Practice Exam

E8A08

1. Why are direct or flash conversion analog-to-digital converters used for a software defined radio?

• A. All these choices are correct
• B. Very low power consumption decreases frequency drift
• C. Very high speed allows digitizing high frequencies
• D. Immunity to out-of-sequence coding reduces spurious responses

E3C12

2. Which of the following is indicated by a sudden rise in radio background noise across a large portion of the HF spectrum?

• A. A coronal mass ejection impact or a solar flare has occurred
• B. Long-path propagation on the higher HF bands is likely
• C. A temperature inversion has occurred
• D. Transequatorial propagation on 6 meters is likely

E6E10

3. What advantage does surface-mount technology offer at RF compared to using through-hole components?

• A. Smaller circuit area
• B. Shorter circuit board traces
• C. Components have less parasitic inductance and capacitance
• D. All these choices are correct

E2C05

4. What is the function of a DX QSL Manager?

• A. Run a net to allow many stations to contact a rare DX station
• B. Handle the receiving and sending of confirmations for a DX station
• C. Allocate frequencies for DXpeditions
• D. Communicate to a DXpedition about propagation, band openings, pileup conditions, etc.

E2E06

5. What is the length of an FT8 transmission cycle?

• A. 8 seconds
• B. 30 seconds
• C. It varies with the amount of data
• D. 15 seconds

E5B04

6. What is the time constant of a circuit having two 220-microfarad capacitors and two 1-megohm resistors, all in parallel?

• A. 110 seconds
• B. 220 seconds
• C. 440 seconds
• D. 55 seconds

E9H10

7. How can the output voltage of a multiple-turn receiving loop antenna be increased?

• A. By utilizing high impedance wire for the coupling loop
• B. By increasing the number of turns and/or the area enclosed by the loop
• C. By reducing the permeability of the loop shield
• D. All these choices are correct

E6F08

8. Why are optoisolators often used in conjunction with solid-state circuits that control 120 VAC circuits?

• A. Optoisolators eliminate the effects of reflected light in the control circuit
• B. Optoisolators provide impedance matching between the control circuit and power circuit
• C. Optoisolators provide a low-impedance link between a control circuit and a power circuit
• D. Optoisolators provide an electrical isolation between a control circuit and the circuit being switched

E8C04

9. What technique minimizes the bandwidth of a PSK31 signal?

• A. Reed-Solomon character encoding
• B. Zero-sum character encoding
• C. Use of linear data pulses
• D. Use of sinusoidal data pulses

E1C12

10. In what portion of the 630-meter band are phone emissions permitted?

• A. Only the top 3 kHz
• B. The entire band
• C. None
• D. Only the bottom 3 kHz

E6C09

11. What is used to design the configuration of a field-programmable gate array (FPGA)?

• A. Machine and assembly language
• B. Hardware description language (HDL)
• C. An auto-router
• D. Karnaugh maps

E6B08

12. Which of the following is a Schottky barrier diode?

• A. Thermionic emission diode
• B. Metal-semiconductor junction
• C. PIN junction
• D. Electrolytic rectifier

E7B12

13. What type of amplifier circuit is shown in Figure E7-1?

• A. Common base
• B. Emitter follower
• C. Common emitter
• D. Common collector

E9E09

14. Which of the following is used to shunt feed a grounded tower at its base?

• A. Gamma match
• B. All these choices are correct
• C. Beta or hairpin match
• D. Double-bazooka match

E7C10

15. Which of the following filters is used in a 2-meter band repeater duplexer?

• A. A DSP filter
• B. A crystal filter
• C. A cavity filter
• D. An L-C filter

E5C08

16. What coordinate system is often used to display the phase angle of a circuit containing resistance, inductive, and/or capacitive reactance?

• A. Polar coordinates
• B. Faraday grid
• C. Elliptical coordinates
• D. Maidenhead grid

E1D06

17. What is the maximum permitted transmitter output power when operating a model craft by telecommand?

• A. 5 watts
• B. 2 watts
• C. 100 watts
• D. 1 watt

E4A04

18. How is compensation of an oscilloscope probe performed?

• A. A square wave is displayed, and the probe is adjusted until the horizontal portions of the displayed wave are as nearly flat as possible
• B. A DC voltage standard is displayed, and the probe is adjusted until the displayed voltage is accurate
• C. A frequency standard is displayed, and the probe is adjusted until the deflection time is accurate
• D. A high frequency sine wave is displayed, and the probe is adjusted for maximum amplitude

E9G09

19. What third family of circles is often added to a Smith chart during the process of designing impedance matching networks?

