4" Handheld Phanotron Plasma Tube, I typically use with my AZ-58
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
|
|
|
|||||||||
I made a decision at the start of my study of Rife technology, that I would only work with phanotron tubes with low pressure helium. My understanding is that this is the type of plasma tube that Rife typically used. This was also the type tube used on the Beam Ray and Allied Industries vacuum tube units used by a few brave doctor's with great success from the 1930's through the 1950's. Only after I have a thorough understanding of the low pressure helium (~12 to 15 mmHg) phanotron, will I go on to study and use other type tubes currently used on modern Rife type frequency instruments.
On the internet, at
http://plasma.ece.utk.edu/publications/ , I found the following paper under
ARCHIVAL CONFERENCE PAPERS number
188. Chen Z. and Roth J. R.
“PSPICE Simulation of One Atmospheric Uniform Glow Discharge Plasma (OAUGDP)
Reactor Systems”, Paper 3PA54, Proceedings of the 30th IEEE
International Conference on Plasma Science, Jeju, Korea, June 2-5, 2003, Page
299, IEEE Catalog Number 03CH37470, ISBN 0-7803-7011-X. This paper describes a
PSPICE model of a parallel plate Uniform Glow Discharge Plasma reactor. The
parallel plates of the reactor have some similarity to the electrodes of the
phanotron, even though the phanotron electrodes are not parallel. As the
above picture, # PH-03, shows there is an air sheath (gap) around each
electrode, between the electrode and the plasma discharge.
I performed a number of measurements with a 4" handheld phanotron connected in series with a 0.1 Ω current sense resistor and powered by my AZ-58, which has a variable input voltage transformer. As I increased the phanotron voltage, the sheath thickness around each electrode got smaller and smaller, until I could no longer see it. However, I assume the sheath is still there at the operating voltage of ~750 Vrms. The bottom negative electrode is ~ 23 mm in diameter (0.9") and the top positive electrode is ~ 25mm (1.0") in diameter. The sheath thickness at the operating voltage (~ 750 Vrms) is less than 0.5 mm, since it is no longer visible. Also the plasma is now so bright, that I can not see through it. Therefore, the sheath capacitance between each electrode and surrounding plasma is at least > (π*(.023m/2)*(.023m/2)(8.85E-12F/m))/.0005m = 7.4 pF at each electrode/plasma interface. The large air gap between the two plasma concentrations is at minimum 3.2 mm (0.125") wide and on the average, approximately 8.3 mm (.325"). Therefore the air gap capacitance is < (π*(.023m/2)*(.023m/2)(8.85E-12F/m))/.0032m = 1.1 pF.
NOTE. Rotate Adobe pdf documents as needed by going to View and Rotate Clockwise.
4 inch Phanotron Equiv Ckt.pdf - Bill Cheb 4 inch diameter hand held phanotron equivalent circuit impedance. This is an average of the two measurement methods below.
Cal Circuit Z by Vari Cap Meas.pdf - This measurement technique allowed me to measure the basic components of the rf resonant circuit tank. My AZ-58 resonates with and without a plasma tube over the full tuning range of the variable capacitor. By knowing the capacitance at both ends of the tuning range and then measuring the frequencies, the inductance (L) and capacitance components of the resonant tank can be determined. The largest error is due to the variable capacitor values. Since it was already mounted and wired in, I took the average readings on eight samples of the same variable capacitor that I had in stock. The tank coil, resistance (Rw) and quality factor (Q = L/Rw) were determined using a "Coil Designer" program from www.qsl.net/k6mlo . It costs $15. From this method I could determine a value for the reactance component of the plasma tube, but not the real component.
Calc Circuit Z by Volt & Phase Meas.pdf - This measurement technique allowed me to determine both the real and reactance components of the plasma tube. It also led me to believe that a significant portion of the resonant tank's capacitance is stray capacitance due to my component and wiring. I need to either change the layout or lessen the L3b coil turns from 6 to 5.5 or 5. The greatest error in this set of measurements is in accurately reading the phase differences in the voltages. Again I relied heavily on the "Coil Designer" program.
