[Elecraft] Random K2 building hints for those starting out

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

Very neat, Fernando.

One thing your beautiful setup brings to mind is that those plastic =
boxes
CAN cause ESD (electrostatic discharge) damage to many IC's and FETs. =
Since
most plastics are insulators, they can hold a very large static =
potential on
their surface waiting to pass through the device as it is set in or =
picked
up.=20

If a transistor or IC comes stuck into a bit of black foam, be sure to =
leave
it in the foam. That stuff is conductive and protects the device by =
keeping
all the terminals at the same potential.=20

Some plastic bags are also conductors and are used to protect parts =
dropped
inside in the same way. I save the bits of black foam I take off of =
parts
that I've installed and put any IC's or FET's in them if I want to leave
them out of the bags before they are installed in circuit board.=20

Ron AC7AC
K2 # 1289