TSSP: List Archives

From: Paul
Date: Fri, 01 Sep 2000 20:35:49 +0100
Subject: Re: [TSSP] Mystery of the missing loss

Some further measurements from Terry.

Terrell W. Fritz wrote:
> First I measured the bare coil again just incase something
> had shifted.
> 
> Fo = 147.07
> Q = 50.89
> 
> A little shift and lower Q than before.  I suspect this is due to the
> condition of the ground plane deteriorating as I walk over the thin foil.

Done pretty well that foil. I expect a ground plane might work
quite well if placed underneath the carpet.

> I set a Jennings vacuum variable capacitor to get the same frequency I
> measured with a toroid.
> C = 10.7 pF
> Fo = 101.64
> Q = 60
> 
> The C value is telling of a problem.  The wire I string to the cap has a
> considerable capacitance to the ground plane.  This capacitance is in
> parallel with the vac cap.
> 
> I repeated the 45 inch torroid to get a comparison and got.
> 
> F0 = 97.154
> Q = 68.85

OK, thats good stuff. I'll respond to these results and others
in another post.

> I placed a 1/4 inch ring made from copper tubing around the
> base of the coil.  It was 12.5 inches in diameter and 4 inches
> above the floor.
> 
> Bare coil:
> 
> Fo = 153.38
> Q = 53.63
> 
> Toroid on coil:
> 
> Fo = 101.60
> Q = 80.89
> 
> The inductance of the coil without the ring was 75.0mH and 70.4mH
> with the ring.

Nice one, that provides a really useful calibration of loop
coupling calculations, which I'm struggling with at the moment.

> The ring seems to be adding a low loss energy storage element
> to the system.  Perhaps a complete circle ground plane does too. 
> Much as a capacitor stores energy as voltage, the ring stores
> energy as current.

Yes, and loses energy too I believe. More to follow on this in
another post.

Cheers,
--
Paul Nicholson,
Manchester, UK.
--


Maintainer Paul Nicholson, paul@abelian.demon.co.uk.