RE: Fast ground rod

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

Original poster: "Terry Fritz" <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>

Hi Godfrey,

I don't think the coil size as a great affect on streamer length.  If I put
1000 watts into a two foot coil or 1000 watts into one of Greg's giant
coils, I think I will get about the same streamer length either way.

My coil is oversized since I do a lot of testing with it and it is much
easier to probe a big coil than a small one.  That is the only reason I
made it so big for it's power level. 

Cheers,

	Terry

At 11:50 PM 7/24/2001 -0500, you wrote:
>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
>> 
>> 
>