Practice Exam

E6F08

1. Why are optoisolators often used in conjunction with solid-state circuits that control 120 VAC circuits?

• A. Optoisolators eliminate the effects of reflected light in the control circuit
• B. Optoisolators provide a low-impedance link between a control circuit and a power circuit
• C. Optoisolators provide impedance matching between the control circuit and power circuit
• D. Optoisolators provide an electrical isolation between a control circuit and the circuit being switched

E8C04

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

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

E9C02

3. What type of radiation pattern is created by two 1/4-wavelength vertical antennas spaced 1/4- wavelength apart and fed 90 degrees out of phase?

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

E4A02

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

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

E1B06

5. Which of the following additional rules apply if you are erecting an amateur station antenna structure at a site at or near a public use airport?

• A. You may have to enter the height above ground in meters, and the latitude and longitude in degrees, minutes, and seconds on the FAA website
• B. You must file an Environmental Impact Statement with the EPA before construction begins
• C. You may have to notify the Federal Aviation Administration and register it with the FCC as required by Part 17 of the FCC rules
• D. You must obtain a construction permit from the airport zoning authority per Part 119 of the FAA regulations

E3C05

6. What orientation of Bz (B sub z) increases the likelihood that charged particles from the Sun will cause disturbed conditions?

• A. Northward
• B. Southward
• C. Eastward
• D. Westward

E8B11

7. What is digital time division multiplexing?

• A. Two or more data streams are assigned to discrete sub-carriers on an FM transmitter
• B. Two or more signals are quadrature modulated to increase bandwidth efficiency
• C. Two or more data streams share the same channel by transmitting time of transmission as the sub-carrier
• D. Two or more signals are arranged to share discrete time slots of a data transmission

E9F12

8. What impedance does a 1/4-wavelength transmission line present to an RF generator when the line is open at the far end?

• A. The same as the input impedance to the generator
• B. The same as the characteristic impedance of the line
• C. Very high impedance
• D. Very low impedance

E1D05

9. What must be posted at the location of a station being operated by telecommand on or within 50 kilometers of the Earth's surface?

• A. A photocopy of the station license
• B. All these choices are correct
• C. A label with the name, address, and telephone number of the control operator
• D. A label with the name, address, and telephone number of the station licensee

E7B11

10. In Figure E7-1, what is the purpose of R3?

• A. Self bias
• B. Output load resistor
• C. Fixed bias
• D. Emitter bypass

E7H02

11. What is a microphonic?

• A. Excess loading of the microphone by an oscillator
• B. Distortion caused by RF pickup on the microphone cable
• C. Changes in oscillator frequency caused by mechanical vibration
• D. An IC used for amplifying microphone signals

E0A05

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

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

E7E02

13. What is the function of a reactance modulator?

• A. Produce AM signals by varying an inductance
• B. Produce PM or FM signals by varying a capacitance
• C. Produce AM signals by varying a resistance
• D. Produce PM or FM signals by varying a resistance

E1E04

14. What is required to be accredited as a Volunteer Examiner?

• A. The prospective VE must obtain accreditation from the FCC
• B. The amateur operator applying must pass a VE examination administered by the FCC Enforcement Bureau
• C. A VEC must confirm that the VE applicant meets FCC requirements to serve as an examiner
• D. Each General, Advanced and Amateur Extra class operator is automatically accredited as a VE when the license is granted

E7A02

15. What is the function of a decade counter?

• A. It decodes a binary number for display on a seven-segment LED display
• B. It decodes a decimal number for display on a seven-segment LED display
• C. It produces one output pulse for every 10 input pulses
• D. It produces 10 output pulses for every input pulse

E9D04

16. 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

E2C05

17. What is the function of a DX QSL Manager?

• A. Allocate frequencies for DXpeditions
• B. Communicate to a DXpedition about propagation, band openings, pileup conditions, etc.
• C. Handle the receiving and sending of confirmations for a DX station
• D. Run a net to allow many stations to contact a rare DX station

E3B10

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

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

E9H08

19. What is the function of a sense antenna?

• A. It provides diversity reception that cancels multipath signals
• B. It allows DF antennas to receive signals at different vertical angles
• C. It modifies the pattern of a DF antenna to provide a null in only one direction
• D. It increases the sensitivity of a DF antenna array

E9G04

20. What are the two families of circles and arcs that make up a Smith chart?

• A. Inductance and capacitance
• B. Resistance and reactance
• C. Voltage and impedance
• D. Reactance and voltage

E5B11

21. What is the phase angle between the voltage across and the current through a series RLC circuit if XC is 25 ohms, R is 100 ohms, and XL is 75 ohms?

