In this paper we present the main findings obtained by the South America VLF NETwork since its installation in the South America territory. In particular we show the capability of the VLF technique to monitor the long-term solar activity and transient solar and geomagnetic disturbances. On long timescales they are indices on the possibility of monitoring the Lyman-α solar radiation. On shorter timescales we show that the VLF technique is a very sensitive mean of detecting solar X-ray flares. Those small events with a peak power > 5 × 10-7 W/m2 are detected with a 100% probability. A lower limit for the X-ray power of ∼ 2.7 10-7 W/m2 has been found in order to produce a ionospheric disturbance, and we confirm the important role of the Lyman-α radiation to form and maintain the low ionospheric D-region. SAVNET has also observed for the first time the ionospheric disturbances produced by outbursts from the magnetar SGR 1550-5408. This genuine detection suggests the possibility of monitoring on a routine basis these objects of fundamental importance in high-energy astrophysics. Finally, we show that SAVNET is well suited for participating to the search for seismo-ionospheric disturbances in order to study the possibility of earthquake events prediction. © 2010 American Institute of Physics.