Practice Exam

E1A01

1. Why is it not legal to transmit a 3 kHz bandwidth USB signal with a carrier frequency of 14.348 MHz?

• A. USB is not used on 20-meter phone
• B. 14.348 MHz is outside the 20-meter band
• C. The upper 1 kHz of the signal is outside the 20-meter band
• D. The lower 1 kHz of the signal is outside the 20-meter band

E7E09

2. What occurs when the input signal levels to a mixer are too high?

• A. Excessive AGC voltage levels are generated
• B. Automatic limiting occurs
• C. Mixer blanking occurs
• D. Spurious mixer products are generated

E7G12

3. What is an operational amplifier?

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

E5C03

4. Which of the following represents a pure inductive reactance in polar coordinates?

• A. A positive 45 degree phase angle
• B. A positive 90 degree phase angle
• C. A negative 45 degree phase angle
• D. A negative 90 degree phase angle

E4B07

5. What do the subscripts of S parameters represent?

• A. Frequency order of the measurements
• B. The relative time between measurements
• C. The port or ports at which measurements are made
• D. Relative quality of the data

E9G05

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

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

E3A10

7. What determines the speed of electromagnetic waves through a medium?

• A. The index of refraction
• B. Evanescence
• C. Resistance and reactance
• D. Birefringence

E1D10

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

E6F03

9. What is the most common configuration of an optoisolator or optocoupler?

• A. An LED and a phototransistor
• B. An amplitude-modulated helium-neon laser
• C. A frequency-modulated helium-neon laser
• D. A lens and a photomultiplier

E4A08

10. Which of the following is used to measure SWR?

• A. All these choices are correct
• B. Vector network analyzer
• C. Antenna analyzer
• D. Directional wattmeter

E9A12

11. How much gain does an antenna have compared to a half-wavelength dipole if it has 6 dB gain over an isotropic radiator?

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

E9E09

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

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

E8A02

13. Which of the following is a type of analog-to-digital conversion?

• A. Phase reversal
• B. Harmonic regeneration
• C. Successive approximation
• D. Level shifting

E2A06

14. What are Keplerian elements?

• A. High-emission heater filaments used in magnetron tubes
• B. Parameters that define the orbit of a satellite
• C. Encrypting codes used for spread spectrum modulation
• D. Phase reversing elements in a Yagi antenna

E7A06

15. What is a characteristic of a monostable multivibrator?

• A. It produces a continuous square wave
• B. It maintains a constant output voltage, regardless of variations in the input voltage
• C. It switches temporarily to an alternate state for a set time
• D. It stores one bit of data

E3C09

16. What type of data is reported by amateur radio propagation reporting networks?

• A. Electric field intensity
• B. Solar flux
• C. Magnetic declination
• D. Digital-mode and CW signals

E2B04

17. How is color information sent in analog SSTV?

• A. Color information is sent on a 2.8 kHz subcarrier
• B. Color is amplitude modulated on the frequency modulated intensity signal
• C. Color is sent in a color burst at the end of each line
• D. Color lines are sent sequentially

E5B12

18. What is admittance?

• A. The term for the gain of a field effect transistor
• B. The term for the on-impedance of a field effect transistor
• C. The inverse of reactance
• D. The inverse of impedance

E1F07

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

• A. At no time
• B. When the pecuniary interest of the amateur or his or her employer is less than $25
• C. When neither the amateur nor their employer has a pecuniary interest in the communications
• D. When the pecuniary interest of the amateur or his or her employer is less than $50

E7D14

20. What is the purpose of connecting equal-value resistors across power supply filter capacitors connected in series?

• A. Discharge the capacitors when voltage is removed
• B. All these choices are correct
• C. Equalize the voltage across each capacitor
• D. Provide a minimum load on the supply

E4E10

21. Which of the following can create intermittent loud roaring or buzzing AC line interference?

• A. A defective doorbell or doorbell transformer inside a nearby residence
• B. A malfunctioning illuminated advertising display
• C. All these choices are correct
• D. Arcing contacts in a thermostatically controlled device

E9D04

22. Why should antenna loading coils have a high ratio of reactance to resistance?

• A. To swamp out harmonics
• B. To lower the radiation angle
• C. To minimize the Q
• D. To maximize efficiency

E2D04

23. What technology is used for real-time tracking of balloons carrying amateur radio transmitters?

• A. Bandwidth compressed LORAN
• B. APRS
• C. PACTOR III
• D. FT8

E2E11

24. What is the difference between direct FSK and audio FSK?

• A. Direct FSK occupies less bandwidth
• B. Direct FSK can transmit higher baud rates
• C. All these choices are correct
• D. Direct FSK modulates the transmitter VFO

E9B11

25. What is a disadvantage of decreasing the number of wire segments in an antenna model below 10 segments per half-wavelength?

