Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!husc6!cmcl2!rutgers!ucla-cs!zen!ucbvax!zion.berkeley.edu!max From: max@zion.berkeley.edu (Max Hauser) Newsgroups: sci.electronics Subject: Old-fart electronics quiz (long) Message-ID: <19929@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> Date: Sun, 2-Aug-87 08:14:35 EDT Article-I.D.: ucbvax.19929 Posted: Sun Aug 2 08:14:35 1987 Date-Received: Sun, 2-Aug-87 20:22:48 EDT Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Reply-To: max@eros.berkeley.edu (Max Hauser) Distribution: na Organization: U.C. Berkeley Lines: 103 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.