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Re: Ground system for outside operation: Counterpoise?
Original poster: "davep by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <davep-at-quik-dot-com>
Tesla list wrote:
> Original poster: "Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz by way of Terry Fritz
<twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <acmq-at-compuland-dot-com.br>
>>The larger question may be: What constitutes an adequate tesla coil ground,
>>an optimum tesla ground, and what are the characteristics of both? Then, for
>>the selected proposed physical ground arrangement--ground rod(s),
>>counterpoise, etc.--how must that ground be constructed to meet the
>>conditions demanded by the answer to the first question.
> I think that the answer for this, in what concerns the operation of the
> system, is that the ground connection shall have an impedance to the
> effective ground significantly smaller than the impedance from the
> secondary terminal to the ground, at the operating frequencies.
> This is not much. Consider the load capacitance of a small coil as
> being 20 pF, at 300 kHz. The load impedance is then:
> Z = 1/(2*pi*f*C) = 27 kOhms.
> Any kind of ground connection, resistive (ground rod) or capacitive
> (counterpoise) with less than a few kOhms of impedance would be
> adequate.
> This is easy to verify by operating the coil at low-power, with a
> low-impedance square-wave generator across the primary gap, and
> observing the primary waveforms in an oscilloscope. With a small
> coil as described above, there is little difference between a solid
> ground connection and a finger touching the disconnected ground
> connection (of course, in the low-power test only!).
However operation with breakout, or even full power
sub breakout may be _different_.
I think this is an area open for experimentation.
Thoughts:
There ie ALWAYS a 'ground', sometimes explicit or:
sometimes provided by stray capacity at base
of coil,
sometimes, i suspect, provided by quasi
invisible corona or spark at base 'finding'
ground.
The current at base may be hinger than current at top:
If there is a 1/4 wave voltage peak at top, then there
is a 1/4 wave _currrent_ peak at bottom.
(I recognize my second comment is subject to debate &
disagreement... 8)>>)
--
best
dwp
...the net of a million lies...
Vernor Vinge
There are Many Web Sites which Say Many Things.
-me