Practice Exam

E6A12

1. What is the purpose of connecting Zener diodes between a MOSFET gate and its source or drain?

• A. To protect the gate from static damage
• B. To keep the gate voltage within specifications and prevent the device from overheating
• C. To protect the substrate from excessive voltages
• D. To provide a voltage reference for the correct amount of reverse-bias gate voltage

E1E08

2. To which of the following examinees may a VE not administer an examination?

• A. Employees of the VE
• B. Relatives of the VE as listed in the FCC rules
• C. Friends of the VE
• D. All these choices are correct

E1D03

3. What is a space telecommand station?

• A. An amateur station that receives telemetry from a satellite or balloon more than 50 kilometers above the surface of the Earth
• B. An amateur station located in a satellite or a balloon more than 50 kilometers above the surface of the Earth
• C. An amateur station located on the surface of the Earth for communication with other Earth stations by means of Earth satellites
• D. An amateur station that transmits communications to initiate, modify, or terminate functions of a space station

E5D07

4. What combines to create the self-resonance of a component?

• A. The component's resistance and reactance
• B. The component's inductance and capacitance
• C. The component's nominal and parasitic reactance
• D. The component's electrical length and impedance

E6D09

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

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

E7F04

6. Which method generates an SSB signal using digital signal processing?

• A. Signals are combined in quadrature phase relationship
• B. Mixing products are converted to voltages and subtracted by adder circuits
• C. Varying quartz crystal characteristics are emulated in digital form
• D. A frequency synthesizer removes unwanted sidebands

E8D05

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

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

E7C03

8. What is the purpose of adding an inductor to a Pi-network to create a Pi-L-network?

• A. Greater harmonic suppression
• B. To eliminate one capacitor
• C. Greater transformation range
• D. Higher efficiency

E6C06

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

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

E4A01

10. 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. Sampling rate of the analog-to-digital converter
• C. Q of the circuit
• D. Analog-to-digital converter reference frequency

E7B06

11. What is a characteristic of a grounded-grid amplifier?

• A. High electrostatic damage protection
• B. Low input impedance
• C. Low bandwidth
• D. High power gain

E2C01

12. What indicator is required to be used by US-licensed operators when operating a station via remote control and the remote transmitter is located in the US?

• A. /R# where # is the district of the remote station
• B. / followed by the ARRL Section of the remote station
• C. / followed by the USPS two-letter abbreviation for the state in which the remote station is located
• D. No additional indicator is required

E9B10

13. What is the principle of a Method of Moments analysis?

• A. A wire is modeled as a single sine-wave voltage source
• B. A wire is modeled as a series of segments, each having a uniform value of current
• C. A wire is modeled as a series of segments, each having a distinct value of voltage across it
• D. A wire is modeled as a single sine-wave current generator

E7A06

14. What is a characteristic of a monostable multivibrator?

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

E1F06

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

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

E8A07

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

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

E9E06

17. 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. 75 ohms
• B. 50 ohms
• C. 62 ohms
• D. 90 ohms

E9F07

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

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

E6B03

19. What property of an LED's semiconductor material determines its forward voltage drop?

• A. Junction depth
• B. Band gap
• C. Intrinsic resistance
• D. Junction capacitance

E6F08

20. Why are optoisolators often used in conjunction with solid-state circuits that control 120 VAC circuits?

• A. Optoisolators provide an electrical isolation between a control circuit and the circuit being switched
• B. Optoisolators provide impedance matching between the control circuit and power circuit
• C. Optoisolators provide a low-impedance link between a control circuit and a power circuit
• D. Optoisolators eliminate the effects of reflected light in the control circuit

E2D04

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

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

E6E06

22. What characteristics of MMICs make them a popular choice for VHF through microwave circuits?

• A. Controlled gain, low noise figure, and constant input and output impedance over the specified frequency range
• B. The ability to retrieve information from a single signal, even in the presence of other strong signals
• C. Nearly infinite gain, very high input impedance, and very low output impedance
• D. Extremely high Q factor and high stability over a wide temperature range

E8C15

23. What technique do individual nodes use to form a mesh network?

• A. Forward error correction and Viterbi codes
• B. Acting as store-and-forward digipeaters
• C. Custom code plugs for the local trunking systems
• D. Discovery and link establishment protocols

E9H05

24. What challenge is presented by a small wire-loop antenna for direction finding?

• A. It has a bidirectional null pattern
• B. It is practical for use only on VHF and higher bands
• C. It does not have a clearly defined null
• D. All these choices are correct

E1C07

25. What notifications must be given before transmitting on the 630- or 2200-meter bands?

• A. An environmental impact statement must be filed with the Department of the Interior
• B. Operators must inform the FAA of their intent to operate, giving their call sign and distance to the nearest runway
• C. Operators must inform the Utilities Technology Council (UTC) of their call sign and coordinates of the station
• D. A special endorsement must be requested from the FCC

E4C02

26. Which of the following receiver circuits can be effective in eliminating interference from strong out-of-band signals?

