[Elecraft] Humidity and ESD

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

Today a package arrived from Mouser. One of the things inside were some
packages of common rectifier diodes. 

What I noticed was that the seal on the packets read "ATTENTION! OBSERVE
PRECAUTIONS WHEN HANDLING ELECTROSTATIC SENSITIVE DEVICES". 	

True enough. But that doesn't mean that the contents of those packages
are "electrostatic sensitive" by any normal definition of the term.  

Oh, I guess if I'm hit with lightning while holding the package, neither
I or the diodes might be much good afterwards. 

My point is that manufacturers and distributors are labeling many things
that we'd never have considered sensitive it the past. It helps mask
those items (like IC's with unprotected CMOS gates at the inputs) that
really ARE sensitive.

Because of that we must either be aware of what is or is not sensitive,
or take extreme precautions about everything. 

The latter may work, but it's sort of like wearing a crash helmet when
sitting on the couch.

Ron AC7AC
K2 # 1289