadcasting FM radio.

To mark Earth Day 2022, I used these recordings in a new audio artwork 'Searching for Sferics', which documents the project through voice, radio and field recordings.