Practice Exam

T5B09

1. Which decibel value most closely represents a power increase from 5 watts to 10 watts?

• A. 10 dB
• B. 2 dB
• C. 5 dB
• D. 3 dB

T3A01

2. Why do VHF signal strengths sometimes vary greatly when the antenna is moved only a few feet?

• A. The signal path encounters different concentrations of water vapor
• B. VHF ionospheric propagation is very sensitive to path length
• C. Multipath propagation cancels or reinforces signals
• D. All these choices are correct

T6C11

3. What is component 4 in figure T-3?

• A. Dummy load
• B. Ground
• C. Transmitter
• D. Antenna

T5A06

4. What is the unit of frequency?

• A. Henry
• B. Hertz
• C. Farad
• D. Tesla

T1D02

5. Under which of the following circumstances are one-way transmissions by an amateur station prohibited?

• A. Broadcasting
• B. International Morse Code Practice
• C. In all circumstances
• D. Telecommand or transmissions of telemetry

T6D06

6. What component changes 120 V AC power to a lower AC voltage for other uses?

• A. Transformer
• B. Transistor
• C. Variable capacitor
• D. Diode

T5C10

7. How much power is delivered by a voltage of 12 volts DC and a current of 2.5 amperes?

• A. 30 watts
• B. 14.5 watts
• C. 0.208 watts
• D. 4.8 watts

T9B05

8. What happens as the frequency of a signal in coaxial cable is increased?

• A. The characteristic impedance increases
• B. The loss increases
• C. The loss decreases
• D. The characteristic impedance decreases

T4B05

9. What does the scanning function of an FM transceiver do?

• A. Prevents interference to nearby repeaters
• B. Tunes through a range of frequencies to check for activity
• C. Checks incoming signal deviation
• D. Checks for messages left on a digital bulletin board

T1E05

10. What is an amateur station's control point?

• A. The location of the station's transmitting apparatus
• B. The location at which the control operator function is performed
• C. The location of the station's transmitting antenna
• D. The mailing address of the station licensee

T0C05

11. Why do exposure limits vary with frequency?

• A. Higher frequency RF fields are transient in nature
• B. Lower frequency RF fields do not penetrate the human body
• C. Lower frequency RF fields have more energy than higher frequency fields
• D. The human body absorbs more RF energy at some frequencies than at others

T9A06

12. Which of the following types of antenna offers the greatest gain?

• A. Isotropic
• B. 5/8 wave vertical
• C. Yagi
• D. J pole

T2A09

13. Which of the following indicates that a station is listening on a repeater and looking for a contact?

• A. The repeater call sign followed by the station's call sign
• B. "QSY" followed by your call sign
• C. "CQ CQ" followed by the repeater's call sign
• D. The station's call sign followed by the word "monitoring"

T1B09

14. Why should you not set your transmit frequency to be exactly at the edge of an amateur band or sub-band?

• A. To allow for calibration error in the transmitter frequency display
• B. All these choices are correct
• C. So that modulation sidebands do not extend beyond the band edge
• D. To allow for transmitter frequency drift

T3B03

15. What are the two components of a radio wave?

• A. Voltage and current
• B. Electric and magnetic fields
• C. Impedance and reactance
• D. Ionizing and non-ionizing radiation

T8C09

16. Which of the following protocols enables an amateur station to transmit through a repeater without using a radio to initiate the transmission?

• A. D-STAR
• B. IRLP
• C. EchoLink
• D. DMR

T6B02

17. What electronic component allows current to flow in only one direction?

• A. Driven element
• B. Fuse
• C. Resistor
• D. Diode

T8A12

18. Which of the following is a disadvantage of FM compared with single sideband?

• A. Voice quality is poorer
• B. Only one signal can be received at a time
• C. FM signals are harder to tune
• D. All these choices are correct

T2C08

19. Which of the following is a characteristic of good traffic handling?

• A. Making decisions as to whether messages are worthy of relay or delivery
• B. Passing messages exactly as received
• C. Ensuring that any newsworthy messages are relayed to the news media
• D. All these choices are correct

