Practice Exam

E2C10

1. Why do DX stations often transmit and receive on different frequencies?

• A. To improve operating efficiency by reducing interference
• B. To separate the calling stations from the DX station
• C. Because the DX station may be transmitting on a frequency that is prohibited to some responding stations
• D. All these choices are correct

E4A01

2. Which of the following limits the highest frequency signal that can be accurately displayed on a digital oscilloscope?

• A. All these choices are correct
• B. Q of the circuit
• C. Analog-to-digital converter reference frequency
• D. Sampling rate of the analog-to-digital converter

E1D01

3. What is the definition of telemetry?

• A. Two-way transmissions of data
• B. One-way transmission of measurements at a distance from the measuring instrument
• C. Two-way transmissions in excess of 1000 feet
• D. One-way transmission that initiates, modifies, or terminates the functions of a device at a distance

E7G12

4. What is an operational amplifier?

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

E9B09

5. What type of analysis is commonly used for modeling antennas?

• A. Graphical analysis
• B. Calculus differentiation with respect to physical properties
• C. Mutual impedance analysis
• D. Method of Moments

E3B11

6. At what time of day is sporadic-E propagation most likely to occur?

• A. Between sunrise and sunset
• B. Between midnight and sunrise
• C. Between sunset and midnight
• D. Between sunset and sunrise

E9D01

7. How much does the gain of an ideal parabolic reflector antenna increase when the operating frequency is doubled?

• A. 6 dB
• B. 3 dB
• C. 4 dB
• D. 2 dB

E7B12

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

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

E5D03

9. What is the phase relationship between current and voltage for reactive power?

• A. They are out of phase
• B. They are 90 degrees out of phase
• C. They are 45 degrees out of phase
• D. They are in phase

E4C12

10. How does a narrow-band roofing filter affect receiver performance?

• A. It improves intelligibility by using low Q circuitry to reduce ringing
• B. It improves sensitivity by reducing front-end noise
• C. All these choices are correct
• D. It improves blocking dynamic range by attenuating strong signals near the receive frequency

E5C06

11. What does the impedance 50 - j25 ohms represent?

• A. 50 ohms resistance in series with 25 ohms capacitive reactance
• B. 25 ohms resistance in series with 50 ohms inductive reactance
• C. 50 ohms resistance in series with 25 ohms inductive reactance
• D. 25 ohms resistance in series with 50 ohms capacitive reactance

E5A11

12. 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. 315.6 Hz
• C. 47.3 kHz
• D. 157.8 Hz

E7D06

13. What is the purpose of Q1 in the circuit shown in Figure E7-2?

• A. It provides a constant load for the voltage source
• B. It provides negative feedback to improve regulation
• C. It controls the current to keep the output voltage constant
• D. It provides regulation by switching or "chopping" the input DC voltage

E1F06

14. Under what circumstances might the FCC issue a Special Temporary Authority (STA) to an amateur station?

• A. To allow a VE group with less than three VEs to administer examinations in a remote, sparsely populated area
• B. To allow use of a special event call sign
• C. To provide for experimental amateur communications
• D. To allow a licensee who has passed an upgrade exam to operate with upgraded privileges while waiting for posting on the FCC database

E6D08

15. Which of the following materials has the highest temperature stability of its magnetic characteristics?

• A. Brass
• B. Aluminum
• C. Ferrite
• D. Powdered iron

E7C01

16. How are the capacitors and inductors of a low-pass filter Pi-network arranged between the network's input and output?

• A. Two capacitors are in series between the input and output, and an inductor is connected between the two capacitors and ground
• B. An inductor is connected between the input and ground, another inductor is connected between the output and ground, and a capacitor is connected between the input and output
• C. Two inductors are in series between the input and output, and a capacitor is connected between the two inductors and ground
• D. A capacitor is connected between the input and ground, another capacitor is connected between the output and ground, and an inductor is connected between the input and output

E1B02

17. Which of the following is an acceptable bandwidth for digital voice or slow-scan TV transmissions made on the HF amateur bands?

