Practice Exam

E6B09

1. What is a common use for point-contact diodes?

• A. As a constant voltage source
• B. As a high-voltage rectifier
• C. As a constant current source
• D. As an RF detector

E2A11

2. What type of antenna can be used to minimize the effects of spin modulation and Faraday rotation?

• A. An isotropic antenna
• B. A circularly polarized antenna
• C. A linearly polarized antenna
• D. A log-periodic dipole array

E3C05

3. What orientation of Bz (B sub z) increases the likelihood that charged particles from the Sun will cause disturbed conditions?

• A. Northward
• B. Southward
• C. Eastward
• D. Westward

E7H03

4. What is a phase-locked loop?

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

E5B07

5. What is the phase angle between the voltage across and the current through a series RLC circuit if XC is 500 ohms, R is 1 kilohm, and XL is 250 ohms?

• A. 14.0 degrees with the voltage leading the current
• B. 68.2 degrees with the voltage leading the current
• C. 68.2 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
• D. 14.0 degrees with the voltage lagging the current

E1B06

6. 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 obtain a construction permit from the airport zoning authority per Part 119 of the FAA regulations
• 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 file an Environmental Impact Statement with the EPA before construction begins

E6D01

7. What is piezoelectricity?

• A. The ability of materials to generate electromagnetic waves of a certain frequency when voltage is applied
• B. A characteristic of materials that have an index of refraction which depends on the polarization of the electromagnetic wave passing through it
• C. The ability of materials to generate voltage when an electromagnetic wave of a certain frequency is applied
• D. A characteristic of materials that generate a voltage when stressed and that flex when a voltage is applied

E4E05

8. What is used to suppress radio frequency interference from a line-driven AC motor?

• A. A brute-force AC-line filter in series with the motor's power leads
• B. A bypass capacitor in series with the motor's field winding
• C. A high-pass filter in series with the motor's power leads
• D. A bypass choke in parallel with the motor's field winding

E4C11

9. Why does input attenuation reduce receiver overload on the lower frequency HF bands with little or no impact on signal-to-noise ratio?

• A. Signals are attenuated separately from the noise
• B. Atmospheric noise is generally greater than internally generated noise even after attenuation
• C. The attenuator has a low-pass filter to increase the strength of lower frequency signals
• D. The attenuator has a noise filter to suppress interference

E2B06

10. What is vestigial sideband modulation?

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

E9F01

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

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

E7G02

12. What is the frequency response of the circuit in E7-3 if a capacitor is added across the feedback resistor?

• A. Low-pass filter
• B. Notch filter
• C. Band-pass filter
• D. High-pass filter

E1C11

13. Which of the following operating arrangements allows an FCC-licensed US citizen to operate in many European countries, and amateurs from many European countries to operate in the US?

• A. IARP
• B. ITU reciprocal license
• C. CEPT
• D. All these choices are correct

E9A08

14. Which frequency band has the smallest first Fresnel zone?

• A. 2.4 GHz
• B. 900 MHz
• C. 5.8 GHz
• D. 3.4 GHz

E4B11

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

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

E9B08

16. What is the far field of an antenna?

• A. The region of the ionosphere where radiated power is not refracted
• B. The region where radiated power dissipates over a specified time period
• C. The region where radiated field strengths are constant
• D. The region where the shape of the radiation pattern no longer varies with distance

E5D06

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

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

E4D13

18. What is the received signal level with a transmit power of 10 W (+40 dBm), a transmit antenna gain of 6 dBi, a receive antenna gain of 3 dBi, and a path loss of 100 dB?

• A. -51 dBm
• B. -54 dBm
• C. -60 dBm
• D. -57 dBm

E1D11

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

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

E4A03

20. Which of the following test instruments is used to display spurious signals and/or intermodulation distortion products generated by an SSB transmitter?

• A. Network analyzer
• B. Spectrum analyzer
• C. Logic analyzer
• D. Differential resolver

E5C06

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

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

E7B05

22. What can be done to prevent unwanted oscillations in an RF power amplifier?

• A. Install parasitic suppressors and/or neutralize the stage
• B. Tune the stage for minimum loading
• C. Tune both the input and output for maximum power
• D. Use a phase inverter in the output filter

E7A07

23. What logical operation does a NAND gate perform?

• A. It produces a 0 at its output only if all inputs are 0
• B. It produces a 0 at its output if some but not all inputs are 1
• C. It produces a 0 at its output only if all inputs are 1
• D. It produces a 1 at its output only if all inputs are 1

E8A01

24. What technique shows that a square wave is made up of a sine wave and its odd harmonics?

• A. Differential analysis
• B. Numerical analysis
• C. Vector analysis
• D. Fourier analysis

E1F07

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

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

E7D13

26. Which of the following calculates power dissipated by a series linear voltage regulator?

• A. Voltage difference from input to output multiplied by output current
• B. Output voltage multiplied by output current
• C. Input voltage divided by output current
• D. Input voltage multiplied by input current

E3A01

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

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

E7F11

28. What sets the minimum detectable signal level for a direct-sampling software defined receiver in the absence of atmospheric or thermal noise?

