a rotary step attenuator having a housing and a rotor rotatably mounted in the housing . an array of attenuator elements is mounted on the rotor , appearing in an end view as chords of a circle whose center is at the axis of rotation of the rotor . each attenuator element has a first surface bearing an electrically conductive pad facing the axis of rotation of the rotor , and additionally there is a blade contact member having a first surface facing away from the axis of rotation mounted in a fixed position relative to the housing and operable to touch a selected one of the conductive pads as the rotor is rotated within the housing . there are no spring biased signal contacts other than the blade contact member itself for effecting electrical coupling between the attenuator elements and the electrical connections to the rotary step attenuator .