Greg K2UM wrote: One touch and no static sparks to my equipment during operation, especially during the winter, and a whole desk mat to work on my K3s and other equipment.
------------------------------------- If you want to discharge the static with a "touch" you need to touch a real, bare-metal ground. Those mats do not provide a "ground" but rather merely dissipate static charges as they accumulate. Sure, if you hold your hand on one and don't move for several minutes, you should be discharged too, but a "touch" won't do it as evidenced by a simple check with an ohmmeter. Almost no DMM will indicate anything but an "open circuit" when the probes are both touched to the mat. Optionally you can discharge yourself with a wrist strap that has a metal-to-you contact through a 1 Megohm resistor to ground. The 1 Megohm is adequate to rapidly discharge your body while limiting any accidental currents from touching circuit to a safe level. The main advantage of the wrist strap is that you don't need to remember to keep touching a ground. It'll take care of any static charge you accumulate as it builds, and your mat will keep dissipating any static charges on the equipment you lay on it. When I sit down at the bench to work, I first touch a bare metal ground, don the wrist strap and set to work with the parts and boards on the static dissipating mat. Ron AC7AC ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
