Practice Exam

T0B08

1. Which is a proper grounding method for a tower?

• A. A connection between the tower base and a cold-water pipe
• B. A single four-foot ground rod, driven into the ground no more than 12 inches from the base
• C. A ferrite-core RF choke connected between the tower and ground
• D. Separate eight-foot ground rods for each tower leg, bonded to the tower and each other

T0C01

2. What type of radiation are radio signals?

• A. Ionizing radiation
• B. Gamma radiation
• C. Alpha radiation
• D. Non-ionizing radiation

T2B02

3. What term describes the use of a sub-audible tone transmitted along with normal voice audio to open the squelch of a receiver?

• A. Tone burst
• B. CTCSS
• C. Carrier squelch
• D. DTMF

T5A01

4. Electrical current is measured in which of the following units?

• A. Watts
• B. Volts
• C. Amperes
• D. Ohms

T7D10

5. What reading indicates that an ohmmeter is connected across a large, discharged capacitor?

• A. Alternating between open and short circuit
• B. Decreasing resistance with time
• C. Steady full-scale reading
• D. Increasing resistance with time

T0A09

6. What should be done to all external ground rods or earth connections?

• A. Bond them together with heavy wire or conductive strap
• B. Keep them as far apart as possible
• C. Waterproof them with silicone caulk or electrical tape
• D. Tune them for resonance on the lowest frequency of operation

T5D05

7. What is the resistance of a circuit for which the applied voltage is 12 volts and the current flow is 1.5 amperes?

• A. 13.5 ohms
• B. 0.125 ohms
• C. 8 ohms
• D. 18 ohms

T1A09

8. Who selects a Frequency Coordinator?

• A. Amateur operators in a local or regional area whose stations are eligible to be repeater or auxiliary stations
• B. The FCC Office of Spectrum Management and Coordination Policy
• C. The local chapter of the Office of National Council of Independent Frequency Coordinators
• D. The FCC Regional Field Office

T7A02

9. What is a transceiver?

• A. A device for converting receiver and transmitter frequencies to another band
• B. A device for automatically sending and decoding Morse code
• C. A device for matching feed line impedance to 50 ohms
• D. A device that combines a receiver and transmitter

T1E01

10. When may an amateur station transmit without a control operator?

• A. When the station licensee is away and another licensed amateur is using the station
• B. Never
• C. When using automatic control, such as in the case of a repeater
• D. When the transmitting station is an auxiliary station

T9A08

11. Why is a 19-inch-long vertical antenna often used on 2 meters?

• A. It has high gain
• B. It is a resonant quarter-wave
• C. It is a resonant half-wave
• D. It has low RF radiation exposure

T7B11

12. Which of the following can eliminate distorted voice transmissions?

• A. Adding a clip-on ferrite "choke" to the microphone cable to prevent the transmitted signal from feeding back into the transmitter
• B. Adding extra feedline to the antenna to lower SWR
• C. Turning the squelch control fully clockwise to prevent the transmitted signal from triggering the squelch circuit
• D. Turning the radio on and off to reset the computer-controlled circuitry

T7C10

13. Why should the outer jacket of coaxial cable be resistant to ultraviolet light?

• A. Ultraviolet and RF signals can mix, causing interference
• B. Ultraviolet light can damage the jacket and allow water to enter the cable
• C. Ultraviolet light can increase the resistance of the conductors
• D. Ultraviolet light can increase losses in the cable's jacket

T2A07

14. What does the term "repeater offset" mean?

• A. The difference between a repeater's transmit and receive frequencies
• B. The repeater has a time delay to prevent interference
• C. The fee charged by the repeater owner or club to provide for maintenance
• D. The approximately half-second delay to allow for the "squelch tail" to be removed

T8C09

15. Which of the following protocols enables an amateur station to transmit through a repeater without using a radio to initiate the transmission?

• A. D-STAR
• B. EchoLink
• C. IRLP
• D. DMR

T1D09

16. When may amateur stations transmit information in support of broadcasting, program production, or news gathering, assuming no other means is available?

