RE: NorCal Teslathon -- Interesting Devices and Effects

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

Original poster: "Basura, Brian by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <brian.basura-at-unistudios-dot-com>

Greg/Bart/Others,

Ross Overstreet and I had similar experiences a couple years ago. When I
slowly brought up the power to my coil Ross' coil started making arcs even
though his was shut off. Ross' arcs continued to increase in length until I
had the power high enough to achieved breakout on my coil. At that point
Ross' arcs diminished somewhat but persisted during the run of my coil.
Discussions on the list at that time tended to think the common
daisy-chained ground was playing a part in the phenononum. Both of our 6"
coils were running at approximately 150khz (+-10khz), were separated by 12'
or so, and shared a common ground. Here is a picture of the setup we were
using (circa February 1999)
http://fp2.hughes-dot-net/brianb/images/Tesla/Pictures/022099/ross-basura1.jpg

We also witnessed this same effect during the 1999 SC Teslathon (to the
surprise of a couple coilers who approached their coil while it was
de-energized but another coil was running). At this time we were using a
common ground point with some coil grounds daisy-chained. The coils were
also much closer together. http://fp2.hughes-dot-net/brianb/newpage11.htm

I was not aware of this happening at the 2000 SC Teslathon. There were two
changes which could have prevented it from occurring. First the coils were
spaced much further apart. Second, we had installed an extensive multi point
ground system  where all the ground rods were tied together and a large
ground buss ran by each coil. There were no daisy-chained grounds I was
aware of.  http://fp2.hughes-dot-net/brianb/2000.htm

Not sure this is of any assistance but I thought I'd share it.

Regards,
Brian B.

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com] 
Sent:	Wednesday, July 18, 2001 7:08 AM
To:	tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject:	Re: NorCal Teslathon -- Interesting Devices and Effects

Original poster: "Barton B. Anderson by way of Terry Fritz
<twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <tesla123-at-pacbell-dot-net>

Hi Greg,

Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: "Greg Leyh by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<lod-at-pacbell-dot-net>
>
> Original poster: Barton B. Anderson
>
> > Out of curiousity, do you know the approximate power level you were
running
> > at and the
> > proximity of Kelek's coil to your's? This must have really blown some
minds
> > when it was first
> > noticed.
>
> Indeed... when I first closed the contactor and saw Kelek's
> coil light up, I immediately shut down and glanced over at
> her control table... no one was there!  Then I noticed that
> her rotary gap was not spinning, either.  I had to stop and
> ponder this for a moment, then remembered that her coil runs
> somewhere around 60kHz, from a rough measurement we had made.
> My coil usually runs around 61kHz.
>
> I applied power again, but still couldn't believe that it was
> possible to couple that much power over that distance... even
> as I was watching her coil generate a 6ft arc!
>
> The effect was most pronounced when my coil was running at a
> low power setting with almost no breakout, around 13 kW.  As
> the power level increased above 50%, the streamers on Kelek's
> coil would start to diminish.  My first guess is that the
> operating freq of my coil decreases far enough at full power
> (due to the increased C of the arc and the ion cloud) that the
> tuning match becomes skewed.
>
> The center-to-center distance between the two coils was about
> 25 feet.  Given the typical 5oo W/ft arc length number and
> a typical coil efficiency of 60%, it would appear that about
> 15oo to 18ooW of power was coupled between the coils, in order
> to produce the 5 to 6ft induced arc.  But then again it might
> actually require far less power than this to produce a 6ft arc.
>
> Any guesses on the coupled W/ft required to produce a 6ft arc
> in this fashion?
> --
>
> -GL
> www.lod-dot-org

Well, no. 6 foot arcs should be about 1800W, but as far as coupling a 25
foot distance, no
clue. Other list members would have a better idea than I would.

Reading your post here, brings the CS Notes to mind. By accident, your coil
and Kelek's
produced the same phenomenon Telsa discovered with the same requirements
(prevent streamer
loading, tuning to the same Fr, etc..). Someone brought up a really good
point earlier asking
if the grounding piont was tied to the same point (guessing yes).

It would be good to repeat this again some day if at all possible. Should
the event occur
again, I'll bring a 61kHz coil with me.

Take care,
Bart