Re: CAVITY TC?

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

Original poster: "Paul Nicholson by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <paul-at-abelian.demon.co.uk>

Hi Ed, Dave,

> Corum's (actually: one of the Grad Students) that I saw
> described in detail, ran at about 160 Mhz, with 'sine wave'
> drive, using a '1/4 wave whip' (in a can... as i recall) as
> a resonator.  Gave a 'flame like' discharge

Reminds me of something from my youth.  Trying to bounce a radio
signal off the moon, at 145 Mhz, lots of RF into a big beam, and
a neighbour appears at the door.  Now I was used to the odd complaint,
TVs and lights (next-doors kitchen fluorescent would light by itself,
funny, for some reason they never did appreciate the favourable
economics), but this woman came to report that my antenna was on fire.
OK, SWR fine, lets go have a look, and sure enough, neat blue flames
were licking along the folded dipole.  Never saw the like before
or since.  Quite a dark blue as I recall.  I think the night was
quite a damp one, but I didn't take too much notice, at the time I
was just glad it wasn't a bad connection.

The things you do as a kid. Me and my mates would give ourselves
painless 'RF tatoos' using the sharpened tip of a 1/4 wave welding
rod.  Mad!

--
Paul Nicholson
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