Re: NST replacements

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

Original poster: "Jim Lux by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net>

Don't worry Harvey, you'll always be able to buy a current limited HV 
transformer for scientific (or artistic, or whatever) experimentation...

What you won't be able to do (indirectly because of regulation) is be able 
to get one for free (or cheap) as scrap.

What it will force the would-be scientist to do is more cost/benefit 
analysis.. but, everyone has had to do that anyway...

Scenario:
"A" has an idea they'd like to try out. The first cut at testing the idea 
involves using a 15 kV -at- 30 mA current limited transformer. Investigation 
reveals that getting such an item (custom made, because they're no longer 
mass market devices) would cost, for instance, $500.  "A" now has several 
alternatives:

1) Decide that testing the idea is worth $500 and just pay up (the 
dedicated amateur with high income approach)

2) Convince someone else that the idea is worth $500, and get them to pay 
up (the research scientist with grant applications approach)

3) Figure out another way to test the idea that doesn't use the 15 kV -at- 30 
mA ransformer -- maybe a MOT -- maybe a 4kV 1kW switching PSU from a new 
microwave -- maybe scaling the voltage to run directly "off line" ( the out 
of the box inventor approach)

4) Make their own transformer - it will take some nontrivial amount of 
hours - but if hours are cheap and dollars dear, its a way to go (the 
handtool craftsman approach - I am reminded of the PBS show where the guy 
makes all manner of cool things out of wood, starting with chopping down 
the tree)

5) Find a job that will exchange some of your excess hours for more money, 
and then buy the $500 transformer (a variant on #1)


Regulatory hassles are omnipresent, but, at least in HV experimentation, 
we're pretty much below the radar.  A totally different story if you wanted 
to, for instance, fool with a fission reactor in your garage, work with 
explosive metal forming, high power rocketry, grow pathogenic organism, 
develop high performance spread spectrum or cryptographic equipment.



At 07:59 AM 3/7/2003 -0700, you wrote:
>Original poster: "Harvey Norris by way of Terry Fritz 
><teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <harvich-at-yahoo-dot-com>
>
>
>--- Tesla list <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com> wrote:
> > Original poster: "Dr. Resonance by way of Terry
> > Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <resonance-at-jvlnet-dot-com>
> >
> >
> > This past fall I paid a retired engineer from a
> > certain leading NST
> > manufacturer to set down with me for a day and help
> > develop a new design as
> > a replacement for those NST's that will soon be
> > unavailable even used.  The
> > new ones will be electronic in a few years and a
> > current limited
> > conventional NST will no longer be available.
>Surely this cannot be true?  What about the many
>transformers on EBAY?  If we are getting to the point
>that regulation can interupt a hobbiest's
>experimentation with  high voltage electrical
>phenomenon, this is a real blow for scientific
>freedom?  I can scarcely believe that ANY regulation
>could eliminate accessibility to a standard current
>limited  high voltage transformer, such as the NST is
>classified.  The mere thought of this kind of
>regulation gets me pig biting mad, (to use Ed Angers
>popular expression often found in the Weekly World
>News: I like to stay educated), (flames unreturnable) HDN