Practice Exam

E5C11

1. Which point in Figure E5-1 best represents the impedance of a series circuit consisting of a 300-ohm resistor and an 18-microhenry inductor at 3.505 MHz?

• A. Point 8
• B. Point 1
• C. Point 7
• D. Point 3

E1A03

2. What is the highest legal carrier frequency on the 20-meter band for transmitting a 2.8 kHz wide USB data signal?

• A. 14.1002 MHz
• B. 14.1472 MHz
• C. 14.0708 MHz
• D. 14.3490 MHz

E2D04

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

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

E1C06

4. Which of the following is required in order to operate in accordance with CEPT rules in foreign countries where permitted?

• A. You must identify in the official language of the country in which you are operating
• B. You must append "/CEPT" to your call sign
• C. You must have a copy of FCC Public Notice DA 16-1048
• D. The US embassy must approve of your operation

E7C11

5. Which of the following measures a filter's ability to reject signals in adjacent channels?

• A. Noise factor
• B. Shape factor
• C. Phase response
• D. Passband ripple

E7B11

6. In Figure E7-1, what is the purpose of R3?

• A. Fixed bias
• B. Output load resistor
• C. Self bias
• D. Emitter bypass

E4D12

7. What is the link margin in a system with a transmit power level of 10 W (+40 dBm), a system antenna gain of 10 dBi, a cable loss of 3 dB, a path loss of 136 dB, a receiver minimum discernable signal of -103 dBm, and a required signal-to-noise ratio of 6 dB?

• A. -8dB
• B. -14dB
• C. +8dB
• D. +14dB

E3C07

8. Which of the following indicates the greatest solar flare intensity?

• A. Class Z
• B. Class A
• C. Class X
• D. Class M

E7H11

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

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

E2C09

10. What type of equipment is commonly used to implement an amateur radio mesh network?

• A. A computer running EchoLink to provide interface from the radio to the internet
• B. A wireless router running custom firmware
• C. A 2-meter VHF transceiver with a 1,200-baud modem
• D. A 440 MHz transceiver with a 9,600-baud modem

E9F06

11. What is the approximate physical length of an air-insulated, parallel conductor transmission line that is electrically 1/2 wavelength long at 14.10 MHz?

• A. 10.6 meters
• B. 8.5 meters
• C. 7.0 meters
• D. 13.3 meters

E5A03

12. What is the magnitude of the impedance of a series RLC circuit at resonance?

• A. Approximately equal to inductive reactance
• B. Approximately equal to circuit resistance
• C. Approximately equal to capacitive reactance
• D. High, compared to the circuit resistance

E1D03

13. What is a space telecommand station?

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

E4A01

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

E2E05

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

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

E2A11

16. 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 log-periodic dipole array
• D. A linearly polarized antenna

E6A07

17. Which of the following indicates that a silicon NPN junction transistor is biased on?

• A. Base-to-emitter resistance of approximately 0.6 ohms to 0.7 ohms
• B. Base-to-emitter voltage of approximately 6 volts to 7 volts
• C. Base-to-emitter resistance of approximately 6 ohms to 7 ohms
• D. Base-to-emitter voltage of approximately 0.6 volts to 0.7 volts

E8C06

18. What is the bandwidth of an FT8 signal?

• A. 50 Hz
• B. 10 Hz
• C. 2.4 kHz
• D. 600 Hz

E8A10

19. What is the purpose of a low-pass filter used at the output of a digital-to-analog converter?

• A. Improve accuracy by removing out-of-sequence codes from the input
• B. All these choices are correct
• C. Remove spurious sampling artifacts from the output signal
• D. Lower the input bandwidth to increase the effective resolution

E6B04

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

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

E1E09

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

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

E9B07

22. 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

E4C11

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

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

E4B04

24. Which S parameter represents input port return loss or reflection coefficient (equivalent to VSWR)?

• A. S11
• B. S12
• C. S21
• D. S22

E9G09

25. 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. Radiation-pattern circles
• C. Transmission line length circles
• D. Constant-SWR circles

E8B07

26. Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) is a technique used for which types of amateur communication?

