[South Florida DX Association] Amateur Radio Quiz

[Bill]

 From Bill NA2M:


    *Amateur Radio Quiz: Amateur Archaeology*

**TAGS:** future generations 
<http://www.arrl.org/news/search/Tag.name:future%20generations>, slop 
jar <http://www.arrl.org/news/search/Tag.name:slop%20jar>, vacuum tube 
<http://www.arrl.org/news/search/Tag.name:vacuum%20tube>

08/14/2010

/Times change and so does terminology. Some of the old terms were quite 
colorful and convey a sense of hands-on adventure in those early days of 
experimentation. You may not consider today's language as evocative, but 
just wait a few decades to see what future generations think!/

1) Which type of component was referred to as a "grid leak"?
a. Capacitor
b. Resistor
c. Inductor
d. This referred to a gassy vacuum tube

2) If you used a "basket weave" style in construction, what did you 
construct?
a. Transmission line
b. Coil
c. Headphone covers
d. Detector

3) What function was performed by a "slop jar"?
a. Rectification
b. Modulation
c. Storing charge from a grid-leak
d. Filtration

4. What was the earliest type of condenser?
a. Tesla coil
b. Rheostat
c. Leyden jar
d. Voltaic pile

5) What part of early stations was often constructed as a "cage"?
a. Transmitter shield
b. Antenna
c. Entire shack
d. Power supply

6) A "getter" performed what function?
a. Tuning tool
b. Gas adsorption
c. Filament rejuvenation
d. Connections to open-wire transmission line

7) What construction technique was (and still is!) called a "Western Union"?
a. Rack-and-panel enclosures
b. Breadboard and Fahnstock clips
c. Point-to-point
d. Wire splicing

8) What does "TRF" stand for?
a. Tuned Receive Feedback
b. Tuner-Rig-Feeder
c. Tuned Radio Frequency
d. Transmit-Receive Feeder

9) What type of equipment was referred to as a "rush box"?
a. Receiver
b. Transmitter
c. Amplifier
d. Modulator

10) Which of these is /not/ a type of oscillator circuit?
a. Hartley
b. Colpitts
c. Lorentz
d. Meissner

*Bonus* -- What did a "tickler coil" tickle?

*/Answers/*

1) b -- Grid current through the resistor developed a self-biasing voltage.
2) b -- The basket-weave style minimized inter-turn capacitance.
3) a -- Early rectifiers used a somewhat-caustic electrolytic solution 
(the "slop") in glass jars.
4) c -- A Leyden jar is a simple capacitor that stores a sizeable amount 
of charge at high voltage!
5) b -- A cage antenna consists of several parallel wires in a circular 
arrangement.
6) b -- The getter was an unpowered vacuum tube element that captured 
unwanted gas molecules.
7) d -- The telegraph system's standard splicing technique.
8) c -- The TRF receiver required each amplifying stage to be tuned 
separately.
9) a -- The rushing sound from a regenerative receiver on the edge of 
oscillation gave it the name.
10) c -- All the others are different oscillator configurations.

*/Bonus/* -- In a regenerative receiver stage, a carefully adjusted 
tickler coil coupled some of the output signal back to the inpu