Practice Exam

E7E11

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

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

E1A04

2. May an Extra class operator answer the CQ of a station on 3.601 MHz LSB phone?

• A. No, US stations are not permitted to use phone emissions below 3.610 MHz
• B. No, the sideband components will extend beyond the edge of the phone band segment
• C. Yes, the displayed frequency is within the 75-meter phone band segment
• D. Yes, the entire signal will be inside the SSB allocation for Extra class operators

E9G06

3. On the Smith chart shown in Figure E9-3, what is the name for the large outer circle on which the reactance arcs terminate?

• A. Reactance axis
• B. Impedance axis
• C. Polar axis
• D. Prime axis

E6C01

4. What is the function of hysteresis in a comparator?

• A. To prevent input noise from causing unstable output signals
• B. To cause the output to continually change states
• C. To increase the sensitivity
• D. To allow the comparator to be used with AC input signals

E8A07

5. What determines the PEP-to-average power ratio of an unprocessed single-sideband phone signal?

• A. The frequency of the modulating signal
• B. Amplifier gain
• C. The degree of carrier suppression
• D. Speech characteristics

E2D08

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

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

E9D05

7. Approximately how long is a Yagi's driven element?

• A. 234 divided by frequency in MHz
• B. 1005 divided by frequency in MHz
• C. 1/2 wavelength
• D. 1/4 wavelength

E6A01

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

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

E7A03

9. 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

E6B11

10. What is used to control the attenuation of RF signals by a PIN diode?

• A. Forward DC bias current
• B. Reverse voltage larger than the RF signal
• C. A variable RF reference voltage
• D. Capacitance of an RF coupling capacitor

E6D12

11. What causes inductor saturation?

• A. Operation at excessive magnetic flux
• B. Selecting a core with low permeability
• C. Selecting a core with excessive permittivity
• D. Operation at too high a frequency

E4A09

12. Which of the following is good practice when using an oscilloscope probe?

• A. Minimize the length of the probe's ground connection
• B. Never use a DC-coupled probe to measure an AC circuit
• C. Never use a high-impedance probe to measure a low-impedance circuit
• D. All these choices are correct

E3A11

13. What is a typical range for tropospheric duct propagation of microwave signals?

• A. 10 miles to 50 miles
• B. 1,200 miles
• C. 2,500 miles
• D. 100 miles to 300 miles

E4E14

14. What is the purpose of a single point ground panel?

• A. Eliminate air gaps between protected and non-protected circuits
• B. Prevent common-mode transients in multi-wire systems
• C. Remove AC power in case of a short-circuit
• D. Ensure all lightning protectors activate at the same time

E5A06

15. What is the magnitude of the circulating current within the components of a parallel LC circuit at resonance?

• A. It is at a maximum
• B. It is at a minimum
• C. It equals 2 times pi, times the square root of (inductance L multiplied by capacitance C)
• D. It equals 1 divided by the quantity 2 times pi, times the square root of (inductance L multiplied by capacitance C)

E4C05

16. What does a receiver noise floor of -174 dBm represent?

• A. The receiver noise is 6 dB above the theoretical minimum
• B. The theoretical noise in a 1 Hz bandwidth at the input of a perfect receiver at room temperature
• C. The noise figure of a 1 Hz bandwidth receiver
• D. The receiver noise is 3 dB above theoretical minimum

E1F11

17. 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)

E9E06

18. Which of these transmission line impedances would be suitable for constructing a quarter-wave Q-section for matching a 100-ohm feed point impedance to a 50-ohm transmission line?

• A. 90 ohms
• B. 75 ohms
• C. 50 ohms
• D. 62 ohms

E7H08

19. Which of the following components can be used to reduce thermal drift in crystal oscillators?

• A. Non-inductive resistors
• B. Wirewound resistors
• C. NP0 capacitors
• D. Toroidal inductors

E8D09

20. What is considered an acceptable maximum IMD level for an idling PSK signal?

• A. +5 dB
• B. -30 dB
• C. +15 dB
• D. +10 dB

E1D11

21. Which amateur stations are eligible to operate as Earth stations?

• A. Any amateur station, subject to the privileges of the class of operator license held by the control operator
• B. Only those of General, Advanced or Amateur Extra class operators
• C. Only those of Amateur Extra class operators
• D. Any amateur licensee who has successfully completed the AMSAT space communications course

E2E10

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

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

E8C04

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

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

E7D08

24. What type of circuit is shown in Figure E7-2?

• A. Common base amplifier
• B. Common emitter amplifier
• C. Switching voltage regulator
• D. Linear voltage regulator

E2B06

25. What is vestigial sideband modulation?

• A. Amplitude modulation in which one complete sideband and a portion of the other are transmitted
• B. Spread spectrum modulation achieved by applying FM modulation following single sideband amplitude modulation
• C. A type of modulation in which one sideband is inverted
• D. Narrow-band FM modulation achieved by filtering one sideband from the audio before frequency modulating the carrier

E5C10

26. Which point on Figure E5-1 best represents the impedance of a series circuit consisting of a 400-ohm resistor and a 38-picofarad capacitor at 14 MHz?

