Re: Who needs a quenching gap ?

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

Original poster: FutureT-at-aol-dot-com 

In a message dated 12/8/00 10:18:33 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
tesla-at-pupman-dot-com writes:

> Original poster: Parpp807-at-aol-dot-com 
>  
>  Finn, Gary, all
>  
>  I can watch the ringdown on my scope. At what point in
>  the cycle is the energy considered depleted?

Ralph, all,

Regarding the quenching of static gaps vs. rotaries, I think they
both quench before all the energy is depleted, but it's a matter of
degree.  Both gap types quench, but one may quench faster than
the other.  I think a gap will almost always quench before all the 
energy is depleted, but it's a question of how much before.  I think
that one of the reasons that some static gaps may seem to quench 
better, is because the gaps are so wide if there are few, (they have 
to be wide because the firing voltage is determined by the gap spacing).

But there's another important factor too:  The same rotary gap may
quench very differently depending on the design of the coil it's installed
into.  So to judge a rotary's quenching ability by it's performance in
a particular TC is misleading at best.  The actual quenching ability
will depend on the power input, streamer loading, surge impedance,
frequency, etc.  For instance if the frequency is low, the notches
are wider, and the ions have more time to disassociate.  This is 
another reason to use many turns of wire on the secondary to keep
the frequency low.  This of course also raises the surge impedance
which helps the quenching too.

Simply by changing the streamer loading, using various types of
toploads, the quench position can be moved from one notch to
another.

John Freau

>  
>  Lurking in back of the classroom,
>  Cheers,
>  Ralph Zekelman