A little about myself...

My name is Andrew Robinson, and I'm a networking engineer attending East Carolina University. I moved to Raleigh about two years ago from Albuquerque New Mexico where I started off as a nuclear engineer. After three years of school out there I finally decided to stick with what comes naturally to me... computers. I currently hold two associate degrees and apparently have three more waiting if I just turn in the paper work... I'll be finishing my four year degree hopefully here soon and if there is time, I'd like to sneak a minor in mathematics in there. When I changed degrees I essentially had to restart school hence all the two year degrees. I guess you could call me a professional student. I'll be honest though, I really do enjoy being a student. Not only is the access to labs and equipment nice, but a constant source of higher education has always appealed to me. In case you're wondering, that's me in the red hat. This picture was taken this past Fathers day up in Galax VA on the new river trail. Beautiful day! I think my father deserves to placed on this site considering how much HV crap he puts up with me. Love ya dad!

With regards to coiling my story is fairly short. I've been coiling for about 9 years now and it has been quite a journey. I still to this day remember my first experience with a Tesla coil. I had never seen one in person and couldn't begin to explain the concept of its operation. I simply found a very crude description of what it should consist of and before long I was slapping parts together from my local hardware store. I remember thinking to myself as I looked at my first tank circuit... What if this doesn't work? What if it's all just internet hokum? It is truly impossible for me to describe to you here the level of excitement that radiated from me when I first plugged in that neon sign transformer. My first draft of my first coil consisted of an old 15/30 NST, ironically a rotary spark gap, and a beer bottle capacitor. I still remember my father's astonishment when the tank circuit fired on the first try. At that time though he was probably more worried for me and what I was getting myself into, than happy for me and all my success.

As the years pressed on my designs slowly advanced. It's interesting, and I'm sure a lot of you can relate to this, how each time you create some new and amazing design you seem to think to yourself, I've finally reached the peak of engineering perfection. Your design seems flawless and you feel as if no other solution could work more efficiently... Well that thought normally lasts for at most a month, and on occasion it disappears before you even get a chance to finish your design. It's taken nine years for me to finally realize, my designs will never be perfect and there will always be room for improvement. In fact, as my knowledge of mathematics and engineering improves I catch myself not simply smiling and patting myself on the back for my accomplishment, but rather criticizing every aspect of my design and instantaneously determining areas needing improvement. College has turned me into a obsessive compulsive perfectionist which at times can be a terrible burden, but there's a light at the end of the tunnel. I have finally discovered that my greatest achievement, is not my latest and greatest design, but rather my ability to push aside the past and look to the future. The ability to start fresh and design from a whole new perspective. I never look back, and always keep moving forward.

Interestingly enough this concept above not only applies to design work, but to any idea or method. It's been nine long years of nothing but spark gap style Tesla coils and I feel I've exhausted my options. For awhile it seemed rather sad. Tesla coils became simple devices lacking complexity, and while I still enjoy the dancing firestorm produced from a coil, the concepts were becoming stale. Some of you may have already noticed the "coming soon" sections under SSTC's and DRSSTC's. What the future now holds for me is very exciting. I feel as though I've turned the clocks back nine years. Looking at the concepts of DRSSTC's makes me feel as though everything I know about Tesla coils has just gone out the window. It's scary, but again I am so incredibly excited. Only time will tell what the future holds. Until then we'll all just have to keep on plugging!