[AMPS] Arcing in air vs. arcing in a vacuum

[Peter Chadwick]

High altitude stuff has a lot of problems with corona and arcing. You may
have seen 5R4GY rectifiers with special bases to minimise then when used in
aircraft equipemnt. This problem has led to a lot of mil avionics with high
voltages  being put in pressurised containers.

Tube arcs produce a noise. Not a loud bang necessarily - although I have
heard loud bangs from tubes - but I believe the propagation mechanism is
along the electrode supports. Something like a 3-500, there's a fairly good
acoustic path along the anode support, and an arc which is tearing out
electrons and dumping lots of energy does produce some electrode movement.


73

Peter G3RZP


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