Michael VE3TIX asked: What protections would you recommend a hobbyist take to ensure low/less risk of ESD in the usual home ham shack?
--------------------------------------------------- Here are the recommendations from Elecraft: Preventing Electrostatic Discharge Damage Your (kit) uses integrated circuits and transistors that can be damaged by electrostatic discharge (ESD). Problems caused by ESD can be difficult to troubleshoot because components may be degraded but still operating, rather than fail completely. To avoid such problems, simply touch an unpainted, grounded metal surface before handling any such components and occasionally as you build, especially after moving about. For maximum protection, we recommend you take the following antistatic precautions (listed in order of importance): 1. Leave ESD-sensitive parts in their antistatic packaging until you install them. The packaging may be a special bag, other container or the leads may be inserted in conductive foam. 2. Touch an unpainted metal ground before handling any sensitive parts or wear a conductive wrist strap with a series 1 megohm resistor. DO NOT attach yourself directly to a ground as this poses a serious shock hazard. 3. Make sure your soldering iron has a grounded tip. 4. Use an antistatic mat on your work bench. Check the first part of any Elecraft assembly manual for a host of good information on successful kit building. >From my experience, if you, as a minimum, use a grounded-tip soldering iron and touch an unpainted metal ground regularly as you work, you'll be fine. The mat and wrist strap are great for when you forget to touch the ground regularly. I use them for just that reason. I wince when I read about people using Styrofoam (TM) containers (egg cartons, cups, etc.) for parts. While they won't hurt a resistor or a capacitor, they can be huge static collectors. Just try to peel all those Styrofoam peanuts off of your clothes once they jump out of the box! 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
