From Vladislav Zhigalov's 2018 Sochi presentation
Alexander Parkhomov answers a Q & A on ECW
Any experimenter can create a “woodpecker” device. You need a horizontal flat electrode immersed in water or another liquid, and a vertical electrode in the form of a thin rod. The vertical electrode is connected to an electromagnet, which is powered by a current, the circuit of which is closed through the electrodes. When the electrodes are connected, the electromagnet pulls up the vertical electrode, the circuit opens, after which the vertical electrode falls on the horizontal one. The chain closes again, the cycle repeats. In my devices, the voltage is up to 100V, the current is several A.
Firstly, this device is not just designed to make Strange Radiation (SR), this is a device to explore elemental transmutations due to spark interaction under water etc. Other electrode choices are made.
The electrodes in this case are both carbon, however the lower plate carbon electrode appears to be supported by a bent copper plate underneath to give a good electrical contact and stability. Open researcher 'Can' produced a good simple schematic of what it might look like.
As in the SAFIRE reactor and S.V. Adamenko's work, the Woodpeckers' rod electrode is expected to be the ANODE, this is due to the electric field shape created by the large flat electrode which will be domed, in theory, this helps the formation of the Active Agent (AA) and helps focus discharge on to the point anode. Having a purely disc shaped lower electrode and a more rounded / finer rod upper electrode would help the electric and magnetic fields be shaped to allow more focussing of the discharge and it's resulting structuring capability as in Adamenko et. al. work, leading potentially to faster initiation of SR production.
SR will only occur after some period of operation of a generator capable of producing SR. In the opinion of this Author, the AA needs to be built up into a cluster size that is first large enough to 'Self Sustain' to a certain extent and then large enough to be unstable when hit by another shock. In ECCO fuel production, no activity in the ECCO reactor was claimed for fuel until it had done far more than 100 hours processing, the woodpecker is a different approach, however, there is still expected to be a lead in time and so it is useful that the striking is automated and fault resilient due to high simplicity of the electrical - only design. Introduction of semiconductors into a design would have a high likelihood of failure due to their susceptibility to attributes of the AA.
After SR starts to be emitted, it appears that it stops and re-starts without defined periodicity.
Alexander Shishkin posits that there is something in local space-time that gets used, up to a field effect distance and to overcome this, he has to physically move his cavitation SR generators to a new site in his lab, for SR production to resume.
Bob Greenyer posits that the AA cluster sizes may drop to a scale where they can withstand more stimulation without production of SR. During this time they need to build up again to a point of instability. This creates a hysteresis in their output and given the dynamic nature of the production apparatus and other variabilities that may lead to bleeding of the AA it becomes less deterministic.
It is suggested that the electromagnets field location may be playing a role in the formation of the AA due to magnetoelectrolysis effects. Ref 2, Ref 3. As such, spinning one of the electrodes in one or other direction, may assist in the production of SR. In the case of Shiskin's SR generators, they were spinning in excess of 5500rpm with cavitation charge seperation and collapse performing the HV electrical discharge function.
All electronics in the power loop of any AA producing device should be isolated from ground and ideally the bulk of the device should be operated in a dry environment. Bare metal surfaces should be insulated.
The copper supporting plate may capture and store nucleated AA and, if taken out, kept separate from other metals, insulated and kept in a dry environment, at a later time, after heating, it may be capable of emitting SR itself. Similar observations were made by LION from his Cu2O outer reactor material and by Zetelepin et. al. using formerly SR emitting treated Bismuth.
Alexander said that the water in the vessel gets hot very quickly and that for long term operation cooling will be required and he suggested using a flow of water.
Notes on protection during this experiment
To protect against strange radiation.
First option is distance, get a large clear plastic container and run the experiment under it in the garden or yard and observe at a distance. Put it all on a few bricks to allow for ventilation - be aware that CO and HHO may be produced - Perhaps drill a hole just under the rim to let out light gasses that are produced. A carbon monoxide monitor and very good ventilation needed if done in an enclosed space. Not recommended for doing in dwellings.
Strange Radiation does not like impedance changes, say going from conductor into air or air into an insulator.
Next cheapest is many alternating layers of thin sheets of conductors and insulators. I would suggest a trip to the supermarket and get some aluminium foil and some cellophane and make a layer cake - ground the metal. Zhigalov found that one layer of Aluminium foil prevented his CDs from getting tracks.
either pure silicon or germanium sheets are apparently reflectors but super expensive
borosilicate glass is a potential absorber, easy to get and allows viewing