[AMRadio] A grounding stick idea

[John Lawson]

   Wouldn't a solenoid, wound of say, 50 close-spaced turns of fairly heavy 
guage insulated wire, and wrapped/taped well (to resist the sudden 
mechanical forces deriving from the ampere-turns of the coil) - be a good 
compromise between 'dead-short' poultry-bars and the 'resistance' kind?

   The idea being that a step-function wavefront would encounter the 
reactance of the coil, damp itself a bit, ring back and forth, and still 
have a low-Z DC path to ground - kind of a "soft-start" approach.  I do 
agree - I'd be leery of any kind of regular resistor (that I could easily 
lift) in that path of a hefty HV cap discharge - if not the first time, 
then how many subsequent blasts before the resistor changes impedance to 
the meg-ohm range....?


   Another point: I have several TMs and training manuals from the Army, 
Navy, and Air Force.   ALL of them show grounding sticks made of wooden 
dowels or 1X1 lumber, with the usual heavy braid and hooked 'business 
end'.    As late as the mid 60s these are shown.



  Cheers

   John  KB6SCO