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Ganged Switching Quiz
April 1972 Popular Electronics

April 1972 Popular Electronics

April 1972 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.

Robert Balin created many quizzes for Popular Electronics magazine over his years with the magazine. This Ganged Switching Quiz challenges your ability to trace out connections without getting confused by crossovers - which is easy to do. Each of the six-position switches illuminate a different combination of lamps. Your job, if you accept it, is to figure out which lamps light for positions 1 through 6. Non-nodal crossing lines are not typically shown broken as they are here, so don't misinterpret them as open circuits. A huge list of electronics quizzes is posted near the bottom of the page.

Ganged Switching Quiz

By Robert P. Balin

Ganged Switching Quiz, April 1972 Popular Electronics - RF CafeElectronics hobbyists, especially troubleshooters, can always use some practice in tracing out circuits that include ganged switches. Unless you are careful and systematic, it is easy to get confused, lose your way or overlook a component. Here's a chance to practice this important skill.

The schematic at left contains a 6-position, 3-pole switch, six 6-volt lamps and 6- and 12-volt batteries. As the switch is rotated, determine what combinations of lamps will light - each to full brightness. The answers are below so cover them up while you work out the circuit.

Note that although the switching function which this circuit performs can be done by a much simpler circuit (a single 6-volt battery can do the job) such a circuit would be too simple to be challenging and only unnecessary schematic zig-zagging could make it look more complicated. Since this quiz is intended to be a training problem, practical considerations have been ignored.

 

Answers below.

 

 

 

 

 

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

Vintage Electronics Magazine Quizzes

 

 

 

 

Answers to Ganged Switching Quiz, April 1972 Popular Electronics - RF Cafe

 

 

Posted December 12, 2023
(updated from original post on 7/6/2017)
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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...

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