Quote from ~Russ/Rwg42985 on September 25th, 2012, 04:12 AM

the thorium i will try to get from some old gas lanterns.

You are already using thorium aren't you???  The tungsten electrodes you are using were red tipped (2% thorium), or were they green tipped??

If they were indeed green, switch to red - problem solved!!

kcd

Quote from ~Russ/Rwg42985 on September 25th, 2012, 02:40 AM

Update 10:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTF7UgZPdMU&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Need RF help... How to... See video for the qustion at hand.

Thanks, ~Russ

Hello Russ ,
                   thanks for posting here are a few of my thoughts on RF.

 You will need both RF signal and ground in chamber for it to have an effect on plasma

Your plasma popper will need to be impedance matched to RF source (CB radio)

The impedance of popper will vary with vacuum and gases in chamber .

Some form of matching network will need to be installed in between RF source and popper set at vaccum level + gas .

industrial marching networks have RF variable caps or inductors to allow them to tune system for no reflected power .

  "http://www.casetechnology.com/implanter/rf.html"

"http://electronicstechnician.tpub.com/14092/css/14092_45.htm"


                                                                                         Joe.

I'm sorry I did not make it clear initially that my response was to this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTF7UgZPdMU&feature=em-uploademail-new

Quote from 8bitgeek on September 25th, 2012, 07:50 AM

Regarding your RF question. I am sorry I have not been following along with  the "Popper" project, so it's not clear to me what the aim is.

In any case regarding loading your RF transmission line, clearly you are not going to get much power out of it with your current setup.

Firstly, forget using loading resistors to load your transmission line. For RF you use capacitors and coils to load the line.

For load capacitors, you're looking for capacitors along these lines: http://www.rfparts.com/caps_antennaload.html Coils along these lines: http://www.vk2zay.net/article/file/763

I am assuming that the objective is to energize the gasses?

I'm not sure what you are hoping to gain by "shorting" the tip of the "antenna". Don't you want to RF energy to energize gasses? In my opinion, by shorting the "antenna" tip, all you are going to accomplish it to warm the gasses very inefficiently.

Your biggest problem as I see it, is that you have a severely mismatched transmission line, so clearly you are not going to get much power out of the "antenna".

The antenna is much too short for your transmission frequency. You need to make it appear longer by making a loading coil in series with the transmission line, near the antenna end. If you make a loading coil with "taps" on it, that you can dial it in with a jumper to the various tap points. If you need help "roughing in" the coil, number of turns, etc.. I can probably help you to get it into the ball park.

So that's my suggestion for starters, make a loading coil so you at least get your transmission line dialed in and get your RF energy emitting out of the antenna-end where you want it.

A decent SWR (Standing Wave Ratio) meter would be an invaluable tool for getting this  dialed in. Perhaps your CB has an SWR meter built in? Some do, however they are sometimes pretty small and difficult to interpret with much precision.

--Mike

Quote from meccanojoe on September 25th, 2012, 10:51 AM

Hello Russ ,
                   thanks for posting here are a few of my thoughts on RF.

 You will need both RF signal and ground in chamber for it to have an effect on plasma
Your plasma popper will need to be impedance matched to RF source (CB radio)
The impedance of popper will vary with vacuum and gases in chamber .
Some form of matching network will need to be installed in between RF source and popper set at vaccum level + gas .
industrial marching networks have RF variable caps or inductors to allow them to tune system for no reflected power .

  "http://www.casetechnology.com/implanter/rf.html"

"http://electronicstechnician.tpub.com/14092/css/14092_45.htm"

                                                                                         Joe.

Joe,

Great information!  Would an isolator help in this application?  Or are isolators only a luxury for microwave freqs?

Thanks,

kcd

PS.  Just ran some tests on air and (separately) argon at various pressures from approx 1 Torr to 760 Torr, observing SWR on chan 1 and 40.  I was hoping that something at some pressure at some freq would look like a 50 ohm load.  No joy.:(

Quote from k c dias on September 24th, 2012, 05:16 PM

I have been applying Dalton's law of partial pressures (the total pressure exerted by the mixture of gases is equal to the sum of the partial pressures of individual gases) to Paschen curves, trying to possibly retrace some of Papp's thinking on the gas mixtures.

