Abstract: By way of summary, in the preferred form of the invention, the patch panel comprises a manually programmable device that incorporates shunts or dip switches that are readily accessible from the front panel of the device. In the patch panel construction of the invention, a multi-pin connector block is connected to a first circuit board that, in turn, is connected to a second circuit board via a cable connector, thus allowing the signal switching (normalizing) and grounding circuits of the respective jacks to be selectively altered from the front access panel of the device. By manually changing the shunt or dip switch configurations, the respective normalizing and grounding circuits can easily and simply be altered as may be desired without costly system interruption.