Re: Terry's DRSSTC - Experiment - A curious thing...

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: Bert Hickman <bert.hickman@xxxxxxxxxx>

Tesla list wrote:
> Original poster: Terry Fritz <teslalist@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Hi All,
> I tried my experiment and found something very odd!!
> I was running small streamers (~8 inches) here in the basement off a sharp 
> tip on the terminal.
> The 1, 2, 3... pulse thing did not seem too interesting.  After about 5 to 
> 10 pulse the streamers seem to reach a maximum level.  After that they 
> just last longer but their length does not increase....
> But one thing that certainly did get my attention was this.
> After about 400 BPS and certainly from 600 - 1000 BPS the streamer length 
> "cyclically" goes from a small brushy discharge to a long single streamer 
> as a function of BPS.  Sort of like this:
> 500BPS = short sparks
> 550BPS = long single arc
> 600 BPS = short sparks
> 700 BPS = long single arc
> .
> .
> .

Sounds like you might be getting an interaction with the line frequency due 
to bus sagging/recovery versus line phase. If the rail voltage is sagging 
and partially recovering due to periodic recharging from the incoming 60 Hz 
line, you may see an aliasing effect that shows up every half cycle of line 
voltage. If this was occurring, you'd expect to get smaller sparks when the 
bus voltage sags significantly without getting recharged by the next rising 
line voltage haversine. By increasing the break rate by another 30 BPS or 
so, you' then "catch" the next rising AC input haversine, the rail voltage 
recovery then provides a growing output RF voltage envelope towards the end 
of the pulse train (and thus longer streamers). Amazing that you are seeing 
such a large effect. though - look at your rail voltages versus burst 
phasing...

-- Bert --
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