Gas__percentage__% of 760 Torr
He______35.6________270.6
Ne______26.3________199.9
Ar______16.9________128.4
Kr______12.7_________96.5
Xe_______8.5_________64.6

So, if the partial pressures (in Torr) are plotted on the chart of Paschen curves, where do they hit the curves?  I have made a new plot for He, Ne, and Ar, with grid lines, and zoomed in on the area of interest.  Have a look at how things line up for about 3580 volts.  (Not that 3580 volts is of any extremely notable value, just note the alignment at that height in the chart)

Just thought it was interesting.  I wonder if the Kr and Xe line up with the last two points??

kcd

Below is a gas mix I have calculated using the Paschen curves.  This is a mix based on using only the first three of the five gases, ie. He, Ne, Ar.

For a 1 atmosphere pressure at TDC:
He     46.5%
Ne     32.6%
Ar     20.9%    (These all line up at approximately 4326 volts)

I don't know if a 3 gas mix will work, but this may help others to experiment that don't have Kr and Xe just laying around...

See the curves here in the original post:
http://open-source-energy.org/?tid=659&pid=7865#pid7865

Quote from k c dias on September 25th, 2012, 11:44 AM

PS.  Just ran some tests on air and (separately) argon at various pressures from approx 1 Torr to 760 Torr, observing SWR on chan 1 and 40.  I was hoping that something at some pressure at some freq would look like a 50 ohm load.  No joy.:(

That's no fun.. and you used the volts and amps that the doctor ordered? And in what way did ye use the coil? at what frequencies? And can you mix in helium with the argon?

Maybe we first should have a glass tube with popoff cap in which we place gas to excite towards a plasma. That way we can see what the gas does at certain manipulations.

Quote from FaradayEZ on September 25th, 2012, 01:22 PM

Quote from k c dias on September 25th, 2012, 11:44 AM

PS.  Just ran some tests on air and (separately) argon at various pressures from approx 1 Torr to 760 Torr, observing SWR on chan 1 and 40.  I was hoping that something at some pressure at some freq would look like a 50 ohm load.  No joy.:(

That's no fun.. and you used the volts and amps that the doctor ordered? And in what way did ye use the coil? at what frequencies? And can you mix in helium with the argon?

Maybe we first should have a glass tube with popoff cap in which we place gas to excite towards a plasma. That way we can see what the gas does at certain manipulations.

EZ,

I do see that I omitted some details.  I was using the engine I built with piston stationary at TDC just to have the RF in a doughnut shaped chamber.  I did not have the cylinder coils energized, and I was just using the CB only (w/o the 100W amp), (so just 4 watts).  I keyed at short 1 second bursts and observed the SWR meter on the radio.

You folks that bought the popper kit, should be asking about this same thing from the fella you bought the kit from.  Possibly, we simply don't care about the mismatch if we are outputting RF for short bursts.

kcd

Chris, my comment on thunder was that the sound pressure has force.  Again, in Russ's test (around 9/13) video there was nothing to indicate any effect from the use of the gas mixture that would not be done by using air.  So I had ask if he could repeat the test using air and he has done that showing that the Noble gases were not producing any special force at this time.  I think I was the first to mention this.

Andrea Rossi and E-cat has had verification of excess heat output.  See report here:  
http://www.e-catworld.com/2012/09/high-temperature-e-cat-report-published/

Rossi is doing engineering not publishing a science paper.  More testing and verification will be done but this is as much or more verification than has been done for the noble gas engine.  Nuff said about that in that it is not relevant here.

Yall...

This guy has a nice handbook on High Voltage for lab experiments

http://home.earthlink.net/~jimlux/hv/hvmain.htm

Quote from 8bitgeek on September 25th, 2012, 11:33 AM

I'm sorry I did not make it clear initially that my response was to this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTF7UgZPdMU&feature=em-uploademail-new

Quote from 8bitgeek on September 25th, 2012, 07:50 AM

Regarding your RF question. I am sorry I have not been following along with  the "Popper" project, so it's not clear to me what the aim is.

In any case regarding loading your RF transmission line, clearly you are not going to get much power out of it with your current setup.

Firstly, forget using loading resistors to load your transmission line. For RF you use capacitors and coils to load the line.

