Practice Exam

E1C02

1. Which of the following apply to communications transmitted to amateur stations in foreign countries?

• A. All these choices are correct
• B. All transmissions must be in English
• C. Communications must be limited to those incidental to the purpose of the amateur service and remarks of a personal nature
• D. Third party traffic must be limited to that intended for the exclusive use of government and non-Government Organization (NGOs) involved in emergency relief activities

E7H06

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

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

E9H09

3. What type of radiation pattern is created by a single-turn, terminated loop such as a pennant antenna?

• A. Omnidirectional
• B. Bidirectional
• C. Cardioid
• D. Hyperbolic

E1E05

4. What must the VE team do with the application form if the examinee does not pass the exam?

• A. Maintain the application form with the VEC's records
• B. Send the application form to the FCC and inform the FCC of the grade
• C. Destroy the application form
• D. Return the application document to the examinee

E2E03

5. To what does the "4" in FT4 refer?

• A. Four transmit/receive cycles per minute
• B. Four-tone continuous-phase frequency shift keying
• C. All these choices are correct
• D. Multiples of 4 bits of user information

E9A07

6. What is the effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) of a repeater station with 200 watts transmitter power output, 2 dB feed line loss, 2.8 dB duplexer loss, 1.2 dB circulator loss, and 7 dBi antenna gain?

• A. 63.2 watts
• B. 632 watts
• C. 252 watts
• D. 159 watts

E9E11

7. What is the purpose of using multiple driven elements connected through phasing lines?

• A. To control the antenna's radiation pattern
• B. To prevent harmonic radiation from the transmitter
• C. To allow single-band antennas to operate on other bands
• D. To create a low-angle radiation pattern

E6C02

8. What happens when the level of a comparator's input signal crosses the threshold voltage?

• A. The feedback loop becomes unstable
• B. The IC input can be damaged
• C. The comparator changes its output state
• D. The reference level appears at the output

E4E12

9. What causes interference received as a series of carriers at regular intervals across a wide frequency range?

• A. Radar transmitters
• B. Electric fences
• C. Switch-mode power supplies
• D. Wireless security camera transmitters

E7D13

10. Which of the following calculates power dissipated by a series linear voltage regulator?

• A. Input voltage multiplied by input current
• B. Output voltage multiplied by output current
• C. Input voltage divided by output current
• D. Voltage difference from input to output multiplied by output current

E1D07

11. Which of the following HF amateur bands include allocations for space stations?

• A. Only 10 meters
• B. 30 meters, 17 meters, and 10 meters
• C. Satellite operation is permitted on all HF bands
• D. 40 meters, 20 meters, 15 meters, and 10 meters

E6A03

12. 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

E2D06

13. Which of the following is a method for establishing EME contacts?

• A. High-speed CW identification to avoid fading
• B. Time-synchronous transmissions alternating between stations
• C. Judging optimum transmission times by monitoring beacons reflected from the moon
• D. Storing and forwarding digital messages

E2A10

14. What type of satellite appears to stay in one position in the sky?

• A. LEO
• B. Geostationary
• C. Geomagnetic
• D. HEO

E1B04

15. What must the control operator of a repeater operating in the 70-centimeter band do if a radiolocation system experiences interference from that repeater?

• A. File an FAA NOTAM (Notice to Air Missions) with the repeater system's ERP, call sign, and six-character grid locator
• B. All these choices are correct
• C. Cease operation or make changes to the repeater that mitigate the interference
• D. Reduce the repeater antenna HAAT (Height Above Average Terrain)

E0A06

16. Why are there separate electric (E) and magnetic (H) MPE limits at frequencies below 300 MHz?

• A. E field and H field radiation intensity peaks can occur at different locations
• B. Ground reflections and scattering cause the field strength to vary with location
• C. The body reacts to electromagnetic radiation from both the E and H fields
• D. All these choices are correct

E7E06

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

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

E3A06

18. What should be done to continue a long-distance contact when the MUF for that path decreases due to darkness?

• A. Change to an antenna with greater beam width
• B. Change to an antenna with a higher takeoff angle
• C. Switch to a lower frequency HF band
• D. Switch to a higher frequency HF band

E8B10

19. What is frequency division multiplexing (FDM)?

• A. The transmitted signal is divided into packets of information
• 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. Two or more information streams are merged into a digital combiner, which then pulse position modulates the transmitter

E4A09

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

• A. Never use a high-impedance probe to measure a low-impedance circuit
• B. Minimize the length of the probe's ground connection
• C. All these choices are correct
• D. Never use a DC-coupled probe to measure an AC circuit

E9G05

21. Which of the following is a common use for a Smith chart?

• A. Determine the length and position of an impedance matching stub
• B. Determine the gain of an antenna given the physical and electrical parameters
• C. Determine the impedance of a transmission line, given the physical dimensions
• D. Determine the loss/100 feet of a transmission line, given the velocity factor and conductor materials

