Re: SSTC Dangers - E Fields / Radiation

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

Original poster: "Steve Conner by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <steve-at-scopeboy-dot-com>



 > Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<dhmccauley-at-spacecatlighting-dot-com>
 >
 >
 > What are the actual physics to what is happening when local metallic
objects
 > starting shocking the heck out of me.  Is the radiated RF generating RF
 > currents on the surface of these objects,
 > thereby inducing high voltages.

What is happening is that the capacitance between you and the toroid of your
SSTC is enough to induce a very high AC voltage on your body. The arc leaps
from you to any grounded metal object, or even to ungrounded metal objects
that are receiving a different voltage because they're closer/further from
the coil than you.

Being charged to a high AC voltage probably isn't dangerous as long as you
stay insulated from ground, but if you ground yourself, large RF currents
will flow, and that _can_ be dangerous. Richie Burnett gave me a cool demo
of this at the UK Teslathon: I stood about 18" away from his SSTC, holding
in my hand a terminal that was connected to ground via a 40 watt 240 volt
filament bulb.

When the coil was turned on, the bulb lit fully, suggesting that about 150mA
of 400kHz RF current was flowing through my body and arm to ground. I didn't
feel any sensation or discomfort, but then I only did it for a few seconds.
After a while my arm would probably have cooked.

 >
 > It sometimes feels like i have RF burns (like sunburn) on my arms when I'm
 > operating near the coil (like pulling arcs with a insulative grounding
 > stick), but then again, I could just be imagining
 > that too.
 >

It could actually _be_ sunburn. Big flaming arcs give off a lot of
ultra-violet light.

Steve C.