Practice Exam

E1B11

1. What does PRB-1 require of state and local regulations affecting amateur radio antenna size and structures?

• A. Such structures must be permitted when use for emergency communications can be demonstrated
• B. Reasonable accommodations of amateur radio must be made
• C. Such structures must be permitted if certified by a registered professional engineer
• D. No limitations may be placed on antenna size or placement

E6D10

2. What is a primary advantage of using a toroidal core instead of a solenoidal core in an inductor?

• A. Toroidal cores confine most of the magnetic field within the core material
• B. Toroidal cores have lower Q characteristics
• C. Toroidal cores make it easier to couple the magnetic energy into other components
• D. Toroidal cores exhibit greater hysteresis

E5B04

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

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

E2D07

4. What digital protocol is used by APRS?

• A. PACTOR
• B. AMTOR
• C. QAM
• D. AX.25

E9A03

5. What term describing total radiated power takes into account all gains and losses?

• A. Half-power bandwidth
• B. Effective radiated power
• C. Apparent power
• D. Power factor

E3C12

6. Which of the following is indicated by a sudden rise in radio background noise across a large portion of the HF spectrum?

• A. A temperature inversion has occurred
• B. A coronal mass ejection impact or a solar flare has occurred
• C. Long-path propagation on the higher HF bands is likely
• D. Transequatorial propagation on 6 meters is likely

E3B09

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

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

E9D10

8. How does radiation resistance of a base-fed whip antenna change below its resonant frequency?

• A. Radiation resistance becomes imaginary
• B. Radiation resistance does not depend on frequency
• C. Radiation resistance decreases
• D. Radiation resistance increases

E9G11

9. In what units are the wavelength scales on a Smith chart calibrated?

• A. In fractions of antenna electrical frequency
• B. In fractions of transmission line electrical frequency
• C. In fractions of transmission line electrical wavelength
• D. In fractions of antenna electrical wavelength

E6F06

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

• A. Argon
• B. Crystalline semiconductor
• C. Polyphenol acetate
• D. All these choices are correct

E4B10

11. Which of the following methods measures intermodulation distortion in an SSB transmitter?

• A. Modulate the transmitter using two AF signals having non-harmonically related frequencies and observe the RF output with a spectrum analyzer
• B. Modulate the transmitter using two RF signals having non-harmonically related frequencies and observe the RF output with a spectrum analyzer
• C. Modulate the transmitter using two AF signals having harmonically related frequencies and observe the RF output with a peak reading wattmeter
• D. Modulate the transmitter using two RF signals having harmonically related frequencies and observe the RF output with a logic analyzer

E1F04

12. Which of the following geographic descriptions approximately describes "Line A"?

• A. A line roughly parallel to and west of the US Atlantic coastline
• B. A line roughly parallel to and east of the US Pacific coastline
• C. A line roughly parallel to and north of the border between the US and Mexico
• D. A line roughly parallel to and south of the border between the US and Canada

E5D03

13. What is the phase relationship between current and voltage for reactive power?

• A. They are 90 degrees out of phase
• B. They are 45 degrees out of phase
• C. They are out of phase
• D. They are in phase

E6B01

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

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

E1C10

15. What is the maximum mean power level for a spurious emission below 30 MHz with respect to the fundamental emission?

• A. - 73 dB
• B. - 53 dB
• C. - 63 dB
• D. - 43 dB

E3A04

16. In what direction does an electromagnetic wave travel?

• A. It depends on the phase angle of the electric field
• B. It travels parallel to the electric and magnetic fields
• C. It travels at a right angle to the electric and magnetic fields
• D. It depends on the phase angle of the magnetic field

E9H01

17. When constructing a Beverage antenna, which of the following factors should be included in the design to achieve good performance at the desired frequency?