E8D06

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

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

E8A03

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

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

E6D12

24. What causes inductor saturation?

• A. Operation at excessive magnetic flux
• B. Selecting a core with excessive permittivity
• C. Operation at too high a frequency
• D. Selecting a core with low permeability

E5A07

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

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

E7G06

26. What is the gain-bandwidth of an operational amplifier?

• A. The gain of the amplifier at a filter's cutoff frequency
• B. The maximum frequency for a filter circuit using that type of amplifier
• C. The frequency at which the amplifier's offset voltage is zero
• D. The frequency at which the open-loop gain of the amplifier equals one

E5D10

27. As a conductor's diameter increases, what is the effect on its electrical length?

• A. It decreases
• B. It varies randomly
• C. It increases
• D. Thickness has no effect on electrical length

E7F14

28. Which of the following would allow a digital signal processing filter to create a sharper filter response?

• A. More taps
• B. Lower Q
• C. Higher data rate
• D. Double-precision math routines

E7C07

29. Which describes a Pi-L network?

• A. A Pi-network with an additional output series inductor
• B. A Phase Inverter Load network
• C. A matching network in which all components are isolated from ground
• D. A network with only three discrete parts

E4C06

30. How much does increasing a receiver's bandwidth from 50 Hz to 1,000 Hz increase the receiver's noise floor?

• A. 10 dB
• B. 3 dB
• C. 5 dB
• D. 13 dB

E8C04

31. What technique minimizes the bandwidth of a PSK31 signal?

• A. Use of sinusoidal data pulses
• B. Zero-sum character encoding
• C. Reed-Solomon character encoding
• D. Use of linear data pulses

E7B07

32. Which of the following is the likely result of using a Class C amplifier to amplify a single-sideband phone signal?

• A. Signal distortion and excessive bandwidth
• B. Reduced third-order intermodulation
• C. Reduced intermodulation products
• D. Increased overall intelligibility

E9B07

33. What is the difference in radiated power between a lossless antenna with gain and an isotropic radiator driven by the same power?

• A. The power radiated from the directional antenna is stronger by its front-to-back ratio
• B. They are the same
• C. The power radiated from the isotropic radiator is 2.15 dB greater than that from the directional antenna
• D. The power radiated from the directional antenna is increased by the gain of the antenna

E3B10

34. What is the effect of chordal-hop propagation?

• A. The MUF for chordal-hop propagation is much lower than for normal skip propagation
• B. Atmospheric noise is reduced in the direction of chordal-hop propagation
• C. Signals travel faster along ionospheric chords
• D. The signal experiences less loss compared to multi-hop propagation, which uses Earth as a reflector

E2C09

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

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

E1F05

36. Amateur stations may not transmit in which of the following frequency segments if they are located in the contiguous 48 states and north of Line A?

• A. 420 MHz - 430 MHz
• B. 53 MHz - 54 MHz
• C. 440 MHz - 450 MHz
• D. 222 MHz - 223 MHz

E4B06

37. How much power is being absorbed by the load when a directional power meter connected between a transmitter and a terminating load reads 100 watts forward power and 25 watts reflected power?

• A. 100 watts
• B. 112.5 watts
• C. 125 watts
• D. 75 watts

E2B08

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

E4D04

39. 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

E5B07

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

E9D07

41. What is an advantage of top loading an electrically short HF vertical antenna?

• A. Greater structural strength
• B. Lower Q
• C. Improved radiation efficiency
• D. Higher losses

E3C11

42. What does VOACAP software model?

• A. AC voltage and impedance
• B. VHF radio propagation
• C. HF propagation
• D. AC current and impedance

E9F07

43. How does parallel conductor transmission line compare to coaxial cable with a plastic dielectric?

• A. Smaller reflection coefficient
• B. Higher SWR
• C. Lower loss
• D. Lower velocity factor

E1A02

44. When using a transceiver that displays the carrier frequency of phone signals, which of the following displayed frequencies represents the lowest frequency at which a properly adjusted LSB emission will be totally within the band?

• A. The exact lower band edge
• B. 1 kHz above the lower band edge
• C. 300 Hz above the lower band edge
• D. 3 kHz above the lower band edge

E7A05

45. Which of the following circuits continuously alternates between two states without an external clock signal?

• A. Monostable multivibrator
• B. Astable multivibrator
• C. J-K flip-flop
• D. T flip-flop

E6E02

46. Which of the following device packages is a through-hole type?

• A. BGA
• B. PLCC
• C. SOT
• D. DIP

E6B01

47. 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 negative resistance region
• D. A constant current drop under conditions of varying voltage

E6F01

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

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

E5C11

49. 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 8
• C. Point 1
• D. Point 3

E9C05

50. What is the purpose of feeding an off-center-fed dipole (OCFD) between the center and one end instead of at the midpoint?

• A. To suppress off-center lobes at higher frequencies
• B. To reduce common-mode current coupling on the feed line shield
• C. To create a similar feed point impedance on multiple bands
• D. To resonate the antenna across a wider range of frequencies