• A. 10 kHz
• B. 20 kHz
• C. 3 kHz
• D. 15 kHz

E3C04

18. What does the value of Bz (B sub z) represent?

• A. Critical frequency for vertical transmissions
• B. North-south strength of the interplanetary magnetic field
• C. Geomagnetic field stability
• D. Duration of long-delayed echoes

E7A06

19. What is a characteristic of a monostable multivibrator?

• A. It stores one bit of data
• B. It maintains a constant output voltage, regardless of variations in the input voltage
• C. It produces a continuous square wave
• D. It switches temporarily to an alternate state for a set time

E6E09

20. Which of the following component package types have the least parasitic effects at frequencies above the HF range?

• A. Radial lead
• B. Surface mount
• C. TO-220
• D. Axial lead

E7F12

21. Which of the following is generally true of Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filters?

• A. FIR filters can respond faster to impulses
• B. All these choices are correct
• C. FIR filters are easier to implement for a given set of passband rolloff requirements
• D. FIR filters can delay all frequency components of the signal by the same amount

E2A08

22. Why should effective radiated power (ERP) be limited to a satellite that uses a linear transponder?

• A. To avoid interfering with terrestrial QSOs
• B. To prevent creating errors in the satellite telemetry
• C. To prevent the satellite from emitting out-of-band signals
• D. To avoid reducing the downlink power to all other users

E1E02

23. Who is tasked by Part 97 with maintaining the pools of questions for all US amateur license examinations?

• A. The FCC
• B. The ARRL
• C. The VECs
• D. The VEs

E3A06

24. What should be done to continue a long-distance contact when the MUF for that path decreases due to darkness?

• A. Switch to a higher frequency HF band
• B. Change to an antenna with greater beam width
• C. Change to an antenna with a higher takeoff angle
• D. Switch to a lower frequency HF band

E8C11

25. What is the relationship between symbol rate and baud?

• A. They are the same
• B. Baud rate is half the symbol rate
• C. The relationship depends on the specific code used
• D. Baud is twice the symbol rate

E1C02

26. Which of the following apply to communications transmitted to amateur stations in foreign countries?

• A. All these choices are correct
• B. Third party traffic must be limited to that intended for the exclusive use of government and non-Government Organization (NGOs) involved in emergency relief activities
• C. Communications must be limited to those incidental to the purpose of the amateur service and remarks of a personal nature
• D. All transmissions must be in English

E4D01

27. What is meant by the blocking dynamic range of a receiver?

• A. The difference in dB between the noise floor and the level of an incoming signal that will cause 1 dB of gain compression
• B. The difference in dB between the noise floor and the third-order intercept point
• C. The minimum difference in dB between two signals which produce third-order intermodulation products greater than the noise floor
• D. The minimum difference in dB between the levels of two FM signals that will cause one signal to block the other

E9E02

28. What antenna matching system matches coaxial cable to an antenna by connecting the shield to the center of the antenna and the conductor a fraction of a wavelength to one side?

• A. Stub match
• B. T-match
• C. Delta match
• D. Gamma match

E1A10

29. If an amateur station is installed aboard a ship or aircraft, what condition must be met before the station is operated?

• A. The amateur station must have a power supply that is completely independent of the main ship or aircraft power supply
• B. The amateur station must operate only in specific segments of the amateur service HF and VHF bands
• C. The amateur station operator must agree not to transmit when the main radio of the ship or aircraft is in use
• D. Its operation must be approved by the master of the ship or the pilot in command of the aircraft

E9G10

30. What do the arcs on a Smith chart represent?

• A. Points with constant reactance
• B. Points with constant resistance
• C. SWR
• D. Frequency

E4B03

31. Which S parameter is equivalent to forward gain?

• A. S22
• B. S11
• C. S21
• D. S12

E8A03

32. Which of the following describes a signal in the time domain?

• A. Discrete impulses in time order
• B. Frequency at different times
• C. Amplitude at different times
• D. Power at intervals of phase

E2B09

33. What kind of receiver can be used to receive and decode SSTV using the Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) protocol?

