Strange behavior

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

Original poster: "J. B. Weazle McCreath by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <weazle-at-hurontel.on.ca>


Hello Coilers,

While running my coil earlier this evening I had a strange occurance
that I'd like to have explained to me.  After about a full minute of
firing, the streamers just stopped like a swich had been thrown, but
the gap continued to fire.  I shut down for about five seconds, then
fired up again and the streamers where back as before for about the
same time interval and then they stopped again.

Switching everything off and taking the shorting sticks to all of the
hot spots, I began looking for a probable cause.  The MMC showed not
even the slightest bit of heating on any of the 96 caps, all of the
primary and secondary connections where secure, and as I said before,
the gap continued to fire even when the streamers stopped, so I ruled
out a problem with it or the power source.  Ideas anyone?

Here's the coil details:

Power:  10/70 OBIT stack with PFC
Cap:    0.0258 uF. -at- 25 KV MMC
Gap:    7 segment RQ/TCBOR with suction quench
Prim:   14 turn 1/4" tube, 20 degree inv. cone
        tapped at turn 7
Sec:    4" x 22" 800 turns of no. 22
Toroid: 16" x 4" over 11" x 4" flex duct, 24 pF.

Normal streamers are 3 or 4 simultaneous of 30 to 36 inches.


73, Weazle, VE3EAR/VE3WZL

Listening: 147.030+ and 442.075+
E-mail:    weazle-at-hurontel.on.ca
           or ve3ear-at-rac.ca
Web site:  www.hurontel.on.ca/~weazle