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Output Voltages




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From:  wysock-at-ttr-dot-com [SMTP:wysock-at-ttr-dot-com]
Sent:  Saturday, February 07, 1998 8:10 AM
To:  Tesla List
Subject:  Re: Output Voltages

Robert, Jeff and All,

Having jsut read the post below, reminds me of some (literally)
"hair-raising" experiences of mine.  While in the Service (U.S. 
Army) and stationed at the Stratcom-Western Hemisphere
Headquarters at Ft. Huachucha, AZ., in 1970, as a communications
specialist, I had the great opportunity to witness Southwestern
Arizona's finest and most impressive monsoon-type summer
storms.  There was an insulated guy wire between two utility
poles near my barricks, and I observed the same phenomena
that Robert mentions below.  I decided to try some experiments
on my own.  I gathered up some 16' 2 X 4's, some wire, and
about 50 metal coat hangers.  I fabricated a home-made 
horizontal insulated dipole antenna, with the coat hangers evenly
spaced over about a 100' run of bare stranded copper wire, which
was elevated between two 30' high wooden supports.  I used
rocks, ect.to support the bases off the 2 X 4's, and used 100 lb.
test monofiliment fish line to anchor the ends of the supports.  At
one end, there was a convenient clearing on the desert floor 
(surrounded by the native giant catus that grows very prolifically
there.)  This clear area was a mound of earth (home to a giant red
ant colony.)  The opening of the mound made a suitable place
to locate the base of one of the 2 X 4's, with a little digging.
The other vertical support took much more work, with lots of
desert boulders rounded up, to fashion a base on that end.

About 3 days after I had the whole thing set up, a NOAA
category 3 rating storm moved up from the Gulf of Mexico, over
the area of the Fort.  Many mulitple cloud-to-cloud, and cloud-
to-earth strokes lit the darkened afternoon sky.  Some of these
were of very long persisitance, lasting for approximately up to
2 seconds in a single stroke path.  One stoke struck a 66 KV
overhead transmission line about one mile away.  I believe I saw
a greenish ball lightning following that stroke, which moved 
along the wire for about 10 seconds.  Another stroke hit about
500 years distant from where I was standing, watching my 
antenna for any signs of arcing.  I decided that it was best to move
my _ _ s indoors a.s.a.p.  While I made my retreat to the barricks
which was about 100 yards away, WHAM-BOOM!  All the air
around me seemed to sizzle in a blinding flash.  I recall that I felt
like I was hooked up to a 500KV Van deGraaff generator.  When I
turned around to look at the antenna, it was gone.  Not a trace left
in sight.  The next day, I went out to where I had built the antenna.
I could find now wire, no coat hangers, no 2 X 4's.  The support
end (built over the ant hill,) looked like someone had taken a big
torch to the whole area.  The other end, with the pile of boulders,
revealed that the rocks had been scattered in every direction.  There
was a blackened area of ground where I believe that support used 
to be.

Near as I could figure, that insulated antenna must have taken a 
direct hit.  And as Robert pointed out, that event left an
indellable impression on me, for life!  BTW:  Two weeks later
and there was still no sign of the giant red fire ants at "ground 
zero."

Bill Wysock 

 To:            "'Tesla List'" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
> Subject:       Output Voltages
> Date:          Sat, 7 Feb 1998 10:28:26 -0600
> From:          Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>

> 
> ----------
> From:  Robert W. Stephens [SMTP:rwstephens-at-headwaters-dot-com]
> Sent:  Friday, February 06, 1998 8:15 PM
> To:  Tesla List
> Subject:  Re: Output Voltages
> 
> Richard Hull wrote:
> <Major snippage>
> > I have used special antennaed electrometers to monitor storm and air
> > electrical gradients.  I can definitely state that a distant lightning
> > stroke sucks juice from the local environment to feed the huge distant
> > gradients.  The local gradient in a receeding or approaching storm will rise
> > slowly and then leap to a quick peak (charging of the local air) This peak
> > can be as high as several thousand volts/meter! At the instant of the stroke
> > two miles away, the local gradient will instantly drop to a perfect zero!  A
> > stroke feeds on a lot of surrounding charged air.
> > 
> > Richard Hull, TCBOR
> 
> Richard, All,
> 
> I was at the CFRB transmitter site near the northern shore of Lake 
> Ontario last year while a violent lightning storm passed overhead.  
> Jeff Wiggins, also on this list was with me.  The antenna farm 
> consisted of about 6 live towers up on base insulators, each with many guy 
> wires.  Each guy wire was broken up (for RF purposes as top not 
> resonate) with inline porcelain insulators.  These individual 
> sections of guy wires were therefore insulated and at their varying 
> heights, could equalize themselves to the average field gradient 
> existing at their particular altitudes above ground.
> 
> As we stood under cover rather near to the north end of the antenna 
> farm we could hear the sounds of individual guy line insulators 
> flashing over at random as the field intensity in the area increased. 
> Then, at the same moment as we visually saw a lightning stroke occur 
> and I'm gonna guess even 5 miles away or more, SNAP!, every goddamn 
> guy wire insulator in the entire antenna farm broke over in a very 
> precise and instantaneous corus!  This was observed for both 
> cloud-to-cloud, as well as cloud-to-ground strokes, both near and 
> still visually evident but far!  
> 
> This was the first time I had ever been witness to the atmospheric 
> effects of static electricity on this scale before and was amazed at 
> the same time as I was able to correlate it to the distributed 
> instantaneous E- field effects which large disruptive discharge Tesla coils (and 
> yes even small ones) have on their local environment.  I was left 
> with a powerful, impressive and lasting impression of that event.
> 
> While there I also *heard* the sound of a leader shooting away and 
> upwards from one of the towers (at least this is what I think it 
> was).  It had the outranging type echo and crackle you get from a typical stroke, 
> but much quieter in volume.  I saw no visible effect, and only put 
> this explanation together after hearing only the sound.
> Jeff, you want to reinforce or otherwise comment on this interesting 
> experience?  : )
> 
> Ahhhh, sharing fond memories in Ontario,
> 
> Robert W. Stephens
> Director
> Lindsay Scientific Co.
> RR1 Shelburne, ON Canada L0N-1S5
> Tel: 1-519-925-1771   Fax: 
> *Custom built Tesla coils, etc., for museum display 
>  and special effects work.
> *Canada's largest publicly accessible wall-to-wall
>  indoor lightning show...by appointment.
> *Future home of Electric Science World, 
>  educational/entertaining Theatre of Electricity.
> *Antique TV Museum...now in search-and-acquire mode.
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Inquiries welcomed! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> 
> 
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