Re: Any Very High Freq. TCs?

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: Any Very High Freq. TCs?
From: Julian Green <julian-at-kbss.bt.co.uk> (by way of Terry Fritz <terryf-at-verinet-dot-com>)
Date: Thu, 03 Sep 1998 06:31:10 -0600
Approved: terryf-at-verinet-dot-com

> Original Poster: Steven Ivy <adder_black_the-at-yahoo-dot-com>
> 
snip...
> volts at 1 GHz operating on my kitchen table : ) Is there some
> particular flaw in this scaling idea other than the difficulty in
> producing a spark gap capable of operating at these very high
> frequencys.

Have you wondered why you get streamers that terminate in thin air?

Well I believe that it is due to the capacitance of the air
and its ability to ionize forming conductive clouds of gas around
the coil.

The current in a capacitor rises as the frequency increases.
Therefore as the frequency of your tesla coil rises so does 
the ability of the surrounding air to disipate the high voltage.

The result is that as frequency rises the streamers shorten. At
about 1MHz you get discharges that look like a gas cooker flame
and loads of ozone.  I think Richard Hull has photos if this.

If you want long and impressive streamers go for low frequency,
around 100KHz.

How many turns on the secondary would you need for a 1GHz tesla
coil?

Julian Green