[TCML] Grounding a Tesla Coil (Yes, Again)

[Brandon Hendershot]

Alright,
I'm hearing a lot about counterpoise whenever this comes up. I don't  
have a lot of room to work with here, I'm only 15 working out of my  
bedroom window sill. IIRC, there was a webpage on someone  
experimenting with counterpoise on their concrete garage floor, and he  
reported corona or plasma or something of the sort radiating from the  
plate to the floor. If I were to roll out a bail of chicken wire in my  
front yard, wouldn't that set my lawn on fire?
This is why I opted to burrying copper pipe(s) in the yard to make up  
for a lack of horizontal space.
Oh, one more thing, does the physical position of the coil have to be  
on top of the counterpoise, or can I set it aside and run a wire? I  
don't know if that's just to show the similarities of a plate in a  
capacitor or for whatever reason...
Thank You,
Brandon

On May 2, 2010, at 8:36 PM, jimlux <jimlux at earthlink.net> wrote:

> Brandon Hendershot wrote:
>> Hi Everybody,
>> I live in Arizona and the ground is extremely dry here, being that  
>> it's a desert and all. So trying to sink a 8 foot pool into the  
>> ground just seems irrational. I was wondering if there would be any  
>> significant performance drawbacks from using several (like 5)  
>> shorter 2-3 foot copper pipes spread out over a 3 foot radius. Has  
>> anybody ever tried setting up a grounding system like this one  
>> before?
>
> In fact, that's what a gentleman named Herb Ufer did a half century  
> ago.. he was trying to develop a way to do good earth grounds for  
> ammo bunkers and the like.  His final best solution was what's known  
> as the Concrete Encased Grounding Electrode, or Ufer Ground for  
> short, and it is what the electrical code requires these days for  
> just about everywhere.
>
> But in your case, for a TC, many short rods over an area is probably  
> better than one deep one, especially if your coil is operating in  
> the middle of all those rods.
>
> And, for that matter, a 10x10 foot piece of metal mesh laying on the  
> surfae is as good as, if not better, than a bunch of rods. Rods have  
> significant inductance, and not all that low a resistance.  The mesh  
> acts like one plate of a big capacitor, with low inductance, that  
> couples directly to the earth. And even better, if your coil is  
> operating above the mesh, the RF currents never even need to go into  
> the earth.
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