• A. AM
• B. CDMA
• C. AREDN
• D. SSB

E9C02

34. What type of radiation pattern is created by two 1/4-wavelength vertical antennas spaced 1/4- wavelength apart and fed 90 degrees out of phase?

• A. A figure-eight end-fire along the axis of the array
• B. A figure-eight broadside to the axis of the array
• C. Cardioid
• D. Omni-directional

E4E03

35. Which of the following types of noise are removed by a noise blanker?

• A. Hum and buzz
• B. Impulse noise
• C. All these choices are correct
• D. Broadband white noise

E7H05

36. How is positive feedback supplied in a Pierce oscillator?

• A. Through link coupling
• B. Through a quartz crystal
• C. Through a neutralizing capacitor
• D. Through a tapped coil

E9A11

37. Which of the following determines ground losses for a ground-mounted vertical antenna operating on HF?

• A. Take-off angle
• B. Soil conductivity
• C. Distance from the transmitter
• D. The standing wave ratio

E2E06

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

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

E8B04

39. What is the modulation index of an FM phone signal having a maximum carrier deviation of plus or minus 6 kHz if the highest modulating frequency is 2 kHz?

• A. 0.6
• B. 3
• C. 6
• D. 0.3

E9F07

40. How does parallel conductor transmission line compare to coaxial cable with a plastic dielectric?

• A. Smaller reflection coefficient
• B. Higher SWR
• C. Lower velocity factor
• D. Lower loss

E9H10

41. 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. All these choices are correct
• D. By reducing the permeability of the loop shield

E6A03

42. Why does a PN-junction diode not conduct current when reverse biased?

• A. Only P-type semiconductor material can conduct current
• B. Excess holes in P-type material combine with the electrons in N-type material, converting the entire diode into an insulator
• C. Only N-type semiconductor material can conduct current
• D. Holes in P-type material and electrons in the N-type material are separated by the applied voltage, widening the depletion region

E0A11

43. To what should lanyards be attached while climbing?

• A. Tower legs
• B. Guy brackets
• C. Tower rungs
• D. Antenna mast

E2D05

44. What is the characteristic of the JT65 mode?

• A. Uses only a 65 Hz bandwidth
• B. Symbol rate is 65 baud
• C. Decodes signals with a very low signal-to-noise ratio
• D. Permits fast-scan TV transmissions over narrow bandwidth

E7E04

45. What is one way to produce a single-sideband phone signal?

• A. Use a loop modulator followed by a mixer
• B. Use a reactance modulator followed by a mixer
• C. Use a balanced modulator followed by a filter
• D. Use a product detector with a DSB signal

E5B04

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

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

E6F05

47. Which of the following describes an optical shaft encoder?

• A. A device that detects rotation by interrupting a light source with a patterned wheel
• B. A device that measures the strength of a beam of light using analog-to-digital conversion
• C. An optical computing device in which light is coupled between devices by fiber optics
• D. A device for generating RTTY signals by means of a rotating light source

E8D05

48. What is the most common method of reducing key clicks?

• A. Reduce keying waveform rise and fall times
• B. Insert high-pass filters at the transmitter output
• C. Increase keying waveform rise and fall times
• D. Insert low-pass filters at the transmitter output

E6B06

49. Which of the following is a common use of a Schottky diode?

• A. As a variable capacitance in an automatic frequency control circuit
• B. As a VHF/UHF mixer or detector
• C. In oscillator circuits as the negative resistance element
• D. In power supplies as a constant voltage reference

E6C05

50. Which of the following digital logic families has the lowest power consumption?

• A. ECL
• B. CMOS
• C. NMOS
• D. Schottky TTL