Electronic Principles II

If you are someone who is in an electronics/electrical career field, be it military or not, you are fully aware of the steps involved to work on your equipment. If you will allow me, I will explain a bit to others who are not.
One of the main factors in a lot of equipment is their vulnerability to static or discharge. Have you ever rubbed your shoes on a carpet and touched somebody, causing a small shock?  Most people have. Or rubbed a balloon in your hair, and all your hair stood up on end? Or you could place the balloon on somebody and it would "stick" to them? This is static. I'm sure you're aware of this. In the electronics world it is called "electro-static discharge", or ESD for short. ESD has killed more expensive circuit boards and sensitive equipment than anything else. We all carry static on us. When you touch anything, you release static, even if you don't feel it. When you pull out a circuit card, that static jumps onto the board, sometimes frying the delicate circuits, and rendering the card useless. That card could run, and many times do, into thousands of dollars each. In the military it is no different. So we have a full ESD program designed to tackle that problem. It runs in all four branches of the military. To work with sensitive (as in electrically) equipment, you must be fully versed on how to protect that equipment, as well as yourself. There are devices used to help with these matters. An ESD wrist strap is commonly used. It is just a flexible band going around your wrist, but has a wire connected to it that, in turn is connected to a tested grounding point. In that way, if an static electricity is released, it will flow to the ground, protecting the equipment. Another one is an ESD mat, or pad. It is designed not to be static sensitive or build static. When you are working with sensitive cards, for example, you will lay the card on this pad. It is also grounded. These straps and pads are continuously tested and replaced as needed. It is alot cheaper to replace them than circuit cards. Many cards or parts come in ESD wrapping (sort of like bubble wrap).  This is to protect it from static buildup or release. They are labeled on the outside "ESD sensitive" for all to see, so there there will be no mistakes in the handling.
Now about test equipment; oscilloscopes, oscillators, spectrum analyzers, volt meters, etc. used by the electronics world for troubleshooting, alignments, and testing. Depending on your job, you must know how to use each accordingly, meaning they must be set at the right settings, adjusted properly, and calibrated. Calibrated meaning that they have gone through a "calibration shop" and have been certified that they are running correctly, they are aligned as they should be, and all the parts are working correctly. A stamp is placed on each one as it completes calibration, showing the last date it was calibrated and the next date calibration is needed. These dates must be strictly followed. If you are not trained on this test equipment, you could easily blow up a unit, or misalign the equipment you are working on.
What would be the result, in your opinion, of using a voltmeter with a range of only up to 120v, to measure an outlet that had a rating of 220v? Would it work correctly? Or would it blow up? Following that example, have you ever plugged in a hair blow dryer rated for 110v into a 220v outlet? Have you ever done this on vacation overseas? The result will be that the blow dryer will scream, blow at about a 500% increased output for about 5 seconds, glow bright red inside, then burn up. It may even melt the extension chord. You will be lucky if you don't get hurt. Some people believe that electricity ratings are the same all around the world. It is not. That's one example of knowing and understanding electronic/electrical principles.
Have you ever bought a piece of equipment, maybe a skill saw, or something, and it had a three point plug in? The two flat ones are for the actual electrical flow, and the third "round" one is for grounding. when you went to plug it in at your house, the outlet had only two flat plug in spots, and the third one was not there. It could mean two things; either your house outlets are grounded to the house ground, or someone put in the wrong outlet. But either way, you couldn't "plug in", so you decided to be smart and use a pair of pliers to break off or remove that third round connector. You have just removed the ground from your equipment. Was this a smart idea? Or did you just believe it's ok to do that? It's up to you.
The point to all this is that if you are not trained in the ways electronics or electricity works, then you should learn, or better yet, call someone who is trained. It may save your equipment, and better yet, it may save your life!