Although a different antenna might have been a better choice, this chip is designed for an LRC antenna with a natural frequency of 500kHz. 500kHz was a good choice as it is an unused part of the spectrum and one where lightning shows up very bright. Changing to a different antenna would not be a possibility.
We have a Breakout on the way for this. it’s in testing now which, as you can imagine, has been difficult. We should have it ready to go in the next few months.
SFE-Pearce:
We have a Breakout on the way for this. it’s in testing now which, as you can imagine, has been difficult. We should have it ready to go in the next few months.
Send it to someone in Florida 
Or build a spark gap generator.
Been plenty’o’lightning this week in fll-freak’s neighborhood.
Yes there has. Had three storm fronts roll through yesterday. Strikes close enough to rattle one’s teeth.
Seriously, if you want a beta tester, I am your man. I have been working on a lightning detector for 3 years now. When the AS3935 came out, I thought my life would get easier, but with the bug on the chip, its been a pain in the but.
Please make sure you can switch between SPI and I2C interfaces and that you can adjust the I2C address. The chip has a bug that makes it difficult to use I2C at the address of 0. You can read my website for more info.
I also have a setup for this.
If something goes wrong on the sparkfun end, I’ll pitch it to them and make sure we have a lightning sensor on here.