SSTC output looks more like SGTC output!

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Steven Ward by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <srward16-at-hotmail-dot-com>

I hope this isnt "old news", but i did something recently that might be of 
interest for those of you who like to analyze things.  Recently, i built a 
full bridge for my SSTC (1.5KW).  I was running it with a 4.5x15" winding 
of 30awg and a small toroid (7x1.25").  This made the typical humming 
hissing sparks that are ghostly yellow/white when you draw ground 
sparks.  Just about an hour ago :) i made another secondary.  This one is 
4.5x19" 30awg.
I tried putting a big toroid (5x16") on it.  At only 30% input, the sparks 
were loud, crackling, bright white streamers about 9" long!  They only 
appeared this way with ground strikes.  The corona output (streamers only) 
were still purple and looked like an SSTC.  I could not crank up the juice 
because of flashover problems.  But this makes me wonder if perhaps the 
larger toroid is in fact charging up like a capacitor and then releasing 
the energy in one bright SGTC like spark.  The sparks also had a 5khz'ish 
squeal to them.  I wonder what would happen if i could run it up to 120V 
input.
Maybe the thing would look just like a SGTC.  It sure was loud like one.
Oh, and ozone production went sky high!!!

Another thing to note is the apperance of the RF envelope.  When not 
drawing sparks, it looked like a pretty much round blob (the common 
look).  But when pulling arcs, the blob turned into a series of very short, 
but equal in amplitude blobs.  Seems like each blob was an output spark, 
and would explain the 5khz noise maybe.

Any thoughts?  Maybe someone wants more information?  Please let me know, 
im kind of interested in this!

Steve Ward

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