The Fast Track

To Your

Technician Class

Ham Radio License

by Michael Burnette, AF7KB

Covers all FCC Technician Class Exam Questions July 1, 2014 until June 30, 2018

All original content© Copyright 2014, Michael Burnette. All rights reserved.

This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

The Fast Track

To Your

Technician Class Ham Radio License

Is now available as an unabridged audiobook.

Nearly 8 hours of instruction.

This one's for my electronics mentor

Rand L. Stover, WA6UOD (SK)

RIP, old friend, I miss ya.

Table of Contents

Welcome To Amateur Radio and to your Technician License Training

Chapter 1 - The Technician Exam Session

Chapter 2 - How To Prepare

Chapter 3 - FCC Rules and Regulations

Chapter 4 - Wavelengths and Frequencies

Chapter 5 - Your Call Sign

Chapter 6 - About Your License

Chapter 7 - International Relations

Chapter 8 - Content You Can and Can’t Transmit

Chapter 9 - Control Operators and Station Licensees

Chapter 10 - Station Identification

Chapter 11 - Operating Procedures

Chapter 12 - Radio Waves and Propagation

Chapter 13 - Amateur Radio Practices and Station Set Up

Chapter 14 - Electrical Principles

Chapter 15 - Math for Electronics

Chapter 16 - Ohm’s Law

Chapter 17 - Parts! Part 1 - Electrical Components

Chapter 18 - Parts! Part 2 - Semiconductors

Chapter 19 - Schematic Diagrams

Chapter 20 - Reading Schematic Diagrams

Chapter 21 - Station Equipment

Chapter 22 - Interference and Other Transmission Problems

Chapter 23 - Meters

Chapter 24 - Soldering

Chapter 25 - Modulation Modes

Chapter 26 - Hams In Space!

Chapter 27 - Operating Activities

Chapter 28 - The Digital World and Ham Radio

Chapter 29 - Antennas

Chapter 30 - Your Feed Line

Chapter 31 - SWR – Standing Wave Ratio

Chapter 32 - Safety First, Last and Always

Chapter 33 - Antenna and Tower Safety

Chapter 34 - Danger! Radiation Hazard!

Woo HOOOO!! I GOT MY LICENSE!...Now what do I do?

About the Author

Welcome to Amateur Radio and to your Technician License training

This book is part of a complete learning system designed to make each step of your way into whatever grade Amateur Radio license you want as easy and enjoyable as possible. My philosophy is, “I didn't get into ham radio to suffer!”, and I don't think you should either.

The FCC issues three different classes of amateur radio licenses; Technician, General, and Amateur Extra. To get to General, you must pass Technician and General. Amateur Extra requires passing all three. There is no time limit – so long as you have a valid Technician license, you can upgrade to General or Extra any time you wish. Most testing sessions include people taking both the Technician and General tests, and sometimes someone going for all three.  Other folks might have taken their General test twenty years ago and have decided to move up to Extra.

Each grade of amateur license carries increasing privileges, and each test is a little more challenging. How much of a challenge each part of a given test presents probably varies a lot by the individual and their background.

How far you progress in the license grades is completely up to you – there's never any requirement to “move up.” More good news – there isn't much (if any) snobbery about license grades in the ham community. You won't be seen as some sort of “junior member” of the community if you carry a Technician license. (Nor will you be seen as some sort of superhero if you make the move to Extra. Sorry 'bout that.)

Your Technician license certainly is not a “junior license”, either. You'll have full privileges on any amateur frequency band above 30 MHz. You'll also have limited privileges in some frequencies below 30 MHz, and you could easily spend a lifetime in ham radio exploring the world of the Technician class. Many hams do. The frequencies you'll be able to use include the very popular VHF and UHF bands where the majority of local repeaters operate. These are also bands where you can make contacts via ham radio satellites and even talk to the astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

If all this talk of MHz and repeaters is foreign language to you now, relax. That's some of the stuff you're here to learn, and it really isn't terribly complicated.

More good news; especially at the Technician class level, amateur radio does not have to be an expensive hobby. You can get a perfectly useful VHF/UHF hand-held radio for around $35.  $50 if you buy lots of accessories. Add a $20 magnetic antenna for the top of your vehicle, and you have a complete mobile setup for under $100. I've used a radio like that countless times to talk with friends many miles away, using our local repeater network.  (You'll learn about those, too.)

Obviously, you have an interest in amateur radio, and perhaps you even have a clear idea of what you want to do with your license. I'd like to touch on some of the activities hams pursue, just so you know some of the possibilities.

Someone once said to me, “You know, ham radio really isn't a hobby, it's more like 28 hobbies!” I've never counted to see if that number is precisely accurate, but I think it's pretty close.

- Mobile Communications. Having a mobile ham radio in your car or truck means you can pursue your ham hobby during those hours you're traveling. The most common radios for mobile operation are VHF/UHF “dual band” radios. We also can use hand-held radios so tiny you can put them in your pocket. I use mine all the time and regularly talk on a repeater that is 20 miles or more from where I'm standing.

- DX. “DX” is a ham abbreviation for “distance”. DX is all about communicating with hams far away. The definition of “far away” can vary a lot, depending on the time of day and the equipment in use, but generally it refers to “working” foreign countries.

- Contesting. There are contests just about every week of the year. The contest is for making the most contacts in the time span of the contest. Contesting is fun and helps keep contesters' emergency communications skills sharp.

- QRP. “QRP” means “low power operation.” While we're authorized for up to 1500 watts of power in most bands, some hams love the challenge of communicating with what seems like impossibly low power.

