First spark !

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: First spark !
From: Hans.Grimstad-at-maxware.no
Date: Sun, 12 Jan 1997 15:40:52 +0100
Subscriber: Hans.Grimstad-at-maxware.no Sun Jan 12 22:09:25 1997

Hello everyone !

I just finished my first coil. The secondary is 1400 turns of 1/2 mm diameter 
enameled copper wire on a 7 1/2 cm diameter PVC form. The primary is 20 turns of 
flat strap rising in a 45 degree angle. The static spark gap is made from a couple 
of heavy bolts. The capacitor is made of six wine-bottles. These are approx.  700 
pF each.  The coil is powered by two 3000Kv/50mA neons where the secondaries 
are connected in series (Thanks to Kristian for the neons!). The neons are 
connected across the spark gap. This is in series with the salt-water caps and the 
primary. The top turns on the secondary emits a heavy corona, and I get aprox. 15  
cm streamers out in free air (still some tuning to do...). 

This may be a small coil compared to what the people on this list are 
experimenting with, but it sure got my adrenaline pumping ! The sound from spark 
gap, the streamers, the smell of ozone and NOX, the UV (and the mad girlfriend 
complaining about the noise...). This is sooooo *FUN* !!!

Some questions to the gurus on the list:

1) How long streamers can I hope to get with 300W in an optimal system ?

2) How can I get a good RF-ground in an apartment building (second floor). I don't 
want to fry any computers, TVs (or neighbours...)

3) Do I need RF chokes to protect my neons with only 300 W ?

4) Is there such a thing as an optimal frequency for a Tesla Coil ? I  estimated the 
resonance frequency om my secondary to be 400kHz. This is perhaps a bit high ? 

5) Have anyone tried to excite a laser with the RF from a Tesla coil ? My coil 
already looks like something from a Flash Gordon movie, so why not stick a 
nitrogen laser in there ? ;))


Hans J|rgen
Still some tuning to do...