• A. Point 4
• B. Point 2
• C. Point 5
• D. Point 6

E7F07

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

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

E9A01

28. What is an isotropic radiator?

• A. An omnidirectional, horizontally polarized, precisely calibrated antenna used to make field measurements of antenna gain
• B. A spacecraft antenna used to direct signals toward Earth
• C. A hypothetical, lossless antenna having equal radiation intensity in all directions used as a reference for antenna gain
• D. A calibrated, unidirectional antenna used to make precise antenna gain measurements

E5D02

29. Why is it important to keep lead lengths short for components used in circuits for VHF and above?

• A. All these choices are correct
• B. To maintain component lifetime
• C. To increase the thermal time constant
• D. To minimize inductive reactance

E7C01

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

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

E9B07

31. What is the difference in radiated power between a lossless antenna with gain and an isotropic radiator driven by the same power?

• A. They are the same
• B. The power radiated from the directional antenna is stronger by its front-to-back ratio
• C. The power radiated from the isotropic radiator is 2.15 dB greater than that from the directional antenna
• D. The power radiated from the directional antenna is increased by the gain of the antenna

E9F01

32. What is the velocity factor of a transmission line?

• A. The velocity of a wave in the transmission line divided by the velocity of light in a vacuum
• B. The ratio of its termination impedance to its characteristic impedance
• C. The velocity of a wave in the transmission line multiplied by the velocity of light in a vacuum
• D. The ratio of its characteristic impedance to its termination impedance

E8B01

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

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

E1E10

34. What must the administering VEs do after the administration of a successful examination for an amateur operator license?

• A. They must collect and send the documents directly to the FCC
• B. They must submit the application document to the coordinating VEC according to the coordinating VEC instructions
• C. They must collect and submit the documents to the coordinating VEC for grading
• D. They must return the documents to the applicant for submission to the FCC according to the FCC instructions

E2A08

35. 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 the satellite from emitting out-of-band signals
• C. To prevent creating errors in the satellite telemetry
• D. To avoid reducing the downlink power to all other users

E1B02

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

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

E7G01

37. What is the typical output impedance of an op-amp?

• A. Very low
• B. Very high
• C. 10,000 ohms
• D. 100 ohms

E9C10

38. Which of the following describes a Zepp antenna?

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

E4D08

39. What causes intermodulation in an electronic circuit?

• A. Lack of neutralization
• B. Nonlinear circuits or devices
• C. Negative feedback
• D. Positive feedback

E0A01

40. What is the primary function of an external earth connection or ground rod?

• A. Lightning charge dissipation
• B. Protect breaker panel from power surges
• C. Reduce RF current flow between pieces of equipment
• D. Prevent static build up on power lines

E3B02

41. What is the approximate maximum range for signals using transequatorial propagation?

• A. 1,000 miles
• B. 5,000 miles
• C. 2,500 miles
• D. 7,500 miles

E9H03

42. What is receiving directivity factor (RDF)?

• A. Relative directivity compared to isotropic
• B. Relative directivity compared to a dipole
• C. Forward gain compared to the gain in the reverse direction
• D. Peak antenna gain compared to average gain over the hemisphere around and above the antenna

E4B11

43. Which of the following can be measured with a vector network analyzer?

• A. Output impedance
• B. All these choices are correct
• C. Input impedance
• D. Reflection coefficient

E6E04

44. Which is the most common input and output impedance of MMICs?

• A. 450 ohms
• B. 75 ohms
• C. 50 ohms
• D. 300 ohms

E3C11

45. What does VOACAP software model?

• A. VHF radio propagation
• B. AC voltage and impedance
• C. HF propagation
• D. AC current and impedance

E6F04

46. What is the photovoltaic effect?

• A. The conversion of light to electrical energy
• B. The effect that causes a phototransistor's beta to decrease when exposed to light
• C. The effect that causes a photodiode to emit light when a voltage is applied
• D. The conversion of voltage to current when exposed to light

E7B02

47. What is a Class D amplifier?

• A. An amplifier biased to be relatively free from distortion
• B. A low power amplifier that uses a differential amplifier for improved linearity
• C. An amplifier that uses drift-mode FETs for high efficiency
• D. An amplifier that uses switching technology to achieve high efficiency

E5B09

48. What is the relationship between the AC current through a capacitor and the voltage across a capacitor?

• A. Voltage and current are 180 degrees out of phase
• B. Voltage and current are in phase
• C. Current leads voltage by 90 degrees
• D. Voltage leads current by 90 degrees

E1C05

49. Under what situation may a station transmit third party communications while being automatically controlled?

• A. Never
• B. Only when transmitting SSB or CW
• C. Only when transmitting RTTY or data emissions
• D. On any mode approved by the National Telecommunication and Information Administration

E2C05

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

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