Re: New Pig - And Some Questions

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

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <FutureT-at-aol-dot-com>

In a message dated 1/21/01 11:45:04 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
tesla-at-pupman-dot-com writes:

>I'd like some advice as to a good secondary wire size
>to shoot for. I'm assuming around 22 or thicker.

Adam,

That's a good question.  I like to use about 1500 to 1700 turns,
which gives good results on my small coils (about a 10% spark
length gain compared with fewer turns).   I've never tested
this idea on larger coils, but it should work well.  The Q is not
very important in spark gap coils, so wire losses are not
particularly important.  Many turns on the secondary will 
demand many primary turns too, unless the cap is quite large.
But the goal here is to use a lot of primary turns to keep the
primary surge impedance high, and therefore the spark gap
losses low, for overall better performance of the TC.

Fewer turns works fine too though, but may not be quite as
efficient.

I just wound and coated my new 2400 turn secondary which
is wound with 28awg magnet wire on a 8.3" by 33.5" form.
I'll post the results when they're available.

John Freau