Practice Exam

E6E08

1. How is power supplied to the most common type of MMIC?

• A. MMICs require no operating bias
• B. Directly to the bias voltage (Vcc) lead
• C. Through a capacitor and RF choke connected to the amplifier input lead
• D. Through a resistor and/or RF choke connected to the amplifier output lead

E4E07

2. Which of the following can cause shielded cables to radiate or receive interference?

• A. Use of braided shielding material
• B. Low inductance ground connections at both ends of the shield
• C. Common-mode currents on the shield and conductors
• D. Tying all ground connections to a common point resulting in differential-mode currents in the shield

E5A09

3. How is the Q of an RLC parallel resonant circuit calculated?

• A. Resistance divided by the reactance of either the inductance or capacitance
• B. Reactance of the inductance multiplied by the reactance of the capacitance
• C. Reactance of either the inductance or capacitance divided by the resistance
• D. Reactance of either the inductance or capacitance multiplied by the resistance

E1D12

4. Which of the following amateur stations may transmit one-way communications?

• A. A space station, beacon station, or telecommand station
• B. A local repeater or linked repeater station
• C. A message forwarding station or automatically controlled digital station
• D. All these choices are correct

E7E10

5. How does a diode envelope detector function?

• A. By rectification and filtering of RF signals
• B. By breakdown of the Zener voltage
• C. By mixing signals with noise in the transition region of the diode
• D. By sensing the change of reactance in the diode with respect to frequency

E8D10

6. What are some of the differences between the Baudot digital code and ASCII?

• A. Baudot uses 5 data bits per character, ASCII uses 7 or 8; Baudot uses 2 characters as letters/figures shift codes, ASCII has no letters/figures shift code
• B. Baudot uses 7 data bits per character, ASCII uses 8; Baudot has no letters/figures shift code, ASCII uses 2 letters/figures shift codes
• C. Baudot uses 4 data bits per character, ASCII uses 7 or 8; Baudot uses 1 character as a letters/figures shift code, ASCII has no letters/figures code
• D. Baudot uses 6 data bits per character, ASCII uses 7 or 8; Baudot has no letters/figures shift code, ASCII uses 2 letters/figures shift codes

E6D09

7. What devices are commonly used as VHF and UHF parasitic suppressors at the input and output terminals of a transistor HF amplifier?

• A. Electrolytic capacitors
• B. Ferrite beads
• C. Steel-core toroids
• D. Butterworth filters

E4A04

8. How is compensation of an oscilloscope probe performed?

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

E3C02

9. What is indicated by a rising A-index or K-index?

• A. Decreasing disturbance of the geomagnetic field
• B. An increase in the critical frequency
• C. Higher levels of solar UV radiation
• D. Increasing disturbance of the geomagnetic field

E7F07

10. What function is performed by a Fast Fourier Transform?

• A. Converting signals from the frequency domain to the time domain
• B. Converting digital signals to analog form
• C. Converting signals from the time domain to the frequency domain
• D. Converting analog signals to digital form

E2D08

11. What type of packet frame is used to transmit APRS beacon data?

• A. Acknowledgement
• B. Connect
• C. Burst
• D. Unnumbered Information

E1C04

12. What is an IARP?

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

E0A07

13. What is meant by "100% tie-off" regarding tower safety?

• A. All tools secured to the climber's harness
• B. At least one lanyard attached to the tower at all times
• C. All circuit breakers feeding power to the tower must be tied closed with tape, cable, or ties
• D. All loose ropes and guys secured to a fixed structure

E4D10

14. What does a third-order intercept level of 40 dBm mean with respect to receiver performance?

• A. Signals less than 40 dBm will not generate audible third-order intermodulation products
• B. A pair of 1 mW input signals will produce a third-order intermodulation product that is 40 dB stronger than the input signal
• C. The receiver can tolerate signals up to 40 dB above the noise floor without producing third-order intermodulation products
• D. A pair of 40 dBm input signals will theoretically generate a third-order intermodulation product that has the same output amplitude as either of the input signals

