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Re: Tesla Coils and Lamp Tests -
"I am sure a good (or not
so good) radio engineer could turn a TC into a great RF transmitter in a
few minutes, as was done in the early days of radio. "
Only if he coupled it to a good (make that tall, at these frequencies)
antenna and ground. The secondary coil is a lousy helical antenna
because it is so short compared to a wavelength! (Calculation of
radiation efficiency is simple by using any standard helical antenna
design formulae.) The best thing to do would be to forget the secondary
altogether, and design an antenna tuning circuit that would match the
impedance of the antenna to that of the primary. That's how the "good
old spark transmitters" worked, and they were fairly efficient.
As for "megawatts" of power, it is quite true that the PEAK power is
indeed that high, as it was for the "good old spark transmitters".
That's why fairly simple systems worked over long ranges with simple
diode detectors. Of course, the signals were "broad as an old barn
door", and far less efficient at communicating intelligence than CW is.
Ed