[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]

Strike Rails: The Big Question


----------
From:  David Huffman [SMTP:huffman-at-FNAL.GOV]
Sent:  Monday, March 16, 1998 9:33 AM
To:  Tesla List
Subject:  Re: Strike Rails: The Big Question

Ah, the wonders of RF. Give the top terminal a 'nice juicy' ground target
and it strikes some where else farther away.
Coiling, you gotta love it.
Dave

>From:  Jeff W. Parisse [SMTP:jparisse-at-teslacoil-dot-com]
>Sent:  Saturday, March 14, 1998 10:31 AM
>To:  Tesla List
>Subject:  Strike Rails: The Big Question
>
>All
>
>I've been wondering about this for a few months now and
>I think it's time to bring it up for discussion.
>
>Mark Bean and I did a demonstration for the Nevada Power
>Company and after we finished we were given a king's tour
>of the facilities and had every question we could think of
>answered. We asked about the thin wires that ride above
>most if not all high power lines (you know, those huge metal
>towers that usually have two sets of three cables). Before
>the question was answered, I believed them to be ground
>wires for lightning protection. I was wrong. What we were
>told was that these wires ARE ground wires but not for
>lightning protection. The ground wires are flown above the
>HV cables to "bleed up" the electrical field that would
>otherwise "bleed down" to ground interfering with
>communications, etc. In other words, the wires serve to
>shape and drain the em-field that propagates from the HV
>lines.
>
>QUESTIONS: So why do so many use grounded strike rails
>above their primaries? Wouldn't a safety gap placed on
>the tank circuit serve to protect the primary components from
>the effects of a secondary strike to the primary coil? Doesn't
>a strike rail give a charged toroid a nice juicy grounded target
>to hunt for, thereby INCITING strikes in the proximity of the
>primary coil? Does a strike rail "drain, distort and weaken"
>the EM field created by the primary coil?
>
>I've never used a strike rail and have always given my coils
>a place to go (a grounded target) so as to avoid primary
>coil strikes. But, Big Red's gonna need a new primary coil
>and I was just mulling over this issue. Guys?...
>
>Jeff W. Parisse, Director
>kVA Effects
>www.teslacoil-dot-com
>
>
>