[Elecraft] Anti-Static Grounding - how?

[Stuart Rohre]

What you are seeking rather than an earth ground, is to tie the commons of 
the equipment you are working upon, and yourself, suitably protected by the 
wrist strap internal resistor, to the same point, and thus voltage 
potential.  You are trying to have everything at the same potential before 
you reach toward a board with a conductive tool and provide a discharge 
point for any accumulated static on one side or the other.

The objective is to bleed off any static charge you bring on your body, 
clothes, etc.,  to the work table, to the static mat and to the common bus 
of the circuit board, chassis, or whatever is sitting on the pad.  In other 
words, it matters not if the pad and you and the equipment float at some 
voltage, as long as you all become tied together so as to be at the SAME 
voltage.  That is why you do not see any specific instruction to tie the mat 
to an earth rod.
If you walk up to the work area and thus buildup a charge from walking 
along; as soon as you strap on the resistive wrist strap tying you to the 
other equipment, you dissipate the charge thru the resistor or induce the 
same charge to whatever you are working upon.

The earth itself does not have any magical property to effectively nullify 
static; rather, you attempt to spread the charge evenly among all conductive 
elements involved in your workbench.  Sometimes earthing thru a rod might 
aid in keeping the bench from rising up in charge itself, but the risk of 
that is tied to such issues as is there a steady wind blowing across metal 
surfaces, or is the air around the bench very dry and cool, thus 
facilitating static charge accumulation.

-Stuart
K5KVH