For load capacitors, you're looking for capacitors along these lines: http://www.rfparts.com/caps_antennaload.html Coils along these lines: http://www.vk2zay.net/article/file/763

I am assuming that the objective is to energize the gasses?

I'm not sure what you are hoping to gain by "shorting" the tip of the "antenna". Don't you want to RF energy to energize gasses? In my opinion, by shorting the "antenna" tip, all you are going to accomplish it to warm the gasses very inefficiently.

Your biggest problem as I see it, is that you have a severely mismatched transmission line, so clearly you are not going to get much power out of the "antenna".

The antenna is much too short for your transmission frequency. You need to make it appear longer by making a loading coil in series with the transmission line, near the antenna end. If you make a loading coil with "taps" on it, that you can dial it in with a jumper to the various tap points. If you need help "roughing in" the coil, number of turns, etc.. I can probably help you to get it into the ball park.

So that's my suggestion for starters, make a loading coil so you at least get your transmission line dialed in and get your RF energy emitting out of the antenna-end where you want it.

A decent SWR (Standing Wave Ratio) meter would be an invaluable tool for getting this  dialed in. Perhaps your CB has an SWR meter built in? Some do, however they are sometimes pretty small and difficult to interpret with much precision.

--Mike

Thanks Mike, this is great!

Russ, I hope you're not beating yourself up about your decision to go forward with the popper kit. I voted for you to get the money back mainly because I thought Dr. John wasn't going to deliver but also because of the question of the copyright infringement. I'm kinda glad you DID go ahead with it cause that means you're trusting your heart (or the Spirit that lives in your heart ;) ) and that's ALWAYS a good thing! Bet your Wife and kids are going to love the extra time your going to have because of the slower pace too. Thats always a good thing too! You're doin' great bud. Thanks for all your efforts! joe

Quote from cncjoe on September 25th, 2012, 07:11 PM

Russ, I hope you're not beating yourself up about your decision to go forward with the popper kit. I voted for you to get the money back mainly because I thought Dr. John wasn't going to deliver but also because of the question of the copyright infringement. I'm kinda glad you DID go ahead with it cause that means you're trusting your heart (or the Spirit that lives in your heart ;) ) and that's ALWAYS a good thing! Bet your Wife and kids are going to love the extra time your going to have because of the slower pace too. Thats always a good thing too! You're doin' great bud. Thanks for all your efforts! joe

Uhu..maybe next time Russ can tell upfront if he just wants our opinion and further on make up his own mind, or that he wants to take the outcome as a decider.
But he addressed this issue already seriously so that was fine to me.

Hi Russ,
You are pumping quite a few joules into that chamber... could be purely an electrical response you are seeing.

Its easy to do a control test so that you confirm the gas mix is required.

1. run the test with 1 atmosphere of air in the chamber.
2. run the test with the chamber under vacuum.

I hope to see the piston fail to move in both controls, if no movement.... game on as you have validated that it really is the mix of noble gasses  doing something they shouldn't be able to do.

Thanks
JM

Found some red phosphorous and rubidium online. No thorium except in mantle form.
http://elementsales.com/

Quote from Just Maybe on September 25th, 2012, 11:13 PM

Hi Russ,
You are pumping quite a few joules into that chamber... could be purely an electrical response you are seeing.

Its easy to do a control test so that you confirm the gas mix is required.

1. run the test with 1 atmosphere of air in the chamber.
2. run the test with the chamber under vacuum.

I hope to see the piston fail to move in both controls, if no movement.... game on as you have validated that it really is the mix of noble gasses  doing something they shouldn't be able to do.

Thanks
JM

OK, I see on the latest video you state  you have done that already. Cool..
it moved the piston more though... rats.  Just makes it harder to pin down what is happening. Oxygen will probably turn to ozone and be quite corrosive, hence the discolouring you see.

Thanks
JM

Why use a vacume if you could just purge the system.

You said bobs vacume was faster. It's probably the commercial version they use in replacing freon.
So my thought is he's also probably pulling more of a vacume too. Just a guess here, but he's probably
Popin cylinder fire under a vacume.

This also makes sence watching your video while arcing plasma in your PVC test chamber, you got a lot better plasma glow arching while under vacume.