E2A05

15. What do the letters in a satellite's mode designator specify?

• A. The polarization of uplink and downlink signals
• B. Power limits for uplink and downlink transmissions
• C. The uplink and downlink frequency ranges
• D. The location of the ground control station

E4B06

16. 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. 125 watts
• C. 75 watts
• D. 100 watts

E7B09

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

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

E7D02

18. How does a switchmode voltage regulator work?

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

E3A09

19. Which of the following frequency ranges is most suited for meteor-scatter communications?

• A. 220 MHz - 450 MHz
• B. 10 MHz - 14 MHz
• C. 28 MHz - 148 MHz
• D. 1.8 MHz - 1.9 MHz

E9H09

20. What type of radiation pattern is created by a single-turn, terminated loop such as a pennant antenna?

• A. Bidirectional
• B. Cardioid
• C. Hyperbolic
• D. Omnidirectional

E7H03

21. What is a phase-locked loop?

• A. An electronic circuit consisting of a precision push-pull amplifier with a differential phase input
• B. An electronic servo loop consisting of a phase detector, a low-pass filter, a voltage-controlled oscillator, and a stable reference oscillator
• C. An electronic servo loop consisting of a ratio detector, reactance modulator, and voltage-controlled oscillator
• D. An electronic circuit also known as a monostable multivibrator

E5B11

22. What is the phase angle between the voltage across and the current through a series RLC circuit if XC is 25 ohms, R is 100 ohms, and XL is 75 ohms?

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

E8A09

23. How many different input levels can be encoded by an analog-to-digital converter with 8-bit resolution?

• A. 256 divided by the gain of the input amplifier
• B. 256
• C. 8
• D. 8 multiplied by the gain of the input amplifier

E8B01

24. What is the modulation index of an FM signal?

• A. The ratio of modulating signal amplitude to frequency deviation
• B. The bandwidth of the transmitted signal divided by the modulating signal frequency
• C. The ratio of frequency deviation to modulating signal frequency
• D. The modulating signal frequency divided by the bandwidth of the transmitted signal

E7C04

25. How does an impedance-matching circuit transform a complex impedance to a resistive impedance?

• A. It introduces negative resistance to cancel the resistive part of impedance
• B. It cancels the reactive part of the impedance and changes the resistive part to the desired value
• C. It introduces transconductance to cancel the reactive part of impedance
• D. Reactive currents are dissipated in matched resistances

E5D04

26. Why are short connections used at microwave frequencies?

• A. To reduce noise figure
• B. To increase compensating capacitance
• C. To increase neutralizing resistance
• D. To reduce phase shift along the connection

E1E09

27. What may be the penalty for a VE who fraudulently administers or certifies an examination?

• A. All these choices are correct
• B. A fine of up to $1,000 per occurrence
• C. A sentence of up to one year in prison
• D. Revocation of the VE's amateur station license grant and the suspension of the VE's amateur operator license grant

E5C03

28. Which of the following represents a pure inductive reactance in polar coordinates?

• A. A positive 90 degree phase angle
• B. A negative 45 degree phase angle
• C. A positive 45 degree phase angle
• D. A negative 90 degree phase angle

E7G12

29. What is an operational amplifier?

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

E8C11

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

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

E9A02

31. 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. 420 watts
• B. 78.7 watts
• C. 286 watts
• D. 469 watts

E3B09

32. At what time of year is sporadic-E propagation most likely to occur?

• A. Around the equinoxes, especially the spring equinox
• B. Around the solstices, especially the summer solstice
• C. Around the solstices, especially the winter solstice
• D. Around the equinoxes, especially the fall equinox

E1A06

33. What is the required transmit frequency of a CW signal for channelized 60 meter operation?

• A. At the center frequency of the channel
• B. At the lowest frequency of the channel
• C. At the highest frequency of the channel
• D. On any frequency where the signal's sidebands are within the channel

E9E01

34. Which matching system for Yagi antennas requires the driven element to be insulated from the boom?

• A. Shunt-fed
• B. Beta or hairpin
• C. T-match
• D. Gamma

E1F01

35. On what frequencies are spread spectrum transmissions permitted?

• A. Only on amateur frequencies above 222 MHz
• B. Only on amateur frequencies above 144 MHz
• C. Only on amateur frequencies above 50 MHz
• D. Only on amateur frequencies above 420 MHz

