Practice Exam

E9A04

1. Which of the following factors affect the feed point impedance of an antenna?

• A. Antenna height
• B. The input power level
• C. Transmission line length
• D. The settings of an antenna tuner at the transmitter

E9H01

2. When constructing a Beverage antenna, which of the following factors should be included in the design to achieve good performance at the desired frequency?

• A. It should be at least one wavelength long
• B. Its overall length must not exceed 1/4 wavelength
• C. It must be mounted more than 1 wavelength above ground
• D. It should be configured as a four-sided loop

E6C01

3. 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

E9F02

4. Which of the following has the biggest effect on the velocity factor of a transmission line?

• A. The center conductor resistivity
• B. The transmission line length
• C. The insulating dielectric material
• D. The characteristic impedance

E1C03

5. How long must an operator wait after filing a notification with the Utilities Technology Council (UTC) before operating on the 2200-meter or 630-meter band?

• A. Operators may not operate until a test signal has been transmitted in coordination with the local power company
• B. Operations may commence immediately, and may continue unless interference is reported by the UTC
• C. Operators must not operate until approval is received
• D. Operators may operate after 30 days, providing they have not been told that their station is within 1 kilometer of PLC systems using those frequencies

E1B04

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

E1E07

7. What should a VE do if a candidate fails to comply with the examiner's instructions during an amateur operator license examination?

• A. Immediately terminate the candidate's examination
• B. Warn the candidate that continued failure to comply will result in termination of the examination
• C. Allow the candidate to complete the examination, but invalidate the results
• D. Immediately terminate everyone's examination and close the session

E9G01

8. Which of the following can be calculated using a Smith chart?

• A. Radiation resistance
• B. Radio propagation
• C. Antenna radiation pattern
• D. Impedance along transmission lines

E3C04

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

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

E5D08

10. What is the primary cause of loss in film capacitors at RF?

• A. Skin effect
• B. Self-discharge
• C. Inductance
• D. Dielectric loss

E9D03

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

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

E1A06

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

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

E9B07

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

E4E07

14. 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. Tying all ground connections to a common point resulting in differential-mode currents in the shield
• D. Common-mode currents on the shield and conductors

E5C04

15. What type of Y-axis scale is most often used for graphs of circuit frequency response?

• A. Linear
• B. Scatter
• C. Logarithmic
• D. Random

E9E01

16. 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

E2A01

17. What is the direction of an ascending pass for an amateur satellite?

• A. From east to west
• B. From north to south
• C. From west to east
• D. From south to north

E0A09

18. Which of the following types of equipment are exempt from RF exposure evaluations?

• A. Transceivers with less than 7 watts of RF output
• B. Antennas that radiate only in the near field
• C. Hand-held transceivers sold before May 3, 2021
• D. Dish antennas less than one meter in diameter

E7F03

19. What type of digital signal processing filter is used to generate an SSB signal?

• A. An adaptive filter
• B. An elliptical filter
• C. A Hilbert-transform filter
• D. A notch filter

E7A08

20. What logical operation does an OR gate perform?

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

E5A07

21. What is the magnitude of the current at the input of a parallel RLC circuit at resonance?

• A. Minimum
• B. R/L
• C. L/R
• D. Maximum

E4C11

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

E2B06

23. What is vestigial sideband modulation?

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

E7D07

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

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

E6B04

25. What type of semiconductor device is designed for use as a voltage-controlled capacitor?

• A. Silicon-controlled rectifier
• B. Varactor diode
• C. Zener diode
• D. Tunnel diode

E6A10

26. In Figure E6-1, which is the schematic symbol for an N-channel dual-gate MOSFET?

• A. 2
• B. 4
• C. 6
• D. 5

E7H06

27. Which of these functions can be performed by a phase-locked loop?

• A. Wide-band AF and RF power amplification
• B. Comparison of two digital input signals and digital pulse counting
• C. Photovoltaic conversion and optical coupling
• D. Frequency synthesis and FM demodulation