T7B02

20. What would cause a broadcast AM or FM radio to receive an amateur radio transmission unintentionally?

• A. The deviation of an FM transmitter is set too low
• B. The audio amplifier of the transmitter is overloaded
• C. The receiver is unable to reject strong signals outside the AM or FM band
• D. The microphone gain of the transmitter is turned up too high

T7C02

21. Which of the following is used to determine if an antenna is resonant at the desired operating frequency?

• A. A VTVM
• B. A Q meter
• C. A frequency counter
• D. An antenna analyzer

T8B10

22. What is a LEO satellite?

• A. A satellite in low energy operation mode
• B. A sun synchronous satellite
• C. A highly elliptical orbit satellite
• D. A satellite in low earth orbit

T1A03

23. What do the FCC rules state regarding the use of a phonetic alphabet for station identification in the Amateur Radio Service?

• A. It is required when in contact with foreign stations
• B. It is encouraged
• C. It is required when transmitting emergency messages
• D. All these choices are correct

T8D04

24. What type of transmission is indicated by the term "NTSC?"

• A. A special mode for satellite uplink
• B. A Normal Transmission mode in Static Circuit
• C. A frame compression scheme for TV signals
• D. An analog fast-scan color TV signal

T3C08

25. What causes tropospheric ducting?

• A. Temperature inversions in the atmosphere
• B. Discharges of lightning during electrical storms
• C. Updrafts from hurricanes and tornadoes
• D. Sunspots and solar flares

T4A01

26. Which of the following is an appropriate power supply rating for a typical 50 watt output mobile FM transceiver?

• A. 13.8 volts at 4 amperes
• B. 13.8 volts at 12 amperes
• C. 24.0 volts at 12 amperes
• D. 24.0 volts at 4 amperes

T7D01

27. Which instrument would you use to measure electric potential?

• A. A wavemeter
• B. An ammeter
• C. A voltmeter
• D. An ohmmeter

T5D10

28. What is the voltage across a 2-ohm resistor if a current of 0.5 amperes flows through it?

• A. 1 volt
• B. 1.5 volts
• C. 0.25 volts
• D. 2.5 volts

T1F07

29. Which of the following restrictions apply when a non-licensed person is allowed to speak to a foreign station using a station under the control of a licensed amateur operator?

• A. The foreign station must be in a country with which the U.S. has a third party agreement
• B. All these choices are correct
• C. The person must be a U.S. citizen
• D. The licensed control operator must do the station identification

T6A05

30. What type of electrical component consists of conductive surfaces separated by an insulator?

• A. Resistor
• B. Potentiometer
• C. Capacitor
• D. Oscillator

T1C10

31. How soon after passing the examination for your first amateur radio license may you transmit on the amateur radio bands?

• A. As soon as your operator/station license grant appears on the ARRL website
• B. Immediately on receiving your Certificate of Successful Completion of Examination (CSCE)
• C. As soon as you receive your license in the mail from the FCC
• D. As soon as your operator/station license grant appears in the FCC's license database

T0B07

32. Which of the following is an important safety rule to remember when using a crank-up tower?

• A. This type of tower must not be climbed unless it is retracted, or mechanical safety locking devices have been installed
• B. This type of tower must never be grounded
• C. This type of tower must never be painted
• D. All these choices are correct

T0A02

33. What health hazard is presented by electrical current flowing through the body?

• A. It may cause injury by heating tissue
• B. It may cause involuntary muscle contractions
• C. All these choices are correct
• D. It may disrupt the electrical functions of cells

T2B01

34. How is a VHF/UHF transceiver's "reverse" function used?

• A. To increase power output
• B. To listen on a repeater's input frequency
• C. To listen on a repeater's output frequency
• D. To reduce power output

T7A01

35. Which term describes the ability of a receiver to detect the presence of a signal?

• A. Linearity
• B. Sensitivity
• C. Total Harmonic Distortion
• D. Selectivity