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Re: Hookup Wire
From: ghunter-at-mail.enterprise-dot-net[SMTP:ghunter-at-mail.enterprise-dot-net]
Sent: Monday, December 01, 1997 1:54 PM
To: Tesla List
Subject: Hookup Wire
Hi All,
Secondaries wound with plastic insulated hookup wire seem pretty rare.
I've only seen one small coil on a coiler's web page that used
plastic insulated wire on the secondary. One other subscriber has
admitted to me that his "big coil" is wound with pvc jacketed hookup
wire. My own little low-budget coil is wound with #22 stranded hookup
wire. While my sparks don't knock down low-flying airplanes, I'm
mostly satisfied with performance.
I'm aware of some of the drawbacks of hookup wire on TC secondaries.
For one thing, the turns-per-inch density is much lower than magnet
wire. This leads to lower inductance and high operating frequency,
which is not desirable. My 23" secondary only has 460 turns.
Operating frequency, even with a top hat, is in the neighborhood of
500khz.
Also, I've heard references to lossy pvc insulation. Since many
coilers wind their small secondaries on pvc pipe forms, this seems
like a pretty lame complaint.
On the plus side, hookup wire is more readily available than magnet
wire. It's less expensive than magnet wire. It also seems to me that
the stranded conductor would have lower loss at RF than solid
conductor. Jacketed wire is tough & resistant to kinking and
breakage--good qualities during the winding operation.
Comments, experiences (good or bad) with plastic insulated wire in TC
use will be read with much interest.
Greg
East Anglia, UK