Practice Exam

E2A02

1. Which of the following is characteristic of an inverting linear transponder?

• A. All these choices are correct
• B. Upper sideband on the uplink becomes lower sideband on the downlink, and vice versa
• C. Doppler shift is reduced because the uplink and downlink shifts are in opposite directions
• D. Signal position in the band is reversed

E1D08

2. Which VHF amateur bands have frequencies authorized for space stations?

• A. 2 meters and 1.25 meters
• B. 2 meters
• C. 6 meters and 2 meters
• D. 6 meters, 2 meters, and 1.25 meters

E6F04

3. What is the photovoltaic effect?

• A. The effect that causes a photodiode to emit light when a voltage is applied
• B. The conversion of voltage to current when exposed to light
• C. The effect that causes a phototransistor's beta to decrease when exposed to light
• D. The conversion of light to electrical energy

E9B08

4. What is the far field of an antenna?

• A. The region where radiated field strengths are constant
• B. The region where radiated power dissipates over a specified time period
• C. The region of the ionosphere where radiated power is not refracted
• D. The region where the shape of the radiation pattern no longer varies with distance

E9C01

5. What type of radiation pattern is created by two 1/4-wavelength vertical antennas spaced 1/2- wavelength apart and fed 180 degrees out of phase?

• A. A figure-eight oriented along the axis of the array
• B. Cardioid
• C. Omni-directional
• D. A figure-eight broadside to the axis of the array

E7E08

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

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

E5B04

7. What is the time constant of a circuit having two 220-microfarad capacitors and two 1-megohm resistors, all in parallel?

• A. 110 seconds
• B. 55 seconds
• C. 220 seconds
• D. 440 seconds

E1F09

8. Which of the following cannot be transmitted over an amateur radio mesh network?

• A. All these choices are correct
• B. Email
• C. Messages encoded to obscure their meaning
• D. Third party traffic

E2C09

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

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

E1C09

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

• A. 3.0
• B. 2.0
• C. 0.5
• D. 1.0

E5A11

11. What is the half-power bandwidth of a resonant circuit that has a resonant frequency of 7.1 MHz and a Q of 150?

• A. 23.67 kHz
• B. 47.3 kHz
• C. 157.8 Hz
• D. 315.6 Hz

E1B03

12. Within what distance must an amateur station protect an FCC monitoring facility from harmful interference?

• A. 3 miles
• B. 30 miles
• C. 1 mile
• D. 10 miles

E2B08

13. What technique allows commercial analog TV receivers to be used for fast-scan TV operations on the 70- centimeter band?

• A. Transmitting on the abandoned TV channel 2
• B. Using USB and demodulating the signal with a computer sound card
• C. Transmitting on channels shared with cable TV
• D. Using converted satellite TV dishes

E6B01

14. What is the most useful characteristic of a Zener diode?

• A. An internal capacitance that varies with the applied voltage
• B. A constant voltage drop under conditions of varying current
• C. A constant current drop under conditions of varying voltage
• D. A negative resistance region

E3C08

15. Which of the following is the space-weather term for an extreme geomagnetic storm?

• A. X5
• B. M9
• C. B9
• D. G5

E8A03

16. 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

E8B10

17. What is frequency division multiplexing (FDM)?

• A. Two or more information streams are merged into a digital combiner, which then pulse position modulates the transmitter
• B. Dividing the transmitted signal into separate frequency bands that each carry a different data stream
• C. The transmitted signal is divided into packets of information
• D. The transmitted signal jumps from band to band at a predetermined rate

E7H01

18. What are three common oscillator circuits?

• A. Pierce, Fenner, and Beane
• B. Colpitts, Hartley, and Pierce
• C. Taft, Pierce, and negative feedback
• D. Taft, Hartley, and Pierce

E2D03

19. Which of the following digital modes is designed for EME communications?

• A. PACTOR III
• B. Q65
• C. MSK144
• D. WSPR

E7D02

20. How does a switchmode voltage regulator work?

• A. By switching between two Zener diode reference voltages
• B. By varying the duty cycle of pulses input to a filter
• C. By varying the conductivity of a pass element
• D. By alternating the output between positive and negative voltages

E9F04

21. What impedance does a 1/2-wavelength transmission line present to an RF generator when the line is shorted at the far end?

• A. The same as the characteristic impedance of the line
• B. The same as the output impedance of the RF generator
• C. Very low impedance
• D. Very high impedance

E7B12

22. What type of amplifier circuit is shown in Figure E7-1?

• A. Common emitter
• B. Common base
• C. Common collector
• D. Emitter follower

E2E07

23. How does Q65 differ from JT65?

• A. Multiple receive cycles are averaged
• B. Quadrature modulation is used
• C. All these choices are correct
• D. Keyboard-to keyboard operation is supported

E5C09

24. When using rectangular coordinates to graph the impedance of a circuit, what do the axes represent?

• A. The X axis represents the phase angle, and the Y axis represents the magnitude
• B. The X axis represents the magnitude, and the Y axis represents the phase angle
• C. The X axis represents the resistive component, and the Y axis represents the reactive component
• D. The X axis represents the reactive component, and the Y axis represents the resistive component

E7F11

25. What sets the minimum detectable signal level for a direct-sampling software defined receiver in the absence of atmospheric or thermal noise?

