Practice Exam

E3C01

1. What does the radio communication term "ray tracing" describe?

• A. Determining the radiation pattern from an array of antennas
• B. The process in which an electronic display presents a pattern
• C. Evaluating high voltage sources for x-rays
• D. Modeling a radio wave's path through the ionosphere

E7E10

2. How does a diode envelope detector function?

• A. By breakdown of the Zener voltage
• B. By rectification and filtering of RF signals
• C. By mixing signals with noise in the transition region of the diode
• D. By sensing the change of reactance in the diode with respect to frequency

E2E09

3. Which of the following HF digital modes uses variable-length coding for bandwidth efficiency?

• A. MT63
• B. RTTY
• C. PSK31
• D. PACTOR

E1E06

4. Who is responsible for the proper conduct and necessary supervision during an amateur operator license examination session?

• A. The VE session manager
• B. Each administering VE
• C. The FCC
• D. The VEC coordinating the session

E4B04

5. Which S parameter represents input port return loss or reflection coefficient (equivalent to VSWR)?

• A. S21
• B. S12
• C. S22
• D. S11

E3B05

6. Which amateur bands typically support long-path propagation?

• A. 6 meters to 2 meters
• B. 160 meters to 10 meters
• C. Only 30 meters to 10 meters
• D. Only 160 meters to 40 meters

E6F04

7. What is the photovoltaic effect?

• A. The conversion of electrical energy to mechanical energy
• B. The conversion of light to electrical energy
• C. The conversion of voltage to current when exposed to light
• D. The tendency of a battery to discharge when exposed to light

E2C10

8. Why might a DX station state that they are listening on another frequency?

• A. To separate the calling stations from the DX station
• B. All these choices are correct
• C. Because the DX station may be transmitting on a frequency that is prohibited to some responding stations
• D. To improve operating efficiency by reducing interference

E8A08

9. Why would a direct or flash conversion analog-to-digital converter be useful for a software defined radio?

• A. Very low power consumption decreases frequency drift
• B. Immunity to out-of-sequence coding reduces spurious responses
• C. All these choices are correct
• D. Very high speed allows digitizing high frequencies

E9B09

10. What type of computer program technique is commonly used for modeling antennas?

• A. Mutual impedance analysis
• B. Calculus differentiation with respect to physical properties
• C. Graphical analysis
• D. Method of Moments

E9G01

11. Which of the following can be calculated using a Smith chart?

• A. Antenna radiation pattern
• B. Radio propagation
• C. Impedance along transmission lines
• D. Radiation resistance

E8C03

12. Why should phase-shifting of a PSK signal be done at the zero crossing of the RF signal?

• A. To improve carrier suppression
• B. To simplify modulation
• C. All these choices are correct
• D. To minimize bandwidth

E9E06

13. Which of these feed line impedances would be suitable for constructing a quarter-wave Q-section for matching a 100-ohm loop to 50-ohm feed line?

• A. 62 ohms
• B. 50 ohms
• C. 75 ohms
• D. 450 ohms

E7C02

14. Which of the following is a property of a T-network with series capacitors and a parallel shunt inductor?

• A. It is a notch filter
• B. It is a low-pass filter
• C. It is a band-pass filter
• D. It is a high-pass filter

E8D04

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

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

E7F10

16. What aspect of receiver analog-to-digital conversion determines the maximum receive bandwidth of a Direct Digital Conversion SDR?

• A. Sample rate
• B. Processor latency
• C. Sample clock phase noise
• D. Sample width in bits

E6D05

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

• A. Ferrite toroids generally require fewer turns to produce a given inductance value
• B. Ferrite toroids are easier to use with surface mount technology
• C. Ferrite toroids generally have better temperature stability
• D. Ferrite toroids generally have lower initial permeability

E1D10

18. Which amateur stations are eligible to be telecommand stations of space stations (subject to the privileges of the class of operator license held by the control operator of the station)?

• A. Any amateur station designated by NASA
• B. All these choices are correct
• C. Any amateur station so designated by the space station licensee
• D. Any amateur station so designated by the ITU

E1C09

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

• A. 3.0
• B. 0.5
• C. 2.0
• D. 1.0

E7B03

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

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

E4D04

21. Which of the following may reduce or eliminate intermodulation interference in a repeater caused by another transmitter operating in close proximity?

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

E5C01

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

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

E6B01

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

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

E1F07

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

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

E9A06

25. 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. 317 watts
• B. 300 watts
• C. 2000 watts
• D. 126 watts

E7A06

26. What is a characteristic of a monostable multivibrator?

• A. It maintains a constant output voltage, regardless of variations in the input voltage
• B. It stores one bit of data in either a 0 or 1 state
• C. It produces a continuous square wave oscillating between 1 and 0
• D. It switches momentarily to the opposite binary state and then returns to its original state after a set time

E3A12

27. What is the cause of auroral activity?

• A. Meteor showers concentrated in the extreme northern and southern latitudes
• B. The interaction in the F2 layer between the solar wind and the Van Allen belt
• C. An extreme low-pressure area in the polar regions
• D. The interaction in the E layer of charged particles from the Sun with the Earth's magnetic field

