Practice Exam

E4D11

1. Why are odd-order intermodulation products, created within a receiver, of particular interest compared to other products?

• A. Odd-order products overload the IF filters
• B. Odd-order intermodulation produces three products for every input signal within the band of interest
• C. Odd-order products are an indication of poor image rejection
• D. Odd-order products of two signals in the band of interest are also likely to be within the band

E5D06

2. In what direction is the magnetic field oriented about a conductor in relation to the direction of electron flow?

• A. In a circle around the conductor
• B. In the same direction as the current
• C. In a direction opposite to the current
• D. In all directions; omni-directional

E4B05

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

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

E1A01

4. Which of the following carrier frequencies is illegal for LSB AFSK emissions on the 17 meter band RTTY and data segment of 18.068 to 18.110 MHz?

• A. 18.068 MHz
• B. 18.110 MHz
• C. 18.107 MHz
• D. 18.100 MHz

E9C07

5. What is the approximate feed point impedance at the center of a two-wire folded dipole antenna?

• A. 72 ohms
• B. 450 ohms
• C. 300 ohms
• D. 50 ohms

E6D08

6. What is one reason for using powdered-iron cores rather than ferrite cores in an inductor?

• A. Powdered-iron cores generally maintain their characteristics at higher currents
• B. Powdered-iron cores generally require fewer turns to produce a given inductance
• C. Powdered-iron cores use smaller diameter wire for the same inductance
• D. Powdered-iron cores generally have greater initial permeability

E9D01

7. How much does the gain of an ideal parabolic dish antenna change when the operating frequency is doubled?

• A. 6 dB
• B. 4 dB
• C. 3 dB
• D. 2 dB

E9H07

8. Why is RF attenuation used when direction-finding?

• A. To compensate for isotropic directivity and the antenna effect of feed lines
• B. To increase receiver sensitivity
• C. To narrow the receiver bandwidth
• D. To prevent receiver overload which reduces pattern nulls

E6B04

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

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

E9G06

10. On the Smith chart shown in Figure E9-3, what is the name for the large outer circle on which the reactance arcs terminate?

• A. Prime axis
• B. Reactance axis
• C. Polar axis
• D. Impedance axis

E7A08

11. What logical operation does an OR gate perform?

• A. It produces logic 0 at its output if all inputs are logic 1
• B. It produces logic 1 at its output if all inputs are logic 0
• C. It produces logic 1 at its output if any or all inputs are logic 1
• D. It only produces logic 0 at its output when all inputs are logic 1

E6A07

12. 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

E5A07

13. What is the magnitude of the current at the input of a parallel RLC circuit at resonance?

• A. R/L
• B. L/R
• C. Minimum
• D. Maximum

E5B04

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

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

E1F02

15. What privileges are authorized in the U.S. to persons holding an amateur service license granted by the government of Canada?

• A. All privileges of the Amateur Extra Class license
• B. The operating terms and conditions of the Canadian amateur service license, not to exceed U.S. Amateur Extra Class license privileges
• C. Full privileges, up to and including those of the Amateur Extra Class license, on the 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meter bands
• D. None, they must obtain a U.S. license

E4A01

16. Which of the following limits the highest frequency signal that can be accurately displayed on a digital oscilloscope?

• A. Sampling rate of the analog-to-digital converter
• B. All these choices are correct
• C. Q of the circuit
• D. Amount of memory

E6F09

17. What is the efficiency of a photovoltaic cell?

• A. The output RF power divided by the input DC power
• B. The relative fraction of light that is converted to current
• C. The open-circuit voltage divided by the short-circuit current under full illumination
• D. Cost per kilowatt-hour generated

E8D01

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

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

E6C06

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

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

E4E06

20. What is one type of electrical interference that might be caused by a nearby personal computer?

• A. A loud AC hum in the audio output of your station receiver
• B. A whining type noise that continually pulses off and on
• C. The appearance of unstable modulated or unmodulated signals at specific frequencies
• D. A clicking noise at intervals of a few seconds

E3B09

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

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

E1B04

22. What must be done before placing an amateur station within an officially designated wilderness area or wildlife preserve, or an area listed in the National Register of Historic Places?

• A. A proposal must be submitted to the National Park Service
• B. A form FSD-15 must be submitted to the Department of the Interior
• C. An Environmental Assessment must be submitted to the FCC
• D. A letter of intent must be filed with the Environmental Protection Agency

E1E03

23. What is a Volunteer Examiner Coordinator?

• A. The person who has entered into an agreement with the FCC to be the VE session manager
• B. An organization that has entered into an agreement with the FCC to coordinate, prepare, and administer amateur operator license examinations
• C. A person who has volunteered to administer amateur operator license examinations
• D. A person who has volunteered to prepare amateur operator license examinations

E2A12

24. What is the purpose of digital store-and-forward functions on an amateur radio satellite?

• A. To relay messages between satellites
• B. To store digital messages in the satellite for later download by other stations
• C. To delay download of telemetry between satellites
• D. To upload operational software for the transponder

E5C06

25. What does the impedance 50-j25 represent?

• A. 50 ohms resistance in series with 25 ohms inductive reactance
• B. 25 ohms resistance in series with 50 ohms capacitive reactance
• C. 25 ohms resistance in series with 50 ohms inductive reactance
• D. 50 ohms resistance in series with 25 ohms capacitive reactance

