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New subscriber! (fwd)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 3 May 1998 13:48:45 -0400
From: Nick Slaymaker <NickSlaymaker-at-compuserve-dot-com>
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: New subscriber!
Hi
I'm a new subscriber living in England. High voltages and explosions got
me interested in electricity and chemistry in my teens. I'm into
technology transfer now but still would love to create big sparks.
I'm interested in communicating with coilers in England and discovering
good sources of transformers and caps - it seems more difficult here
than in the USA! I have just made contact with Alan Sharp in Corby,
England and am looking forward to attending his first UK Teslathon.
Stan Harle was kind enough to suggest I joined this list.
Because I convinced myself I didn't have time to build from scratch, I
bought the BTC-3 from Information Unlimited and so far have got 5 inch
sparks. I plotted spark length against primary tap and was not
convinced I'd tuned through resonance so I added an extra primary turn.
Now I do see some sort of a peak but it doesn't wseem well defined and
is at only at half stated output volts. I'm thinking
of borrowing a frequency sweeper and scope or can anyone advise on a
good way of ensuring the coil is resonating?
I bet there's been mail on the BTC-3. During a Web search, I did find
Eric Bush's April 23 1992 review of the
BTC-3 kit which was very helpful. He initially only got 8 inches [more
than me!] until he doubled the primary capacitance and then he got the
specified 12 inch sparks. I'm very surprised an extra, identical
capacitor was needed in parallel with the one supplied. Was the design
out by a factor of two? Is there an enormous tolerance on the capacitors
Info supply? What have others had to do to get 12 inches from the BTC-3?
I look forward to your comments and wish you Good Luck in your high
voltage efforts
Nick