• A. Ground conductivity will not be accurately modeled
• B. The resulting design will favor radiation of harmonic energy
• C. The computed feed point impedance may be incorrect
• D. The antenna will become mechanically unstable

E7H06

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

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

E9H04

27. What is the purpose of placing an electrostatic shield around a small-loop direction-finding antenna?

• A. It increases signal strength by providing a better match to the feed line
• B. It adds capacitive loading, increasing the bandwidth of the antenna
• C. It eliminates tracking errors caused by strong out-of-band signals
• D. It eliminates unbalanced capacitive coupling to the antenna's surroundings, improving the depth of its nulls

E7C01

28. 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. 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
• D. Two capacitors are in series between the input and output, and an inductor is connected between the two capacitors and ground

E7B08

29. Why are switching amplifiers more efficient than linear amplifiers?

• A. Linear amplifiers have high gain resulting in higher harmonic content
• B. The switching device is at saturation or cutoff most of the time
• C. Switching amplifiers use push-pull circuits
• D. Switching amplifiers operate at higher voltages

E7F05

30. How frequently must an analog signal be sampled to be accurately reproduced?

• A. At least half the rate of the highest frequency component of the signal
• B. At four times the rate of the highest frequency component of the signal
• C. At the same rate as the highest frequency component of the signal
• D. At least twice the rate of the highest frequency component of the signal

E6B09

31. What is a common use for point-contact diodes?

• A. As a constant voltage source
• B. As an RF detector
• C. As a high-voltage rectifier
• D. As a constant current source

E3B07

32. What effect does lowering a signal's transmitted elevation angle have on ionospheric HF skip propagation?

• A. The distance covered by each hop increases
• B. Faraday rotation becomes stronger
• C. The critical frequency increases
• D. The MUF decreases

E8C04

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

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

E9F10

34. What impedance does a 1/8-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. An inductive reactance
• C. Zero
• D. A capacitive reactance

E1B05

35. What is the National Radio Quiet Zone?

• A. An area in Florida surrounding Cape Canaveral
• B. An area surrounding the National Radio Astronomy Observatory
• C. An area in New Mexico surrounding the White Sands Test Area
• D. An area surrounding the FCC monitoring station in Laurel, Maryland

E5A05

36. What is the result of increasing the Q of an impedance-matching circuit?

• A. Matching bandwidth is increased
• B. Losses increase
• C. Matching bandwidth is decreased
• D. Harmonics increase

E4C12

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

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

E4D05

38. What transmitter frequencies would create an intermodulation-product signal in a receiver tuned to 146.70 MHz when a nearby station transmits on 146.52 MHz?

• A. 146.30 MHz and 146.90 MHz
• B. 146.10 MHz and 147.30 MHz
• C. 146.34 MHz and 146.61 MHz
• D. 146.88 MHz and 146.34 MHz

E8B10

39. What is frequency division multiplexing (FDM)?

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

E2C04

40. 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

E6C04

41. Which of the following is an advantage of BiCMOS logic?

• A. Its simplicity results in much less expensive devices than standard CMOS
• B. It is immune to electrostatic damage
• C. It has the high input impedance of CMOS and the low output impedance of bipolar transistors
• D. All these choices are correct

E1E03

42. What is a Volunteer Examiner Coordinator?

• A. An organization paid by the volunteer examiner team to publicize and schedule examinations
• 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. The person who has entered into an agreement with the FCC to be the VE session manager

E6D07

43. What is the current that flows in the primary winding of a transformer when there is no load on the secondary winding?

• A. Magnetizing current
• B. Excitation current
• C. Stabilizing current
• D. Direct current

E6A06

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

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

E6E11

45. What is a characteristic of DIP packaging used for integrated circuits?

• A. Extremely low stray capacitance (dielectrically isolated package)
• B. Two rows of connecting pins on opposite sides of package (dual in-line package)
• C. Extremely high resistance between pins (doubly insulated package)
• D. Two chips in each package (dual in package)

E0A08

46. What does SAR measure?

• A. The rate at which RF energy is absorbed by the body
• B. The rate of RF energy reflected from stationary terrain
• C. Signal attenuation ratio
• D. Signal amplification rating

E1C12

47. In what portion of the 630-meter band are phone emissions permitted?

• A. Only the top 3 kHz
• B. The entire band
• C. None
• D. Only the bottom 3 kHz

E5D09

48. What happens to reactive power in ideal inductors and capacitors?

• A. It is dissipated in the formation of inductive and capacitive fields
• B. It is canceled by Coulomb forces in the capacitor and inductor
• C. It is dissipated as heat in the circuit
• D. Energy is stored in magnetic or electric fields, but power is not dissipated

E9C06

49. What is the effect of adding a terminating resistor to a rhombic or long-wire antenna?

• A. It decreases the ground loss
• B. It reflects the standing waves on the antenna elements back to the transmitter
• C. It changes the radiation pattern from horizontal to vertical polarization
• D. It changes the radiation pattern from bidirectional to unidirectional

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. Signal-to-noise ratio is improved
• D. Faster transmission rate