That's why a connection to earth ground is recommended and important. It's often pointed out that it doesn't matter if everything is grounded as long as it's at the same potential. That's true, but connections to the earth are usually all around us, often in unexpected places.
It's the same as the reason for not operating ac-powered appliances sitting in a bathtub. The water isn't dangerous. The fact that it provides a decent conductive path to grounded plumbing is what's dangerous, and deadly if the electrical appliance is not grounded and "hot" with mains voltage. Ron AC7AC -----Original Message----- What about touching the circuit board pads with my Weller soldering station that has a grounded tip? On Friday 23 November 2007 10:52, Gary Hvizdak wrote: > YOU ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY SHOULD NOT GROUND THE CHASSIS while > assembling > > your K3 or anything else that has ESD sensitive components! Doing so > would defeat the entire purpose of the ESD mat, which is to gently, > safely, and gradually dissipate a charge so that it doesn't cause > damage. If you directly ground the chassis and you or someone else > were to "accidentally" touch the rig in a vulnerable spot (while not > wearing a wrist strap), then the resulting surge discharging that > person's charge to ground through the rig's vulnerable circuitry would > most certainly fry something! -- Darrell Bellerive Amateur Radio Stations VA7TO and VE7CLA G _______________________________________________ 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
