Re: [TCML] Grounding a Tesla Coil (Yes, Again)

[Gary Lau <glau1024@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Jim,

On the issue of RF grounds in general, determining the relative
quality of one has always been nebulous.  I'm pretty sure that the
consensus is that the ground quality has a minimal effect at best on
streamer length, so I don't think streamer length is a useful metric.
You wrote:
> Give it a shot and see if it works.

Short of just seeing if any appliance damage results, are you aware of
any means to quantify how well a given setup works, even relative to
an alternate setup?  I once tried monitoring the AC mains through a
high-pass filter for transient spikes (assuming that a better ground
results in lower amplitude transients), but uncertainty of how to
ground the scope probe (and scope!) made me give up.

Regards, Gary Lau
MA, USA

On Mon, May 10, 2010 at 10:27 AM, jimlux <jimlux@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Brandon Hendershot wrote:
>>
>> Alright,
>> Sorry for the delayed response,
>> I didn't get any exact math to calculate the counterpoise size, but the most I can safely get away with is 7.25' x 1.5' or 10.875 sqr/ft. Will this work with a 3.5" x 16" secondary, 1007.7' of 29 AWG wire, topload being 4" x 16"?
>> Thanks for all your guys's support,
>> Brandon
>>
>
>
> how tall is your coil? From base to top of top load?  (It's at least 16" right.. because that's your secondary... but presumably you've got "other stuff" under it, and the top load is a few inches above the top of the secondary coil?
>
> So, let's call it 30 inches (2.5 feet)tall.  If you sat it in the middle of a 5x5 foot square or circle of chicken wire that would be pretty good.  You don't have quite that, but you're pretty close. Give it a shot and see if it works.
>
>
> Two cautions (and I should just do a drawing or photograph and post it)....
>
> 1) It's the height of the top of the coil from the counterpoise that counts.  Putting a 1 foot high coil on a 4 foot post, in the middle of a 2x2 foot counter poise, just isn't going to work very well.
>
> 2) The counterpoise is "under" the coil, not somewhere else away from the coil.  Counterpoise on window sill, and coil on table in middle of room doesn't work. (FWIW, if you're running a coil on a table, putting the counterpoise on the table is the way to go.. think of it like a tablecloth)
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