• A. Digital modes
• B. EME
• C. Extremely low-power contacts
• D. OFDM signals are not allowed on amateur bands

E7F04

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

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

E4E14

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

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

E6F03

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

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

E7E03

30. What is a frequency discriminator?

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

E2B11

31. What is the function of the vertical interval signaling (VIS) code sent as part of an SSTV transmission?

• A. To provide vertical synchronization
• B. To identify the SSTV mode being used
• C. To lock the color burst oscillator in color SSTV images
• D. To identify the call sign of the station transmitting

E9A12

32. How much gain does an antenna have compared to a half-wavelength dipole if it has 6 dB gain over an isotropic radiator?

• A. 8.15 dB
• B. 6.0 dB
• C. 2.79 dB
• D. 3.85 dB

E3B12

33. What is chordal-hop propagation?

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

E5B02

34. What letter is commonly used to represent susceptance?

• A. B
• B. G
• C. Y
• D. X

E7A03

35. Which of the following can divide the frequency of a pulse train by 2?

• A. An XOR gate
• B. An OR gate
• C. A multiplexer
• D. A flip-flop

E9H04

36. What is the purpose of placing an electrostatic shield around a small-loop direction-finding antenna?

• A. It eliminates unbalanced capacitive coupling to the antenna's surroundings, improving the depth of its nulls
• B. It adds capacitive loading, increasing the bandwidth of the antenna
• C. It increases signal strength by providing a better match to the feed line
• D. It eliminates tracking errors caused by strong out-of-band signals

E6E05

37. Which of the following noise figure values is typical of a low-noise UHF preamplifier?

• A. -20 dBm
• B. 44 dBm
• C. 0.5 dB
• D. -10 dB

E3A04

38. In what direction does an electromagnetic wave travel?

• A. It travels parallel to the electric and magnetic fields
• B. It depends on the phase angle of the magnetic field
• C. It travels at a right angle to the electric and magnetic fields
• D. It depends on the phase angle of the electric field

E7D04

39. Which of the following describes a three-terminal voltage regulator?

• A. A series regulator
• B. A series current source
• C. A shunt regulator
• D. A shunt current source

E6D10

40. What is a primary advantage of using a toroidal core instead of a solenoidal core in an inductor?

• A. Toroidal cores have lower Q characteristics
• B. Toroidal cores make it easier to couple the magnetic energy into other components
• C. Toroidal cores confine most of the magnetic field within the core material
• D. Toroidal cores exhibit greater hysteresis

E1F03

41. Under what circumstances may a dealer sell an external RF power amplifier capable of operation below 144 MHz if it has not been granted FCC certification?

• A. It was manufactured and certificated in a country which has a reciprocal certification agreement with the FCC
• B. Gain is less than 23 dB when driven by power of 10 watts or less
• C. The amplifier is constructed or modified by an amateur radio operator for use at an amateur station
• D. The equipment dealer assembled it from a kit

E9C08

42. What is a folded dipole antenna?

• A. A dipole configured to provide forward gain
• B. A half-wave dipole with an additional parallel wire connecting its two ends
• C. A dipole one-quarter wavelength long
• D. A center-fed dipole with the ends folded down 90 degrees at the midpoint of each side

E0A01

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

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

E5D05

44. What parasitic characteristic causes electrolytic capacitors to be unsuitable for use at RF?

• A. Shunt capacitance
• B. Dielectric leakage
• C. Skin effect
• D. Inductance

E9D07

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

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

E8D11

46. What is one advantage of using ASCII code for data communications?

• A. It includes built-in error correction features
• B. It contains fewer information bits per character than any other code
• C. It uses one character as a shift code to send numeric and special characters
• D. It is possible to transmit both uppercase and lowercase text

E9E08

47. What is a use for a Wilkinson divider?

• A. To divide the frequency of the input to a counter to increase its frequency range
• B. To divide the operating frequency of a transmitter signal so it can be used on a lower frequency band
• C. To divide power equally between two 50-ohm loads while maintaining 50-ohm input impedance
• D. To feed high-impedance antennas from a low-impedance source

E6C07

48. What best describes a pull-up or pull-down resistor?

• A. A resistor connected to an op-amp output that prevents signals from exceeding the power supply voltage
• B. A resistor that ensures that an oscillator frequency does not drift
• C. A resistor connected to the positive or negative supply used to establish a voltage when an input or output is an open circuit
• D. A resistor in a keying circuit used to reduce key clicks

E1B04

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

E7G04

50. 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 potential between the amplifier input terminals of the op-amp in an open loop condition
• C. The differential input voltage needed to bring the open loop output voltage to zero
• D. The output voltage of the op-amp minus its input voltage