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Oscilloscope Quiz
October 1961 Popular Electronics

October 1961 Popular Electronics

October 1961 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.

A lot of RF Cafe visitors might not be familiar with some of the electronic waveforms presented in this "Oscilloscope Quiz" by Popular Electronics magazine's ultimate quizmaster, Robert Balin (a big list of his other quizzes is at the bottom of the page). The shapes are recognizable to anyone who has done a lot of design, troubleshooting, testing, or alignments on analog circuits. Electronics repairmen were intimately familiar with these - and much more complex - waveforms. Modulation of the z-axis is especially cool as it varies the intensity of the waveform. I always roll my eyes when, back in the day, a laboratory or medical facility in movies or on TV had an oscilloscope display with a Lissajous pattern writhing on the display. There was another o-scope quiz in 1965.

Oscilloscope Quiz

Oscilloscope Quiz, October 1961 Popular Electronics - RF CafeBy Robert P. Balin

The oscilloscope lets you see what's going on inside a circuit by enabling you to check voltage, phase, frequency, distortion, and other characteristics visually. As you probably know, each of the common applications for this popular device results in a distinctive screen pattern. See if you can match the descriptions listed on the right below with the proper letters (A through J) representing the patterns on the oscilloscope screen.

   1) Intermodulation distortion ___

   2) A 3:2 frequency ratio ___

   3) Z-axis modulation ___

   4) FM discriminator alignment ___

   5) Loss of high frequencies ___

   6) In-phase signals ___

   7) Television i.f. alignment ___

   8) Transmitter modulation ___

   9) Signals 90° out of phase ___

10) Loss of low frequencies ___

 

See answers below.

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

 

Quiz Answers

1 - H

2 - C

3 - I

4 - G

5 - J

6 - A

7 - E

8 - B

9 - F

10 - D
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Kirt Blattenberger - RF Cafe Webmaster

Copyright: 1996 - 2026
Webmaster: Kirt Blattenberger
   BSEE - KB3UON - AMA92498
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About RF Cafe

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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