I would also think the gases would ball up together under a vacume.
Maybe not, bob said the secret to helium, humm. The only thing I know for sure about helium
Is it don't like our atmosphere, rises to the top trying to escape.
Also the shape of that piston head, kinda odd looking, not what you expect for an explosion.
But looks what I would expect for implosion.
On the "real verbs" tube Chanel, One of the videos something about things in a vacume arent sucked in but pressed in from outside inward. This would focus those gases in the center, I think, helium trying to be at the top would find that point in the center of the piston. I'm thinking it might head towards the peak
Of the point being centered right next to the plasma that fires best under vacume, or no atmosphere.

Just some thoughts to ponder.....Then again, the donut shape piston could be to keep the helium from finding a seal.
Then it's accumulated in a ring shape at the top too, I think.
Anyway to test with some bent electrodes that would fire in the area of your rf thingamajig.
Fire in the area where the helium would be, while under a vacume.

I think, it's all speculative, who knows? Bob knows. Lol

Quote

Oxygen will probably turn to ozone and be quite corrosive, hence the discolouring you see.

I think it was NO2.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birkeland-Eyde_process

Quote from GordonFreeman on September 26th, 2012, 04:21 AM

Found some red phosphorous and rubidium online. No thorium except in mantle form.
http://elementsales.com/

Found Russ his nuclear boyscout nephew

(EPA spend 75.000$ to level and cleanup his radiated shed....)

Quote from k c dias on September 25th, 2012, 12:46 PM

Quote from k c dias on September 24th, 2012, 05:16 PM

I have been applying Dalton's law of partial pressures (the total pressure exerted by the mixture of gases is equal to the sum of the partial pressures of individual gases) to Paschen curves, trying to possibly retrace some of Papp's thinking on the gas mixtures.

Gas__percentage__% of 760 Torr
He______35.6________270.6
Ne______26.3________199.9
Ar______16.9________128.4
Kr______12.7_________96.5
Xe_______8.5_________64.6

So, if the partial pressures (in Torr) are plotted on the chart of Paschen curves, where do they hit the curves?  I have made a new plot for He, Ne, and Ar, with grid lines, and zoomed in on the area of interest.  Have a look at how things line up for about 3580 volts.  (Not that 3580 volts is of any extremely notable value, just note the alignment at that height in the chart)

Just thought it was interesting.  I wonder if the Kr and Xe line up with the last two points??

kcd

Below is a gas mix I have calculated using the Paschen curves.  This is a mix based on using only the first three of the five gases, ie. He, Ne, Ar.

For a 1 atmosphere pressure at TDC:
He     46.5%
Ne     32.6%
Ar     20.9%    (These all line up at approximately 4326 volts)

I don't know if a 3 gas mix will work, but this may help others to experiment that don't have Kr and Xe just laying around...

See the curves here in the original post:
http://open-source-energy.org/?tid=659&pid=7865#pid7865

As i understand it, the Paschen curves give you the optimum distance of the electrode..plates for a breakdown to appear at minimum voltage.
That distance is different for each gas.

Bob stated Paschen was a big clue
Also he gave the clue: the secret lies within Helium

Put those 2 together (like watching blue's clue's...)

And you place the electrode at the distance for Helium and u use the voltage mentioned, not more and not less.
So you ignite the chosen gas and maybe that reaction will ignite the others or have some use of the other gases.

The strange thing is that when you go closer with the electrode's you need more voltage.
But also, with Pashen you can then (somewhat) choose which gas you ignite within a mix of gases!

http://home.earthlink.net/~jimlux/hv/paschen.htm  

This page looks to tell its 156 Volts at 4,0 cm distance for Helium. ?

Also the point where the curves of Argon,Neon and Helium cross each other is interesting to try?

And that point is between 100 and 200 volts, not 4,3 kV if you read it from the curves picture on wikipedia? No?

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curve_di_Paschen

(afterthought: These findings of Paschen also smell like resonance influence to me)

Seatbelts on?

Russ don't be so patronising. We are all adults here. We will have disagreements and don't need you to play 'mommy'.

