[Lowfer] UWL's new loading coil

[Peter Barick]

>>> eric@willow.nutstreet.net 03/29/03 08:10PM >>>
You can see my new loading coil and variometer under construction at 
http://www.nutstreet.net/radio/projects/lowfer/coil/ 

Yeeks! It's the makings for a kid's tree house. Very nice rendering and
attention to detail, as per the Web pics.

Noticed your other posts on the size vs L factor. And as Lyle's post
attests, basket weave allows for a more compressed coil due to the
absence of a continuous adjacent winding. Though it can be a given that
a "tighter" wound coil will have higher L - and generally less Q - than
one spread out, although the later is harder to maintain while winding.
Trying to spread windings post winding may be limited by how taunt the
windings were laid on. Given its L-D ratio and winding type, the coil
should have a nice high Q.

Some questions, Eric:
1. I count 17 former rods, are they wooden dowel? Were they sealed up
w/ say varnish (top and bottom plates too)?

2. I notice the end plates appear solid, so how does the vari-coil get
into the interior? (May want to relieve the center area of outer plate
to insert the vari-coil.)

3. How was the winding accomplished and ending up with the poles still
aligned?  :-)

I asked Mitch the above question for his coil using PVC pipes. So I'd
like to compare his solution, a temp bottom alignment plate to hold
pipes rigid for winding, with yours.

Liking your wood working skills so far, is there plans for a full
enclosure of that coil? Further, there may be some advantage to raising
the coil (legs?), both to lower needed L and to remove from children.

One the issue of safety, I'm not seeing a red light for a LF coil.
Someone else pointed to the HV present and its "heart stopping" effect
and that may be on the overly cautious side. I've had my share of RF
burns :-; and they were that, burns, not shocking. Certainly not like
the HV jolts I got on a near regular basis from a cathode-keyed novice
rig on 80. But there the current was about 100 mils at say 500V, ya,
that's right, 50 wts. The one I fear most is household stuff, where I to
make a good path to ground through my arms. That's a red light case, and
reason for keeping one hand in the pocket while the other works.

I'll be watching 185.3 more this week and matching Argo displays to
those I find posted here. If lucky I'll make a match.

Cheers, Peter