E9B05

36. What type of antenna pattern is shown in Figure E9-2?

• A. Near field
• B. Polarization
• C. Elevation
• D. Azimuth

E4C08

37. An SDR receiver is overloaded when input signals exceed what level?

• A. One-half of the maximum sample rate
• B. The maximum count value of the analog-to-digital converter
• C. The reference voltage of the analog-to-digital converter
• D. One-half of the maximum sampling buffer size

E7A01

38. Which circuit is bistable?

• A. A flip-flop
• B. An AND gate
• C. An OR gate
• D. A bipolar amplifier

E2E10

39. Which of these digital modes has the narrowest bandwidth?

• A. 170 Hz shift, 45-baud RTTY
• B. PACTOR IV
• C. FT8
• D. MFSK16

E1B06

40. Which of the following additional rules apply if you are erecting an amateur station antenna structure at a site at or near a public use airport?

• A. You may have to notify the Federal Aviation Administration and register it with the FCC as required by Part 17 of the FCC rules
• B. You must file an Environmental Impact Statement with the EPA before construction begins
• C. You may have to enter the height above ground in meters, and the latitude and longitude in degrees, minutes, and seconds on the FAA website
• D. You must obtain a construction permit from the airport zoning authority per Part 119 of the FAA regulations

E9F05

41. What is microstrip?

• A. Precision printed circuit conductors above a ground plane that provide constant impedance interconnects at microwave frequencies
• B. Special shielding material designed for microwave frequencies
• C. Miniature coax used for low power applications
• D. Short lengths of coax mounted on printed circuit boards to minimize time delay between microwave circuits

E9C14

42. How does the radiation pattern of a horizontally-polarized antenna mounted above a long slope compare with the same antenna mounted above flat ground?

• A. The horizontal beamwidth decreases in the downhill direction
• B. The horizontal beamwidth increases in the uphill direction
• C. The main lobe takeoff angle increases in the downhill direction
• D. The main lobe takeoff angle decreases in the downhill direction

E2C11

43. How should you generally identify your station when attempting to contact a DX station during a contest or in a pileup?

• A. Send the call sign of the DX station three times, the words "this is," then your call sign three times
• B. Send only the last two letters of your call sign until you make contact
• C. Send your full call sign and grid square
• D. Send your full call sign once or twice

E9D07

44. What is an advantage of top loading an electrically short HF vertical antenna?

• A. Lower Q
• B. Higher losses
• C. Greater structural strength
• D. Improved radiation efficiency

E2B10

45. What aspect of an analog slow-scan television signal encodes the brightness of the picture?

• A. Tone frequency
• B. Tone amplitude
• C. Sync amplitude
• D. Sync frequency

E6C06

46. Why do CMOS digital integrated circuits have high immunity to noise on the input signal or power supply?

• A. Large bypass capacitance is inherent
• B. The input switching threshold is about twice the power supply voltage
• C. The input switching threshold is about half the power supply voltage
• D. Bandwidth is very limited

E6A09

47. What is a depletion-mode field-effect transistor (FET)?

• A. An FET that exhibits very high electron mobility due to a lack of holes in the N-type material
• B. An FET for which holes are the majority carriers
• C. An FET that has no current flow between source and drain when no gate voltage is applied
• D. An FET that exhibits a current flow between source and drain when no gate voltage is applied

E6B10

48. In Figure E6-2, which is the schematic symbol for a Schottky diode?

• A. 6
• B. 3
• C. 2
• D. 1

E6F03

49. What is the most common configuration of an optoisolator or optocoupler?

• A. A lens and a photomultiplier
• B. An amplitude-modulated helium-neon laser
• C. A frequency-modulated helium-neon laser
• D. An LED and a phototransistor

E9G08

50. How is a Smith chart normalized?

• A. Reassign the prime center to the reactance axis
• B. Reassign the reactance axis with resistance values
• C. Reassign the prime center's impedance value
• D. Reassign the resistance axis with reactance values