🚀 go-pugleaf

Catching up on sci.electronics recently I enjoyed reading all the
postings about magic-eye tubes, magamps, etc.  By coincidence, 
I recently put together an old-farts' electronics quiz and 
circulated it locally. A copy is attached for your amusement.
Questions 12 and 13 are especially coincidental.

I should explain that the quiz is about general, pre-microprocessor
electronics  -- 1960's technology, roughly. Mostly solid-state,
a little RF, a little "analog", a little "digital", and some
industrial trivia. Engineers here have been taking it and
predictably, the ones who were working or at least hacking 15-20
years ago know the answers. Even more notable, though, it is usual
for recent EE graduates to be mystified by *all* of the questions.
I hope this evokes some nostalgia; it's strictly for fun.

(As for actually being an old fart -- well, I was I was born 
in 1956, and I remember this stuff -- does that make me one?)

Max Hauser, UC Berkeley EECS Department

   UUCP: ...{!decvax}!ucbvax!eros!max
   Internet (old style): max%eros@berkeley
   Internet (domain style): max@eros.berkeley.edu



Questions to identify old-fart electronics hackers. (General, 
pre-microprocessor electronics.)

(No fair looking it up.)


1. Assuming that you are acquainted with the "cascode" configuration,
do you know where the term came from?

2. What is a reflex amplifier?

3. What is the basic principle of a superhet receiver? of a regenerative
receiver? The difference between a mixer and a converter (in RF)?

4. Who developed the op amp, and when?

5. What is the "purple plague"?

6. What is a class-C amplifier and where is it typically used?

7. Can you describe a tunnel diode? a unijunction transistor? an SCS?
(What is the basic principle of each and what are they used for.)

8. Traditional op-amp ICs were designed whenever possible to run 
on +- 15 volts.  Why that voltage?

9. What do the following acronyms stand for: PDP, VAX, ASCII, EBCDIC,
PRV, BFO, RTTY, CW, VSB, VOR, Conelrad?

10. What was revolutionary about the 741 op amp?

11. Can you specifically describe the commercial semiconductor devices 
known by the following terms: 1N34, CK722, 2N107, 2N998, 2N1304, 2N2222,
2N3055, U222, uL900, uL958, uA703, uA709, SN7300 series, SUHL, CCSL, 
HTL, ECCSL, Utilogic, COSMOS, Intel 1101, Intel 1702.

12. Can you identify the following trademarks: Nixie, Pixie, Numitron?

13. What is a thyratron? a magic-eye tube? a compactron?

14. What magnitudes of voltage(s) are required for operating the
following devices: neon bulb; Xenon flashtube; Geiger-Mueller tube?

15. What IF frequencies are commonly used in the US for AM broadcast,
FM broadcast, TV sound, TV picture?

16. What is a Hartly oscillator? a Colpitts oscillator? a Pierce
oscillator? a Wien-bridge oscillator? a blocking oscillator? 

17. What voltage corresponds to zero dBm in a 600-ohm circuit?
(Quick, without calculating).

18. What is an Eccles-Jordan circuit? a polyflop? a switch-tail ring 
counter? a Johnson counter? an AC-coupled flip-flop? 

19. In the context of filters, what is a biquad? [Note: most engineers
get this wrong.]

20. What does it mean when a resistor is marked with bands 
red-yellow-green-silver? a capacitor with letters "104K"?

21. If an aluminum electrolytic capacitor is rated for a "working
voltage" of 10 volts, in what range of voltages is it designed to
operate?

22. Roughly, what are the main advantages and disadvantages of the
following capacitor dielectrics: ceramic, polystyrene, polycarbonate?

23. What is a "2 1/2 D" core memory plane?

24. What is a couplate? a micromodule? the difference between
thin-film and thick-film hybrid circuits?

25. Do you remember the commotion caused by Ovonic devices in 1969?

26. (Practical commercial engineering experience) Can you explain
the following business acronyms: FOB, CIF, NRE, ASP.