Re: SIZE of RF chokes?

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: Steve Conner <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxx>


> 42 inches cant be correct. According to 
> the......universal......sparklength formula, you should only get a 
> max of 37"  (  1.7*sqrt inputpower ) in watts )

I think that's pretty funny. That post was from John Freau, a veteran 
coiler who actually invented that formula, and the TT-42 is one of 
the coils that he measured it from.

I seem to remember he wrote about what he called "Robust" NSTs, 
meaning that he found certain NSTs that he could push more power 
through than the nameplate rating. If you just multiply the rated 
volts of a NST (say 12000V) by the rated current (say 0.03A) the 
answer tells you next to nothing about how much power you can 
actually process through it in Tesla coil duty. A Tesla coil is a 
totally different load to a neon tube, and can pull more power, 
especially if you turn the variac up to 160V :-o

Of course, it can also pull less than the rating, and I bet that is 
what is happening in your case.


Steve Conner
http://www.scopeboy.com/