Re: Non ballasting a pig?

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Original poster: "Jason by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <jasonp-at-btinternet-dot-com>

Greg,

> If I get a vote, then I vote "no"--do not run it
> without a ballast. In my (admittedly limited)
> experience, it is a risky thing to do. I was fortunate
> enough to be in attendance at the first ever UK
> teslathon at Corby. I saw a bloke there run a pole
> xfmer coil with no ballast.
Hmm if you are referring to Mike T's coil, the BM2/BM3, then it was
ballasted with a large inductor. I remember trying to pick it up! See here:
http://freespace.virgin-dot-net/michael.tucknott/Ballast.htm

> However, he used a 10,000
> RPM ASRG with only 2 flying electrodes. Apparently.
> this limited the current adequately.
Surely a high breakrate would increase the current throughput... I get an
extra 15% current draw when running at 300bps over 100bps. See here:
http://freespace.virgin-dot-net/michael.tucknott/high.htm

> I don't know how
> many amps he drew from the wallplug, but the breaker
> did not trip, and there was no fire, so he got away
> with it.
It was a 30A cooker socket.

I would be very cautious of running a pig unballasted - I would imagine that
the short current, plus the reactive load would present a very difficult
load for any power line!!

Best Regards,

Jason
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