E4A09

28. Which of the following is good practice when using an oscilloscope probe?

• A. All these choices are correct
• B. Never use a DC-coupled probe to measure an AC circuit
• C. Never use a high-impedance probe to measure a low-impedance circuit
• D. Keep the signal ground connection of the probe as short as possible

E6A03

29. Why does a PN-junction diode not conduct current when reverse biased?

• A. Holes in P-type material and electrons in the N-type material are separated by the applied voltage, widening the depletion region
• B. Only P-type semiconductor material can conduct current
• C. Only N-type semiconductor material can conduct current
• D. Excess holes in P-type material combine with the electrons in N-type material, converting the entire diode into an insulator

E7G02

30. What is ringing in a filter?

• A. Partial cancellation of the signal over a range of frequencies
• B. A reduction in high frequency response
• C. Undesired oscillations added to the desired signal
• D. An echo caused by a long time delay

E8B03

31. What is the modulation index of an FM-phone signal having a maximum frequency deviation of 3000 Hz either side of the carrier frequency when the modulating frequency is 1000 Hz?

• A. 0.3
• B. 3000
• C. 3
• D. 1000

E4C09

32. Which of the following choices is a good reason for selecting a high frequency for the design of the IF in a superheterodyne HF or VHF communications receiver?

• A. Improved receiver noise figure
• B. Fewer components in the receiver
• C. Easier for front-end circuitry to eliminate image responses
• D. Reduced drift

E9D06

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

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

E9H10

34. How can the output voltage of a multiple-turn receiving loop antenna be increased?

• A. By utilizing high impedance wire for the coupling loop
• B. By increasing the number of turns and/or the area
• C. By reducing the permeability of the loop shield
• D. By winding adjacent turns in opposing directions

E1B07

35. To what type of regulations does PRB-1 apply?

• A. State and local zoning
• B. FAA tower height limits
• C. Use of wireless devices in vehicles
• D. Homeowners associations

E7H13

36. Which of the following is a technique for providing highly accurate and stable oscillators needed for microwave transmission and reception?

• A. Use a GPS signal reference
• B. Use a temperature-controlled high Q dielectric resonator
• C. Use a rubidium stabilized reference oscillator
• D. All these choices are correct

E7D10

37. What is the primary reason that a high-frequency switching type high-voltage power supply can be both less expensive and lighter in weight than a conventional power supply?

• A. It uses a diode bridge rectifier for increased output
• B. It uses a large power factor compensation capacitor to recover power from the unused portion of the AC cycle
• C. The high frequency inverter design uses much smaller transformers and filter components for an equivalent power output
• D. The inverter design does not require any output filtering

E5B10

38. What is the relationship between the AC current through an inductor and the voltage across an inductor?

• A. Voltage and current are 180 degrees out of phase
• B. Current leads voltage by 90 degrees
• C. Voltage leads current by 90 degrees
• D. Voltage and current are in phase

E9C05

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

E2B07

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

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

E4E06

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

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

E0A04

42. When evaluating a site with multiple transmitters operating at the same time, the operators and licensees of which transmitters are responsible for mitigating over-exposure situations?

• A. Each transmitter that produces 5 percent or more of its MPE limit in areas where the total MPE limit is exceeded.
• B. Only the most powerful transmitter
• C. Each transmitter operating with a duty cycle greater than 50 percent
• D. Only commercial transmitters

E9F06

43. What is the approximate physical length of an air-insulated, parallel conductor transmission line that is electrically 1/2 wavelength long at 14.10 MHz?

• A. 10.6 meters
• B. 7.0 meters
• C. 13.3 meters
• D. 8.5 meters

E6C05

44. What is an advantage of CMOS logic devices over TTL devices?

• A. Lower power consumption
• B. Lower distortion
• C. Immune to damage from static discharge
• D. Differential output capability

E5D02

45. Why is it important to keep lead lengths short for components used in circuits for VHF and above?

• A. All these choices are correct
• B. To maintain component lifetime
• C. To increase the thermal time constant
• D. To avoid unwanted inductive reactance

E6E06

46. What characteristics of the MMIC make it a popular choice for VHF through microwave circuits?

• A. The ability to retrieve information from a single signal even in the presence of other strong signals
• B. Plate current that is controlled by a control grid
• C. Nearly infinite gain, very high input impedance, and very low output impedance
• D. Controlled gain, low noise figure, and constant input and output impedance over the specified frequency range

E2D08

47. What type of packet frame is used to transmit APRS beacon data?

• A. Acknowledgement
• B. Disconnect
• C. Connect
• D. Unnumbered Information

E2A09

48. What do the terms "L band" and "S band" specify regarding satellite communications?

• A. The 2 meter and 70 centimeter bands
• B. FM and Digital Store-and-Forward systems
• C. Which sideband to use
• D. The 23 centimeter and 13 centimeter bands

E5A10

49. How is the Q of an RLC series resonant circuit calculated?

• A. Reactance of the inductance multiplied by the reactance of the capacitance
• B. Reactance of either the inductance or capacitance multiplied by the resistance
• C. Resistance divided by the reactance of either the inductance or capacitance
• D. Reactance of either the inductance or capacitance divided by the resistance

E1A07

50. What is the maximum power permitted on the 2200 meter band?

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