Practice Exam

E9H08

1. What is the function of a sense antenna?

• A. It increases the sensitivity of a DF antenna array
• B. It provides diversity reception that cancels multipath signals
• C. It allows DF antennas to receive signals at different vertical angles
• D. It modifies the pattern of a DF antenna array to provide a null in one direction

E7F08

2. What is the function of decimation?

• A. Reducing the effective sample rate by removing samples
• B. Removing unnecessary significant digits
• C. Converting data to binary code decimal form
• D. Attenuating the signal

E3C09

3. How does the intensity of an X3 flare compare to that of an X2 flare?

• A. 50 percent greater
• B. Four times as great
• C. Twice as great
• D. 10 percent greater

E1F06

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

• A. To provide for experimental amateur communications
• B. To provide additional spectrum for personal use
• C. To provide temporary operation while awaiting normal licensing
• D. To allow regular operation on Land Mobile channels

E6D04

5. Which materials are commonly used as a core in an inductor?

• A. Ferrite and brass
• B. Polystyrene and polyethylene
• C. Teflon and Delrin
• D. Cobalt and aluminum

E5C08

6. 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. Maidenhead grid
• C. Faraday grid
• D. Elliptical coordinates

E7C01

7. How are the capacitors and inductors of a low-pass filter Pi-network arranged between the network's input and output?

• A. An inductor is connected between the input and ground, another inductor is connected between the output and ground, and a capacitor is connected between the input and output
• B. A capacitor is connected between the input and ground, another capacitor is connected between the output and ground, and an inductor is connected between input and output
• C. Two inductors are in series between the input and output, and a capacitor is connected between the two inductors and ground
• D. Two capacitors are in series between the input and output, and an inductor is connected between the two capacitors and ground

E6C06

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

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

E0A10

9. What toxic material may be present in some electronic components such as high voltage capacitors and transformers?

• A. Polychlorinated biphenyls
• B. Polymorphic silicon
• C. Polytetrafluoroethylene
• D. Polyethylene

E7G03

10. What is the typical input impedance of an op-amp?

• A. 1000 ohms
• B. 100 ohms
• C. Very high
• D. Very low

E7E08

11. What are the principal frequencies that appear at the output of a mixer circuit?

• A. 1.414 and 0.707 times the input frequency
• B. The two input frequencies along with their sum and difference frequencies
• C. Two and four times the original frequency
• D. The square root of the product of input frequencies

E1C01

12. What is the maximum bandwidth for a data emission on 60 meters?

• A. 170 Hz
• B. 2.8 kHz
• C. 60 Hz
• D. 1.5 kHz

E7D09

13. What is the main reason to use a charge controller with a solar power system?

• A. Prevention of battery damage due to overcharge
• B. Control of electrolyte levels during battery discharge
• C. Prevention of battery undercharge
• D. Matching of day and night charge rates

E4E10

14. What might be the cause of a loud roaring or buzzing AC line interference that comes and goes at intervals?

• A. All these choices are correct
• B. Arcing contacts in a thermostatically controlled device
• C. A defective doorbell or doorbell transformer inside a nearby residence
• D. A malfunctioning illuminated advertising display

E9E02

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

E6B10

16. In Figure E6-2, what is the schematic symbol for a light-emitting diode?

• A. 5
• B. 6
• C. 7
• D. 1

E8D04

17. What is the primary effect of extremely short rise or fall time on a CW signal?

• A. More difficult to copy
• B. The generation of key clicks
• C. The generation of RF harmonics
• D. Limits data speed

E9A06

18. What is the effective radiated power relative to a dipole of a repeater station with 200 watts transmitter power output, 4 dB feed line loss, 3.2 dB duplexer loss, 0.8 dB circulator loss, and 10 dBd antenna gain?

• A. 2000 watts
• B. 317 watts
• C. 300 watts
• D. 126 watts

E2A05

19. What do the letters in a satellite's mode designator specify?

• A. Power limits for uplink and downlink transmissions
• B. The location of the ground control station
• C. The polarization of uplink and downlink signals
• D. The uplink and downlink frequency ranges

E9B10

20. 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

E6A07

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

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

E5B07

22. What is the phase angle between the voltage across and the current through a series RLC circuit if XC is 500 ohms, R is 1 kilohm, and XL is 250 ohms?

• A. 14.0 degrees with the voltage leading the current
• B. 68.2 degrees with the voltage leading the current
• C. 68.2 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
• D. 14.0 degrees with the voltage lagging the current

E2D05

23. What is one advantage of the JT65 mode?

• A. The ability to decode signals which have a very low signal-to-noise ratio
• B. Uses only a 65 Hz bandwidth
• C. Permits fast-scan TV transmissions over narrow bandwidth
• D. Easily copied by ear if necessary

E5A02

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

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

E7B13

25. Which of the following describes an emitter follower (or common collector) amplifier?

• A. An amplifier with a low impedance output that follows the base input voltage
• B. A two-transistor amplifier with the emitters sharing a common bias resistor
• C. An OR circuit with only one emitter used for output
• D. A differential amplifier with both inputs fed to the emitter of the input transistor

E4C12

26. Which of the following has the largest effect on an SDR receiver's dynamic range?

• A. RAM speed used for data storage
• B. CPU register width in bits
• C. Anti-aliasing input filter bandwidth
• D. Analog-to-digital converter sample width in bits

E8B05

27. What is the deviation ratio of an FM-phone signal having a maximum frequency swing of plus-or-minus 5 kHz when the maximum modulation frequency is 3 kHz?

