Re: streamer loading effect

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Terry Fritz" <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>

Hi Steve,

At 02:34 AM 8/9/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>Hello all,
>
>Tonight i ran my large 1800va TC.  Boy it was great!  unfortunately i didnt 
>hit the ground with my arcs (well not yet, im about 10" away from that).  My 
>toroid is at least about 44" above the ground.  Im getting a max of about 
>56".  Besides rambling about my arc lengths, i noticed a neat little 
>phenomena.  When the arcs get longer, the tuning get lower!  The difference 
>in tuning will go from about 10 turns with a low spark gap setting, up to 
>about 13 turns, as the arcs begin to spew out into the air.  

The stremers are mostly conductive.  I made a wire "test streamer" out of a
bunch of lengths of piano wire:

http://hot-streamer-dot-com/temp/P5120013.jpg

The added wire (streamer) is just like adding top load to the coil.  It
lowers the frequency 5-10%.  A "wire" streamer is easy to make and may help
with pre-tuning a coil.

Even though I made it and took the picture, I never managed to test it...
I must have gotten something else on my mind...  &:-)  Maybe I'll try this
tonight.

I know the "rough average" load is about 1pF per foot of streamer length
but this should give a far better number.

Cheers,

	Terry




>Also, i noticed 
>that i can get really intense sparks when i go slightly lower than res, on 
>the primary(little more turns that needed).  You can plainly see the arc 
>grow as the coil comes into tuning with the added capacitance of the spark 
>itself. example: On lower power, i had an arc stay at about 10" then 
>suddenly grow to about 3 feet in a matter of 1 second, and reach out to hit 
>the tuning inductor which is below the primary!!(you would need to see my 
>coil to understand).  So i guess my coil is doing "ok" for having a static 
>gap, im still hoping for 5'.  I think i may have reached it, if i would have 
>tuned more when the sparks were really flying(i forgot!).  Then as i 
>remembered to try to tune it out another turn, my dad calls and tells me to 
>turn the thing off cause he going to bed(he hears it in the house).  Oh 
>well, ill get in another run on saturday night:) And ill get some pics, i 
>already did, but they are not worth posting.  The neighbors still seem to 
>not know what to think of this large machine in my backyard:))  But i think 
>its ok with them.
>
>Steve Ward.
>
>
>
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