• A. Missing codes and jitter
• B. Sample clock phase noise
• C. Reference voltage level and sample width in bits
• D. Data storage transfer rate

E9G04

29. What are the two families of circles and arcs that make up a Smith chart?

• A. Reactance and voltage
• B. Voltage and impedance
• C. Resistance and reactance
• D. Inductance and capacitance

E6C09

30. What is used to design the configuration of a field-programmable gate array (FPGA)?

• A. Hardware description language (HDL)
• B. Machine and assembly language
• C. Karnaugh maps
• D. An auto-router

E9E04

31. What is the purpose of the series capacitor in a gamma match?

• A. To transform the antenna impedance to a higher value
• B. To provide DC isolation between the feed line and the antenna
• C. To cancel unwanted inductive reactance
• D. To provide a rejection notch that prevents the radiation of harmonics

E1A10

32. 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. Its operation must be approved by the master of the ship or the pilot in command of the aircraft
• D. The amateur station operator must agree not to transmit when the main radio of the ship or aircraft is in use

E0A02

33. When evaluating RF exposure levels from your station at a neighbor's home, what must you do?

• A. Ensure signals from your station are less than the controlled maximum permissible emission (MPE) limits
• B. Ensure signals from your station are less than the uncontrolled maximum permissible exposure (MPE) limits
• C. Ensure signals from your station are less than the uncontrolled maximum permissible emission (MPE) limits
• D. Ensure signals from your station are less than the controlled maximum permissible exposure (MPE) limits

E8C05

34. What is the approximate bandwidth of a 13-WPM International Morse Code transmission?

• A. 52 Hz
• B. 26 Hz
• C. 13 Hz
• D. 104 Hz

E7E06

35. Why is de-emphasis used in FM communications receivers?

• A. For higher efficiency
• B. To reduce impulse noise reception
• C. For compatibility with transmitters using phase modulation
• D. To remove third-order distortion products

E5A06

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

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

E1E11

37. What must the VE team do if an examinee scores a passing grade on all examination elements needed for an upgrade or new license?

• A. Three VEs must certify that the examinee is qualified for the license grant and that they have complied with the administering VE requirements
• B. All these choices are correct
• C. Issue the examinee the new or upgrade license
• D. Photocopy all examination documents and forward them to the FCC for processing

E2D04

38. What technology is used for real-time tracking of balloons carrying amateur radio transmitters?

• A. FT8
• B. APRS
• C. PACTOR III
• D. Bandwidth compressed LORAN

E9D03

39. What is the most efficient location for a loading coil on an electrically short whip?

• A. Near the center of the vertical radiator
• B. As low as possible on the vertical radiator
• C. At a voltage null
• D. At a voltage maximum

E6E04

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

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

E6F01

41. What absorbs the energy from light falling on a photovoltaic cell?

• A. Photons
• B. Holes
• C. Protons
• D. Electrons

E9H08

42. What is the function of a sense antenna?

• A. It provides diversity reception that cancels multipath signals
• B. It increases the sensitivity of a DF antenna array
• C. It modifies the pattern of a DF antenna to provide a null in only one direction
• D. It allows DF antennas to receive signals at different vertical angles

E6A02

43. Which of the following semiconductor materials contains excess free electrons?

• A. Insulated gate
• B. P-type
• C. Bipolar
• D. N-type

E8B03

44. What is the modulation index of an FM phone signal having a maximum frequency deviation of 3000 Hz either side of the carrier frequency if the highest modulating frequency is 1000 Hz?

• A. 3
• B. 6
• C. 0.3
• D. 0.6

E3B11

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

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

E2E12

46. 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

E8D03

47. Which describes spread spectrum frequency hopping?

• A. Rapidly varying the frequency of a transmitted signal according to a pseudorandom sequence
• B. If interference is detected by the receiver, it will signal the transmitter to change frequencies
• C. A binary bit stream is used to shift the phase of an RF carrier very rapidly in a pseudorandom sequence
• D. RF signals are clipped to generate a wide band of harmonics which provides redundancy to correct errors

E7C06

48. What are the characteristics of an elliptical filter?

• A. Extremely sharp cutoff with one or more notches in the stop band
• B. Gradual passband rolloff with extreme stop-band ripple
• C. Extremely flat response over its pass band with gradually rounded stop-band corners
• D. Gradual passband rolloff with minimal stop-band ripple

E9C13

49. How does the radiation pattern of a horizontally polarized antenna vary with increasing height above ground?

• A. The takeoff angle of the lowest elevation lobe increases
• B. The takeoff angle of the lowest elevation lobe decreases
• C. The horizontal beamwidth increases
• D. The horizontal beamwidth decreases

E2C12

50. What indicates the delay between a control operator action and the corresponding change in the transmitted signal?

• A. Hang time
• B. Anti-VOX
• C. Latency
• D. Jitter