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RE: FIRST LIGHT
Ted,
Bert gave me some hints as to what you were doing but this Sounds like a
great system.
Don't know if you would be interested in a chance to "Show it off" to over
a dozen other coilers but I have been watering my RF ground in prep. for
our Oct. 14th Teslathon.
Your setup would be a nice addition to the other coils we will be showing,
Look forward to seeing you at the show.
P.S. Write that book.
Phil
TCBFW
Original poster: "Ted Rosenberg" <Ted.Rosenberg-at-radioshack-dot-com>
Hello everyone.
It gives me great pleasure to announce that after some 11 months, many hours
of research, reading, asking questions, getting answers (and good ones too)
that I am announcing that I achieved First Light at 8:30 PM, Sept 3.
With the help of two friends, we carried the 50 plus pound cabinet (2 foot
sq by 1 foot high on casters) into my back yard and assembled the 6x24
Plexiglas secondary (it screws into the top of cabinet), the primary
platform (sitting on 2x4s to adjust the coupling height) and the 6 inch
diameter, 22 inch OD, compressed aluminum toroid.
Then I connected an AWG 4 cable to a anchor which is in an older, not used
satellite dish concrete pier for my RF Ground.
I checked all the components one more time then brought up the Variac
slowly. At 90 volts I got one measly 6 inch snap. A ground rod target was
unavailable. In Northern Texas we have set record after record this year. We
have gone 65 days without rain. The ground is so hard and so dry that my
water bill would top out at $100 if I had to soak the ground. Only Mother
Nature can do that and she isn't ready to! And yesterday we hit 111-112
degrees. Almost as hot as those sparks!
So, the next step was to force break out. I placed a 3-foot right angle
aluminum extrusion across the toroid. When I hit 90-100 volts, the streamers
started. At 110-120 volts I had a huge group of 18-24 inch writhing,
serpent-like tongues of electricity and a gorgeous blue corona around the
entire area.
At 120 volts, I was getting some streamers past 24 inches. I used the width
of the toroid for comparison, as by now it was pitch black. I did take
photos and they will be posted in another day or two. I will provide the URL
info later on.
The primary tap still needs to be tweaked. The primary platform is at the
plane of the secondary winding start. The specs follow:
POWER: Allanson 15KV, 60mA NST
SAFETY GAP: Standard Fritz MOV Array (thank you Terry!)
TANK CAPACITOR: EMMC using 5 perf boards. Each board has 20 Seacor
..047mf/1600V metal polys in series with 10Mohm bleeder resistors across
each. All perf boards in parallel to provide a total of .0117mF at 32KV
SPARK GAP: My own new design that I call the TTL, Ted's Totally Linear gap.
I will have many close up photos later on but for now...it is comprised of
nine 1.75 inch diameter by 2.25 inch long copper sweat couplings. Each has a
1/2x1/2x5 inch aluminum U channel bolted to it. They sit, side by side by
side on top of an 18" long ceramic tile ledge with the U channel over the
ledge, pointing downwards. Once you insert 2 business cards or 3 playing
cards between each tube and move each to take up the gap slack, you then
start to clamp a strip of wood down tightly on the U channel "handles" to
lock your gap setting using 10 1/4-20 machine screws in-between each U
channel.
After running the coil for several minutes, all tubes were only luke warm!
No fans required.
PRIMARY: 16 Turns, 1/4 Refridgerator tubing with 1/4 spacing. Threaded into
6 HDPE supports (took 4 hours). ID is 8 inches. OD is 24 inches. Current TAP
is at turn 13.0
SECONDARY: 6 inch diameter x 30 tall Plexiglas with about 24 inches of #22
AWG enamel and lots of Polyurethane to seal. Special connectors top and
bottom to allow fast RFG connection and toroid connection.
TOROID: 8 Foot (started) alumininum compressed duct, 6-inches in diameter.
22-inches OD, 9-inches ID. Two steel pie plates bottom to bottom with spot
JB Welds to secure the edges.
FUSE: Front panel mounted 15A fast blow Edison base fuse
EMI FILTER: 37A Corcom EMI filer wired backwards
CABINET: rectangle box on casters made of 1/2 birch ply. Sealed and painted
sky blue. 2 foot square by 1 foot high. Back, ventilated access door. Front
padlock modified RV AC interlock panel to prevent stupid people from
applying power. Brass interface plumbing to allow quick connection of the
#4AWG RFG cable.
WEIGHT: about 60 pounds
HOURS TO CONSTRUCT: About 630 (including reading everything on the list and
printing out dozens of e-mails)
COST TO BUILD (all new parts...zero scrounging) $600 estimated
WEIGHT LOST BY BUILDER IN TEXAS HEAT: About 5 Pounds
AVERAGE TEMPERATURE IN GARAGE: 105-110 deg.
I don't know about the rest of you but this is my first and last. I am
amazed at the goals and I wish all the success I have enjoyed with your
help. You all have my admiration. Tip of the hat and a toast...coiling
forever.
Now...should I write the great step-by-step, fully illustrated Construction
Guide????
Ted Rosenberg
Ft Worth TX
Coiler at Large