• A. Its overall length must not exceed 1/4 wavelength
• B. It must be mounted more than 1 wavelength above ground
• C. It should be configured as a four-sided loop
• D. It should be at least one wavelength long

E1D09

18. Which UHF amateur bands have frequencies authorized for space stations?

• A. 70 centimeters only
• B. 33 centimeters and 13 centimeters
• C. 70 centimeters and 33 centimeters
• D. 70 centimeters and 13 centimeters

E7A10

19. What is a truth table?

• A. A diagram showing logic states when the digital gate output is true
• B. A list of inputs and corresponding outputs for an op-amp
• C. A table of logic symbols that indicate the logic states of an op-amp
• D. A list of inputs and corresponding outputs for a digital device

E7C10

20. Which of the following filters is used in a 2-meter band repeater duplexer?

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

E6E06

21. What characteristics of MMICs make them 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. Controlled gain, low noise figure, and constant input and output impedance over the specified frequency range
• C. Nearly infinite gain, very high input impedance, and very low output impedance
• D. Extremely high Q factor and high stability over a wide temperature range

E7E07

22. What is meant by the term "baseband" in radio communications?

• A. The lowest frequency band that the transmitter or receiver covers
• B. The unmodulated bandwidth of the transmitted signal
• C. The frequency range occupied by a message signal prior to modulation
• D. The basic oscillator frequency in an FM transmitter that is multiplied to increase the deviation and carrier frequency

E1E06

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

• A. The VEC coordinating the session
• B. Only the VE session manager
• C. Each administering VE
• D. The designated monitoring VE

E7F04

24. Which method generates an SSB signal using digital signal processing?

• A. A frequency synthesizer removes unwanted sidebands
• B. Mixing products are converted to voltages and subtracted by adder circuits
• C. Varying quartz crystal characteristics are emulated in digital form
• D. Signals are combined in quadrature phase relationship

E4D12

25. What is the link margin in a system with a transmit power level of 10 W (+40 dBm), a system antenna gain of 10 dBi, a cable loss of 3 dB, a path loss of 136 dB, a receiver minimum discernable signal of -103 dBm, and a required signal-to-noise ratio of 6 dB?

• A. -14dB
• B. +14dB
• C. -8dB
• D. +8dB

E9B02

26. What is the front-to-back ratio of the antenna radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-1?

• A. 18 dB
• B. 24 dB
• C. 36 dB
• D. 14 dB

E8D03

27. Which describes spread spectrum frequency hopping?

• A. A binary bit stream is used to shift the phase of an RF carrier very rapidly in a pseudorandom sequence
• B. If interference is detected by the receiver, it will signal the transmitter to change frequencies
• C. RF signals are clipped to generate a wide band of harmonics which provides redundancy to correct errors
• D. Rapidly varying the frequency of a transmitted signal according to a pseudorandom sequence

E1A03

28. What is the highest legal carrier frequency on the 20-meter band for transmitting a 2.8 kHz wide USB data signal?

• A. 14.3490 MHz
• B. 14.1002 MHz
• C. 14.0708 MHz
• D. 14.1472 MHz

E2E06

29. What is the length of an FT8 transmission cycle?

• A. 30 seconds
• B. 8 seconds
• C. 15 seconds
• D. It varies with the amount of data

E7B04

30. What is the operating point of a Class A common emitter amplifier?

• A. At a point where the bias resistor equals the load resistor
• B. Approximately halfway between saturation and cutoff
• C. At a point where the load line intersects the zero bias current curve
• D. Approximately halfway between the emitter voltage and the base voltage

E4E04

31. How can conducted noise from an automobile battery charging system be suppressed?

• A. By installing ferrite chokes on the charging system leads
• B. By installing filter capacitors in series with the alternator leads
• C. By installing a noise suppression resistor and a blocking capacitor at the battery
• D. By installing a high-pass filter in series with the radio's power lead and a low-pass filter in parallel with the antenna feed line

