Practice Exam

E3C01

1. What is the cause of short-term radio blackouts?

• A. Sunspots on the solar equator
• B. North-oriented interplanetary magnetic field
• C. Solar flares
• D. Coronal mass ejections

E9D07

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

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

E7B05

3. What can be done to prevent unwanted oscillations in an RF power amplifier?

• A. Tune both the input and output for maximum power
• B. Use a phase inverter in the output filter
• C. Tune the stage for minimum loading
• D. Install parasitic suppressors and/or neutralize the stage

E1B04

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

E6F10

5. What is the most common material used in power-generating photovoltaic cells?

• A. Cadmium sulfide
• B. Silicon
• C. Indium arsenide
• D. Selenium

E5B02

6. What letter is commonly used to represent susceptance?

• A. Y
• B. G
• C. B
• D. X

E7A01

7. Which circuit is bistable?

• A. A flip-flop
• B. A bipolar amplifier
• C. An AND gate
• D. An OR gate

E6C05

8. Which of the following digital logic families has the lowest power consumption?

• A. NMOS
• B. Schottky TTL
• C. ECL
• D. CMOS

E1F10

9. Who may be the control operator of an auxiliary station?

• A. Only Technician, General, Advanced, or Amateur Extra class operators
• B. Any licensed amateur operator
• C. Only General, Advanced, or Amateur Extra class operators
• D. Only Amateur Extra class operators

E8C07

10. What is the bandwidth of a 4,800-Hz frequency shift, 9,600-baud ASCII FM transmission?

• A. 5.76 kHz
• B. 15.36 kHz
• C. 9.6 kHz
• D. 4.8 kHz

E2C04

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

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

E7E04

12. What is one way to produce a single-sideband phone signal?

• A. Use a loop modulator followed by a mixer
• B. Use a balanced modulator followed by a filter
• C. Use a reactance modulator followed by a mixer
• D. Use a product detector with a DSB signal

E1D01

13. What is the definition of telemetry?

• A. One-way transmission of measurements at a distance from the measuring instrument
• B. Two-way transmissions in excess of 1000 feet
• C. Two-way transmissions of data
• D. One-way transmission that initiates, modifies, or terminates the functions of a device at a distance

E2E01

14. Which of the following types of modulation is used for data emissions below 30 MHz?

• A. DTMF tones modulating an FM signal
• B. Pulse modulation
• C. Spread spectrum
• D. FSK

E8D01

15. 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. Built-in error correction codes minimize interference
• C. If the receiver detects interference, it will signal the transmitter to change frequencies
• D. Signals not using the spread spectrum algorithm are suppressed in the receiver

E5C09

16. When using rectangular coordinates to graph the impedance of a circuit, what do the axes represent?

• A. The X axis represents the resistive component, and the Y axis represents the reactive component
• B. The X axis represents the magnitude, and the Y axis represents the phase angle
• C. The X axis represents the phase angle, and the Y axis represents the magnitude
• D. The X axis represents the reactive component, and the Y axis represents the resistive component

E4B01

17. Which of the following factors most affects the accuracy of a frequency counter?

• A. Time base accuracy
• B. Temperature coefficient of the logic
• C. Input attenuator accuracy
• D. Decade divider accuracy

E7D03

18. What device is used as a stable voltage reference?

• A. An SCR
• B. A Zener diode
• C. A digital-to-analog converter
• D. An analog-to-digital converter

E6D06

19. What core material property determines the inductance of an inductor?

• A. Reactivity
• B. Permittivity
• C. Resistance
• D. Permeability

E9H11

20. What feature of a cardioid pattern antenna makes it useful for direction-finding antennas?

• A. A single null
• B. Broadband response
• C. A very sharp peak
• D. High radiation angle

E5A12

21. What is the half-power bandwidth of a resonant circuit that has a resonant frequency of 3.7 MHz and a Q of 118?

• A. 15.7 kHz
• B. 218.3 kHz
• C. 436.6 kHz
• D. 31.4 kHz

E4C12

22. 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. It improves intelligibility by using low Q circuitry to reduce ringing
• D. All these choices are correct

E9F01

23. What is the velocity factor of a transmission line?

• A. The velocity of a wave in the transmission line multiplied by the velocity of light in a vacuum
• B. The velocity of a wave in the transmission line divided by the velocity of light in a vacuum
• C. The ratio of its termination impedance to its characteristic impedance
• D. The ratio of its characteristic impedance to its termination impedance

E2A03

24. How is an upload signal processed by an inverting linear transponder?

• A. The signal is reduced to I and Q components, and the Q component is filtered out
• B. The signal is detected and remodulated on the reverse sideband
• C. The signal is passed through a nonlinear filter
• D. The signal is mixed with a local oscillator signal and the difference product is transmitted

E2D04

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

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

E3A07

26. Atmospheric ducts capable of propagating microwave signals often form over what geographic feature?

• A. Stratocumulus clouds
• B. Large bodies of water
• C. Mountain ranges
• D. Nimbus clouds

E1C05

27. Under what situation may a station transmit third party communications while being automatically controlled?

• A. Never
• B. Only when transmitting SSB or CW
• C. On any mode approved by the National Telecommunication and Information Administration
• D. Only when transmitting RTTY or data emissions

