Practice Exam

E9A02

1. What is the effective radiated power (ERP) of a repeater station with 150 watts transmitter power output, 2 dB feed line loss, 2.2 dB duplexer loss, and 7 dBd antenna gain?

• A. 469 watts
• B. 420 watts
• C. 286 watts
• D. 78.7 watts

E2E12

2. How do ALE stations establish contact?

• A. ALE radios send a constant tone code to establish a frequency for future use
• B. ALE constantly scans a list of frequencies, activating the radio when the designated call sign is received
• C. ALE radios monitor an internet site for the frequency they are being paged on
• D. ALE radios activate when they hear their signal echoed by back scatter

E7F12

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

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

E4D04

4. Which of the following is used to reduce or eliminate intermodulation interference in a repeater caused by a nearby transmitter?

• A. Utilizing a Class D final amplifier
• B. A properly terminated circulator at the output of the repeater's transmitter
• C. Utilizing a Class C final amplifier
• D. A band-pass filter in the feed line between the transmitter and receiver

E0A03

5. Over what range of frequencies are the FCC human body RF exposure limits most restrictive?

• A. 300 - 3000 MHz
• B. 3 - 30 MHz
• C. 300 kHz - 3 MHz
• D. 30 - 300 MHz

E7C05

6. Which filter type has ripple in the passband and a sharp cutoff?

• A. A passive op-amp filter
• B. A Chebyshev filter
• C. A Butterworth filter
• D. An active LC filter

E7A03

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

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

E7B09

8. What is characteristic of an emitter follower (or common collector) amplifier?

• A. Input and output signals in-phase
• B. Low input impedance and phase inversion from input to output
• C. Acts as an OR circuit if one input is grounded
• D. Differential inputs and single output

E7E11

9. Which type of detector is used for demodulating SSB signals?

• A. Phase comparator
• B. Product detector
• C. Discriminator
• D. Phase detector

E2B11

10. What is the function of the vertical interval signaling (VIS) code sent as part of an SSTV transmission?

• A. To identify the call sign of the station transmitting
• B. To identify the SSTV mode being used
• C. To lock the color burst oscillator in color SSTV images
• D. To provide vertical synchronization

E1A02

11. When using a transceiver that displays the carrier frequency of phone signals, which of the following displayed frequencies represents the lowest frequency at which a properly adjusted LSB emission will be totally within the band?

• A. 300 Hz above the lower band edge
• B. The exact lower band edge
• C. 1 kHz above the lower band edge
• D. 3 kHz above the lower band edge

E5C02

12. How are impedances described in polar coordinates?

• A. By X and R values
• B. By Y and G values
• C. By real and imaginary parts
• D. By magnitude and phase angle

E9H07

13. What is the function of a Beverage antenna's termination resistor?

• A. Absorb signals from the reverse direction
• B. Increase the front-to-side ratio
• C. Decrease SWR bandwidth
• D. Eliminate harmonic reception

E1E05

14. What must the VE team do with the application form if the examinee does not pass the exam?

• A. Send the application form to the FCC and inform the FCC of the grade
• B. Destroy the application form
• C. Maintain the application form with the VEC's records
• D. Return the application document to the examinee

E9B01

15. What is the 3 dB beamwidth of the antenna radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-1?

• A. 75 degrees
• B. 25 degrees
• C. 30 degrees
• D. 50 degrees

E9D08

16. What happens as the Q of an antenna increases?

• A. SWR bandwidth decreases
• B. More common-mode current is present on the feed line
• C. SWR bandwidth increases
• D. Gain is reduced

E1B04

17. What must the control operator of a repeater operating in the 70-centimeter band do if a radiolocation system experiences interference from that repeater?

• A. File an FAA NOTAM (Notice to Air Missions) with the repeater system's ERP, call sign, and six-character grid locator
• B. Cease operation or make changes to the repeater that mitigate the interference
• C. All these choices are correct
• D. Reduce the repeater antenna HAAT (Height Above Average Terrain)

E4A06

18. What is the effect of aliasing on a digital oscilloscope when displaying a waveform?

• A. A false, jittery low-frequency version of the waveform is displayed
• B. Calibration of the vertical scale is no longer valid
• C. The waveform DC offset will be inaccurate
• D. Excessive blanking occurs, which prevents display of the waveform

E8A02

19. Which of the following is a type of analog-to-digital conversion?

• A. Successive approximation
• B. Harmonic regeneration
• C. Level shifting
• D. Phase reversal

E2C06

20. During a VHF/UHF contest, in which band segment would you expect to find the highest level of SSB or CW activity?

• A. In the weak signal segment of the band, with most of the activity near the calling frequency
• B. In the middle of the band, usually 25 kHz above the national calling frequency
• C. At the top of each band, usually in a segment reserved for contests
• D. In the middle of each band, usually on the national calling frequency

E4E11

21. What could be the cause of local AM broadcast band signals combining to generate spurious signals on the MF or HF bands?

• A. Nearby corroded metal connections are mixing and reradiating the broadcast signals
• B. One or more of the broadcast stations is transmitting an over-modulated signal
• C. You are receiving skywave signals from a distant station
• D. Your station receiver IF amplifier stage is overloaded

E6A01

22. In what application is gallium arsenide used as a semiconductor material?

• A. In microwave circuits
• B. In high-current rectifier circuits
• C. In very low-frequency RF circuits
• D. In high-power audio circuits

E6C03

23. What is tri-state logic?

• A. Logic devices that utilize ternary math
• B. A counter with eight states
• C. Logic devices with 0, 1, and high-impedance output states
• D. Logic with three output impedances which can be selected to better match the load impedance

E7G12

24. What is an operational amplifier?

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

E1D01

25. What is the definition of telemetry?

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

E9E03

26. What matching system uses a short length of transmission line connected in parallel with the feed line at or near the feed point?

