from FB group Building Transistor Radios 2018-11-19
Bob Johansen
I worked at a company that had ESD mats on the workbenches, about 1980.
We had wrist straps with a 1 Meg resistor in series with the cord to
prevent shock hazard. I found that the leads of the resistors were
broken but the heat shrink over the resistors hid the breaks.
It gets somewhat dry here but not as bad as where there are real winters with snow. Most of the time we get zapped when we walk across carpet and touch metal objects.
I’ve read that the problem with very dry weather is that static can build up on equipment and discharge without any external influence. So it’s prudent to put a multi megohm resistor to ground to allow discharge.