- Foxhunting. Foxhunting is a radio game of hide and seek! Can you find the hidden transmitter with your directional antenna and mobile receiver?

- Homebrewing. No, not beer – radio equipment. Honestly, modern ham transceivers are so sophisticated and complex, you're probably not going to build one at home. Nevertheless, there are plenty of other projects that even a beginning builder can complete successfully. Many clubs have occasional get-togethers for a group build of something like a simple antenna.

- Speaking of clubs – your local ham club is a great source of friendship and information. The national ham club is the American Radio Relay League, or ARRL. They are also our main voice in Congress and at the FCC. Want to find your local club? http://arrl.org/find-a-club.

- Amateur television. We aren't limited to just sending sound over the airwaves. There are two forms of amateur television, one for still pictures and one for moving pictures. We can also send faxes over the air.

- Digital communications. Amateurs were sending e-mail to each other over the ham bands long before there was a World Wide Web, and we use digital modes of all sorts.

- Amateur satellites. At the moment there are about twenty satellites orbiting the Earth that are owned and operated by amateur radio operators, and once you have your license you can use them.

- Meteor scatter. Yep, some amateurs enjoy bouncing signals off meteors – or, more precisely, off the trail of ions left in the wake of falling meteors.

- Aurora propagation. How about ricocheting a radio signal off the Northern lights? In the right conditions with the right equipment it can be done!

- Vintage equipment. Some hams enjoy collecting, restoring and operating old amateur radio equipment, especially the machines that use vacuum tubes instead of transistors. They'll tell you, “Real radios glow in the dark!” I admit, I count myself as at least their spiritual brother, though I've so far resisted acquiring any vintage gear. The old vacuum tube equipment is impractical, unreliable, inefficient, difficult to operate, too big, has to warm up before it will work (even when it does), sometimes is impossible to get parts for, doesn't have all the conveniences of the new stuff, won't do some quite useful things, and – well – is just generally wonderful. At least some of us think so. We find beauty, tradition, and craftsmanship in the old radios and enjoy the challenges they present.

- Public service. When you have the skills and equipment of a ham radio operator you become more valuable to your community. Whether serving as an auxiliary communication service at large public events or providing life-or-death emergency communications in and out of a disaster area, hams have a long and proud record of public service.

- Emergency Preparedness.  You never know when the standard communication networks are going to go down. What you do know, for sure, is that the times that cell phones, land lines, and the internet are needed most are when they're going to working the worst. Ham radio doesn't depend on any of those networks -- we are the network.

- Participating in nets. Hams had social networks decades before there was Facebook. Our social networks meet on the air, and can range from groups as purposeful and focused as an emergency communications preparedness group to something as wide open as a weekly “Hey, how's everybody doing?” Some nets are local, some national, some global.

- Technical Experiments – If you have an idea for something new for amateur radio, the rules give us lots of room for experiments. Invent something!

- Outdoor Recreation Communications – Once you’ve experienced what ham radio can do vs. CB or other “no license” services in a wilderness situation, you’ll never go back.

- Field Day. Every year hams across the country find their way to remote locations to operate their radios “from the field.” Often this is a club activity and besides the radio fun, it's a chance to socialize and to introduce the public to ham radio. Field days are fun, and they're a large part of why when the chips are down, hams are the people who know how to use a slingshot to shoot a string over a branch, use the string to pull a wire antenna into the air, hook up a radio to a car battery, and set up communications. (Some of us not only know how to do that, we've done it and think it's great fun!)

- Youth.  We hear a lot that there’s quite a shortage of people with STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Math – education. What better way to introduce young people to that world than ham radio? We’re science, technology, practical engineering and math in the real world, and we’re ordinary folks having fun with it all. What a difference seeing that could make in some young lives.

That's just a beginning of all the activities available to you as a ham.

Chapter 1 - The Technician Exam Session

Before we get started on the preparation for your Technician examination, let's go over how the testing session will go.

To find a place and time to take your Technician exam, you can visit the American Radio Relay League's web site at http://www.arrl.org. You'll find a handy search page at

http://www.arrl.org/find-an-amateur-radio-license-exam-session.

Type in your zip code, enter how many miles you're willing to travel to the session, and it will give you a list of upcoming exams and the contact information for the examiners. While you’re there, check out the rest of the site.  The ARRL – American Radio Relay League – is our national ham club and their site is filled with information about the hobby and the organization.

I strongly suggest you find the time and place of an upcoming exam right now, and commit to taking and passing your exam on that date. Let's face it, you're not going to get your license without some work. I hope you'll find the work – or at least the learning – enjoyable, but you and I know it is the nature of human beings to avoid challenges that we don't perceive as necessary. So locate that test session, make your commitment, pretend that it is necessary, and you'll be a big step closer to your ham license. I guarantee, the biggest single obstacle between you and your ham license is that commitment so make it today before you figure out an excuse to get out of it!

All amateur tests in the U.S. are administered by volunteer teams of examiners. Each examiner is a fellow ham who has been certified (usually by the ARRL) as a Volunteer Examiner. Most are Amateur Extra class license holders. They're your fellow hams. They want you to succeed and they're volunteering their time to make that happen.

Some testing organizations require you let them know in advance that you will be coming to their testing session. That way they don't have a team of examiners travel to the test site, set up the room, then have no one come to test. Others welcome walk-ins. The requirements will be listed at that ARRL web site. Even if they welcome walk-ins, it's certainly polite to call their contact number and let them know you're coming to their session. That call will also give the contact person an opportunity to give you directions to the site, review what you should bring along to the test, let you know the test fee, and probably help set your mind at ease. (They really are on your side.)