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

E5A12

27. What is the half-power bandwidth of a resonant circuit that has a resonant frequency of 3.7 MHz and a Q of 118?

• A. 436.6 kHz
• B. 31.4 kHz
• C. 218.3 kHz
• D. 15.7 kHz

E8B11

28. What is digital time division multiplexing?

• A. Two or more data streams share the same channel by transmitting time of transmission as the sub-carrier
• B. Two or more data streams are assigned to discrete sub-carriers on an FM transmitter
• C. Two or more signals are quadrature modulated to increase bandwidth efficiency
• D. Two or more signals are arranged to share discrete time slots of a data transmission

E8C06

29. What is the bandwidth of an FT8 signal?

• A. 50 Hz
• B. 10 Hz
• C. 600 Hz
• D. 2.4 kHz

E7H07

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

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

E7D11

31. What is the purpose of an inverter connected to a solar panel output?

• A. Prevent discharge when panel is not illuminated
• B. Maintain voltage with varying illumination levels
• C. Reduce AC ripple on the output
• D. Convert the panel's output from DC to AC

E6B01

32. What is the most useful characteristic of a Zener diode?

• A. A constant current drop under conditions of varying voltage
• B. An internal capacitance that varies with the applied voltage
• C. A constant voltage drop under conditions of varying current
• D. A negative resistance region

E5B08

33. What is the phase angle between the voltage across and the current through a series RLC circuit if XC is 300 ohms, R is 100 ohms, and XL is 100 ohms?

• A. 63 degrees with the voltage leading the current
• B. 27 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
• C. 27 degrees with the voltage leading the current
• D. 63 degrees with the voltage lagging the current

E8D07

34. What is a common cause of overmodulation of AFSK signals?

• A. Bit errors in the modem
• B. Excessive frequency deviation
• C. Excessive transmit audio levels
• D. Excessive numbers of retries

E4C13

35. What is reciprocal mixing?

• A. Two out-of-band signals mixing to generate an in-band spurious signal
• B. Local oscillator phase noise mixing with adjacent strong signals to create interference to desired signals
• C. Two digital signals combining from alternate time slots
• D. In-phase signals cancelling in a mixer resulting in loss of receiver sensitivity

E6D02

36. What is the equivalent circuit of a quartz crystal?

• A. Parallel RLC, where C is the series combination of resonance capacitance of the crystal and electrode and stray capacitance
• B. Parallel RLC, where C is the parallel combination of resonance capacitance of the crystal and electrode and stray capacitance
• C. Series RLC, where C is the parallel combination of resonance capacitance of the crystal and electrode and stray capacitance
• D. Series RLC in parallel with a shunt C representing electrode and stray capacitance

E2A08

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

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

E1F07

38. When may an amateur station send a message to a business?

• A. When neither the amateur nor their employer has a pecuniary interest in the communications
• B. At no time
• C. When the pecuniary interest of the amateur or his or her employer is less than $25
• D. When the pecuniary interest of the amateur or his or her employer is less than $50

E2D01

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

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

E3C07

40. Which of the following indicates the greatest solar flare intensity?

• A. Class X
• B. Class M
• C. Class Z
• D. Class A

E9G05

41. Which of the following is a common use for a Smith chart?

• A. Determine the loss/100 feet of a transmission line, given the velocity factor and conductor materials
• B. Determine the impedance of a transmission line, given the physical dimensions
• C. Determine the length and position of an impedance matching stub
• D. Determine the gain of an antenna given the physical and electrical parameters

E1C04

42. What is an IARP?

• A. An indication of increased antenna reflected power
• B. A forecast of intermittent aurora radio propagation
• C. The internal amateur radio practices policy of the FCC
• D. A permit that allows US amateurs to operate in certain countries of the Americas

E3B13

43. What type of polarization is supported by ground-wave propagation?

• A. Elliptical
• B. Horizontal
• C. Circular
• D. Vertical

E6F05

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

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

E3A01

45. What is the approximate maximum separation measured along the surface of the Earth between two stations communicating by EME?

• A. 2,000 miles, if the moon is at apogee
• B. 12,000 miles, if the moon is "visible" by both stations
• C. 5,000 miles, if the moon is at perigee
• D. 2,000 miles, if the moon is at perigee

E9C10

46. Which of the following describes a Zepp antenna?

• A. A horizontal array capable of quickly changing the direction of maximum radiation by changing phasing lines
• B. A vertical array capable of quickly changing the direction of maximum radiation by changing phasing lines
• C. An end-fed half-wavelength dipole
• D. An omni-directional antenna commonly used for satellite communications

E6E09

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

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

E9F10

48. What impedance does a 1/8-wavelength transmission line present to an RF generator when the line is shorted at the far end?

• A. The same as the characteristic impedance of the line
• B. An inductive reactance
• C. A capacitive reactance
• D. Zero

E4B06

49. 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. 112.5 watts
• B. 100 watts
• C. 125 watts
• D. 75 watts

E5D06

50. What parasitic characteristic creates an inductor's self-resonance?

• A. Inter-turn capacitance
• B. Dielectric loss
• C. Skin effect
• D. Coupling