• A. 63 degrees with the voltage leading the current
• B. 27 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
• C. 63 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
• D. 27 degrees with the voltage leading the current

E6E11

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

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

E4B01

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

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

E5C03

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

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

E8A09

25. How many different input levels can be encoded by an analog-to-digital converter with 8-bit resolution?

• A. 8
• B. 256 divided by the gain of the input amplifier
• C. 256
• D. 8 multiplied by the gain of the input amplifier

E4C13

26. What is reciprocal mixing?

• A. Local oscillator phase noise mixing with adjacent strong signals to create interference to desired signals
• B. Two digital signals combining from alternate time slots
• C. Two out-of-band signals mixing to generate an in-band spurious signal
• D. In-phase signals cancelling in a mixer resulting in loss of receiver sensitivity

E9E11

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

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

E3A02

28. What characterizes libration fading of an EME signal?

• A. The returning echo is several hertz lower in frequency than the transmitted signal
• B. A slow change in the pitch of the CW signal
• C. A gradual loss of signal as the sun rises
• D. A fluttery, irregular fading

E4E04

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

• A. By installing filter capacitors in series with the alternator leads
• B. 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
• C. By installing ferrite chokes on the charging system leads
• D. By installing a noise suppression resistor and a blocking capacitor at the battery

E4D11

30. Why are odd-order intermodulation products, created within a receiver, of particular interest compared to other products?

• A. Odd-order products of two signals in the band being received are also likely to be within the band
• B. Odd-order products are more likely to overload the IF filters
• C. Odd-order intermodulation produces three products for every input signal within the band of interest
• D. Odd-order products are an indication of poor image rejection

E6B02

31. Which characteristic of a Schottky diode makes it a better choice than a silicon junction diode for use as a power supply rectifier?

• A. More constant reverse avalanche voltage
• B. Longer carrier retention time
• C. Lower forward voltage drop
• D. Much higher reverse voltage breakdown

E2A02

32. Which of the following is characteristic of an inverting linear transponder?

• A. Upper sideband on the uplink becomes lower sideband on the downlink, and vice versa
• B. Signal position in the band is reversed
• C. Doppler shift is reduced because the uplink and downlink shifts are in opposite directions
• D. All these choices are correct

E1A02

33. 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. 1 kHz above the lower band edge
• B. The exact lower band edge
• C. 300 Hz above the lower band edge
• D. 3 kHz above the lower band edge

E9A09

34. What is antenna efficiency?

• A. Total resistance divided by radiation resistance
• B. Radiation resistance divided by total resistance
• C. Effective radiated power divided by transmitter output
• D. Radiation resistance divided by transmission resistance

E7C10

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

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

E6A02

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

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

E2D03

37. Which of the following digital modes is designed for EME communications?

• A. WSPR
• B. MSK144
• C. Q65
• D. PACTOR III

E6C03

38. What is tri-state logic?

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

E9B05

39. What type of antenna pattern is shown in Figure E9-2?

• A. Polarization
• B. Azimuth
• C. Elevation
• D. Near field

E8D05

40. What is the most common method of reducing key clicks?

• A. Insert high-pass filters at the transmitter output
• B. Increase keying waveform rise and fall times
• C. Insert low-pass filters at the transmitter output
• D. Reduce keying waveform rise and fall times

E6D07

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

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

E2E04

42. Which of the following is characteristic of the FST4 mode?

• A. Four-tone Gaussian frequency shift keying
• B. Variable transmit/receive periods
• C. All these choices are correct
• D. Seven different tone spacings

E7G03

43. What is the typical input impedance of an op-amp?

• A. 100 ohms
• B. Very low
• C. 10,000 ohms
• D. Very high

E7D03

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

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

E7F13

45. What is the function of taps in a digital signal processing filter?

• A. Provide incremental signal delays for filter algorithms
• B. Select the point at which baseband signals are generated
• C. Provide access for debugging software
• D. To reduce excess signal pressure levels

E1C03

46. How long must an operator wait after filing a notification with the Utilities Technology Council (UTC) before operating on the 2200-meter or 630-meter band?

• A. Operators may not operate until a test signal has been transmitted in coordination with the local power company
• B. Operators may operate after 30 days, providing they have not been told that their station is within 1 kilometer of PLC systems using those frequencies
• C. Operations may commence immediately, and may continue unless interference is reported by the UTC
• D. Operators must not operate until approval is received

E5A02

47. What is the resonant frequency of an RLC circuit if R is 22 ohms, L is 50 microhenries, and C is 40 picofarads?

• A. 1.78 MHz
• B. 3.56 MHz
• C. 22.36 MHz
• D. 44.72 MHz

E5D06

48. What parasitic characteristic creates an inductor's self-resonance?

• A. Dielectric loss
• B. Skin effect
• C. Coupling
• D. Inter-turn capacitance

E2B02

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

• A. 30
• B. 60
• C. 525
• D. 1080

E1F11

50. Which of the following best describes one of the standards that must be met by an external RF power amplifier if it is to qualify for a grant of FCC certification?

• A. It must produce full legal output when driven by not more than 5 watts of mean RF input power
• B. It must satisfy the FCC's spurious emission standards when operated at the lesser of 1500 watts or its full output power
• C. It must have received an Underwriters Laboratory certification for electrical safety as well as having met IEEE standard 14.101(B)
• D. It must exhibit a gain of less than 23 dB when driven by 10 watts or less