When you arrive at the testing location, it's pretty certain you'll be greeted by one of the Volunteer Examiners, and directed to a seat. You'll have some paperwork to fill out, and the VE's will verify you are who you say you are. Here's what you'll need for the exam:

1. A form of legal ID. Your driver's license or US passport will suffice.

2. Your Social Security Number. This becomes your temporary FCC registration number. Once you have your license, you'll be issued what's called an FRN – a Federal Registration Number – so your Social Security number will never show up on the FCC public database.

3. Pencils and a pen. Pencils for the test, a pen to fill out your paperwork.

4. A calculator. Not required, and you can probably do the math on the Technician exam in your head or on the back of your answer form, but a calculator's nice to have for double checking. If you are only planning on taking the Technician exam, any calculator will do, so long as it is not programmable. The VE's will ask you to clear the memory of your calculator before you start the exam, so know how to do that. (That's to prevent you from storing any handy formulas or answers in your calculator.) You will not be allowed to use your cell phone calculator. If you are planning to go on to Extra Class eventually and need to buy a calculator, I highly recommend the Texas Instruments TI-30XS. It lets you see all the steps of your calculations, is easy to use, has all the functions you'll need (and way more), and is only about $20.

5. A relaxed attitude. This is optional, too, but remember: Those “scary” Volunteer Examiners have been through this experience themselves and they're on your side. They're your neighbors and your future fellow hams. They're probably Extra class hams and had to take yet another test to be accredited as a VE. They will take their jobs seriously, and you want them to. If there are irregularities in the testing procedure, the FCC has the right to invalidate everyone's test at the session (yes, yours, too), and invite everyone to retest. A clean test procedure benefits you. But under that serious attitude, trust me, they want you to succeed.

6. The test fee – currently about $15 but subject to change annually.

Once the paperwork is complete and checked, they'll hand out the exams and the answer sheets, and you'll take your exam. The exam is not timed. Take your time, read each question carefully, double check each answer and be sure you are entering the answer in the right spot on the answer sheet. You won't be troubling anyone by taking your time. Those VE's are expecting the session to last at least a couple of hours, and they're committed to staying the whole time. In fact, by law they can't leave the room while testing is going on.

If you really blank out on a question and just can't come up with an answer, I suggest you leave the answer sheet blank for that one and go on to the next. Do be sure you get the next answer in the right spot on the answer sheet, or every answer from then on will be “one off” and you'll miss them all. Your brain might come up with the answer later in the test, or perhaps you'll get a hint from one of the other questions. Be sure to come back to the question and answer it with your best guess. There is no penalty for guessing, only for wrong answers, and a blank answer is automatically wrong.

The Technician exam consists of 35 multiple-choice questions. A passing score is 74% or better. That means you need to get 26 correct answers to pass.

During the test, if you are given a direction by a VE, do it. FCC law requires that your exam be terminated immediately if you do not follow the directions of the VE's. (They're not going to direct you to take off your pants and run around the room. Relax.)

When your test is complete, you'll hand it in and it will be graded during the session. Each exam must be graded independently by three VE's, so it takes a bit of time. Then, someone will come over and – I fully expect – congratulate you, welcome you to ham radio, and ask if you want to take the General exam while you're there. (It's your choice, but it doesn't cost a thing to give it a try – the fee you pay is for the test session, not per test.) In the wildly unlikely event you don't pass, they'll have a quiet – probably outside the room – conversation with you. VE's are directed by their training to take pains to avoid embarrassing anyone.

What the VE's almost certainly will not do is tell you which, if any, questions you missed. They're not even required to tell you your score. Just pass or fail.

If you have special needs, such as a visual disability, mobility challenges, or anything else that would affect your ability to take and pass the test, the FCC requires that appropriate accommodations be made. This might include someone reading the test to you, providing access to the testing site, or other measures. Again – we want you to enter the hobby. If you want some accommodation, your part is to let the VE team know ahead of time so they can make the proper arrangements.

How long between this moment and the moment you pass your exam? Some of that depends on your earlier experience, a little of it depends on how much time you can devote on a daily basis, and 99% of it depends on your – here's that word again – commitment to the process.

Chapter 2 - How To Prepare

I confess, I had a ridiculous head start on my Technician exam because I spent close to 25 years in the broadcasting business. I had done everything from being the all-night DJ at an FM station in Tulare, CA (back in the days when we grimly joked that “FM” stood for “Find Me”) to being a vice president of a major broadcasting company and even owning my own commercial radio stations. I'd spent years filing FCC forms, complying with FCC rules, and fixing cranky old radio stations in the middle of the night. I could usually determine which end of a hot soldering iron to hold, and even knew Ohm's Law. When I decided to get my ham license, Technician covered a lot of the same material I had studied for my commercial FCC license many years before. If you have that sort of background, congratulations, and I think you'll enjoy putting all those hard-won skills to use in amateur radio.

If you don't have years of radio or electronics background, relax. Seriously, relax. Don't tell your non-ham friends but this stuff isn't that hard. A great deal of it is common sense, some of it is simple “add, subtract, multiply and divide” math, and the rest of it is a matter of learning some new vocabulary.

You can do this.

I promise.

How long for someone with no background in radio? Well, Boy Scouts regularly get their Technician license in a weekend, so I think it is reasonable to expect an adult with a full-time job or other commitments to be able to master the material in a month of part-time study. Two weeks if you're really motivated. Or, you can dive in and do it all in a weekend – that'll show those Boy Scouts!