• A. 0.167
• B. 60
• C. 1.67
• D. 0.6

E6E11

28. What is a characteristic of DIP packaging used for integrated circuits?

• A. Package mounts in a direct inverted position
• B. Low leakage doubly insulated package
• C. Two chips in each package (Dual In Package)
• D. A total of two rows of connecting pins placed on opposite sides of the package (Dual In-line Package)

E8C12

29. What factors affect the bandwidth of a transmitted CW signal?

• A. Keying speed and shape factor (rise and fall time)
• B. IF bandwidth and Q
• C. Modulation index and output power
• D. All these choices are correct

E3B12

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

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

E6F01

31. What absorbs the energy from light falling on a photovoltaic cell?

• A. Protons
• B. Holes
• C. Electrons
• D. Photons

E3A07

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

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

E4B07

33. What do the subscripts of S parameters represent?

• A. Frequency order of the measurements
• B. The port or ports at which measurements are made
• C. The relative time between measurements
• D. Relative quality of the data

E4A03

34. Which of the following test instruments is used to display spurious signals and/or intermodulation distortion products generated by an SSB transmitter?

• A. A spectrum analyzer
• B. A logic analyzer
• C. A time-domain reflectometer
• D. A wattmeter

E1A03

35. What is the maximum legal carrier frequency on the 20 meter band for transmitting USB AFSK digital signals having a 1 kHz bandwidth?

• A. 14.100 MHz
• B. 14.149 MHz
• C. 14.349 MHz
• D. 14.070 MHz

E9G03

36. Which of the following is often determined using a Smith chart?

• A. Impedance and SWR values in transmission lines
• B. Satellite azimuth and elevation bearings
• C. Beam headings and radiation patterns
• D. Trigonometric functions

E5D09

37. What happens to reactive power in an AC circuit that has both ideal inductors and ideal capacitors?

• A. It is dissipated as kinetic energy in the circuit
• B. It is dissipated as heat in the circuit
• C. It is repeatedly exchanged between the associated magnetic and electric fields, but is not dissipated
• D. It is dissipated in the formation of inductive and capacitive fields

E7H11

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

• A. Nyquist limit noise
• B. Spurious signals at discrete frequencies
• C. Broadband noise
• D. Digital conversion noise

E2B07

39. What is the name of the signal component that carries color information in NTSC video?

• A. Chroma
• B. Spectral intensity
• C. Luminance
• D. Hue

E9F02

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

• A. Dielectric materials used in the line
• B. The center conductor resistivity
• C. The termination impedance
• D. The line length

E4D05

41. What transmitter frequencies would cause an intermodulation-product signal in a receiver tuned to 146.70 MHz when a nearby station transmits on 146.52 MHz?

• A. 146.10 MHz and 147.30 MHz
• B. 146.88 MHz and 146.34 MHz
• C. 146.34 MHz and 146.61 MHz
• D. 173.35 MHz and 139.40 MHz

E1E11

42. What must the VE team do if an examinee scores a passing grade on all examination elements needed for an upgrade or new license?

• A. Photocopy all examination documents and forward them to the FCC for processing
• B. Issue the examinee the new or upgrade license
• C. All these choices are correct
• D. Three VEs must certify that the examinee is qualified for the license grant and that they have complied with the administering VE requirements

E2E06

43. What is the most common data rate used for HF packet?

• A. 110 baud
• B. 48 baud
• C. 300 baud
• D. 1200 baud

E1B05

44. What is the National Radio Quiet Zone?

• A. An area in Florida surrounding Cape Canaveral
• B. An area in Puerto Rico surrounding the Arecibo Radio Telescope
• C. An area in New Mexico surrounding the White Sands Test Area
• D. An area surrounding the National Radio Astronomy Observatory

E8A04

45. What is "dither" with respect to analog-to-digital converters?

• A. A small amount of noise added to the input signal to allow more precise representation of a signal over time
• B. An error caused by irregular quantization step size
• C. A method of decimation by randomly skipping samples
• D. An abnormal condition where the converter cannot settle on a value to represent the signal

E9C02

46. What is the radiation pattern of two 1/4-wavelength vertical antennas spaced 1/4-wavelength apart and fed 90 degrees out of phase?

• A. Omni-directional
• B. A figure-8 broadside to the axis of the array
• C. Cardioid
• D. A figure-8 end-fire along the axis of the array

E2C06

47. During a VHF/UHF contest, in which band segment would you expect to find the highest level of SSB or CW activity?

• A. In the weak signal segment of the band, with most of the activity near the calling frequency
• B. In the middle of each band, usually on the national calling frequency
• C. In the middle of the band, usually 25 kHz above the national calling frequency
• D. At the top of each band, usually in a segment reserved for contests

E9D06

48. What happens to the SWR bandwidth when one or more loading coils are used to resonate an electrically short antenna?

• A. It is decreased
• B. It is unchanged if the loading coil is located at a voltage maximum point
• C. It is unchanged if the loading coil is located at the feed point
• D. It is increased

E1D02

49. Which of the following may transmit special codes intended to obscure the meaning of messages?

• A. Auxiliary relay links carrying repeater audio
• B. Data containing personal information
• C. Binary control characters
• D. Telecommand signals from a space telecommand station

E7A01

50. Which circuit is bistable?

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