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Toploads
5G) Toploads. Toploads generally take one of two forms, spheres or torrids. Spheres can be as humble as a copper toilet bowl float, which I have used with great success on small coils, or spendy garden gazing balls. The most common topload is the torroid, as it is easier to build than a sphere. One can obtain beautiful spun aluminum torroids, but they are expensive. They do have the advantage of being really smooth. Many variations of the home made torrid exist, quite often based on metal ducting, but ranging as far as innertubes covered in aluminum tape. I have even heard of using a innertube for a form to lay fiberglass on and then cover with aluminum tape. I have always gone the ducting route, and they have worked fine for me. The size of the topload determines what is called the "breakout voltage" of the TC. The larger the topload, the higher the voltage will build up before breakout occurs, making longer streamers. Before you start planning using an old tin shed for a topload, there is a limit on how large your topload can be. The larger your topload, the less turns it will take to tune the coil. You can't set the primary to a negative number of turns! As well, I have heard it said that very few turns result in lesser performance, but I don't really know why or if that is true. I didn't understand the importance of using the right sized topload on my first coil, and had a hard time getting it tuned and getting maximum performance out of it. Click HERE for more information about toploads and constructing them. |
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