VIC design session v8: reasoning

Lab notebook — VIC choke sweep, L held at 1mH, AWG20-22

Ran 15 candidates holding L=1mH and stepping AWG20-22 turns to see if I could push tank Q past 62 without tripping the 1A series current ceiling. All five top scorers land on the same fixed cell geometry (15.9mm rod/22.3mm tube, C=1.31nF, water R=87585Ω), so the sweep is really telling me about wire gauge and turn count, not cell design. Clear trend: fewer turns of heavier wire (AWG20 @150t) gives lower coil AC resistance (0.9Ω), which pulls tank Q up to 64.4 and cell voltage to 773V, while thinner wire or more turns (AWG21-22, 175-200t) trades coil Q and tank Q downward as resistance climbs — coil Q dropped from 703.8 to 527.9 across the set even though Xl/Xc stayed pinned at 1236Ω since L and f_r didn't move. Current tracks Q almost linearly here (625.6mA at Q=64.4 down to 605mA at Q=62.3), all comfortably under the 1A limit, so I wasn't actually current-constrained at any candidate — resistance/turns was the binding trade-off, not the amp ceiling.

Adopting #1: 150t AWG20, 18m/choke, 0.9Ω AC each, Q=64.4, 773V at 625.6mA. It's the best on every axis simultaneously (highest Q, highest voltage, lowest current) with no compromise versus the runners-up, and satisfies wire-length and band constraints cleanly.

Next session: hold AWG20/150t fixed and sweep L between 0.7-1.3mH to see if I can raise f_r and further cut coil R at fixed turns, and check whether tank Q keeps scaling favorably.