Seeking Questions for Testing Prospective Electronic Calibration Technicians

[Graeme]

Electronic Calibration Test Questions?

I have a new requirement (fairly hot, of course!) to produce a pool of questions relating to electronic calibration. A subset would be selected by the manager to be given as a test to people trying to bid into the calibration lab. (All would be - in theory - already qualified and experienced electronic technicians from other departments in the company.)

The calibration lab covers all common electrical/electronic measurement areas, including RF, from DC to 2 GHz.

Does anyone have some quick suggestions for questions? They can be true/false, multiple guess or fill-in-the-blank. Thanks in advance.


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Graeme C. Payne
ASQ Certified Quality Engineer

 

[Al Dyer]

Personal opinion,

Always go for essay type questions.

True/false = 50/50 guess
Multiple choice = 1/X guess
Essay = knowledge

ASD...

 

[Ken K]

One of the portions of the test could be to bring canidates into the lab, give them a copy of a calibration procedure and let them calibrate that instrument.
It would give you a quick idea on how qualified that person is.

Just a suggestion...

 

[Trakman]

Graeme,

Testing the ability of people to calibrate equipment is very subjective. You could give them a piece of equipment and tell them to "do it", however, if they are not familar with it, then the time they take (learning curve) would be considerable. Perhaps a better way would be to create a calibration procedure (e.g. simple signal gen)that is riddled with errors, including procedures are not even related. Give them the equipment manual and tell them to make all the necessary corrections to the procedure. Calibration is about detail, not just twiddling controls. This would give an excellent indication on the candidates:
„h ability to follow directions
„h ability to understand/interpret/reiterate specifications and adjustments
„h ability to identify errors in procedures
Include near the end of the procedure, a list of the equipment they would be given to perform the calibration. Provide specifications of the equipment (which one of them would not be able to be used, e.g. its' TCXO has a worse ppm that the equipment to be calibrated)

This is of course a purely academic exercise, but then any technoid can twiddle controls and not understand what they are doing. Hope that this helps.
Keep being inventive.
Trakman.

 

[JStain - 2008]

Calibration questions

At my company you could use this question:

Do you have a pulse?

Yes or No?

Congratulations, your hired!

 

[Hershal]

Hi Graeme.

Just curious.....will you suggest allowing some consideration for CCT?

Of course, if you really want to be a pain, give the candidate a Smith chart and have them plot Rho and Gamma of both source and load....then take them to a X band waveguide and have them tune and flatten it.

Hershal

 

[JStain - 2008]

Smith Chart? I have one of those. I use it as a coaster in my family room. Why just the other day I was going to go out in my garage and cut me a new slotted wave guide, danged if I didn't whip out my Smith cahert and check what the SWR was.

I remeber going through Lowry and having to take an exam on those. We could use our book. Unfortunately we had to swap with another student. Just my luck the other student for me was fromSaudi, all his notes were in Arabic.

 

[Hershal]

Jstrain,

Congratulations on CCT!!!

Hershal

 

[JStain - 2008]

Cct

I must say, it was a challenge.

I'll be in Milwauke @ ASQ HQ in April helping write the next exam. That should be fun. perhaps I should post a message as to what the peeps on this board would like to see asked?

 

[Hershal]

Please do!

For the development of CCT, there were a number of us from many fields, backgrounds, and disciplines....Aerospace/airlines, telecommunications, accreditation, academia, bio-med/bio-pharm, commercial labs, military, and more.

It is a rigorus process. I encourage everyone to look at the body of knowledge, realizing that while the CCT at this time is general, it is a good beginning.

Is the next round, that you are involved with, expansion of the exisitng exam, or beginning to develop the discipline-specific exams?

Hershal