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Re: RSG Problems. thanks



In a message dated 99-02-20 02:24:46 EST, you write:

<< Quite a few of you have told me that I may be "over-quenching"
> I'm not sure I understand exactly what this means.
> Is this related to the dwell-time of the RSG?
> My electrodes are only 3mm (1/8") diameter, so the dwell will be pretty
> short 

Martin, all,

The over-quenching of series rotaries can't happen 
in any normal coil, unless it was running at a super low frequency
of maybe 30kHz, and it probably still wouldn't happen.  But if the
voltage is too low, the gaps can't fire properly, and the coil runs
poorly.  It's harder for gaps to fire when they're spinning, especially
if the electrodes are narrow.  If the over-quenching theory was true, 
you could just
tighten the coupling, and the coil would work fine.  (but it won't)
If you throw a scope onto the unit, you'll see it's not over-quenching,
not even close. 

> Surely RSG's can be made to work well on 2-coil systems?
> Richard Hull's Nemesis coil seem to work quite well (!) and didn't that use
> an RSG?

This is another story.  Nemesis did not use a series rotary.  It only
had maybe two internal series gaps, and used a bunch of external
static quench gaps, so it was a regular rotary.  No one ever claimed
that a normal rotary over-quenches, just the series rotary type that
you built.  Generally a rotary is not considered to be a series rotary
unless it has more than 2 or four spinning series gaps.  I've installed
series rotaries onto regular coils, and regular rotaries onto magifiers,
etc, they all work about the same.  The series rotaries quench a
little better as expected, but never over-quench.  Nemesis was a
great coil, the largest I've personally seen in operation.  Very
dramatic looking.
 
> I will be happy when I have at least matched the sparks I get with my RQ
> gap, and NST!

Good luck, this is a mystery and a challenge (why it's weaker with
the rotary).  Other than being thinner, do the sparks look different?
Frantic instead of slow floating....that sort of thing?  Or fuzzy rather
than straight, etc.?
 
John Freau

>                       Thanks,   Martin Dale, Nottingham, UK
  >>