This book has about 30 short sections.  If you learn one or two sections a day, you’re a month from having your Technician license.  If you do 5 sections a day, it will take a week.  The pace is up to you. Personally, I learn better if I totally immerse myself in a topic and just jam through it, but not everyone learns the same way. My advice for you is learn the material in whatever way is enjoyable for you. Again: Ham radio is a hobby. It’s supposed to be fun.

I am officially authorizing you to start enjoying amateur radio even before you get your license.

Now set yourself a study schedule and stick with it.

There are several web sites and smart phone apps available that will let you take practice tests.  I suggest you not use those until a week or so before the test.  Learn the material, then take the online tests for practice.  My favorite phone app is called “Ham Test Prep” and my favorite testing web site is http://www.eham.net.

One of the challenges presented to prospective new hams by our testing system is, I think, inherent in the system itself. The exam covers quite a few different topics but is limited to 35 questions chosen from nine general areas. As a result of that structure, if you just study questions and answers – and there are many resources for doing just that – you end up with a bunch of random facts that don’t really constitute a useful body of knowledge. Through my years of teaching I've found that for most people random facts are very difficult to remember, and even harder to use, but if you're someone who learns that way, everything you need is here.  Just skip over the explanations.

Another challenge is presented by the formal structure of the test question banks. Put simply, that order makes the learning harder than it needs to be. This book puts the questions in “learning order” rather than “question bank order” for, I hope, much easier learning.

I've annotated most of the questions to set them in contexts that are intended to make your learning faster, easier, and – most important in the long run – useful. I want you to wind up knowing enough to participate in amateur radio, not just walk around with a license! To that end, there will be material in this book that isn't on the test. This is not the shortcut path to your license, but shortcuts can be dead ends. This book is also repetitive on purpose.

Your Technician exam will consist of 35 questions, drawn from the official question pool. The test will cover each subelement, and each group within that subelement. There are 35 groups, and you'll get one question out of each group. So if you get the question, “Which of the following is a purpose of the Amateur Radio Service as stated in the FCC rules and regulations?”, you won't get the question, “Which agency regulates and enforces the rules for the Amateur Radio Service in the United States?”, because they both appear in the same group, and there will only be one question from that – or any other – group.

There are parts of the question pool that look overwhelming, at least to me. But remember, just one question per group! For instance, the second group in subelement T1 contains 13 questions on the frequencies you can use with your Technician license. To me it looks like an enormous bunch of numbers to memorize – but you'll only have one question on your test from all those questions. (And I'm going to show you how to calculate all but one of the correct answers so you'll only need to remember two simple numbers to answer any question in that group.)

This book includes every question that could possibly be on your Technician examination AND every answer. All questions are from the official question pool for the test – not one word or number can be changed until a new test becomes effective June 30, 2018. The only things that will be different on the test you take for your license will be the order of the questions and the order of the A, B, C, D answers.

Each question is preceded by a code number that looks something like T1A01 (C) [97.1]. This identifies the subelement information of the question such as T1A01. In this case, “T” for Technician, 1 for subelement T1, “A” for group A of subelement T1, and 01 for question #1 in that group, the letter of the correct answer, (C),and in some cases the applicable FCC rule. [97.1]

The correct answer has been set in boldface and the letter of the correct answer appears in parentheses immediately after the question code number. (Remember the letter of the correct answer will probably be different on the test you take.)

One last but important thing. Neither this book nor possession of a Technician license qualify you as an expert on safety.

I am not an expert on safety.

I’m a hobbyist, like you. Amateur radio can involve hazardous activities, including working around high voltage electricity and climbing and working on radio towers. Let me make it very clear: You can get badly injured or killed by some of this stuff. Before you engage in these activities, get proper training in safe procedures.

Chapter 3 - FCC Rules and Regulations

To play any game, you need to know the rules, and there are many rules in the game of amateur radio. To pass your Technician exam you need some familiarity with the rules that will apply to you.

As hams, we're governed by the Federal Communications Commission's Rules, and specifically, Part 97 of those Rules.

Put simply, the FCC exists to regulate activities that occur in the electromagnetic spectrum so that the spectrum is used for the public good. Without regulation, use of the airwaves would be a free-for-all, and that would quickly make the airwaves useless, because everyone would be interfering with everyone else.

Because the airwaves are a limited resource, spectrum space is valuable, and getting more valuable every day. The FCC regularly conducts auctions of spectrum space that net billions of dollars. (The money goes to fund the FCC with a lot left over for the US general fund.)

Here's what Part 97 has to say about why the Commission saw fit to set aside billions of dollars worth of valuable electromagnetic spectrum space for us amateurs:

The rules and regulations in this part are designed to provide an amateur radio service having a fundamental purpose as expressed in the following principles:

(a) Recognition and enhancement of the value of the amateur service to the public as a voluntary noncommercial communication service, particularly with respect to providing emergency communications.

(b) Continuation and extension of the amateur's proven ability to contribute to the advancement of the radio art.

(c) Encouragement and improvement of the amateur service through rules which provide for advancing skills in both the communication and technical phases of the art.

(d) Expansion of the existing reservoir within the amateur radio service of trained operators, technicians, and electronics experts.

(e) Continuation and extension of the amateur's unique ability to enhance international goodwill

T1A02 (C) [97.1]

Which agency regulates and enforces the rules for the Amateur Radio Service in the United States?

A. FEMA

B. The ITU

C. The FCC

D. Homeland Security

The Federal Communications Commission is most often referred to simply as “The FCC.”

T1A03 (D)

Which part of the FCC regulations contains the rules governing the Amateur Radio Service?

