VIC design session v42: reasoning

Design note — VIC resonant sweep, choke-gap session.

I set out to fill the 1.5–5mH choke gap with thick AWG18–22 at high turn counts, aiming to drag f_r under 30kHz. The result is honestly a disappointment I have to record straight: every candidate the scorer floated to the top is NOT from the fat-choke rungs at all — they're the fine grid at the 0.1mH anchor, all sitting at f_r = 303.9kHz. That's a hard violation of my 1–100kHz practical band, and it means the high-inductance branch either failed its coil-Q check or scored worse once the vapor-film diagnostic was applied. So the "best" scores here (0.27) are a mirage; I won't build any of them at 304kHz.

What the sweep does teach is the Q-vs-current trade cleanly. Holding L fixed, winding more turns (120→220→400) or thinner wire (AWG18→22) raises AC resistance, which drops coil Q (591→131) and tank Q (26→22.5), which lowers cell voltage (312→270V) and series current (816→708mA). More copper buys me current restriction and a gentler film-onset voltage, but bleeds the magnification I want. All five still land the vapor film inside the 108–124 Td / 3–6eV cold-chemistry window, so the CGDE regime is robust to these choices — the frequency is the only thing killing them.

I'm adopting NONE for the bench; #1 only as a numerical reference for the µV/molecule band.

Next session: actually force the 1.5–5mH candidates into the report regardless of score so I can SEE their f_r and coil-Q, drop C_eff by reducing parallel cells to pull f_r down honestly, and widen the electrode gap to move 304kHz toward my band.