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Original poster: "Paul B. Brodie" <pbbrodie@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Hello All,
I am relatively new to coiling and brand new to this list. Should I inadvertently violate etiquette, please excuse me as I have never participated with a list before. As a little background, I have a BS in Computer Science and am self taught as far as electronics. I have read many books on ac/dc electricity and electronics. I built a couple of Heathkits about 25 years ago and I have built a simple DC power supply and a low wattage stereo amplifier. That about sums up my knowledge and experience with general electronics. I have been reading about Tesla and Tesla Coils avidly for several years with the idea that I would ultimately build my own.
I have been reading this list for a couple of weeks and I have a couple of simple questions. You tend to use a lot of abbreviations I'm not familiar with. Is there a list of abbreviations and their meanings somewhere? What do VSWR, pfc caps, DRSSTC(I get the Tesla Coil part), and MMC caps mean? In all the reading and research I have done before coming across this list, the only types of coils were spark gap and tube. Now, from what I have been reading, there are new solid state Tesla Coils.


I have Walt Noon's Tesla Coil Designer software and I have George Sinkhaus's pamphlets. BTW, I have read Cheney's biography of Tesla.

I have been accumulating parts with which to build a spark gap coil with a 4.5 inch secondary coil. I recently purchased 2 Maxwell .03mF 35 VDC pulse discharge caps. I decide not to build my own aluminum and polyethylene cap. Walt's design software recommends .0212 mF of capacitance for the coil I want to build. What are the consequences of using too much capacitance, .03? Will it change the tuning frequency?

Sorry for the long winded post. Any and all help will be tremendously appreciated!!! One last question. I have read much about Richard Quick's coils and understand that there is a video of his coiling exploits. Does anyone know how I can obtain a copy of this video? Thank you.
Oh yes. Please excuse the large type size. I'm legally blind and I need the large type to see what I'm doing. I use a magnifying glass to read the list but it is awfully hard to type while holding a magnifying glass. {:-)
Paul Brodie