Grounding and Bonding

Well, what have we here?

This is called a "shelter" and it sits on the back of a Humvee.

Not the Mr. and Mrs. Yuppie-McMansion version that ferries Buffy and Chip to their polo lessons.

No.

I'm talking about the heavily armored tanks-on-wheels that we work on over at Fort Bragg.

Yep, I just completed my first full week as an "Electronics Helper" on base.

My job has been to do the "grounding and bonding" on the shelters that have been tricked out as communications centers and have been returned for maintenance.

My tools?

A few socket wrenches, a couple screwdrivers a dremel tool, commercial bathroom cleaner (Scrubbing Bubbles!) and a scotchbrite pad.

The deal is that I have to demount and disconnect the connector panels and antennas, clean them up shiny-new and put them back together.

We use the dremel to create clean grounding areas at various points on the panels. An improperly-grounded antenna is a useless antenna.

It's about that interesting.

But I needed a job and, by golly, I got me a job!

Thanks for everyone's support and well-wishes during my most-recent jobless period.

More random thoughts to come.