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Grounding in the desert
From: Brandon Doughan[SMTP:fiveht-at-well-dot-com]
Reply To: Brandon Doughan
Sent: Monday, July 21, 1997 10:28 AM
To: tesla
Subject: Grounding in the desert
Hey you HV freaks-
Well, The High Voltage Camp is shaping up for burningman next
month. (What is Burningman?? www.burningman-dot-com) So far, Ive wrapped
an 11" X 40" coilform with 10 gauge (yes, that's 10 gauge...) enamaled
Cu, have a few torrids made and am finishing up the base. Being in a
small apartment in San Francisco, I've no opportunity to test run it.
This leads me to a few questions for you all:
If you don't know, the Buringman event takes place on a playa, an
ancient dried lake bed that stretches for miles and is almost perfectly
flat. I'm worried about grounding out there. My plan is to take the
bottom lead of my secondary to a piece of rebar that I've dug down and
pounded in as far as I can. I also plan to soak the area with salt water.
Think that will be good enough? I also plan to have a second grounding
rod for the center tap of the NST and casing of the gas-powered generator
Im planning on luggin out there. Thoughts? **I'm also worried theres a
chance the metal stakes that the thousands of other people will also be
pounding into the ground for their tents and camps could somehow draw
some current** Thinks there's any chance of that? I remember Tesla
mentioning being able to draw sparks off of water pipes miles away. I
certainly do not want to injury someone 100 yards away.
Second question: Im not familiar with portable generators. How
big of one do I want? I'm using a 12KV NST having 60ma through a 1/4" Cu
tubing flat spiral primary.
Thanks for any help! Brandon