wrote:

I don't know if I am grounding my station correctly.

The radials of my 20m vertical are connected to my trailer's electrical
system ground rod. My coax shield is connected both to the radials and
the ground rod. I plug my antenna into the Yaesu and turn it on. I
can hear stations just fine, and I have no problems touching the
chassis. However, the instant I disconnected the antenna but hang onto
the coax, I got a mild shock on both arms if I should momentarily
touch the chassis of the Yaesu. So, I understand I have a problem.

So, DON'T DO THAT.

Now I noticed that the Yaesu uses a 2-prong AC cord adapter, which is
"before code" and therefore is unsafe by today's standards. If I
rewrire the AC cord to 3-prong, should that remove the hazard? If so,
what pinout do I use? The FT-101 Shop service manual does not list
where positive, negative, and neutral should be on the Yaesu power
plug.in Figure 1-2.

A three-prong plug will make the radio safe, but in fact as long as
the radio is plugged into the antenna, it's already safely grounded
by the anntena system. A three-prong plug will make it meet code,
though.

BUT, the real problem is that you have current leaking to chassis, and
your chassis has become hot. Look for an AC line filter or some
ceramic disc capacitors between the AC line and the chassis, used to
keep RF out of the power line (and out of the radio). It will be
leaky. Replace it, even if you think it's good.

P.S. I hope I have not long-term defibrillated myself. Should I visit
a hospital for cardiac system damage even if the shock was mild? I now
realize that I probably could have been killed. Right now I have
everything unplugged and disconnected until I can get better advice.

Keep your left hand in your pocket next time.

The thing about electrical injuries is that there is really nothing doctors
can do. When there is damage due to electrical power, cells become
elongated and the cell membranes break down. As this process continues,
the cell membranes break, the resistance of the tissue drops, and more
and more current flows. All the doctors can see is the surface burn,
they can't tell how bad the tissue damage is. So even in the case of
very serious electrical injury, the normal procedure is basically to wait
and see how much tissue dies. RF burns really terrify doctors, because
they look like serious electrical burns but have little or no actual
tissue damage (due to skin effect). So they look a lot worse than they
really are.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."