RE: Experimental tesla coil using Radfio Shack Megacable Speaker wire as primary

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

Original poster: "Steve Conner" <steve.conner-at-optosci-dot-com> 

 >120 pf, which is slightly below
 >1/4 of the 30 ma NST's charging ability

Surely you mean 1/40? These capacitances are all much smaller than typical
primary capacitors, even in very small TCs. And earlier you said that a
similar NST could charge 4nF (4000pF)?

 >scopings are obtained WITHOUT
 >ANY EXCITATION MADE ONTO THE TESTED COILS, WHICH IS
 >TERMED AN AMBIENT SCOPING.

I have noticed this effect too. If you scope the base current of a Tesla
resonator you can sometimes see it ringing ever so slightly even with no
apparent excitation. Touching the topload makes the signal disappear.

The Tesla resonator makes a very sensitive "antenna" at its resonant
frequency and it seems to pick up broadband RF crud floating around in the
environment (spikes from light dimmers, motors, switching power supplies
etc) of which there is a lot nowadays :(

Steve C.