E2A11

32. What type of antenna can be used to minimize the effects of spin modulation and Faraday rotation?

• A. A circularly polarized antenna
• B. A log-periodic dipole array
• C. A linearly polarized antenna
• D. An isotropic antenna

E2C04

33. Which of the following frequencies can be used for amateur radio mesh networks?

• A. The 60-meter band channel centered on 5373 kHz
• B. Frequencies shared with various unlicensed wireless data services
• C. HF frequencies where digital communications are permitted
• D. Cable TV channels 41-43

E9C03

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

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

E5C11

35. Which point in Figure E5-1 best represents the impedance of a series circuit consisting of a 300-ohm resistor and an 18-microhenry inductor at 3.505 MHz?

• A. Point 7
• B. Point 3
• C. Point 8
• D. Point 1

E8A03

36. Which of the following describes a signal in the time domain?

• A. Amplitude at different times
• B. Discrete impulses in time order
• C. Power at intervals of phase
• D. Frequency at different times

E8C10

37. How can data rate be increased without increasing bandwidth?

• A. Increasing analog-to-digital conversion resolution
• B. Using a more efficient digital code
• C. Using forward error correction
• D. It is impossible

E9E02

38. What antenna matching system matches coaxial cable to an antenna by connecting the shield to the center of the antenna and the conductor a fraction of a wavelength to one side?

• A. Delta match
• B. Stub match
• C. T-match
• D. Gamma match

E6A08

39. What is the term for the frequency at which the grounded-base current gain of a bipolar junction transistor has decreased to 0.7 of the gain obtainable at 1 kHz?

• A. Alpha rejection frequency
• B. Alpha cutoff frequency
• C. Beta cutoff frequency
• D. Corner frequency

E5A10

40. What is the resonant frequency of an RLC circuit if R is 33 ohms, L is 50 microhenries, and C is 10 picofarads?

• A. 7.12 MHz
• B. 23.5 MHz
• C. 23.5 kHz
• D. 7.12 kHz

E7G08

41. How does the gain of an ideal operational amplifier vary with frequency?

• A. It does not vary with frequency
• B. It decreases linearly with increasing frequency
• C. It decreases logarithmically with increasing frequency
• D. It increases linearly with increasing frequency

E7D15

42. What is the purpose of a step-start circuit in a high-voltage power supply?

• A. To provide a dual-voltage output for reduced power applications
• B. To compensate for variations of the incoming line voltage
• C. To allow the filter capacitors to charge gradually
• D. To prevent arcing across the input power switch or relay contacts

E6C03

43. What is tri-state logic?

• A. Logic with three output impedances which can be selected to better match the load impedance
• B. A counter with eight states
• C. Logic devices that utilize ternary math
• D. Logic devices with 0, 1, and high-impedance output states

E9F02

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

• A. The transmission line length
• B. The insulating dielectric material
• C. The center conductor resistivity
• D. The characteristic impedance

E4C07

45. What does the MDS of a receiver represent?

• A. The maximum detectable spectrum
• B. The minimum discernible signal
• C. The modulation distortion specification
• D. The meter display sensitivity

E4A02

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

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

E7H06

47. Which of these functions can be performed by a phase-locked loop?

• A. Photovoltaic conversion and optical coupling
• B. Frequency synthesis and FM demodulation
• C. Wide-band AF and RF power amplification
• D. Comparison of two digital input signals and digital pulse counting

E2B02

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

• A. 525
• B. 60
• C. 1080
• D. 30

E0A05

49. What hazard is created by operating at microwave frequencies?

• A. The high gain antennas commonly used can result in high exposure levels
• B. Microwaves are in the frequency range where wave velocity is higher
• C. Microwaves are ionizing radiation
• D. The extremely high frequency energy can damage the joints of antenna structures

E8B10

50. 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. The transmitted signal jumps from band to band at a predetermined rate
• C. Dividing the transmitted signal into separate frequency bands that each carry a different data stream
• D. The transmitted signal is divided into packets of information