• A. Coaxial-length circles
• B. Radiation-pattern circles
• C. Transmission line length circles
• D. Constant-SWR circles

E0A02

20. When evaluating RF exposure levels from your station at a neighbor's home, what must you do?

• A. Ensure signals from your station are less than the controlled maximum permissible emission (MPE) limits
• B. Ensure signals from your station are less than the controlled maximum permissible exposure (MPE) limits
• C. Ensure signals from your station are less than the uncontrolled maximum permissible emission (MPE) limits
• D. Ensure signals from your station are less than the uncontrolled maximum permissible exposure (MPE) limits

E5D01

21. What is the result of conductor skin effect?

• A. Resistance increases as temperature increases because of the change in thermal coefficient
• B. Resistance decreases as frequency increases because electron mobility increases
• C. Resistance decreases as temperature increases because of the change in thermal coefficient
• D. Resistance increases as frequency increases because RF current flows closer to the surface

E7F09

22. Why is an anti-aliasing filter required in a decimator?

• A. It removes low-frequency signal components to eliminate the need for DC restoration
• B. It notches out the sampling frequency to avoid sampling errors
• C. It peaks the response of the decimator, improving bandwidth
• D. It removes high-frequency signal components that would otherwise be reproduced as lower frequency components

E9C06

23. What is the effect of adding a terminating resistor to a rhombic or long-wire antenna?

• A. It changes the radiation pattern from horizontal to vertical polarization
• B. It changes the radiation pattern from bidirectional to unidirectional
• C. It reflects the standing waves on the antenna elements back to the transmitter
• D. It decreases the ground loss

E1A07

24. What is the maximum power permitted on the 2200-meter band?

• A. 100 watts PEP (peak envelope power)
• B. 50 watts PEP (peak envelope power)
• C. 5 watts EIRP (equivalent isotropic radiated power)
• D. 1 watt EIRP (equivalent isotropic radiated power)

E3A08

25. When a meteor strikes the Earth's atmosphere, a linear ionized region is formed at what region of the ionosphere?

• A. The F2 region
• B. The E region
• C. The D region
• D. The F1 region

E7A03

26. Which of the following can divide the frequency of a pulse train by 2?

• A. An OR gate
• B. A flip-flop
• C. A multiplexer
• D. An XOR gate

E4D09

27. What is the purpose of the preselector in a communications receiver?

• A. To provide broadband attenuation before the first RF stage to prevent intermodulation
• B. To increase the rejection of signals outside the band being received
• C. To allow selection of the optimum RF amplifier device
• D. To store frequencies that are often used

E2D01

28. Which of the following digital modes is designed for meteor scatter communications?

• A. Hellschreiber
• B. APRS
• C. MSK144
• D. WSPR

E1F11

29. Which of the following best describes one of the standards that must be met by an external RF power amplifier if it is to qualify for a grant of FCC certification?

• A. It must exhibit a gain of less than 23 dB when driven by 10 watts or less
• B. It must produce full legal output when driven by not more than 5 watts of mean RF input power
• C. It must satisfy the FCC's spurious emission standards when operated at the lesser of 1500 watts or its full output power
• D. It must have received an Underwriters Laboratory certification for electrical safety as well as having met IEEE standard 14.101(B)

E6D05

30. How do ferrite and powdered iron compare for use in an inductor core?

• A. Ferrite cores generally have better temperature stability
• B. Ferrite cores generally have lower initial permeability
• C. Ferrite cores generally require fewer turns to produce a given inductance value
• D. Ferrite cores are easier to use with surface-mount technology

E7D02

31. How does a switchmode voltage regulator work?

• A. By switching between two Zener diode reference voltages
• B. By alternating the output between positive and negative voltages
• C. By varying the duty cycle of pulses input to a filter
• D. By varying the conductivity of a pass element

E9D02

32. How can two linearly polarized Yagi antennas be used to produce circular polarization?

• A. Arrange two Yagis on the same axis and perpendicular to each other with the driven elements at the same point on the boom and fed 90 degrees out of phase
• B. Arrange two Yagis collinear to each other with the driven elements fed 180 degrees out of phase
• C. Stack two Yagis to form an array with the respective elements in parallel planes fed 90 degrees out of phase
• D. Stack two Yagis to form an array with the respective elements in parallel planes fed in phase

E5A11

33. What is the half-power bandwidth of a resonant circuit that has a resonant frequency of 7.1 MHz and a Q of 150?

• A. 23.67 kHz
• B. 47.3 kHz
• C. 315.6 Hz
• D. 157.8 Hz

E8B03

34. What is the modulation index of an FM phone signal having a maximum frequency deviation of 3000 Hz either side of the carrier frequency if the highest modulating frequency is 1000 Hz?