• A. When broadcasting communications to or from the space shuttle
• B. When such communications are directly related to the immediate safety of human life or protection of property
• C. Where non-commercial programming is gathered and supplied exclusively to the National Public Radio network
• D. Never

T5B03

17. Which is equal to one kilovolt?

• A. One hundred volts
• B. One thousand volts
• C. One one-thousandth of a volt
• D. One million volts

T1B03

18. Which frequency is in the 6-meter amateur band?

• A. 49.00 MHz
• B. 28.50 MHz
• C. 52.525 MHz
• D. 222.15 MHz

T4A01

19. Which of the following is an appropriate power supply rating for a typical 50-watt output mobile FM transceiver?

• A. 24.0 volts at 12 amperes
• B. 24.0 volts at 4 amperes
• C. 13.8 volts at 4 amperes
• D. 13.8 volts at 12 amperes

T3A09

20. Which of the following results from the fact that signals propagated by the ionosphere are elliptically polarized?

• A. Both the transmitting and receiving antennas must be of the same polarization
• B. Either vertically or horizontally polarized antennas may be used for transmission or reception
• C. Digital modes are unusable
• D. FM voice is unusable

T5C11

21. How much current is required to deliver 120 watts at a voltage of 12 volts DC?

• A. 0.1 amperes
• B. 10 amperes
• C. 12 amperes
• D. 132 amperes

T4B03

22. How is squelch adjusted so that a weak FM signal can be heard?

• A. Turn up the audio level until it overcomes the squelch threshold
• B. Enable squelch enhancement
• C. Set the squelch threshold so that receiver output audio is on all the time
• D. Turn on the anti-squelch function

T3C09

23. What is generally the best time for long-distance 10-meter band propagation via the F region?

• A. From dawn to shortly after sunset during periods of low sunspot activity
• B. From shortly after sunset to dawn during periods of low sunspot activity
• C. From shortly after sunset to dawn during periods of high sunspot activity
• D. From dawn to shortly after sunset during periods of high sunspot activity

T8B09

24. What causes spin fading of satellite signals?

• A. Rotation of the satellite and its antennas
• B. Circular polarized noise interference radiated from the sun
• C. Doppler shift of the received signal
• D. Interfering signals within the satellite uplink band

T8D01

25. Which of the following is a digital communications mode?

• A. All these choices are correct
• B. IEEE 802.11
• C. FT8
• D. Packet radio

T1C04

26. What may happen if the FCC is unable to reach you by email?

• A. Revocation of access to the license record in the FCC system
• B. Revocation of the station license or suspension of the operator license
• C. Nothing; there is no such requirement
• D. Fine and suspension of operator license

T6D03

27. Which of the following is a reason to use shielded wire?

• A. To increase the current carrying capability of the wire
• B. To decrease the resistance of DC power connections
• C. To prevent coupling of unwanted signals to or from the wire
• D. To reduce receiver overload

T6C08

28. What is component 9 in figure T-2?

• A. Variable resistor
• B. Variable capacitor
• C. Variable transformer
• D. Variable inductor

T6B01

29. Which is true about forward voltage drop in a diode?

• A. It is proportional to peak inverse voltage
• B. It is lower in some diode types than in others
• C. It has no impact on the voltage delivered to the load
• D. It indicates that the diode is defective

T1F07

30. Which of the following restrictions apply when a non-licensed person speaks to a foreign amateur radio station via a station under the control of an FCC-licensed amateur radio operator?

• A. The licensed control operator must do the station identification
• B. The person must be a U.S. citizen
• C. All these choices are correct
• D. The foreign station must be in a country with which the U.S. has a third-party agreement

T2C05

31. What does the term "traffic" refer to in net operation?

• A. The number of stations checking in and out of a net
• B. Operation by mobile or portable stations
• C. A count of the number of activations of the net each month
• D. Formal messages exchanged by net stations

T3B02

32. What property of a radio wave defines its polarization?

• A. The ratio of the energy in the magnetic field to the energy in the electric field
• B. The orientation of the magnetic field
• C. The orientation of the electric field
• D. The ratio of the velocity to the wavelength

T8A01

33. Which of the following is a form of amplitude modulation?

• A. Spread spectrum
• B. Single sideband
• C. Phase shift keying (PSK)
• D. Packet radio

T6A09

34. What type of switch is represented by component 3 in figure T-2?

• A. Double-pole double-throw
• B. Double-pole single-throw
• C. Single-pole single-throw
• D. Single-pole double-throw

T9B06

35. Which of the following connector types is most suitable as an RF connector for frequencies above 400 MHz?

• A. DB-25
• B. RS-213
• C. Type N
• D. PL-259