Re: All pain no gain

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

Original poster: "Jim Lux by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net>

What you really need is a decent RF counterpoise... A piece of screen on
the floor (chicken wire, e.g.) would probably do nicely.  I happened to
have a 4x4 sheet of copper which worked very nicely with a 15/30 coil.  No
discernable RF on any of the power lines, etc.

You should, for safety, also ground to earth ground (i.e. third pin of
electrical outlet), however, that isn't a particularly good RF ground (and,
actually, may make a fine antenna).

You could ground to the third pin ground through a suitable RF choke; which
would still allow DC and 60 Hz fault current to flow, but would block RF.

Tesla list wrote:
> 
> Original poster: "Garry Freemyer by way of Terry Fritz
<twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <garry-at-ndfc-dot-com>
> 
> I wonder if trying to ground it to the metal faucet would be better than
> hooking to the mains in my case where all the pipes are plastic and there is
> no "Yard" to drive a pipe in. In my case it's an apartment. Output sparks
> are about 30" and I've not have any trouble yet. If it were any bigger
> output I would probably not run it at all.
> 
> I thought I read something like it wasn't a good ground, but maybe it's
> better than nothing?
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
> Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2001 2:01 PM
> To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> Subject: Re: All pain no gain
> 
> Original poster: "Malcolm Watts by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>"
> <m.j.watts-at-massey.ac.nz>
> 
> >Snip
> 
> >Hi Nate,The bottom of the secondary should be well connected to a dedicated
> RF ground, NOT the mains. To do otherwise compromises safety and greatly
> increases mains-bourne noise.
> 
> >Snip.