Re: De-tunning or what?

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

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <Tesla729-at-cs-dot-com>

In a message dated 4/21/01 12:52:50 PM Central Daylight Time, 
tesla-at-pupman-dot-com writes: 


>
> Anyway, 
> after about 5 seconds of power application the sparks wane considerably and 
> the 
> safety gap (15mm) takes over. I switch off power for several seconds and 
> re-apply it to get the same big sparks. As I  repeat this process the time 
> for 
> the safety gap to take over reduces to about 1 seconds. If I then wait a 
> minute 
> or so, the process repeats all over again starting at 5 seconds of power 
> application etc. 



Hi Chuck, 

It sounds an awful lot to me like your spark gap isn't beefy enough for 
the power level that you're running. As the spark gap overheats, the 
quenching action is greatly reduced or suspended all-together and thus, 
the output is drastically reduced. I would try building a beefier SG or, 
better yet, build a synch rotory gap. 

David Rieben