RE: TC & Lightning

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

Original poster: "Jim Lux" <jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net> 

At 08:33 AM 7/27/2004 -0600, Tesla list wrote:
>Original poster: "Malcolm Watts" <m.j.watts-at-massey.ac.nz>
>On 26 Jul 2004, at 13:00, Tesla list wrote:
>
> > Original poster: "Steve Conner" <steve.conner-at-optosci-dot-com>
> >
> >  >[+]  Imagine trying to do this process in reverse: Start with a >TC
> >  made to have a suitable pattern of dispersion.  Send in a >CW burst
> >  having a swept frequency (a chirp) carefully chosen so >that the
> >  entire chirp (and therefore all the burst energy) is >concentrated by
> >  the dispersion into a single pulse at the far >end of the coil.
> >
> > Well, we have the technology ;) With solid state inverter stuff we can
> > quite easily generate pretty much any kind of FM/chirp thing you
> > fancy, at peak powers over 100kW.
> >
> > But I can't imagine how you would make a physical TC resonator that
> > had a dispersion pattern that was useful for pulse compression. Can
> > you?
> >
> > Steve C.
>
>An interesting question. Perhaps it might be worth looking over the
>odd article on light pulse compression and hunting for analogues
>which could be applied to the electrical world. If time permits and I
>remember, I'll have ahunt through some Sci Am's next time I'm down in
>the library.
>
>Malcolm

There are lots of dispersive transmission media around for RF. Probably the 
best known is ionized gas.

One can also synthesize an LC network with an arbitrary phase vs frequency 
characteristic.

The challenge is doing it with low loss.


One can also do pulse compression with codings other than linear FM 
chirps.  Biphase codes spring to mind.

Here's the question, though, where and why do you want a compressed pulse?

If you just want to make fast HV pulses, there are easier ways.  For what 
it's worth, the stacked Blumlein scheme does it in time domain, much 
analogous to RF pulse compression.  The Marx generator does it another way.


If you're looking to transmit low average power and get high peak power at 
the other end (the usual radar problem), then that's another story.