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Oscillator Quiz
November 1962 Popular Electronics

November 1962 Popular Electronics

November 1962 Popular Electronics Cover - RF CafeTable of Contents

Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from Popular Electronics, published October 1954 - April 1985. All copyrights are hereby acknowledged.

Oscillators were never my forte. My biggest exposure to oscillators was unintentional oscillations in amplifier circuits ;-( .  This "Oscillator Quiz," published in the November 1962 issue of Popular Electronics magazine, would embarrass me if I attempted to complete it. Therefore, I will simply state that I highly regard your oscillator prowess if you do better than 50% on it. I guessed correctly at a couple of the more familiar circuits, but cannot even make an educated guess at most of them. Don't let the presence of vacuum tubes scare you off; mentally replace them with a FET and move on.

Oscillators Quiz

Oscillator Quiz, November 1962 Popular Electronics - RF CafeThere are many types of oscillator circuits used in electronic equipment. You can tell them apart by noting the tube type, tank circuit, or feedback path used. See how many of the circuits (A-J) shown here you can match with their common names
(1-10) listed below.

 

   1) Colpitts oscillator ____

   2) Hartley oscillator ____

   3) Clapp oscillator ____

   4) Electron-coupled oscillator ____

   5) Pierce oscillator ____

   6) Multivibrator ____

   7) Dynatron oscillator ____

   8) Blocking oscillator ____

   9) Phase shift oscillator ____

10) Tuned plate-tuned grid
       oscillator ____

Quizzes from vintage electronics magazines such as Popular Electronics, Electronics-World, QST, Radio-Electronics, and Radio News were published over the years - some really simple and others not so simple. Robert P. Balin created most of the quizzes for Popular Electronics. This is a listing of all I have posted thus far.

RF Cafe Quizzes

Vintage Electronics Magazine Quizzes

Vintage Electronics Magazine Quizzes

 

 

Oscillator Quiz Answers

1 - H) The COLPITTS oscillator uses a parallel-resonant tank circuit, and a capacitance voltage -divider to provide the feedback voltage. The Colpitts oscillator is electronically equal to the "ultra-audion" oscillator common to UHF circuits.

2 - A) The series-fed HARTLEY oscillator employs a parallel-tuned tank circuit with a tapped coil to supply the feedback path.

3 - I) A CLAPP oscillator is a version of the Colpitts circuit in which a capacitor is added in series with the inductance in the tank circuit. The Clapp oscillator is quite stable under varying input voltages.

4 - G) The ELECTRON-COUPLED oscillator employs a multi-grid vacuum tube with the cathode and first two grids operating in any conventional manner, and in which the plate circuit load is coupled to the oscillator through the electron stream. The drawing shows a tetrode version using a series-fed Hartley oscillator.

5 - J) The PIERCE oscillator is a crystal version of the Colpitts oscillator.

6 - C) A MULTIVIBRATOR is a form of relaxation oscillator employing two RC-controlled triodes.

7 - E) The DYNATRON oscillator uses the negative resistance characteristic of a tetrode tube to cancel the resistance of its tank circuit in order to sustain oscillations.

8 - B) The BLOCKING oscillator is a form of relaxation oscillator using a plate transformer to provide the feedback voltage.

9 - F) The PHASE-SHIFT oscillator uses three cascaded RC sections to provide the feedback voltage.

10 - D) The TUNED PLATE-TUNED GRID oscillator has parallel-resonant circuits in both plate and grid circuits, the necessary feedback being obtained by the plate-to-grid interelectrode capacitance.

Crane Aerospace & Electronics (RF & Microwave) - RF Cafe

About RF Cafe

Kirt Blattenberger - RF Cafe Webmaster

Copyright: 1996 - 2025
Webmaster: Kirt Blattenberger,
   BSEE - KB3UON - AMA92498
   USAF Radar Technician

RF Cafe began life in 1996 as "RF Tools" in an AOL screen name web space totaling 2 MB. Its primary purpose was to provide me with ready access to commonly needed formulas and reference material while performing my work as an RF system and circuit design engineer. The World Wide Web (Internet) was largely an unknown entity at the time and bandwidth was a scarce commodity. Dial-up modems blazed along at 14.4 kbps while tying up your telephone line, and a lady's voice announced "You've Got Mail" when a new message arrived...

Copyright  1996 - 2026

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