Tuned spark gap.

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Tuned spark gap.
From: gweaver <gweaver-at-earthlink-dot-net> (by way of Terry Fritz <terryf-at-verinet-dot-com>)
Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 04:48:15 -0600
Approved: terryf-at-verinet-dot-com

Today I wound 2 chokes and put them in my 750 watt TC circuit.  The chokes
are both about 30 turns of #14 insulated house wire on a ferrite donut.

Chokes are connected to the neon HV terminals and to the spark gap.  This
puts the spark gap in parallel with the neon throught the chokes.

LC circuit is suppost to be connected in parallel with the spark gap but I
got one wire in the wrong place.  One wire of the LC circuit was connected
on the wrong side of the choke.

I turned on the TC and the spark gap fired like there were no caps in the
circuit.  Right away I noticed something was wrong.  Double checked my
circuit and found the wire in the wrong place.

I didn't expect to see such a hugh effect on the TC with one wire in the
wrong side of the choke.  I can replace the choke with a piece of wire and
the TC works fine.  

I guess the high frequency created my the spark gap is being blocked by the
choke and thats why the TC output is zero.  This gave me an idea.  What if I
put a band pass filter in series with the spark gap to pass only the
operating frequency of the TC.  Wonder what would happen. 

Gary Weaver