Hello all,
I have been thinking a lot about spark gaps lately. Specifically: what
happens on the backside of the sine wave (of the supply transformer
voltage)?
Refer to this crude image (note the green numbers correspond to each of the
three questions below). The values and limits are arbitrary just to
illustrate the idea and questions below.
https://i.imgur.com/z7fGKZB.png
Questions:
1) For a NON rotary gap, what happens after the gap stops firing but the
voltage has not yet crossed the zero line? I am guessing the tank capacitor
charges initially and then drains as the supply transformer voltage drops.
Is this primarily hard on the transformer's secondary windings (heating due
to current) or hard on the caps (heating due to current)? Do the caps
discharge through the primary coil in the tank (since it has less impedance
compared the supply transformer's secondary)?
2) For a NON rotary gap, once the voltage has crossed the zero crossing
point is the charge on the capacitor (coulombs) preserved and carried
forward, thus helping to charge the caps on the next cycle (or below the
zero line cross in this graph)?
3) FOR A SYNCHRONOUS ROTARY GAP, to my knowledge, it has always been
suggested to break on the peaks and valleys of the sine wave (for max
power) AND the zero line crossings to discharge the caps. Which makes me
ask TWO questions:
3a) How is there enough voltage on the caps to be able to break down the
gap if there is zero volts?
3b) It has also been suggested that a NON-SYNCHRONOUS gap when used with
NST's will damage the NST's secondary windings...so if my above assumptions
in questions 1 and 2 are correct...then why don't static gaps destroy NST's
(ignoring random voltage spikes and dirty RF noise)?
If there is already some whitepaper or documentation written on this please
direct me to it! You can also attach and email me directly as well if there
is not a tidy URL to point me to.
Thanks,
~Dan
Kansas City area
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