First light -- With MMC

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

Original poster: "Shaun Epp by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <scepp-at-mts-dot-net>

Well I finally got my tesla coil going and it was a cold day, about -3
Celsius, thats 28 F.  I tuned it last night with a signal generator and
scope meter and I came out with 230 Khz with the primary cct open and 236Khz
with shorted spark gap.  Then I adjusted the primary circuit to match that
frequency , 4 turns in from the outside, lots of room :-).  When I brought
it outside to run today it only produced 1.5 foot sparks and they were very
faint.  Then I tried moving the tap in and out some turns and voa la,  way
different that what I had figured out with the signal generator.  I'm using
an counterpoise of 1/2 inch grid chicken wire (3 feet by 4 feet), it might
be too small, I also used the house electrical ground aswell, could this be
why there was such a difference.  Anyway I now 1 in from the outside turn of
the primary and I'm getting, I'd say 3feet.  The coil is a 4.25 inch x 22
inch secondary and and 12Kv 60mA tranny.   I'll have to wait a few weeks to
get at my ground rod, it's still under snow.  8 - (.

I'm going to play with the coupling abit, I've adjusted it abit and the
outputs longer but they're still thin whispy sparks, no meat to then,  any
ideas?

shaun epp