RF Cafe Homepage
PCB Directory (Manufacturers)

Temwell Filters

Innovative Power Products Passive RF Products - RF Cafe

Please Support RF Cafe by purchasing my  ridiculously low-priced products, all of which I created.

RF Cascade Workbook for Excel

RF & Electronics Symbols for Visio

RF & Electronics Symbols for Office

RF & Electronics Stencils for Visio

RF Workbench

T-Shirts, Mugs, Cups, Ball Caps, Mouse Pads

These Are Available for Free

Espresso Engineering Workbook™

Smith Chart™ for Excel
dB Control dB-9006 Magnum Opus Synthesizer - RF Cafe

Radio WittiQuiz
October 1938 Radio-Craft

October 1938 Radio-Craft

October 1938 Radio Craft Cover - RF Cafe[Table of Contents]

Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from Radio-Craft, published 1929 - 1953. All copyrights are hereby acknowledged.

Mixing a little fun with learning has always been a good motivation for students. I have written in the past about a particular electronic circuits professor I had that liked to play practical jokes during lessons and exams. Including gag options on a multiple choice test is a great way to inject a bit of tension-easing levity while at the same time eliminating one or more opportunities to guess at a wrong answer (although no relief for the truly clueless). I sometimes do that on the RF Cafe Quizzes that I generate. Radio-Craft printed a large bunch of such quiz questions under the title "Radio WittiQuiz," where the questions and answers were provided by readers. Here are Q141-156 from the October 1938 issue. 

Other Radio WittiQuizzes: November 1937 | December 1937 | October 1938

Radio WittiQuiz

Radio Wittiquiz - RF Cafe

Free - A 1-year subscription to Radio-Craft to each person who submits a WittiQuiz that in the opinion of the Editors is suitable for publication in Radio-Craft. Read the following WittiQuizzes; can you spot the correct answers? Now send in your idea of one or more good WittiQuizzes.

 

(141) An electrolyte is -

(a) Another name for an electric light.

(b) A field - about an electromagnet.

(c) A solution in a storage battery.

 

(142) An armature is -

(a) A person who sings on Major Bowes' radio hour.

(b) The rotating part of a motor.

(c) Part of an armchair.

 

(143) You will find a plate in -

(a) The dish closet.

(b) A vacuum tube.

(c) A dynamo.

(d) A flashlight.

- John Hiehler

 

(144) Every ham should know that hi mu is -

(a) Ham lingo for the equivalent of "hey rube" in circus vernacular.

(b) Large amplification factor.

(c) High modulation efficiency.

- Jerom A. Gans

 

(145) A dielectric is -

(a) A 2-way, radio-controlled electric railway going between Boston and New York.

(b) A non-conducting material.

(c) A collision between 2 ohms in an electrical circuit.

(d) A new type of variable resistor.

 

(146) Any ham will tell you that a "T.N.T." circuit is -

(a) A circuit used to set off high explosives by remote control.

(b) A self-controlled oscillator.

(c) The circuit of a radio set which has been soaked in trinitrotoluene.

- Henry Taylor

 

(147) In television, interlaced scanning will be used -

(a) To teach women how to knit.

(b) So as to reduce the bandwidth and still retain the same clarity and detail.

(c) To obtain new fashion designs.

(d) So that the receiver will not miss every other station while scanning the dial.

 

(148) Video frequency is -

(a) The name of the 2nd intermediate, frequency in a triple-detection receiver.

(b) A frequency that is visible like light rays.

(c) The frequency of the voltage resulting from television scanning.

(d) The number of times each year that a blind person can see.

 

(149) In television a frame is -

(a) A single complete picture.

(b) The border around the cathode-ray tube.

(c) An innocent-person made to look guilty.

(d) The receiver cabinet.

(e) A halo around the objects viewed.

- Tony Miano

 

(150) A fixed resistor is -

(a) One that has been repaired.

(b) One that cannot be moved from its original position.

(c) One that has constant ohms-resistance value.

- W. O. Clark

 

(151) Hysteresis is -

(a) A mild form of insanity.

(b) Heat losses in a conductor due to rapid magnetization and demagnetization.

(c) Distortion from overloading a detector.

(d) Result of too-small capacity in filter.

 

(152) A Baffle is used -

(a) In a game of cards.

(b) In a wave-trap.

(c) In a Serviceman's kit.

(d) In a loudspeaker installation.

 

(153) All radio Servicemen know an output meter is used to -

(a) Align a radio receiver.

(b) Measure wavelength of a transmitting antenna.

(c) Measure antenna radiation.

(d) Count number of people leaving a subway exit.

 

(154) Radio engineers are well aware a decibel is -

(a) Spanish word for December.

(b) Trade name of a new design of S.-W. receiver.

(c) A unit of power level.

(d) One-tenth of 1 coulomb.

 

(155) Translation gain is the additional gain realized by -

(a) Exchanging U. S. money for foreign money.

(b) Using resistance-coupled circuits.

(c) Changing to I.F. in superhets.

(d) Using step-up audio transformer.

 

(156) Anyone who has studied radio theory knows time constant is -

(a) Time required for a condenser to charge or discharge.

(b) NAA (Arlington, . Va., station) time signals.

(c) Trade name of electric clock.

(d) Term used to describe D.A.V.C. action.

- O. H. Cook, Coco Solo, C. Z.

 

<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

(141)   (c)

(142)   (b)

(143)   (b)

(144)   (b)

(145)   (b)

(146)   (b)

(147)   (b)

(148)   (c)

(149)   (a)

(150)   (c)

(151)   (b)

(152)   (d)

(153)   (a)

(154)   (c)

(155)   (c)

(156)   (a)

 

 

Contest Rules (this, of course, does not hold anymore since Radio-Craft is out of publication)

(1) An award of a 1-year subscription to Radio-Craft will be given, each month, to each person who submits one or more Wittiquizes that the Editors consider suitable for publication in Radio-Craft.

(2) Wittiquizes should preferably be typed; use only one side of paper.

(3) Submit as many Wiitiquizes as you care to - the more you submit the more chance you have of winning - but each should be good.

(4) Each WittiQuiz must incorporate humorous elements, and must be based on some term used in radio, public address or electronics. Each WittiQuiz may have 4 "answers," only one of which of course will be correct; and, only 1 of which is non-radio.

(5) All answers must be grouped, by question number and correct-answer letter, on a separate sheet of paper.

(6) All contributions become the property of Radio-Craft. No contributions can be returned.

(7) This contest is not open to Radio-Craft employees or their relatives.

dB Control dB-9006 Magnum Opus Synthesizer - RF Cafe

About RF Cafe

Kirt Blattenberger - RF Cafe Webmaster

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

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

All trademarks, copyrights, patents, and other rights of ownership to images and text used on the RF Cafe website are hereby acknowledged.

My Hobby Website: AirplanesAndRockets.com

My Daughter's Website: EquineKingdom
Innovative Power Products (IPP) RF Combiners / Dividers

Werbel Microwave (power dividers, couplers)

Copper Mountain Technologies (VNA) - RF Cafe