• A. A narrow IF filter
• B. A notch filter
• C. A properly adjusted product detector
• D. A front-end filter or preselector

E7G11

27. What absolute voltage gain can be expected from the circuit in Figure E7-3 when R1 is 3,300 ohms and RF is 47 kilohms?

• A. 7
• B. 0.07
• C. 28
• D. 14

E9G09

28. What third family of circles is often added to a Smith chart during the process of designing impedance matching networks?

• A. Coaxial-length circles
• B. Transmission line length circles
• C. Radiation-pattern circles
• D. Constant-SWR circles

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 operate only in specific segments of the amateur service HF and VHF bands
• B. The amateur station must have a power supply that is completely independent of the main ship or aircraft power supply
• 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

E1B10

30. What frequencies are authorized to an amateur station operating under RACES rules?

• A. Specific local government channels
• B. Specific segments in the amateur service MF, HF, VHF, and UHF bands
• C. All amateur service frequencies authorized to the control operator
• D. All these choices are correct

E3C04

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

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

E4B05

32. What three test loads are used to calibrate an RF vector network analyzer?

• A. Short circuit, open circuit, and resonant circuit
• B. 50 ohms through 1/8 wavelength, 1/4 wavelength, and 1/2 wavelength of coaxial cable
• C. 50 ohms, 75 ohms, and 90 ohms
• D. Short circuit, open circuit, and 50 ohms

E4E04

33. How can conducted noise from an automobile battery charging system be suppressed?

• A. By installing a noise suppression resistor and a blocking capacitor at the battery
• B. By installing a high-pass filter in series with the radio's power lead and a low-pass filter in parallel with the antenna feed line
• C. By installing filter capacitors in series with the alternator leads
• D. By installing ferrite chokes on the charging system leads

E9D03

34. 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 maximum
• D. At a voltage null

E4D07

35. Which of the following reduces the likelihood of receiver desensitization?

• A. Increase the receiver's front-end gain
• B. Raise the receiver's IF frequency
• C. Switch from fast AGC to slow AGC
• D. Insert attenuation before the first RF stage

E9C12

36. Which of the following describes an extended double Zepp antenna?

• A. An end-fed 2-wavelength dipole antenna
• B. An end-fed full-wave dipole antenna
• C. A center-fed 1.25-wavelength dipole antenna
• D. A center-fed 1.5-wavelength dipole antenna

E8B02

37. How does the modulation index of a phase-modulated emission vary with RF carrier frequency?

• A. It decreases as the RF carrier frequency increases
• B. It increases as the RF carrier frequency increases
• C. It varies with the square root of the RF carrier frequency
• D. It does not depend on the RF carrier frequency

E2A02

38. Which of the following is characteristic of an inverting linear transponder?

• A. Signal position in the band is reversed
• B. Upper sideband on the uplink becomes lower sideband on the downlink, and vice versa
• C. Doppler shift is reduced because the uplink and downlink shifts are in opposite directions
• D. All these choices are correct

E7H11

39. What are the major spectral impurity components of direct digital synthesizers?

• A. Broadband noise
• B. Harmonics of the local oscillator
• C. Spurious signals at discrete frequencies
• D. Digital conversion noise

E2B05

40. Which of the following describes the use of vestigial sideband in analog fast-scan TV transmissions?

• A. Vestigial sideband reduces the bandwidth while increasing the fidelity of low frequency video components
• B. The vestigial sideband contains chroma information
• C. Vestigial sideband provides high frequency emphasis to sharpen the picture
• D. The vestigial sideband carries the audio information

E3B11

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

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

E0A12

42. Where should a shock-absorbing lanyard be attached to a tower when working above ground?

• A. Above the climber's head level
• B. Even with the climber's waist
• C. To the belt of the fall-arrest harness
• D. To the next lowest set of guys

E9A10

43. Which of the following improves the efficiency of a ground-mounted quarter-wave vertical antenna?

• A. Isolating the coax shield from ground
• B. Shortening the radiating element
• C. All these choices are correct
• D. Installing a ground radial system

E5A06

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

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

E3A12

45. What is most likely to result in auroral propagation?

• A. Severe geomagnetic storms
• B. Quiet geomagnetic conditions
• C. Extreme low-pressure areas in polar regions
• D. Meteor showers

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. 55 seconds
• C. 110 seconds
• D. 220 seconds

E7D07

47. What is the purpose of C2 in the circuit shown in Figure E7-2?

• A. To provide fixed DC bias for Q1
• B. It bypasses rectifier output ripple around D1
• C. To prevent self-oscillation
• D. It is a brute force filter for the output

E2E11

48. What is the difference between direct FSK and audio FSK?

• A. Direct FSK can transmit higher baud rates
• B. Direct FSK modulates the transmitter VFO
• C. All these choices are correct
• D. Direct FSK occupies less bandwidth

E5C08

49. What coordinate system is often used to display the phase angle of a circuit containing resistance, inductive, and/or capacitive reactance?

• A. Polar coordinates
• B. Faraday grid
• C. Maidenhead grid
• D. Elliptical coordinates

E7E10

50. How does a diode envelope detector function?

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