TSG Troubles

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Original poster: "S & J Young by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <youngs-at-konnections-dot-net>

Triggered Spark Gappers,

I need some help.  I am having mediocre to miserable performance with my
asynchronous triggered spark gap setup.  I have a MOT 4-pack with dual
doublers providing up to 20 KV of smoothed DC.  This runs a resonant
charging TC arrangement.  Inductor is three MOT secondaries and a de-Qing
diode string in series.

My TSG has two 3/16 inch diameter tungsten electrodes with an air blast to
help with quenching.  I have tried a trigger electrode between the two main
electrodes.  I have tried a needle point perpindicular to and spaced away
from the axis of the main electrodes.  I have also tried annular rings -
washers with 3/4 or 1 inch inside diameter with the inside edge ground
sharp.  Best results for any of these seems to be around 180 BPS.  All
configurations perform about the same.

The TSG setup works great for power levels under about 700 DC watts.   But
if I crank up the power, the TSG loses control and fires at a BPS of perhaps
1500 or more, making wonderfully bright streamers, but drawing far too much
AC power and generally stressing everything way too much.  Adjusting gap
spacing, air velocity, trigger location, etc. does not improve the TSG
performance at higher power.  I have not been able to run over 1 KW and
retain triggering control of the gap.

Has anyone used a TSG with a DC resonant charging reactor setup and had good
performance?  Or, does anyone have any good engineering experience and ideas
to improve my setup?

In the meantime, it's back to my asynchronous RSG - heavy sigh . . .

Steve Y.