To adequately "ground" for electrostatic charges does not require a connection to physical earth at all. In fact whether to use a strap at all depends on your local temperature and humidity at the work station. Dry cold winter weather is more risk than a wet spring unless you have a cold air conditioned lab in which you are working, that has dry air.
You establish a ground plane or conductive pad under the chassis or board you are working on. To this is attached a wrist strap thru a coiled cord. There is a current limiting resistor in the commercial cord/ strap set ups to limit any surge to the human. The idea is to have the human and the board or chassis at the same voltage, (potential) before you touch the board with your hands or tools. Once you pick up the part or tool, your wrist strap discharges anything on the part/ tool. When you insert the part in the chassis or board that is "grounded" to the conductive pad, you have removed the danger of a spark. Check the web sites of some of the manufacturers by Googling "static discharge tools". There should be some application notes to further discuss precautions. 73, Stuart K5KVH _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