• A. 0.3
• B. 0.6
• C. 6
• D. 3

E1B11

35. What does PRB-1 require of state and local regulations affecting amateur radio antenna size and structures?

• A. Such structures must be permitted if certified by a registered professional engineer
• B. No limitations may be placed on antenna size or placement
• C. Reasonable accommodations of amateur radio must be made
• D. Such structures must be permitted when use for emergency communications can be demonstrated

E3B05

36. Which of the following paths is most likely to support long-distance propagation on 160 meters?

• A. A path entirely in sunlight
• B. Paths at high latitudes
• C. A direct north-south path
• D. A path entirely in darkness

E4C11

37. Why does input attenuation reduce receiver overload on the lower frequency HF bands with little or no impact on signal-to-noise ratio?

• A. Signals are attenuated separately from the noise
• B. The attenuator has a low-pass filter to increase the strength of lower frequency signals
• C. Atmospheric noise is generally greater than internally generated noise even after attenuation
• D. The attenuator has a noise filter to suppress interference

E4E06

38. What type of electrical interference can be caused by computer network equipment?

• A. A loud AC hum in the audio output of your station's receiver
• B. A clicking noise at intervals of a few seconds
• C. A whining-type noise that continually pulses off and on
• D. The appearance of unstable modulated or unmodulated signals at specific frequencies

E6A10

39. In Figure E6-1, which is the schematic symbol for an N-channel dual-gate MOSFET?

• A. 4
• B. 6
• C. 5
• D. 2

E7E03

40. What is a frequency discriminator?

• A. An automatic band-switching circuit
• B. An FM generator circuit
• C. A circuit for filtering closely adjacent signals
• D. A circuit for detecting FM signals

E9F06

41. What is the approximate physical length of an air-insulated, parallel conductor transmission line that is electrically 1/2 wavelength long at 14.10 MHz?

• A. 7.0 meters
• B. 8.5 meters
• C. 13.3 meters
• D. 10.6 meters

E2A06

42. What are Keplerian elements?

• A. Parameters that define the orbit of a satellite
• B. Phase reversing elements in a Yagi antenna
• C. High-emission heater filaments used in magnetron tubes
• D. Encrypting codes used for spread spectrum modulation

E8D03

43. Which describes spread spectrum frequency hopping?

• A. A binary bit stream is used to shift the phase of an RF carrier very rapidly in a pseudorandom sequence
• B. If interference is detected by the receiver, it will signal the transmitter to change frequencies
• C. RF signals are clipped to generate a wide band of harmonics which provides redundancy to correct errors
• D. Rapidly varying the frequency of a transmitted signal according to a pseudorandom sequence

E9B10

44. What is the principle of a Method of Moments analysis?

• A. A wire is modeled as a single sine-wave voltage source
• B. A wire is modeled as a series of segments, each having a uniform value of current
• C. A wire is modeled as a series of segments, each having a distinct value of voltage across it
• D. A wire is modeled as a single sine-wave current generator

E7G12

45. What is an operational amplifier?

• A. A RF amplifier used in the UHF and microwave regions
• B. A digital audio amplifier whose characteristics are determined by components external to the amplifier
• C. An amplifier used to increase the average output of frequency modulated amateur signals to the legal limit
• D. A high-gain, direct-coupled differential amplifier with very high input impedance and very low output impedance

E7H07

46. How can an oscillator's microphonic responses be reduced?

• A. Use NP0 capacitors
• B. Increase the gain
• C. Mechanically isolate the oscillator circuitry from its enclosure
• D. Reduce noise on the oscillator's power supply

E9A05

47. What does the term "ground gain" mean?

• A. The gain of the antenna with respect to a dipole at ground level
• B. An increase in signal strength from ground reflections in the environment of the antenna
• C. The change in signal strength caused by grounding the antenna
• D. To force net gain to 0 dB by grounding part of the antenna

E4B06

48. How much power is being absorbed by the load when a directional power meter connected between a transmitter and a terminating load reads 100 watts forward power and 25 watts reflected power?

• A. 125 watts
• B. 112.5 watts
• C. 100 watts
• D. 75 watts

E2B05

49. Which of the following describes the use of vestigial sideband in analog fast-scan TV transmissions?

• A. The vestigial sideband carries the audio information
• B. The vestigial sideband contains chroma information
• C. Vestigial sideband reduces the bandwidth while increasing the fidelity of low frequency video components
• D. Vestigial sideband provides high frequency emphasis to sharpen the picture

E1E11

50. What must the VE team do if an examinee scores a passing grade on all examination elements needed for an upgrade or new license?

• A. All these choices are correct
• B. Issue the examinee the new or upgrade license
• C. Three VEs must certify that the examinee is qualified for the license grant and that they have complied with the administering VE requirements
• D. Photocopy all examination documents and forward them to the FCC for processing