Four-terminal networks (1):

Most electronic equipment has an attenuator or attenuators of one sort or another. The object of these is to reduce to manageable levels a signal we have elsewhere worked like made to build up. The usual objective is to turn out more than we want, then cut it down to the size we do want. This might sound like an easy option but, like many other things electronic, what we want and what we get aren't always identical. So, apart from the intrusion of Sod's Law which reigns universally, I hope that what follows will cast a ray of light on the often neglected subject of attenuator systems.