Re Radioactive Material. Actually Russ I knew you had not used it. I decided to 'take on the blame' by saying "Oh I missed that" I hadn't. But I took on the blame anyway because I realised you haven't yet come far enough to see no matter what you put in the buckets its not going to make one iota of difference. It can't! the buckets are not permeable to anything you can safely put into it. I wouldn't want to play with anything you cannot safely put into it. The coils well if they are as low power as Bob claims they are not going to effect the gasses much at all, The lump of metal you have between the coil and the gas will see to that. plasma is very sensitive to magnetic fields, So I'd expect some minor effect. But nothing that will effect the level of pop. The only way to do that is to increase the joules(jolts) going in!
 
I am surprised you don't understand why you are getting damage on your electrodes. What you have is an arc welder, just like any arc welder you are going to get transfer from one electrode to the other.

Air has oxygen in it so your electrodes are oxidising. Be careful too, ozone is poisonous and is created by the arc. Yes the noble gasses will protect the electrodes somewhat. Why do you think they invented mig and tig welders, That's what the job of the inert (noble) gas is, to protect the 'job' from oxygen!

YES Russ I do realise this is an alternate energy forum. But please explain to me how that works? How do you make the choice of which parts of science you choose to accept and which parts of the science you choose to throw out? To be honest in your quest shouldn't you start from scratch. Throw out all science?

You ask me to carefully review everything you say in the video. Do you do the same for me?

Jeff Sorry I upset you, perhaps I should be more sensitive.

But hang on a minute. lets flip this on its head!

What about the offence you heap on to people by making that unfounded statement, Do you care about their feelings? I guess not.

Your statement upset me, that's why I reacted. I am a government employee. A programmer, nothing special. But I am one of TENS OF MILLIONS of government employees around the world.

My siblings are all 'born again'. So  I do understand how you are taught to believe that, What I do not understand why you (or my siblings) keep believing it and don't see through the charade.

You are accusing me and my peers of all being complicit in assisting the leaders of governments achieve their evil ends, even though those leaders change every few years. If I hear some news on the internal government network I have to keep it to myself according to you.

Lets see how does this work? How does not one, but every government in the world achieve this amazing goal of making millions of workers keep quiet. Don't forget many if not most in western governments are also practicing Christians. That must be very hard for them, to knowingly be so deceptive, especially to their christian brethren. They must squirm in their pews every Sunday.

The next thing you'll possibly say is Oh No Chris, its just the top few! Well again tell me how that works. Does the many governments around the world collaborate together to find and recruit those top few? do they secretly run IQ tests on everyone so they can find the ones smart enough to discover some of the scientific secrets they want to keep hidden? Still that must be hundreds of thousands around the world if not in the millions. Think about how many researchers there are in governments and non government organisations. Each of those people has to be carefully controlled. People like, well you and me and Russ. Have they approached you, is that how you know about this conspiracy?

So all the worlds governments are in collusion with each other. Even the ones that hate each other like Israel and Palestine! They have a careful and well oiled plan (its been working for at least 100 years) to find and somehow control all the talented people in the world (what does that make us?), even those that don't work for governments. They then spend BILLIONS paying for people (perhaps me) to trawl through websites like this to make disparaging comments about these genuine misunderstood and brilliant inventors like Papp who must be forgiven for his one little transgression of claiming to have crossed the Atlantic in a submarine in under 13 hours. It was really only an April fools joke after all.

Is that how it works? If not perhaps you can explain to me in detail exactly how this top secret stuff is kept well err top secret?

Where does OSE and RWGResearch fit in to this master plan? Is Russ the real plant? is it his job to run forums like this to keep failing. So that those who may search for the truth are kept away from it. I must say that is a master stroke. All of us trusting Russ when really he is the evil one. What Say You Russ?

Surely such a well organised new world government (Illuminati) would take a site like this down otherwise. They could not let it continue to seek the truth.

So Jeff. Does it worry you at all you may have offended me with your unfounded accusations? Did you even consider it?

So now that I vented.
I could go on lots more could be said, but enough is enough. some of the readers will understand what I am saying most just wont get it at all, Oh they think they will but actually they will only be processing the words from the basis of their own prejudice.

Am I being condescending. Yes just a wee bit. I guess I don't suffer fools very well, that's what age does to you. Just ask Bob.

Nevertheless I am interested. I will check back in on your progress from time to time. I predict in about three months Russ will have given up trying. Maybe adding a magnet here or another weight there. but mostly everyone will have moved on from this failed experiment to the next soon to fail one. You'll all be Rah Rah (insert scammer er inventors name here).

