Preliminary Ballast Results

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

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


Hello Coilers,

I finished winding my ballast this evening, and ended up going the
tapless route, as the winding operation was more difficult than I
had expected it to be.  I'll do my current adjustment with various
sized insulators between the E and I segments.

I ended up with a total of 188 turns, as the TEW wire only let me
get around 22 to 23 turns per layer.  Once I had the wound bobbin
on the E core, I installed the I segments with .015 inch spacers
for the gap, hooked up my variac and amprobe, and let her rip.

The current was 3 amps!  Not too bad at all, as if I go with more
layers of insulating paper, or some other thicker insulator/spacer
material, I should be able to get my target 20 amps with ease.

Thanks once again to all who provided me with valuable data needed
in the construction phase, particularly Bert and Richie, who took
time to give me a lot of detailed info.

The finished unit weighs 50 pounds!!


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