A. Part 73

B. Part 95

C. Part 90

D. Part 97

The committee that put together the test listed actual FCC “Parts” for each of the answers on this question. Part 73, for example, is the Part that governs Commercial Broadcasters. That's not the part you want. If you get this question on your exam, just remember the highest number is the right answer for this one: Part 97.

T1A01 (C) [97.1]

Which of the following is a purpose of the Amateur Radio Service as stated in the FCC rules and regulations?

A. Providing personal radio communications for as many citizens as possible

B. Providing communications for international non-profit organizations

C. Advancing skills in the technical and communication phases of the radio art

D. All of these choices are correct

The only correct answer here is the phrase that appears almost verbatim in Part 97, having to do with the technical and communication phases of the radio art.

The purpose of the amateur service is not to provide personal communications for “as many citizens as possible.” That phrase does not appear anywhere in Part 97.

While we might, from time to time, assist all sorts of non-profit organizations, providing communications for them is not a stated purpose of the Amateur Radio Service.

By the way, in the question pool, there are 54 possible questions for your test that include the answer “All of these choices are correct” as one of the answers. Of those 54, that answer is correct for only 18 of them. The odds of “All of these choices are correct” being the correct answer to any given question are 2 to 1 against. So if you completely blank out on a question when you're taking the test, and just have to make a random guess, don't go for “all of these choices are correct.”

That said, it's probably better to actually know the material than depend on guesswork, right?

T1A05 (A) [97.1 (e)]

Which of the following is a purpose of the Amateur Radio Service rules and regulations as defined by the FCC?

A. Enhancing international goodwill

B. Providing inexpensive communication for local emergency organizations

C. Training of operators in military radio operating procedures

D. All of these choices are correct

This is somewhat like the previous question, isn't it? You'll find the question pool often covers the same topic in more than one question.

You can get to the correct answer to this one by eliminating B and C, neither of which are defined as jobs for us by the FCC. B is something we certainly might do as volunteers, but it's not defined as a purpose of the service. C would require us to do something for which we're not qualified.

T1A04 (C) [97.3(a)(23)]

Which of the following meets the FCC definition of harmful interference?

A. Radio transmissions that annoy users of a repeater

B. Unwanted radio transmissions that cause costly harm to radio station apparatus

C. That which seriously degrades, obstructs, or repeatedly interrupts a radio communication service operating in accordance with the Radio Regulations

D. Static from lightning storms

It's rude, crude, and unattractive to annoy other users, and one hopes you won't do it, but by golly, this is America and it isn't illegal to be annoying.

It's remotely possible a radio transmission could cause costly harm to radio station apparatus, but that's not the definition of harmful interference, nor is “harmful” interference the interference that would come from a lightning storm.

The only answer here that appears in Part 97 is That which seriously degrades, obstructs, or repeatedly interrupts a radio communication service operating in accordance with the Radio Regulations. (It's the answer that sounds like a lawyer wrote it.)

T1A11 (B) [97.101 (d)]

When is willful interference to other amateur radio stations permitted?

A. Only if the station being interfered with is expressing extreme religious or political views

B. At no time

C. Only during a contest

D. At any time, amateurs are not protected from willful interference

It's not just a violation of the unwritten community standards of amateur radio to willfully interfere with another amateur station, it's illegal, and one of the areas where the FCC will act quite forcefully, often levying sizable (think $25,000) fines in addition to revoking licenses.

In practice, amateur radio is very much a self-policing community, and there is not a big volume of FCC enforcement actions related to our service. This has served us well through the decades.

Demand for space on the electromagnetic spectrum has grown and grown. The FCC could easily have taken away some or even all of our spectrum space. The amateur radio hobby, however, continues to grow and thrive. I suggest – and the FCC has officially said – that this is due in large part to the fact that one of the foundations of the amateur service is a commitment to operating within the rules and for the benefit of all.

T1A06 (D) [97.101 (d), 97.303 (o)(2)]

Which of the following services are protected from interference by amateur signals under all circumstances?

A. Citizens Radio Service

B. Broadcast Service

C. Land Mobile Radio Service

D. Radionavigation Service

The key phrase in this question is “under ALL circumstances.” It's illegal to interfere with any of those services, except in an emergency. The regulations say, “When it comes to radionavigation, you don't even interfere with them in an emergency.”

This makes sense, doesn't it? I doubt anyone's life will be immediately endangered if you happen to briefly interfere with the local radio station, but you certainly could create a very immediate hazard if you interfered with an airplane's navigation system.

T1A14 (A) [97.303(d)]

What must you do if you are operating on the 23 cm band and learn that you are interfering with a radiolocation station outside the United States?

A. Stop operating or take steps to eliminate the harmful interference

B. Nothing, because this band is allocated exclusively to the amateur service

C. Establish contact with the radiolocation station and ask them to change frequency

D. Change to CW mode, because this would not likely cause interference

Remember the question about interfering with radionavigation? A radiolocation station is part of a radionavigation system and you must not interfere with it at any time.

(And it really doesn't matter if it is inside the United States or outside, nor does it matter whether or not you are on the 23 cm band. Interfering with radionavigation is a Bad Idea.)

T1A07 (C) [97.3(a)(46)]

What is the FCC Part 97 definition of telemetry?

A. An information bulletin issued by the FCC

B. A one-way transmission to initiate, modify or terminate functions of a device at a distance

C. A one-way transmission of measurements at a distance from the measuring instrument

D. An information bulletin from a VEC

You'll want to know the difference between telemetry and telecommand.

This question asks about telemetry and the key words in the correct answer are one-way and measurements.

T1A13 (C) [97.3(a)(45)]

What is the FCC Part 97 definition of telecommand?