E7C10

28. Which of the following filters is used in a 2-meter band repeater duplexer?

• A. A crystal filter
• B. A DSP filter
• C. A cavity filter
• D. An L-C filter

E4B05

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

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

E2E05

30. Which of these digital modes does not support keyboard-to-keyboard operation?

• A. WSPR
• B. PSK31
• C. MFSK16
• D. RTTY

E3B12

31. What is chordal-hop propagation?

• A. Successive ionospheric refractions without an intermediate reflection from the ground
• B. Signals reflected back toward the transmitting station
• C. Propagation across the geomagnetic equator
• D. Propagation away from the great circle bearing between stations

E6F08

32. 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 a low-impedance link between a control circuit and a power circuit
• C. Optoisolators eliminate the effects of reflected light in the control circuit
• D. Optoisolators provide impedance matching between the control circuit and power circuit

E4A09

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

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

E3A06

34. What should be done to continue a long-distance contact when the MUF for that path decreases due to darkness?

• A. Change to an antenna with greater beam width
• B. Switch to a higher frequency HF band
• C. Change to an antenna with a higher takeoff angle
• D. Switch to a lower frequency HF band

E1F02

35. What privileges are authorized in the US to persons holding an amateur service license granted by the government of Canada?

• A. Full privileges, up to and including those of the Amateur Extra class license, on the 80-, 40-, 20-, 15-, and 10-meter bands
• B. The operating terms and conditions of the Canadian amateur service license, not to exceed US Amateur Extra class license privileges
• C. Full privileges of the General class license on the 80-, 40-, 20-, 15-, and 10-meter bands
• D. None, they must obtain a US license

E2C12

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

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

E5B10

37. What is the relationship between the AC current through an inductor and the voltage across an inductor?

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

E7G04

38. What is meant by the term "op-amp input offset voltage"?

• A. The difference between the output voltage of the op-amp and the input voltage required in the immediately following stage
• B. The differential input voltage needed to bring the open loop output voltage to zero
• C. The output voltage of the op-amp minus its input voltage
• D. The potential between the amplifier input terminals of the op-amp in an open loop condition

E4D08

39. What causes intermodulation in an electronic circuit?

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

E2D11

40. How do APRS stations relay data?

• A. By packet ACK/NAK relay
• B. By DMR repeaters
• C. By packet digipeaters
• D. By C4FM repeaters

E1D11

41. 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

E8D06

42. What is the advantage of including parity bits in ASCII characters?

• A. Faster transmission rate
• B. A larger character set is available
• C. Some types of errors can be detected
• D. Signal-to-noise ratio is improved

E6E03

43. Which of the following materials supports the highest frequency of operation when used in MMICs?

• A. Gallium nitride
• B. Silicon dioxide
• C. Silicon
• D. Silicon nitride

E7B02

44. What is a Class D amplifier?

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

E8C07

45. What is the bandwidth of a 4,800-Hz frequency shift, 9,600-baud ASCII FM transmission?

• A. 5.76 kHz
• B. 4.8 kHz
• C. 15.36 kHz
• D. 9.6 kHz

E7E03

46. What is a frequency discriminator?

• A. A circuit for filtering closely adjacent signals
• B. A circuit for detecting FM signals
• C. An FM generator circuit
• D. An automatic band-switching circuit

E6D08

47. Which of the following materials has the highest temperature stability of its magnetic characteristics?

• A. Aluminum
• B. Brass
• C. Powdered iron
• D. Ferrite

E8B09

48. What is deviation ratio?

• A. The ratio of the maximum carrier frequency deviation to the highest audio modulating frequency
• B. The ratio of the audio modulating frequency to the center carrier frequency
• C. The ratio of the highest audio modulating frequency to the average audio modulating frequency
• D. The ratio of the carrier center frequency to the audio modulating frequency

E9C04

49. What happens to the radiation pattern of an unterminated long wire antenna as the wire length is increased?

• A. The elevation angle increases, and the front-to-rear ratio decreases
• B. Additional lobes form with major lobes increasingly aligned with the axis of the antenna
• C. Fewer lobes form with the major lobes increasing closer to broadside to the wire
• D. The elevation angle increases, while the front-to-rear ratio is unaffected

E8A03

50. Which of the following describes a signal in the time domain?

• A. Amplitude at different times
• B. Frequency at different times
• C. Power at intervals of phase
• D. Discrete impulses in time order