Practice Exam

E2C08

1. Which of the following contacts may be confirmed through the U.S. QSL bureau system?

• A. Contacts using tactical call signs
• B. Special event contacts between stations in the U.S.
• C. Contacts between a U.S. station and a non-U.S. station
• D. Repeater contacts between U.S. club members

E4E11

2. What could cause local AM broadcast band signals to combine to generate spurious signals in the MF or HF bands?

• A. Nearby corroded metal joints are mixing and re-radiating the broadcast signals
• B. Your station receiver IF amplifier stage is defective
• C. One or more of the broadcast stations is transmitting an over-modulated signal
• D. You are receiving skywave signals from a distant station

E5D13

3. How many watts are consumed in a circuit consisting of a 100-ohm resistor in series with a 100-ohm inductive reactance drawing 1 ampere?

• A. 200 watts
• B. 70.7 watts
• C. 141.4 watts
• D. 100 watts

E6F06

4. Which of these materials is most commonly used to create photoconductive devices?

• A. A liquid semiconductor
• B. A crystalline semiconductor
• C. A heavy metal
• D. An ordinary metal

E9E02

5. What is the name of an antenna matching system that matches an unbalanced feed line to an antenna by feeding the driven element both at the center of the element and at a fraction of a wavelength to one side of center?

• A. The gamma match
• B. The stub match
• C. The delta match
• D. The epsilon match

E1C09

6. What is the highest modulation index permitted at the highest modulation frequency for angle modulation below 29.0 MHz?

• A. 1.0
• B. 0.5
• C. 2.0
• D. 3.0

E9B07

7. How does the total amount of radiation emitted by a directional gain antenna compare with the total amount of radiation emitted from a theoretical isotropic antenna, assuming each is driven by the same amount of power?

• A. The total amount of radiation from the directional antenna is increased by the gain of the antenna
• B. The radiation from the isotropic antenna is 2.15 dB stronger than that from the directional antenna
• C. They are the same
• D. The total amount of radiation from the directional antenna is stronger by its front-to-back ratio

E4B09

8. What is indicated if the current reading on an RF ammeter placed in series with the antenna feed line of a transmitter increases as the transmitter is tuned to resonance?

• A. There is more power going into the antenna
• B. The transmitter is not properly neutralized
• C. There is possibly a short to ground in the feed line
• D. There is an impedance mismatch between the antenna and feed line

E8C09

9. Which digital code allows only one bit to change between sequential code values?

• A. Gray code
• B. Excess 3 code
• C. Binary Coded Decimal Code
• D. Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code

E7A01

10. Which circuit is bistable?

• A. A bipolar amplifier
• B. An AND gate
• C. A flip-flop
• D. An OR gate

E7E03

11. What is a frequency discriminator stage in a FM receiver?

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

E5B05

12. What happens to the magnitude of a pure reactance when it is converted to a susceptance?

• A. It is shifted by 90 degrees
• B. It is unchanged
• C. The sign is reversed
• D. It becomes the reciprocal

E7H09

13. What type of frequency synthesizer circuit uses a phase accumulator, lookup table, digital to analog converter, and a low-pass anti-alias filter?

• A. A hybrid synthesizer
• B. A phase-locked loop synthesizer
• C. A direct digital synthesizer
• D. A diode-switching matrix synthesizer

E1D11

14. 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 station whose licensee has filed a pre-space notification with the FCC's International Bureau
• D. Any amateur station, subject to the privileges of the class of operator license held by the control operator

E3A07

15. Atmospheric ducts capable of propagating microwave signals often form over what geographic feature?

• A. Forests
• B. Urban areas
• C. Bodies of water
• D. Mountain ranges

E1F07

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

• A. When the total money involved does not exceed $25
• B. When transmitting international third-party communications
• C. When neither the amateur nor his or her employer has a pecuniary interest in the communications
• D. When the control operator is employed by the FCC or another government agency

E4C06

17. A CW receiver with the AGC off has an equivalent input noise power density of -174 dBm/Hz. What would be the level of an unmodulated carrier input to this receiver that would yield an audio output SNR of 0 dB in a 400 Hz noise bandwidth?

