RE: best ground for tesla coils?

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

Original poster: "Black Moon by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <black_moons-at-hotmail-dot-com>

Well, the big thing is capsatance verus topload, its a ratio
the ratio determs how much output is at the topload verus how much is at 
the ground.. verus a 'true' 0v
as long as the ground has a large capasatance verus topload, its all ok
Btw, proximity to the topload as in a large sheet on the ground can incress 
both the topload and ground plate capasatance past there free air. Also, 
many floors are poor insulators, most will leak alot, may heat up, cause 
fire hazords even with ground plates. Sure, 200watts may not sound like much
but remember my 50watt flyback has no problems starting fires given the 
right conditions.

>From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
>To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
>Subject: RE: best ground for tesla coils?
>Date: Thu, 05 Dec 2002 08:15:50 -0700
>
>Original poster: "Brett Miller by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" 
><brmtesla-at-yahoo-dot-com>
>
>Phil,
>
>--- Tesla list <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com> wrote:
> > Original poster: "Phil Strons by way of Terry Fritz
> > <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <pstrons-at-directvinternet-dot-com>
> >
> > I have some additional ground questions.
> >
> > My first coil will be a small one, only 270 watts.
> > So, is all this
> > effort that's been described really necessary for
> > me?
>
>I would say "absolutely not".  My first coil was 230
>watts and I just used about a 6 foot long sheet of
>aluminum foil (counterpoise) unrolled on the floor and
>attached to the bottom of the secondary, and that
>worked fine.  I later compaired it with a true RF
>ground and there was no spark length improvement.
>
>You know...someone really should do a scientific study
>analysing different TC RF ground systems at varying
>power levels and maybe we could end this debate once
>and for all.
>
> > Can't I get away
> > with a smaller ground?
>
>Many people have had success with quite minimal
>grounds...in some cases with power levels above
>several KVA.  Check the archives.
>
>-Brett
>hot-streamer-dot-com/brett
>
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Phil Strons
>