Randy, KS4L asked: When I built my K2 (#337) I used a wrist strap electrostatic ground connected to my station ground which went a short distance out the window and to a ground rod. Now, in a different house, my station is on the second floor and I have no easy access to a ground. I guess I should have my K2 grounded, but I haven't worried about it since I'm running a balanced antenna. However, I'm now building a K1 and I'm worried about handling the electrostatic sensitive components. What would you guys recommend for this? Can I safely ground my wrist strap to the AC ground? Or should I bite the bullet and run a ground out the window (about 12' from my radio desk) and down 2 stories to a ground rod? Or what else???
------------------------------------------------------------ The mains ground is just fine, providing it IS grounded!! In any case, be sure your wrist strap has at least 1 megohm of resistance in it to avoid a dangerous shock hazard should you accidentally touch a lead carrying significant voltage. An inexpensive outlet tester is available at almost any hardware or home improvement store that can confirm your grounds. It's good to know about the outlets in a "new" home anyway. Even new construction often has outlets that are ungrounded or which are wired backwards. As others here have pointed out here in the past, if you have a station ground rod it's a good idea to tie it to the mains ground rod anyway. There's usually a ground rod right under the panel where power somes into the house. The reason for tying them together is this: If the power lines suffer a surge from a near-miss lightning strike, tens or hundreds of amperes of current may flow into the ground at the mains box. No ground rod makes a really low-resistance ground connection, not even the exotic attempts by Hams in years past who buried copper rods in earth treated with salt. So the current flowing through that resistance to ground will cause the house "grounds" to suddenly be several hundred volts, or more, above actual ground for the duration of the pulse. If you have more than one ground system, one for the shack and one for the mains, you may find that during a surge there is a lethal potential difference between the phones on your head or the front panel of your rig and something else close at hand that isn't tied to the station ground. It's not such a big deal for an antenna ground for lightening protection, since there is usually no low-resistance d-c path between that ground and your equipment. It will only come into play if there's a surge big enough to cause an arc across the lightning arrestor from the antenna system to that ground. Ron AC7AC _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [email protected] 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
