New SRSG (and problems)

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

Original poster: "Marry Krutsch by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <u236-at-earthlink-dot-net>

Hi everyone!

	I just tested my coil with my new rotary gap and results are a bit
dissapointing.  Spark length remains at 5 feet.  I ran the gap at 240
BPS and 480 BPS, with the best spark at 480 (sounds like an air horn
:-)).  The coil likes the highest dwell time that I can give it. 
Performance is better with my sucker gap.  I am using a 0.044 uF cap,
and 4 H&R xfmrs in series as a power supply.  Resonant size for my
supply is around 55 nF.
	My questions are:

1. Am I doing anything obviously wrong?  I didn't expect this gap to be
a "fix-all" for the coil, but I was looking for some improvement.

2. Could I benefit from a substantially larger capacitor?  (LTR)  I want
to get the break rate down, but am not sure what that would do to the
performance.

3. I don't know how much my supply was pulling, but is it reasonable to
assume that it is using less power than with my sucker gap?

4. I had trouble getting the timing right, although I think I got the
best of it int he end.  Is there a way to reliably time these things
(without a scope, or anything like that)?

Thanks,
Winston K.

PS-- I'm going to try to see my physics teacher's coil tommorrow (the
one with the tiny tank cap.)