E7F08

26. What is the function of decimation?

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

E2B02

27. How many horizontal lines make up a fast-scan (NTSC) television frame?

• A. 30
• B. 1080
• C. 60
• D. 525

E6E09

28. Which of the following component package types would be most suitable for use at frequencies above the HF range?

• A. Surface mount
• B. TO-220
• C. Axial lead
• D. Radial lead

E7C01

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

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

E3A11

30. What is a typical range for tropospheric propagation of microwave signals?

• A. 2500 miles
• B. 100 miles to 300 miles
• C. 1200 miles
• D. 10 miles to 50 miles

E0A08

31. What does SAR measure?

• A. The rate of RF energy reflected from stationary terrain
• B. Synthetic Aperture Ratio of the human body
• C. Signal Amplification Rating
• D. The rate at which RF energy is absorbed by the body

E8A07

32. What determines the PEP-to-average power ratio of a single-sideband phone signal?

• A. The frequency of the modulating signal
• B. Speech characteristics
• C. The degree of carrier suppression
• D. Amplifier gain

E7E06

33. Why is de-emphasis commonly used in FM communications receivers?

• A. For compatibility with transmitters using phase modulation
• B. For higher efficiency
• C. To remove third-order distortion products
• D. To reduce impulse noise reception

E9F09

34. What is the approximate physical length of a foam polyethylene dielectric coaxial transmission line that is electrically 1/4 wavelength long at 7.2 MHz?

• A. 6.9 meters
• B. 8.3 meters
• C. 5.2 meters
• D. 10.4 meters

E1C05

35. When may an automatically controlled station originate third party communications?

• A. Never
• B. When approved by the National Telecommunication and Information Administration
• C. When agreed upon by the sending or receiving station
• D. Only when transmitting RTTY or data emissions

E7G05

36. How can unwanted ringing and audio instability be prevented in an op-amp RC audio filter circuit?

• A. Restrict Q but increase gain
• B. Increase both gain and Q
• C. Restrict both gain and Q
• D. Restrict gain but increase Q

E7H10

37. What information is contained in the lookup table of a direct digital synthesizer (DDS)?

• A. Amplitude values that represent the desired waveform
• B. Frequently used receiver and transmitter frequencies
• C. The phase relationship between a voltage-controlled oscillator and the output waveform
• D. The phase relationship between a reference oscillator and the output waveform

E8C02

38. What is the definition of symbol rate in a digital transmission?

• A. The number of characters carried per second by the station-to-station link
• B. The rate at which the waveform changes to convey information
• C. The duration of each bit in a message sent over the air
• D. The number of control characters in a message packet

E8B09

39. 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 audio modulating frequency to the center carrier frequency
• D. The ratio of the maximum carrier frequency deviation to the highest audio modulating frequency

E4C13

40. How does a narrow-band roofing filter affect receiver performance?

• A. It improves sensitivity by reducing front end noise
• B. All these choices are correct
• C. It improves dynamic range by attenuating strong signals near the receive frequency
• D. It improves intelligibility by using low Q circuitry to reduce ringing

E2C02

41. Which of the following best describes the term "self-spotting" in connection with HF contest operating?

• A. A manual technique for rapidly zero beating or tuning to a station's frequency before calling that station
• B. The acceptable practice of manually posting the call signs of stations on a spotting network
• C. The often-prohibited practice of posting one's own call sign and frequency on a spotting network
• D. An automatic method for rapidly zero beating or tuning to a station's frequency before calling that station

E9A12

42. How much gain does an antenna have compared to a 1/2-wavelength dipole when it has 6 dB gain over an isotropic antenna?

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

E9B04

43. What is the front-to-back ratio of the radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-2?

• A. 28 dB
• B. 15 dB
• C. 3 dB
• D. 38 dB

E2E07

44. Which of the following is a possible reason that attempts to initiate contact with a digital station on a clear frequency are unsuccessful?

• A. All these choices are correct
• B. The protocol version you are using is not supported by the digital station
• C. Another station you are unable to hear is using the frequency
• D. Your transmit frequency is incorrect

E3C14

45. Why does the radio-path horizon distance exceed the geometric horizon?

• A. Due to the Doppler effect
• B. E-region skip
• C. D-region skip
• D. Downward bending due to density variations in the atmosphere

E2D11

46. Which of the following data are used by the APRS network to communicate station location?

• A. Radio direction finding spectrum analysis
• B. Polar coordinates
• C. Latitude and longitude
• D. Time and frequency

E9E03

47. What is the name of the matching system that uses a section of transmission line connected in parallel with the feed line at or near the feed point?

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

E7B18

48. What is a characteristic of a grounded-grid amplifier?

• A. Low bandwidth
• B. High filament voltage
• C. Low input impedance
• D. High power gain

E7D12

49. What is the dropout voltage of an analog voltage regulator?

• A. Minimum input voltage for rated power dissipation
• B. Minimum input-to-output voltage required to maintain regulation
• C. Maximum output voltage drops when the input voltage is varied over its specified range
• D. Maximum that the output voltage may decrease at rated load

E1D03

50. 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 that transmits communications to initiate, modify or terminate functions of a space station
• 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 located in a satellite or a balloon more than 50 kilometers above the surface of the Earth