[NewCandle] Cold Electricty

[Jones Beene]

--- Keith 

> I thought at first that the LED's could be fast
enough rectifiers to be good detectors, but after
Nick's comments and closer examination of Ron's
circuit I see he's using a pair of fast signal diodes
for that purpose. 

I think they are good detectors. Ron mentioned some
recent papers to that effect. Why not both LED and sig
diodes serving as rectifiers?

> Without the signal diodes to rectify the RF, it
doesn't work, correct?

Not sure
 
> What makes the circuit so "mysterious" is that stray
> capacities are playing such a key role in the
> functioning.

Well don't forget those one-wire windings ...
 
> The one part of the circuit that I have a hard time
getting my head around is the diode loop. It's a
clever little trick, one I have never seen before. 

You missed the "Avramentko's plug?

> I sort of understand why he's doing that, but I'm 
having a hard time putting it into words.

You're not the only one. Let's just say RS is not so
inhibited by mainstream understanding as are many. IOW
he learned RF starting as a Ham and by running an FM
station 40 years ago.

> Fortunately, George lives only a few miles from me,
and I owe him a visit. 

Excellent. I hope I can influence both of you, with my
hunch about the importance of finding the best LEDs.
Very possibly the high-Q cores are not that efficient
without the LEDs, but only serve to allow their
ringing to be boosted is some kind of odd looping from
the "plug".  

> Finally, any spark or arc will act as a negative
> resistance element. 

Yes. That is the importance of the Pavel Imris patent
mentioned by Robin.

> It is worth noting that he's able to light a neon on
the free end of the secondary. Why not parallel a
bunch of neons, rather than series a bunch of LED's? 

Indeed ... or both, or some combination?

In a well-financed organization, all of these points
and dozens more would be assigned to teams and hacked
away on. Too bad the funds for this are ultimately
going into some never-ending and misbegotten war.

Jones

BTW - I woke up this wondering about charge bias in
the
operating circuit. Unfortunately you cannot see the
last scope shot of an earlier incarnation with the
caption:

"In the above scope image it is easily seen that there
is a peak current to ground from the circuit of ~450mA
maximum to minimum of of ~105mA. This is extraordinary
current for a free-floating circuit."

[18.7 MHz]

Eyeballing this shot makes me wonder if the circuit
does not operate with a small positive bias. The
implications of that would be several if it were true.