RE: Fast ground rod

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

Original poster: "Loudner, Godfrey by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <gloudner-at-SINTE.EDU>

Hello Terry

When someone comes on the list stating that they are going to use a
15kV/60mA NST as a power supply for a tesla coil having a diameter of about
10 inches, the usual advice is to get a pig or equivalent because you won't
have enough power to even cause the toroid to breakout. Your coil is
certainly a counterexample to such a dictum. Can you say something about why
your large diameter coil is working so well with a small power supply. 

Godfrey Loudner

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Tesla list [SMTP:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
> Sent:	Tuesday, July 24, 2001 11:11 PM
> To:	tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> Subject:	Fast ground rod
> 
> Original poster: "Terry Fritz" <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>
> 
> Hi All,
> 
> Dennis Leikam and his friend Clindt were in my town the other day.  So I
> hooked up the big coil for some fun.  :-))  
> 
> http://hot-streamer-dot-com/temp/P7220017a.jpg
> http://hot-streamer-dot-com/temp/P7220018a.jpg
> 
> I have not had the big one powered up in quite some time so the tuning was
> course, but we still had a load of fun.
> 
> I suddenly needed some ground rods, so I cut some 36 x 3/8 inch brass rod
> and added a few brass bolts and wing nuts:
> 
> http://hot-streamer-dot-com/temp/P7240023a.jpg
> http://hot-streamer-dot-com/temp/P7240027a.jpg
> http://hot-streamer-dot-com/temp/P7240025a.jpg
> 
> They are only 18 inches long but they seemed to do the trick very well
> here
> in the wet soil.  I thought they might be of use to others that needed the
> fast portable ground rod the was 1/4 inch ring lug friendly :-))
> 
> I soldered the 1/4 inch bolts right onto the rod.  The spike ends are
> filed
> blunt to prevent hand cuts.  A common hammer drives them in very easily.
> 
> Sort of a fast and easy ground rod for that fast situation...
> 
> I'll try to drag out the toys and see what the resistance frequency
> spectrum of them is tomorrow...  It will be interesting to place to two
> rods a meter apart and see what the AC resistance through say 10kHz to
> 1MHz
> is...  I was not noticing any RF getting to "me" so something must have
> been working right :-))
> 
> I do notice that the grass under "ground zero" is looking a little poor
> today...  I'll try to check that out a little closer too...
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> 	Terry
> 
>