Coil mystery solved was Re:A new mini-coil competition winner.

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Original poster: "Karl L." <karl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Hi Terry, all.

Thanks for all of the great ideas you tossed out regarding my new 
coil performance.  I got my old Tek 465 B scope out of storage, and 
set it up away from the coil.  I got a 60 Hz waveform on the display 
using a small wire antenna.  When the gap fired, a vertical line 
would appear near the peak of the sine wave. At low variac levels, 
there was one line per 1/2 AC cycle, or fewer.  The gap did not fire 
every 1/2 cycle, sometimes missing two or three.  I call this mode 
"idling" as there are nice 5" streamers coming off the sphere.  As 
the variac goes past 65% the small streamers get large, and start to 
coalesce and strike nearby objects.  The sound changes also.  On the 
scope, there are two vertical lines close together at each 1/2 sine 
wave now.  So it looks as if your microsim model was correct, and the 
gap is firing twice each 1/2 cycle. The miracles of resonant charging...

Thanks again,

Karl