A. An instruction bulletin issued by the FCC

B. A one-way radio transmission of measurements at a distance from the measuring instrument

C. A one-way transmission to initiate, modify or terminate functions of a device at a distance

D. An instruction from a VEC

This is the mirror-image twin of question T1A07 that dealt with telemetry. Now they're asking about telecommand. Here the key phrase is “initiate, modify or terminate.” Telecommand is about command – controlling functions of something at a distance.

The other term, Telemetry, is about “metering” – measuring something.

T1F09 (C) [97.3(a)(40)]

What type of amateur station simultaneously retransmits the signal of another amateur station on a different channel or channels?

A. Beacon station

B. Earth station

C. Repeater station

D. Message forwarding station

The Technician exam asks quite a few questions about repeaters. They are a big part of the ham world. Think of them as high-power relays for your lower power mobile or hand-held radio. They extend our range by large amounts. Here in Western Washington state I've been in the northern Puget Sound area and used my 5 watt hand-held radio to hook up to a repeater that let me talk with someone way down near Olympia, WA, about 70 miles away. That's pretty amazing for a little radio you can hide in your pocket!

A repeater is a receiver plus a transmitter. The receiver is hooked up to the transmitter, and whatever the receiver “hears” gets transmitted. The receiver and transmitter use separate frequencies so one doesn't interfere with the other. The difference between the “listen” frequency and the “transmit” frequency is called the offset.

Usually repeaters are placed in sites that are favorable to sending and receiving like a mountaintop or tall building.

T4B11 (C)

Which of the following describes the common meaning of the term "repeater offset"?

A. The distance between the repeater's transmit and receive antennas

B. The time delay before the repeater timer resets

C. The difference between the repeater's transmit and receive frequencies

D. Matching the antenna impedance to the feed line impedance

In the diagram above, the repeater has a 600 kHz positive offset – it transmits on 147.080 and receives on 147.680.

T1A08 (B) [97.3(a)(22)]

Which of the following entities recommends transmit/receive channels and other parameters for auxiliary and repeater stations?

A. Frequency Spectrum Manager

B. Frequency Coordinator

C. FCC Regional Field Office

D. International Telecommunications Union

There are dozens of repeaters on different frequencies within range of my house, and any licensed ham can put up a repeater if they so choose (so long as it operates on frequencies for which the ham is licensed, of course, and it doesn't create harmful interference.)

If no one coordinated the frequencies of all those repeaters, interference chaos would quickly ensue, making the whole mess useless to everyone. The FCC certainly doesn't want the job, and hams wouldn't want the burden of what would inevitably be a crushing amount of paperwork and red tape if the FCC did take the job. Enter the local Frequency Coordinator. This is typically a committee of interested and active hams who take on the job of coordinating the various frequencies used by repeater (and auxiliary) stations in their area. No official law specifically governs the process, there's no big bureaucracy to enforce it, but as a community, hams abide by the coordinators' decisions because it makes the system work for everyone

T1A09 (C) [97.3(a)(22)]

Who selects a Frequency Coordinator?

A. The FCC Office of Spectrum Management and Coordination Policy

B. The local chapter of the Office of National Council of Independent Frequency Coordinators

C. Amateur operators in a local or regional area whose stations are eligible to be auxiliary or repeater stations

D. FCC Regional Field Office

You know the FCC isn't involved in this, so you can eliminate A and D right away.

Just so you know, there's no such thing as the “Office of National Council of Independent Frequency Coordinators.”

T1A10 (A) [97.3(a)(5)]

What is the FCC Part 97 definition of an amateur station?

A. A station in the Amateur Radio Service consisting of the apparatus necessary for carrying on radio communications

B. A building where Amateur Radio receivers, transmitters, and RF power amplifiers are installed

C. Any radio station operated by a non-professional

D. Any radio station for hobby use

A station could be an extensive custom ham shack containing dozens of pieces of equipment, a tiny hand-held VHF/UHF transceiver, or even your local club's equipment set up outdoors in a park on Field Day. No “building” is required, so answer B is out. Answers C and D don't include the phrase Amateur Radio, so they're out as well. Remember the key phrase Amateur Radio Service.

T1A12 (D)

Which of the following is a permissible use of the Amateur Radio Service?

A. Broadcasting music and videos to friends

B. Providing a way for amateur radio operators to earn additional income by using their stations to pass messages

C. Providing low-cost communications for start-up businesses

D. Allowing a person to conduct radio experiments and to communicate with other licensed hams around the world

Your amateur license is not for broadcasting to the public. If you want to do that you need a commercial radio station license. (Bring money. Lots of it.) This gets a little confusing since radio transmissions are, by their very nature, “broadcast”, but what the FCC is looking at here is your intention and content. It is, by the way, perfectly fine to broadcast about amateur radio to other amateurs. For example, the ARRL operates a station – W1AW – that broadcasts amateur radio news and code practice to amateurs.

You cannot transmit any music at all, with the sole exception being when that music is incidental to an authorized re-transmission of manned spacecraft communications.

It's probably obvious that the very word “amateur” implies that transmitting on the ham bands is to be a hobby, not a business, nor even a part of a business. The rules forbid you from engaging in any communication in which you or your employer have a pecuniary interest. That even includes using your mobile radio to call into work to let them know you'll be late.

In fact, the only time most of us are likely to be allowed to be paid to operate an amateur radio station is when we're employed as a teacher and the use of the equipment is incidental to our teaching employment. In other words, a teacher who is a ham doesn't have to send back the portion of their paycheck that would correspond to the time he or she spent having their class talk with the International Space Station via ham radio. (There are two more exceptions, which we will cover later, but as you'll see they occur in very rare circumstances.)