A word of caution to those using ecatworld as their source of information on Rossi. don't invest more than you can afford to lose. Its just sound gambling advice.

hoo roo for now

CC

Quote from CuriousChris on September 26th, 2012, 07:50 AM

Re Radioactive Material.  I realised you haven't yet come far enough to see no matter what you put in the buckets its not going to make one iota of difference. It can't! the buckets are not permeable to anything you can safely put into it.

First off, Russ keep up the good work!

There has been 1000's of man hours and years of research on Papp's design and if Bob says the radioactive "buckets" are needed and works, that is good enough for me. Why reinvent the wheel.
Cheers

Quote from 8bitgeek on September 25th, 2012, 11:33 AM

The antenna is much too short for your transmission frequency.

Just a  note about another potential tweak to your "antenna" in an attempt to extract more RF energy out of it.

Since your antenna is very short (sub optimal), you may end up wanting to explore some optimizations once you've got your transmission line in the ball park.

With ground-based antennas we sometime use something called a "top hat" in order to create a capacitive load out toward the top of the antenna (the aim is to pull more current through the radiator).

A top hat come is various shapes and flavors, but the idea is the same, that is to create some capacitance at the end of the antenna relative to the ground plane. Typically the "top hat" would be some radiators extending horizontally, or sometimes in a cone shape, or a ball shape.

In your application, depending upon the orientation of the antenna toward the ground plane, you would probably end up with some sort of a disk shaped or perhaps a ball shaped top hat.

Anyway, just an optimization you might want to fiddle with once you get your transmission line sorted out. Note that an effective top hat will affect your transmission line impedance and thus your the required value of your loading coil.

--Mike

Just a  note about another potential tweak to your "antenna" in an attempt to extract more RF energy out of it.

Since your antenna is very short (sub optimal), you may end up wanting to explore some optimizations once you've got your transmission line in the ball park.

With ground-based antennas we sometime use something called a "top hat" in order to create a capacitive load out toward the top of the antenna (the aim is to pull more current through the radiator).

A top hat come is various shapes and flavors, but the idea is the same, that is to create some capacitance at the end of the antenna relative to the ground plane. Typically the "top hat" would be some radiators extending horizontally, or sometimes in a cone shape, or a ball shape.

In your application, depending upon the orientation of the antenna toward the ground plane, you would probably end up with some sort of a disk shaped or perhaps a ball shaped top hat.

Anyway, just an optimization you might want to fiddle with once you get your transmission line sorted out. Note that an effective top hat will affect your transmission line impedance and thus your the required value of your loading coil.

--Mike[/quote]Mike, perhaps you can answer this.  what prevents the HV from jumping to the antenna and traveling down to the RF amp?  This would destroy the amp.  I would suggest that the antenna be insulated with Teflon or some HV insulator.  What do you think?  
---------------------------------------
Supposedly the Popper kit contains instructions on how to use the RF since that is what was shown in the inteligentry video where they said they use a short burst of RF from a CB radio.  They never said they used a booster amp or needed more than a few watts so why is that being done here?  

I suspect the wire gauges that Russ was sent for the coil are really too big (16 and 18 AWG, if I remember correctly).  The coil seems to have a lot of turns which are hopefully specified in the popper kit.  I would think that 22 or 24 gauge would be more appropriate to get the maximum turns and field.  

Quote from Occhty on September 26th, 2012, 05:06 AM

Why use a vacume if you could just purge the system.

The vacuum is used to suck out the normal air. The gasmixture is expensive...

So my thought is he's also probably pulling more of a vacume too.
Bob using -30 psi ? or so, just like Russ
And then he puts in the gas and he operates at 1 ? atmosphere

This also makes sence watching your video while arcing plasma in your PVC test chamber, you got a lot better plasma glow arching while under vacume.

Older video of russ i guess

Also the shape of that piston head, kinda odd looking, not what you expect for an explosion. But looks what I would expect for implosion.

I thought the piston shape was used to create a vortex movement along or to create a ringlike inverted twirl.


I think, it's all speculative, who knows? Bob knows. Lol

Yes, we need some brainpower in this

Quote from Babble on September 26th, 2012, 08:49 AM

Just a  note about another potential tweak to your "antenna" in an attempt to extract more RF energy out of it.