• A. Sample clock phase noise
• B. Reference voltage level and sample width in bits
• C. Missing codes and jitter
• D. Data storage transfer rate

E9G08

26. How is a Smith chart normalized?

• A. Reassign the prime center to the reactance axis
• B. Reassign the prime center's impedance value
• C. Reassign the resistance axis with reactance values
• D. Reassign the reactance axis with resistance values

E6E03

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

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

E3B09

28. At what time of year is sporadic-E propagation most likely to occur?

• A. Around the equinoxes, especially the fall equinox
• B. Around the solstices, especially the summer solstice
• C. Around the equinoxes, especially the spring equinox
• D. Around the solstices, especially the winter solstice

E6D10

29. 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 confine most of the magnetic field within the core material
• C. Toroidal cores make it easier to couple the magnetic energy into other components
• D. Toroidal cores exhibit greater hysteresis

E4C05

30. What does a receiver noise floor of -174 dBm represent?

• A. The receiver noise is 6 dB above the theoretical minimum
• B. The receiver noise is 3 dB above theoretical minimum
• C. The theoretical noise in a 1 Hz bandwidth at the input of a perfect receiver at room temperature
• D. The noise figure of a 1 Hz bandwidth receiver

E5D06

31. What parasitic characteristic creates an inductor's self-resonance?

• A. Dielectric loss
• B. Inter-turn capacitance
• C. Skin effect
• D. Coupling

E1A09

32. Except in some parts of Alaska, what is the maximum power permitted on the 630-meter band?

• A. 50 watts PEP (peak envelope power)
• B. 5 watts EIRP (equivalent isotropic radiated power)
• C. 1 watt EIRP (equivalent isotropic radiated power)
• D. 100 watts PEP (peak envelope power)

E8C15

33. What technique do individual nodes use to form a mesh network?

• A. Discovery and link establishment protocols
• B. Acting as store-and-forward digipeaters
• C. Forward error correction and Viterbi codes
• D. Custom code plugs for the local trunking systems

E9H08

34. What is the function of a sense antenna?

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

E9D08

35. What happens as the Q of an antenna increases?

• A. SWR bandwidth decreases
• B. Gain is reduced
• C. SWR bandwidth increases
• D. More common-mode current is present on the feed line

E7A03

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

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

E9A08

37. Which frequency band has the smallest first Fresnel zone?

• A. 5.8 GHz
• B. 2.4 GHz
• C. 900 MHz
• D. 3.4 GHz

E4D04

38. Which of the following is used to reduce or eliminate intermodulation interference in a repeater caused by a nearby transmitter?

• A. A properly terminated circulator at the output of the repeater's transmitter
• B. A band-pass filter in the feed line between the transmitter and receiver
• C. Utilizing a Class C final amplifier
• D. Utilizing a Class D final amplifier

E7C01

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

E3A01

40. What is the approximate maximum separation measured along the surface of the Earth between two stations communicating by EME?

• A. 12,000 miles, if the moon is "visible" by both stations
• B. 2,000 miles, if the moon is at apogee
• C. 2,000 miles, if the moon is at perigee
• D. 5,000 miles, if the moon is at perigee

E9E09

41. Which of the following is used to shunt feed a grounded tower at its base?

• A. Gamma match
• B. All these choices are correct
• C. Double-bazooka match
• D. Beta or hairpin match

E1E01

42. For which types of out-of-pocket expenses do the Part 97 rules state that VEs and VECs may be reimbursed?

• A. Teaching an amateur operator license examination preparation course
• B. Preparing, processing, administering, and coordinating an examination for an amateur radio operator license
• C. Providing amateur operator license examination preparation training materials
• D. No expenses are authorized for reimbursement

E4A02

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

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

E0A03

44. Over what range of frequencies are the FCC human body RF exposure limits most restrictive?

• A. 300 - 3000 MHz
• B. 30 - 300 MHz
• C. 300 kHz - 3 MHz
• D. 3 - 30 MHz

E7G12

45. What is an operational amplifier?

• A. A RF amplifier used in the UHF and microwave regions
• B. An amplifier used to increase the average output of frequency modulated amateur signals to the legal limit
• C. A digital audio amplifier whose characteristics are determined by components external to the amplifier
• D. A high-gain, direct-coupled differential amplifier with very high input impedance and very low output impedance

E4E01

46. What problem can occur when using an automatic notch filter (ANF) to remove interfering carriers while receiving CW signals?

• A. Any nearby signal passing through the DSP system will overwhelm the desired signal
• B. Excessive ringing
• C. Removal of the CW signal as well as the interfering carrier
• D. All these choices are correct

E4B05

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

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

E6A06

48. What is the beta of a bipolar junction transistor?

• A. The switching speed
• B. The frequency at which the current gain is reduced to 0.707
• C. The change in collector current with respect to the change in base current
• D. The breakdown voltage of the base-to-collector junction

E6C07

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

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

E8D06

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

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