Re: [TCML] Newbie Grounding Question

[drieben@xxxxxxxxxxx (David Rieben)]

Hi Ken,

Welcome to the highly addictive hobby ;^) As far as the answer
to your question, the main idea is to keep the RF ground seperate
from the mains ground system and anything that you will actually
be touching needs to be connected to the mains ground only and 
completely seperated from the RF ground. The reasoning behind
this is that the return currents on the RF ground of the base of the
secondary coil can still reach fairly nasty potentials and reek havoc
with any sensitive electronics in your home and also cause nasty (but
very unlikely lethal) little RF burn shocks to you when you touch 
anything that's tied into the RF ground circuit. So as far as what 
you tie in to RF ground, you will get varying answers on that but
the main thing to remember is that if you are going to be touching
it during operation of the coil, then do NOT connect that to RF
ground, but mains ground instead. And do NOT  interconnect
the RF ground and the mains ground - keep them seperate. I run
a large pole pig powered system and RF ground the base of the 
secondary, primary, and the tank case (and the neutral side of)
the pole pig. The primary capacitor "floats" on the "hot" side of the
primary circuit. Everything else, including the massive control panel's
conductive metal surfaces and the line filters, I connect to the mains 
60 Hz ground.

Hope this helps and I'm sure that you will get other responses to
this question from the TCML as well.

Happy Holidays and spark safely,
David Rieben

-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: kkociolek8577@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 

> Hi Everyone, 
> 
> I've been an EE for 25 years and always wanted to build a TC. I made a half- 
> arsed attempt in my younger days but it never got off the ground. I've been 
> digging through the archives and am a little bit confused about what 
> connects and what does not connect to an RF ground. Some say that the only 
> connection to an RF ground is the bottom of the secondary. Others state that 
> the center tap and core of the nst, the spark gap housing, mid point of 
> filters, all on the high side of the nst should connect to RF ground. Others 
> say this is lethal. Maybe I'm misunderstanding all this info. Can someone 
> set me straight? Thanks. 
> 
> Ken 
> 
> -- 
> WOW! Homepage (http://www.wowway.com) 
> 
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