That 1 meg resistor not only causes a slow discharge of any static buildup on you it also protects you. You could easily get a good zap by connecting yourself with a solid wire to what you think is "ground." Don’t think that you can save money by hooking up a test lead to your wrist watch band and ground. I got a good jolt when I was a kid (many years ago) from a "grounded" drill that was plugged into a "grounded" outlet in my barn. The power line had the Hot, Neutral and Ground BUT there was no local ground rod in the barn. At first we thought that the Hot wire had shorted to the case. As luck would have it the fuse panel ground had gotten mowed off below the meter, the only ground for the house and barn, and the utility crew forget to ground the transformer after an accident some months earlier. There was enough voltage to light a bulb, over 90 volts, between the "ground" wire and earth.
Rich, KE0X ----------- Indeed, some house grounds have induced voltages in having long runs back to any ground point; and might not be the safest thing to tie your static mat to as a "ground" point. "Ground" in AC systems may have imbalance phase currents and be much different from a zero voltage point. It shouldn't ideally, but the real world resistances of wiring carrying heavy current my make it so. -Stuart K5KVH -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.385 / Virus Database: 268.2.6/286 - Release Date: 3/20/2006 _______________________________________________ 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