• A. -174 dBm
• B. -155 dBm
• C. -164 dBm
• D. -148 dBm

E6D11

18. Which type of core material decreases inductance when inserted into a coil?

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

E9G02

19. What type of coordinate system is used in a Smith chart?

• A. Resistance circles and reactance arcs
• B. Voltage lines and current chords
• C. Voltage circles and current arcs
• D. Resistance lines and reactance chords

E8A05

20. What of the following instruments would be the most accurate for measuring the RMS voltage of a complex waveform?

• A. A D'Arsonval meter
• B. An absorption wave meter
• C. A grid dip meter
• D. A true-RMS calculating meter

E7C10

21. Which of the following filters would be the best choice for use in a 2 meter band repeater duplexer?

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

E3C13

22. What type of polarization is best for ground-wave propagation?

• A. Circular
• B. Vertical
• C. Elliptical
• D. Horizontal

E7B03

23. Which of the following components form the output of a class D amplifier circuit?

• A. A temperature compensating load resistor to improve linearity
• B. A matched load resistor to prevent damage by switching transients
• C. A low-pass filter to remove switching signal components
• D. A high-pass filter to compensate for low gain at low frequencies

E2D09

24. What type of modulation is used for JT65 contacts?

• A. IEEE 802.11
• B. Multi-tone AFSK
• C. RTTY
• D. PSK

E5A02

25. What is resonance in an LC or RLC circuit?

• A. The lowest frequency that will pass current
• B. The frequency at which the reactive impedance equals the resistive impedance
• C. The frequency at which the capacitive reactance equals the inductive reactance
• D. The highest frequency that will pass current

E1B06

26. Which of the following additional rules apply if you are installing an amateur station antenna at a site at or near a public use airport?

• A. You must obtain a construction permit from the airport zoning authority
• B. You must submit engineering drawings to the FAA
• C. You must file an Environmental Impact Statement with the EPA before construction begins
• D. You may have to notify the Federal Aviation Administration and register it with the FCC as required by Part 17 of the FCC rules

E9C05

27. Which of the following is a type of OCFD antenna?

• A. A multiband dipole antenna using one-way circular polarization for frequency diversity
• B. A remotely tunable dipole antenna using orthogonally controlled frequency diversity
• C. A dipole fed approximately 1/3 the way from one end with a 4:1 balun to provide multiband operation
• D. A folded dipole center-fed with 300-ohm transmission line

E9H11

28. What feature of a cardioid pattern antenna makes it useful for direction finding?

• A. A very sharp peak
• B. A very sharp single null
• C. High radiation angle
• D. Broadband response

E9F08

29. Which of the following is a significant difference between foam dielectric coaxial cable and solid dielectric cable, assuming all other parameters are the same?

• A. Foam dielectric has lower safe operating voltage limits
• B. All these choices are correct
• C. Foam dielectric has higher velocity factor
• D. Foam dielectric has lower loss per unit of length

E6E01

30. Why is gallium arsenide (GaAs) useful for semiconductor devices operating at UHF and higher frequencies?

• A. Higher noise figures
• B. Higher electron mobility
• C. Lower junction voltage drop
• D. Lower transconductance

E9D09

31. What is the function of a loading coil used as part of an HF mobile antenna?

• A. To increase the SWR bandwidth
• B. To lower the losses
• C. To cancel capacitive reactance
• D. To lower the Q

E6B06

32. Which of the following is a common use of a Schottky diode?

• A. As a variable capacitance in an automatic frequency control circuit
• B. As a constant voltage reference in a power supply
• C. As a VHF/UHF mixer or detector
• D. As a rectifier in high current power supplies

