new coiler with new coil, is my frequency ok?

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

Original poster: "Ryan Molecke by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <ryan-at-molecke-dot-com>

Hi all,

    I have been avidly reading all postings due to my new enthusiasm with
everything Tesla!
I'm an EECE student at UNM here in Albuquerque.


     My first attempt at a coil seems to run ok and generate somewhat of a
field near the toroid, but no breakout yet. I'm using a basic variac and
simple tank capacitor/spark gap circuit (just for starters). My secondary is
very small gauge copper wire wound tightly - 1200-1500 turns geusstimate, on
16" or so of approx 1" diameter PVC.
     I'm getting a rather high resonant frequency on the secondary, about
1.54 Mhz, and I have my 2.7 mF capacitor/primary tuned to the same frequency
(it is about 10 turns of heavier copper wire with about 2.5" diameter,
helical 4"). My spark gap is very crude at this point. Is 1.54 Mhz too high
of a frequency for a simple spark gap using two sharpened screws?
     My toroid is a flat circular sheet with rounded toroid-like edge, about
5" diameter of thin sheet metal. This disk alone brought the resonant freq.
of the socondary assembly down a good .5 Mhz. I'm going to try atatching a
nail to see if I get a point corona, maybe my toroid has too much surface
area?

Please, suggestions! criticisms! advice!

Ryan Molecke
Reason-at-eece.unm.edu