T1D10 (D) [97.3(a)(10)]

What is the meaning of the term "broadcasting" in the FCC rules for the amateur services?

A. Two-way transmissions by amateur stations

B. Transmission of music

C. Transmission of messages directed only to amateur operators

D. Transmissions intended for reception by the general public

Amateurs are not permitted to broadcast to the general public.

T1D09 (A) [97.113(5)(b)]

Under which of the following circumstances are amateur stations authorized to transmit signals related to broadcasting, program production, or news gathering, assuming no other means is available?

A. Only where such communications directly relate to the immediate safety of human life or protection of property

B. Only when broadcasting communications to or from the space shuttle

C. Only where noncommercial programming is gathered and supplied exclusively to the National Public Radio network

D. Only when using amateur repeaters linked to the Internet

Not only are we prohibited from broadcasting directly to the general public, we're also not to transmit anything related to broadcasting, program production, or news gathering, unless it is an emergency directly related to the immediate safety of human life or protection of property. Sorry 'bout that, CNN, but you're pretty much on your own.

In general, if you find yourself in a situation where the immediate safety of human life or protection of property is at stake and you can somehow help with your ham radio, throw the rule book out the window and do what needs to be done. The FCC specifically says you have permission to do this. (Except you still can't interfere with radionavigation services.)

T1D12 (B) [97.111(b)(4,5,6)

Under which of the following circumstances may an amateur radio station engage in broadcasting?

A. Under no circumstances

B. When transmitting code practice, information bulletins, or transmissions necessary to provide emergency communications

C. At any time as long as no music is transmitted

D. At any time as long as the material being transmitted did not originate from a commercial broadcast station

Remember the common sense of “in a real emergency – and only in a real emergency – throw away the rule book” and you'll remember the right answer to this question because it is the only one that mentions “emergency communications.”

T2C01 (D) [97.103(a)]

When do the FCC rules NOT apply to the operation of an amateur station?

A. When operating a RACES station

B. When operating under special FEMA rules

C. When operating under special ARES rules

D. Never, FCC rules always apply

Got it? Even though the FCC rules allow you to throw away almost all of the FCC rules in an emergency, you'd still be operating by the FCC rules so the FCC rules ALWAYS apply!

Chapter 4 - Wavelengths and Frequencies

With your Technician License you can transmit on the following frequencies:

Frequency

Band

50.1 – 54.0 MHz

6 meter band

144.1 – 148.0 MHz

2 meter band, "VHF", or "144"

222.0 – 225.0 MHz

1.25 meter band, aka “222”

420.0 – 450.0 MHz

70 cm band, “UHF” or "420"

902.0 – 928.0 MHz

33 cm band

1240 – 1300 MHz

the 23 cm band

Those are the main frequencies with which you’ll most likely be concerned, but you also get some Morse Code Only privileges on 80, 40, and 15 meters, single sideband phone and data on a small portion of the 10 meter band. And then there are the ham frequencies up in the GigaHertz range, on which you have unlimited privileges along with every other ham except holders of the old Novice class license. By far the most active bands of those listed are the 144 and 420 MHz VHF/UHF bands.

You do not have to memorize all those frequencies for the test. When you get your license, go to the arrl.org web site and download a frequency chart for yourself. http://www.arrl.org/graphical-frequency-allocations

T1B04 (A) [97.301(a)]

Which amateur band are you using when your station is transmitting on 146.52 MHz?

A. 2 meter band

B. 20 meter band

C. 14 meter band

D. 6 meter band

You'll often hear hams referring to the such-and-such “meter band”, or saying something like, “20 meters opened up and I was talking to Japan!” It's a shorthand way to refer to a particular set of frequencies by their wavelength in meters. Each band has its own particular set of characteristics, opportunities, and challenges.

Why are we so interested in wavelength? Wavelength affects everything about radio, from the size and shape of our antenna to the type of wire required for the feed line between the antenna and transceiver, and even the propagation results we can expect. The ham bands cover wavelengths from 160 meters – about 525 feet, or 1¾ football fields – to less than a millimeter. That's quite a range of scale.

We calculate wavelength by dividing the speed of light in meters by the frequency. Don't panic. The speed of light in meters is very close to 300,000,000 meters per second. To simplify, we divide 300 by the frequency in MHz. The “millions” balance out and the answer comes out in meters.

It's important to remember when we speak of, say, the 2 meter band, that's a range of frequencies. Not all of them are going to come out to precisely 2 meters.

So what is wavelength? A radio signal is an oscillating signal, going from zero to maximum positive voltage, back to zero, to maximum negative voltage, and finally back to zero. That whole journey is called a cycle. If we graph it, with time going left to right, and voltage going from the bottom to the top, the wave looks something like this:

We can measure wavelength from “crest to crest” or “node to node.” The “node” is where the line crosses the zero point. How we measure it makes no difference, but it is always the measurement of one complete cycle of zero to positive, back to zero, to negative, and finally back to zero.

The number of cycles per second (Hertz) is the frequency of the signal. Because radio waves are moving away from the antenna at the speed of light, we can think of them as waves. If we could somehow see those cycles in the air, we could measure one with our handy radio wave tape measure and we'd know the wavelength.

Every frequency has a wavelength. The higher the frequency, the shorter the wavelength.

Since those radio wave tape measures are hard to find, it's a good thing we can use simple math to figure out the wavelength of any frequency. Here's the formula for calculating the wavelength in meters:

300/Frequency in Megahertz. (A Megahertz is one million Hertz, or cycles per second.)

