MORE POWER CZITO!!!


Another 15 capacitors

When I bought the caps for my MMC, I bought 60, but I only used 45 at first. I decided to install the other 15 and see if I could get any more power.


A quick burst lights up the basement at Glasgow Springs.

When I installed the new caps, I tuned it with a signal generator. I found that the sparks were no bigger than before. What was going on?


A bit of tuning and the sparks get bigger...

Welcome to the world of dynamic tuning! When pumping large amounts of power into a small coil, the streamers can get big enough that their capacitance loads the resonator and changes its frequency. As they grow, they will pull the coil out of tune, limiting their growth.

The secret is to mistune the coil to start with. Then the streamer load will pull it into tune! I found that as I tuned my primary lower, the sparks just got bigger and bigger, until suddenly they disappeared altogether. What happened was that the coil got so badly out of tune that it wouldn't even break out, so there were no streamers to pull it into tune.

This could of course be solved by adding a breakout point. But that's something for another day.


and bigger... RUN AWAY!!!

On this evening of messing around I got my longest arc ever- 1 meter (40"). You can see it in the picture above, hitting some electric wiring on the ceiling... isn't that a bit dangerous? I also fried the fuseholder that I used as a primary tapping point, and burnt out my control box for the third time. You know the saying... Ya can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs!

Back to TC page