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request for critique on some measurements

Sometime ago I built three nearly identical secondaries. All were
about 8 inches in diameter and the windings were 36 inches long
consisting of #16 guage machine tool wire approximately .125" in
diameter. One was a cardboard sonotube, second was polystrene tube
and the third was built with three plates of .25" acrylic and 12
.5" diameter acrylic rods. This made an open frame for the wire. All 
three tuned to about the same frequency but the acrylic unit far
outperformed the other two units. I made what I think are measurements
of the Q as follows. Using a signal generator, a digital freq meter,
and a scope for a voltmeter I determined the resonant frequency of
each unit standing alone. I set this frequency equal to "1" on the scope
I then determined the frequency at which the the reading decreased to
.707 on either side of resonance. Using a formula for Q=fc/(fh-fl)
where fc is the resonant frequency and fh and fl are the higher and
lower .707 points respectively I got Qs as follows
sonotube : 14
polystyrene: 90
acrylic : well over 400 and probably over 1000. beyond my instrument
          capability

The difference definitely showed up in output discharges and I have
built several more acrylic frames with excellent results. The 12" by
36" coil driven by a single 12kv 60 ma neon gives close to 48"
discharges point to point.

Are the above measurements legitimate and is the Q meaningful ?


Question to Richard Quick: Can you give a further explanation to your
term "splitting of the secondary ? I think I am witnessing this
phenom when I try to get up to 1800 va input but I can't figure
out what to do about it.
Thanks for any inputs
Skip Greiner