Fusion Message Board

In this space, visitors are invited to post any comments, questions, or skeptical observations about Philo T. Farnsworth's contributions to the field of Nuclear Fusion research.

Subject: Another 2 cents on microwaves
Date: Aug 16, 5:25 pm
Poster: Jones Beene

On Aug 16, 5:25 pm, Jones Beene wrote:

The points made earlier about the dangers of canabalizing microwave ovens are well taken.

However, there is a low voltage low output device that might have some interesting features for an add-on to the fusor. This would be the Gunn diode. Check out: http://www.mdtcorp.com/gunndiod.html for some technical info.

There are several potential advantages of using this approach. They are relatively cheap ($10 from Surplus Sale of Neb. for a small one), have a higher frequency (around 10 GHz) so the ouput should couple more efficiently to the fusor plasma and are simple enough to be powered directly by $2 "block" wall transformer if you wanted to go real cheap. The ouput is low but several could be used from different angles to focus in the "star" - even avoiding your grid- at least on the first pass.

The real advantage would come if you have relatively sophisticated neutron measuring capability, because then you could measure any incremental increase in n count and correlate that to the small input power to see if economies of scale or abnormal increases are coming into play.

Downsides involve machining and sealing several holes into your vacuum chamber. Fortunately the wavelength in question is small enough so that waveguides would probably be superfluous.

If you must do the oven thing then get "Microwave Oven Repair" by Homer L. Davidson (McGraw-Hill/TAB, 1991), which has a wealth of practical information concerning the innards of these beasts.