Re: PVC Wire for a secondary?

[Tesla729-at-cs-dot-com (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)]

Hi John, Ed,all,

Regarding PVC insulation, from my personal coiling experience, I have
to agree with Ed Wingate's comments about using tight wound mag-
net wire secondaries. If the system is properly tuned to the 1/4 wave
length, the Vmax will only occur near the top terminal capacitance of
the resonator while maximum current will occur -at- the grounded base.
Remember, the (I) and the (V) are 90^ out of phase. Also, a good-sized
toroid produces an elecstatic shield around the upper portion of the
sec, where most of the very high potentials are located.

I have had experience with both space wound and tight-wound secs,
and either will work if the system is properly constructed and tuned.
It seems to me that it is advantagious to wind the sec. as tight as
possible as this increases the (L). My current largest coil system is
powered by a ballasted 10 kVA pole pig at up to 9 kVA, and the sec
coil is 12"x 39 1/2" long and topped with an 8"x32" dryer duct toroid,
and it can easily hurl 8 to 10 ft lightning bolts with no secondary
flashover. And this is a classic two-coil system and not a "maggie".

Well, that's my observations just from practical experience. Its still
a mystery to me to this day how a Tesla coil can produce sparks
several times longer than the sec coil itself, but I know from experi-
ence that under the right circumstances, it certainly can.

                                                Keep on Sparkin'
                                                David Rieben
                                                Memphis, TN, USA