E1E04

33. Which of the following best describes the Volunteer Examiner accreditation process?

• A. The prospective VE obtains accreditation from the FCC
• B. The procedure by which a VEC confirms that the VE applicant meets FCC requirements to serve as an examiner
• C. The amateur operator applying must pass a VE examination administered by the FCC Enforcement Bureau
• D. Each General, Advanced and Amateur Extra Class operator is automatically accredited as a VE when the license is granted

E3B12

34. What is the primary characteristic of chordal hop propagation?

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

E0A06

35. Why are there separate electric (E) and magnetic (H) field MPE limits?

• A. The body reacts to electromagnetic radiation from both the E and H fields
• B. E field and H field radiation intensity peaks can occur at different locations
• C. Ground reflections and scattering make the field strength vary with location
• D. All these choices are correct

E6C09

36. What is a Programmable Logic Device (PLD)?

• A. Programmable equipment used for testing digital logic integrated circuits
• B. A type of transistor whose gain can be changed by digital logic circuits
• C. A logic circuit that can be modified during use
• D. A programmable collection of logic gates and circuits in a single integrated circuit

E7G06

37. What is the gain-bandwidth of an operational amplifier?

• A. The maximum frequency for a filter circuit using that type of amplifier
• B. The frequency at which the amplifier's offset voltage is zero
• C. The gain of the amplifier at a filter's cutoff frequency
• D. The frequency at which the open-loop gain of the amplifier equals one

E8D01

38. Why are received spread spectrum signals resistant to interference?

• A. The receiver is always equipped with a digital blanker
• B. The high power used by a spread spectrum transmitter keeps its signal from being easily overpowered
• C. Signals not using the spread spectrum algorithm are suppressed in the receiver
• D. If interference is detected by the receiver it will signal the transmitter to change frequencies

E4D08

39. What causes intermodulation in an electronic circuit?

• A. Too little gain
• B. Lack of neutralization
• C. Positive feedback
• D. Nonlinear circuits or devices

E7D02

40. What is a characteristic of a switching electronic voltage regulator?

• A. It gives a ramp voltage at its output
• B. It is generally less efficient than a linear regulator
• C. The controlled device's duty cycle is changed to produce a constant average output voltage
• D. The resistance of a control element is varied in direct proportion to the line voltage or load current

E1A10

41. 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 operator must agree not to transmit when the main radio of the ship or aircraft is in use
• B. The amateur operator must have an FCC Marine or Aircraft endorsement on his or her amateur license
• C. The amateur station must have a power supply that is completely independent of the main ship or aircraft power supply
• D. Its operation must be approved by the master of the ship or the pilot in command of the aircraft

E8B09

42. What is deviation ratio?

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

E2A10

43. What type of satellite appears to stay in one position in the sky?

• A. HEO
• B. Geostationary
• C. LEO
• D. Geomagnetic

E2E12

44. How do ALE stations establish contact?

• A. ALE radios activate when they hear their signal echoed by back scatter
• B. ALE radios monitor an internet site for the frequency they are being paged on
• C. ALE constantly scans a list of frequencies, activating the radio when the designated call sign is received
• D. ALE radios send a constant tone code to establish a frequency for future use

E6A07

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

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

E5C01

46. Which of the following represents capacitive reactance in rectangular notation?

• A. +jX
• B. -jX
• C. Delta
• D. Omega

E7F03

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

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

E2B12

48. What signals SSTV receiving software to begin a new picture line?

• A. Specific tone frequencies
• B. Elapsed time
• C. A two-tone signal
• D. Specific tone amplitudes

E9A05

49. What is included in the total resistance of an antenna system?

• A. Radiation resistance plus space impedance
• B. Radiation resistance plus transmission resistance
• C. Transmission-line resistance plus radiation resistance
• D. Radiation resistance plus loss resistance

E4A02

50. Which of the following parameters does a spectrum analyzer display on the vertical and horizontal axes?

• A. RF amplitude and time
• B. RF amplitude and frequency
• C. SWR and frequency
• D. SWR and time