Grounding VTTC

[MrScrOggs]

Hello all,
I just finished building my first VTTC this morning and I made a ground rod to ground everything.
I was going shove the rod into my backyard's grass but before I did, I was wondering if the high voltage going into the ground could travel through the moist soil and go into the mains (I have wires buried underground in my backyard).
I was researching the breakdown voltage of moist soil per meter but I couldn't find much on the subject. Sorry if this is a stupid question but I don't want to send high voltage RF into mains lol.

[MRMILSTAR]

You have no worries. It will not affect your buried power lines.

[MrScrOggs]

so the ground rod from vttc cant effect buried line going from house to garage? even if its approx 2 meters away?

[MRMILSTAR]

Nothing that you will notice. I have the ground rod for my 6.5 KVA SGTC buried about 2 meters away from the buried power cable to my shop. It causes no problem at all.

[SalinsLV]

Is it really that important to ground VTTC? I've used mine without connecting VTTC circuit GND to real ground rod. I've even touched the sparks and haven't had any issues ://

[MRMILSTAR]

Remember that the topload forms one plate of a capacitor for the secondary circuit. The ground, or ground plane, forms the other plate assuming that you have a connection from the bottom of the secondary coil to the ground or ground plane. The air is the dielectric. If you don't have a ground connection, the streamers will try and seek the bottom of your secondary coil or other parts. This can lead to unwanted arcing between parts.

I would not allow the streamers to touch your hand. Even though the streamers can't be felt very much, the current is still passing through your body. The reason that you don't feel much is because your nerves don't respond well to high frequency current. This can possibly cause nerve damage that won't show up for years. There are several long-time coilers that I am aware of that frequently allowed the streamers to touch their hand. They experienced tremors as they got older. Coincidence? Maybe but why take the risk?