Since your antenna is very short (sub optimal), you may end up wanting to explore some optimizations once you've got your transmission line in the ball park.

With ground-based antennas we sometime use something called a "top hat" in order to create a capacitive load out toward the top of the antenna (the aim is to pull more current through the radiator).

A top hat come is various shapes and flavors, but the idea is the same, that is to create some capacitance at the end of the antenna relative to the ground plane. Typically the "top hat" would be some radiators extending horizontally, or sometimes in a cone shape, or a ball shape.

In your application, depending upon the orientation of the antenna toward the ground plane, you would probably end up with some sort of a disk shaped or perhaps a ball shaped top hat.

Anyway, just an optimization you might want to fiddle with once you get your transmission line sorted out. Note that an effective top hat will affect your transmission line impedance and thus your the required value of your loading coil.

--Mike

Mike, perhaps you can answer this.  what prevents the HV from jumping to the antenna and traveling down to the RF amp?  This would destroy the amp.  I would suggest that the antenna be insulated with Teflon or some HV insulator.  What do you think?  
---------------------------------------
Supposedly the Popper kit contains instructions on how to use the RF since that is what was shown in the inteligentry video where they said they use a short burst of RF from a CB radio.  They never said they used a booster amp or needed more than a few watts so why is that being done here?   I thought there was a mentioning of 100 watt somewhere

I suspect the wire gauges that Russ was sent for the coil are really too big (16 and 18 AWG, if I remember correctly).  The coil seems to have a lot of turns which are hopefully specified in the popper kit.  I would think that 22 or 24 gauge would be more appropriate to get the maximum turns and field.[/quote]

Popper kit update:

I heard through the grapevine that Dan, at inteligentry, was unable to get his popper to "POP".  Supposedly, when he exclaimed this fact to John Rohner, John stated that possibly another spark plug or two might be needed to make it work?
I'm starting to get a bad feeling about this whole situation.  It appears there has been a lot of BS flying around.  I'm still working on trying to build my popper, per the manual.  But possibly I am wasting my time and money on a totally flawed design?
The manual instructions are ambiguous at best.  The RF instructions are very very vague.  My first impression that the kit was worth $350 was premature. Thinking about throwing in the towel.  I'm starting to smell a class action lawsuit coming on? It seems Sterling Allan may have been right after all?  Can you spell scam? Chuck

Quote from element 119 on September 24th, 2012, 08:28 PM

Russ

Here is why I think you have a smaller pop then Bob’s.

Bob’s popper has a spring on it pushing down on the piston so when he pumps gas up to 1 psi then he is pushing against that spring. A gas can be compressed but liquids can not..

You have no spring so your fill is less pressure then Bob’s.

Junkyard you may find an old spring loaded shock from a motorcycle or a car rear shock or you could just add a weight to the piston shaft.

Or maybe just strap a bungy cord across the shaft end. :D

element 119

Hmmmm...but the pressure at Bob's is 1 atmosphere, maybe a little more. If it was what you thought, then he would have to put in much more gas. And his POP has to work against the spring..and still gets more distance.. would be interesting how high his piston would go without spring or weight.. it won't shoot out because the collapsing plasma sucks the piston back in.

Quote from zerwell on September 26th, 2012, 10:28 AM

Popper kit update:

I heard through the grapevine that Dan, at inteligentry, was unable to get his popper to "POP".  Supposedly, when he exclaimed this fact to John Rohner, John stated that possibly another spark plug or two might be needed to make it work?
I'm starting to get a bad feeling about this whole situation.  It appears there has been a lot of BS flying around.  I'm still working on trying to build my popper, per the manual.  But possibly I am wasting my time and money on a totally flawed design?
The manual instructions are ambiguous at best.  The RF instructions are very very vague.  My first impression that the kit was worth $350 was premature. Thinking about throwing in the towel.  I'm starting to smell a class action lawsuit coming on? It seems Sterling Allan may have been right after all?  Can you spell scam? Chuck

Then why not email John or make a video of it not working and when he doesn't help ye along enough...post it on Youtube so that no other will fall into that trap...
Sterling Allen is waiting for 12 December or so when John has to show some working model..but don't think it will run for long..as i read somewhere they had trouble to keep it going for a longer time..but still...running is running..?