[Elecraft] Electrostatic ground

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

Randy, KS4L asked:

When I built my K2 (#337) I used a wrist strap electrostatic ground
connected to my station ground which went a short distance out the window
and to a ground rod.  Now, in a different house, my station is on the second
floor and I have no easy access to a ground.  I guess I should have my K2
grounded, but I haven't worried about it since I'm running a balanced
antenna.  However, I'm now building a K1 and I'm worried about handling the
electrostatic sensitive components.  What would you guys recommend for this?
Can I safely ground my wrist strap to the AC ground?  Or should I bite the
bullet and run a ground out the window (about 12' from my radio desk) and
down 2 stories to a ground rod?  Or what else???

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The mains ground is just fine, providing it IS grounded!! In any case, be
sure your wrist strap has at least 1 megohm of resistance in it to avoid a
dangerous shock hazard should you accidentally touch a lead carrying
significant voltage. 

An inexpensive outlet tester is available at almost any hardware or home
improvement store that can confirm your grounds. It's good to know about the
outlets in a "new" home anyway. Even new construction often has outlets that
are ungrounded or which are wired backwards. 

As others here have pointed out here in the past, if you have a station
ground rod it's a good idea to tie it to the mains ground rod anyway.
There's usually a ground rod right under the panel where power somes into
the house. The reason for tying them together is this: If the power lines
suffer a surge from a near-miss lightning strike, tens or hundreds of
amperes of current may flow into the ground at the mains box. No ground rod
makes a really low-resistance ground connection, not even the exotic
attempts by Hams in years past who buried copper rods in earth treated with
salt. So the current flowing through that resistance to ground will cause
the house "grounds" to suddenly be several hundred volts, or more, above
actual ground for the duration of the pulse. If you have more than one
ground system, one for the shack and one for the mains, you may find that
during a surge there is a lethal potential difference between the phones on
your head or the front panel of your rig and something else close at hand
that isn't tied to the station ground. 

It's not such a big deal for an antenna ground for lightening protection,
since there is usually no low-resistance d-c path between that ground and
your equipment. It will only come into play if there's a surge big enough to
cause an arc across the lightning arrestor from the antenna system to that
ground.  

Ron AC7AC