[TowerTalk] Static grounding protection-experience

[Phil - KB9CRY]

No, actually the straps did the job of bonding between the car's 
body/frame and the ground and really did work until the tire 
manufacturers learned to add conductive agents to tire rubber to make 
them conductive.  Phil  KB9CRY

Carl007 wrote:

>To [TowerTalk] all:
>
>I recall when I was in high school (several decades ago) when people put
>a 'leather strap' on their rear bumper that dragged on the ground.
>
>It was said that this would do two things:
>
>1) It would reduce the static on the radio-Am radios.
>2) Prevent police radar from detecting your actual speed.
>
>The secret "word" was that this worked because a car does not have a
>ground because of the rubber tires and this leather strap provided a
>ground return for static and police radar signals to drain.
>
>I was not yet a Ham but I was a home brew electronics experimenter.
>
>It was unbelievable to me but the reasoning seemed logical. I doubted it
>would work from the very beginning because I knew leather was an
>insulator and that a good ground had to be made out of metal and be
>connected below the tarmac or concrete road.  Nevertheless, because of
>all the testimonials, I was caught up with it too.
>
>I began diving around with a leather strap on my car to be "cool" like
>my peers.  Later on I learned from my younger brother that many of his
>friends put old leather (leather belt) straps on their cars too.  He
>said he told them it worked because his older brother (me) was doing it
>and I must know it works because I was the president of our high school
>radio club and that I knew a lot about electronics. 
>The fad eventually died a natural death as the straps wore out and no
>one replaced them.  I even recall seeing dozens of over the road
>truckers with long leather straps dragging behind them too. Surely, they
>drive for a living and they must know something that I don't know.  Of
>course, we knew that fuel tankers attach a metallic 'ground strap' to
>their vehicle when they are refilling underground tanks. This is done to
>drain static charges that may exist between the tanker and the
>underground tank, thus, avoiding a dangerous spark.
>
>Carl, NW8Z
>
> 
>
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>
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