-----Original Message----- From: Nigel Dyer "Oddly I could not find any reference to this artefact on the internet. Is this just something that everyone knows but no-one writes down?"
Nigel, Yes, This is an artifact of RF noise operating on the circuit of the meter. This information can be found somewhere on the internet and is well known to Tesla coil aficionados. It comes up here periodically. You can minimize the problem by building a Faraday cage for the meter and grounding the cage. ------------------------------------------ I have built myself a Marx generator which produces an output voltage of the order of 20kV and which can produce a very nice fat spark if the output electrodes are close enough. I have a conventional Geiger counter and I find it beeps if it is within 5cm of the high voltage output. The distance suggests alpha particles, but a piece of card makes no difference so I assume that this is an artifact picked up by the large and abrupt change in the voltage gradient. Oddly I could not find any reference to this artifact on the internet. Is this just something that everyone knows but no-one writes down?