E4D09

28. What is the purpose of the preselector in a communications receiver?

• A. To store frequencies that are often used
• B. To provide broadband attenuation before the first RF stage to prevent intermodulation
• C. To allow selection of the optimum RF amplifier device
• D. To increase the rejection of signals outside the band being received

E7G06

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

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

E0A07

30. What is meant by "100% tie-off" regarding tower safety?

• A. All circuit breakers feeding power to the tower must be tied closed with tape, cable, or ties
• B. At least one lanyard attached to the tower at all times
• C. All tools secured to the climber's harness
• D. All loose ropes and guys secured to a fixed structure

E7C11

31. Which of the following measures a filter's ability to reject signals in adjacent channels?

• A. Passband ripple
• B. Phase response
• C. Shape factor
• D. Noise factor

E5D04

32. Why are short connections used at microwave frequencies?

• A. To reduce noise figure
• B. To reduce phase shift along the connection
• C. To increase neutralizing resistance
• D. To increase compensating capacitance

E4E14

33. What is the purpose of a single point ground panel?

• A. Remove AC power in case of a short-circuit
• B. Ensure all lightning protectors activate at the same time
• C. Prevent common-mode transients in multi-wire systems
• D. Eliminate air gaps between protected and non-protected circuits

E6B06

34. Which of the following is a common use of a Schottky diode?

• A. In oscillator circuits as the negative resistance element
• B. As a variable capacitance in an automatic frequency control circuit
• C. In power supplies as a constant voltage reference
• D. As a VHF/UHF mixer or detector

E9A08

35. Which frequency band has the smallest first Fresnel zone?

• A. 5.8 GHz
• B. 3.4 GHz
• C. 2.4 GHz
• D. 900 MHz

E8A10

36. What is the purpose of a low-pass filter used at the output of a digital-to-analog converter?

• A. Remove spurious sampling artifacts from the output signal
• B. Improve accuracy by removing out-of-sequence codes from the input
• C. All these choices are correct
• D. Lower the input bandwidth to increase the effective resolution

E9E09

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

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

E7H03

38. What is a phase-locked loop?

• A. An electronic servo loop consisting of a ratio detector, reactance modulator, and voltage-controlled oscillator
• B. An electronic circuit consisting of a precision push-pull amplifier with a differential phase input
• C. An electronic circuit also known as a monostable multivibrator
• D. An electronic servo loop consisting of a phase detector, a low-pass filter, a voltage-controlled oscillator, and a stable reference oscillator

E8B02

39. How does the modulation index of a phase-modulated emission vary with RF carrier frequency?

• A. It does not depend on the RF carrier frequency
• B. It varies with the square root of the RF carrier frequency
• C. It decreases as the RF carrier frequency increases
• D. It increases as the RF carrier frequency increases

E9G02

40. What type of coordinate system is used in a Smith chart?

• A. Resistance circles and reactance arcs
• B. Voltage chords and current chords
• C. Voltage circles and current arcs
• D. Resistance lines and reactance chords

E2B12

41. What signals SSTV receiving software to begin a new picture line?

• A. Specific tone amplitudes
• B. Specific tone frequencies
• C. A two-tone signal
• D. Elapsed time

E9B01

42. What is the 3 dB beamwidth of the antenna radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-1?

• A. 30 degrees
• B. 50 degrees
• C. 75 degrees
• D. 25 degrees

E3B06

43. On which of the following amateur bands is long-path propagation most frequent?

• A. 40 meters and 20 meters
• B. 10 meters and 6 meters
• C. 6 meters and 2 meters
• D. 160 meters and 80 meters

E1E07

44. What should a VE do if a candidate fails to comply with the examiner's instructions during an amateur operator license examination?

• A. Allow the candidate to complete the examination, but invalidate the results
• B. Immediately terminate the candidate's examination
• C. Immediately terminate everyone's examination and close the session
• D. Warn the candidate that continued failure to comply will result in termination of the examination

E9C03

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

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

E1A10

46. If an amateur station is installed aboard a ship or aircraft, what condition must be met before the station is operated?

• A. Its operation must be approved by the master of the ship or the pilot in command of the aircraft
• B. The amateur station must have a power supply that is completely independent of the main ship or aircraft power supply
• C. The amateur station must operate only in specific segments of the amateur service HF and VHF bands
• D. The amateur station operator must agree not to transmit when the main radio of the ship or aircraft is in use

E6E01

47. Why is gallium arsenide (GaAs) useful for semiconductor devices operating at UHF and higher frequencies?

• A. Higher noise figures
• B. Lower junction voltage drop
• C. Lower transconductance
• D. Higher electron mobility

E6A02

48. Which of the following semiconductor materials contains excess free electrons?

• A. Insulated gate
• B. P-type
• C. Bipolar
• D. N-type

E4A07

49. Which of the following is an advantage of using an antenna analyzer compared to an SWR bridge?

• A. Antenna analyzers display a time-varying representation of the modulation envelope
• B. Antenna analyzers compute SWR and impedance automatically
• C. All these choices are correct
• D. Antenna analyzers automatically tune your antenna for resonance

E7F12

50. Which of the following is generally true of Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filters?

• A. FIR filters can respond faster to impulses
• B. FIR filters are easier to implement for a given set of passband rolloff requirements
• C. All these choices are correct
• D. FIR filters can delay all frequency components of the signal by the same amount