For this question, 300/146.52 = 2.047 or, roughly, 2 meters, making A the correct answer. You'll be able to use this simple calculation to solve several of the questions in this section. Here are the exact key strokes to use on most calculators and the answer you should get after you press the right buttons:

T3B01 (C)

What is the name for the distance a radio wave travels during one complete cycle?

A. Wave speed

B. Waveform

C. Wavelength

D. Wave spread

A radio wave travels one wavelength during one complete cycle.

T3B04 (A)

How fast does a radio wave travel through free space?

A. At the speed of light

B. At the speed of sound

C. Its speed is inversely proportional to its wavelength

D. Its speed increases as the frequency increases

Don't get tripped up by those fancy technical-sounding answers – radio waves travel in free space at the speed of light, no matter what their frequency.

T3B11 (B)

What is the approximate velocity of a radio wave as it travels through free space?

A. 3000 kilometers per second

B. 300,000,000 meters per second

C. 300,000 miles per hour

D. 186,000 miles per hour

That's why we divide MHz into 300 to find wavelength. Or if you really like pressing calculator buttons, divide the Hertz into 300,000,000.

T3B06 (D)

What is the formula for converting frequency to approximate wavelength in meters?

A. Wavelength in meters equals frequency in hertz multiplied by 300

B. Wavelength in meters equals frequency in hertz divided by 300

C. Wavelength in meters equals frequency in megahertz divided by 300

D. Wavelength in meters equals 300 divided by frequency in megahertz

And if you want to convert frequency to wavelength, simply divide 300 by the frequency in megahertz. Either way, it's 300 divided by the known quantity.

T3B05 (B)

How does the wavelength of a radio wave relate to its frequency?

A. The wavelength gets longer as the frequency increases

B. The wavelength gets shorter as the frequency increases

C. There is no relationship between wavelength and frequency

D. The wavelength depends on the bandwidth of the signal

LONGER = LOWER.

SHORTER = HIGHER.

T3B07 (A)

What property of radio waves is often used to identify the different frequency bands?

A. The approximate wavelength

B. The magnetic intensity of waves

C. The time it takes for waves to travel one mile

D. The voltage standing wave ratio of waves

T1B05 (C) [97.301(a)]

Which 70 cm frequency is authorized to a Technician Class license holder operating in ITU Region 2?

A. 53.350 MHz

B. 146.520 MHz

C. 443.350 MHz

D. 222.520 MHz

First, don't be thrown off by that business about “in ITU Region 2.” If you're in the United States, you're in ITU Region 2.

Before you start feverishly trying to remember the entire ham band frequency table, let’s figure out which of those frequencies listed are even in the 70 cm band.

This question starts with the wavelength (70 cm = 0.7 meters) and, really, asks for the frequency. Here's the formula:

300/wavelength in meters = frequency.

300/0.7 = 428.571. This doesn't exactly match any of the answers, but the only one that's even close is C, 443.350 MHz, and that's the correct answer.

T1B06 (B) [97.301(a)]

Which 23 cm frequency is authorized to a Technician Class licensee?

A. 2315 MHz

B. 1296 MHz

C. 3390 MHz

D. 146.52 MHz

300/0.23 = 1304.34. Again, not quite a match for any of the answers, but B is the closest.

T1B07 (D) [97.301(a)]

What amateur band are you using if you are transmitting on 223.50 MHz?

A. 15 meter band

B. 10 meter band

C. 2 meter band

D. 1.25 meter band

300/223.5 = about 1.25 meters.

T1B03 (B) [97.301(a)]

Which frequency is within the 6 meter band?

A. 49.00 MHz

B. 52.525 MHz

C. 28.50 MHz

D. 222.15 MHz

Of all the frequency/wavelength questions in this section, this is the only one you can't solve with simple math. 300/6 = 50, so it could be either answer A or B. You'll just have to memorize that the answer for the 6 meter question is 52.525 MHz.

T1B08 (A) [97.303]

Which of the following is a result of the fact that the amateur service is secondary in some portions of the 70 cm band?

A. U.S. amateurs may find non-amateur stations in the bands, and must avoid interfering with them

B. U.S. amateurs must give foreign amateur stations priority in those portions

C. International communications are not permitted on 70 cm

D. Digital transmissions are not permitted on 70 cm

The 430–450 MHz portion of the 70 cm band is designated specifically as a “secondary” frequency allocation for the amateur service. That means we must not interfere with a primary user and we don't get to complain about interference from those users. So if you turn on your UHF radio and hear police calls on a frequency, don't hit the mic switch and announce that they are “on the wrong band!” I doubt the police would be amused.

There also some geographical restrictions on portions of the 70 cm band for those of us in the far northern parts of the lower 48. It isn't mentioned in the Technician exam, but if you're close to the Canadian border, don't use the 420 – 430 MHz portion of 70 cm until you familiarize yourself with “Line A” in the FCC regulations. The Canadians did not allocate those frequencies to the amateur service.

T1B09 (D) [97.101(a), 97.301(a-e)]

Why should you not set your transmit frequency to be exactly at the edge of an amateur band or sub-band?

A. To allow for calibration error in the transmitter frequency display

B. So that modulation sidebands do not extend beyond the band edge

C. To allow for transmitter frequency drift

D. All of these choices are correct

When the FCC says the amateur frequencies for the 2 meter band go up to 148.0 MHz, they seriously mean 148.00000000, not 148.0 plus a little “oops, didn't think about that!” This is why the FCC wants you to at least know that such things as calibration error, modulation sidebands, and transmitter frequency drift all exist.

T1B10 (C) [97.301(e), 97.305(c)]

Which of the bands above 30 MHz that are available to Technician Class operators have mode-restricted sub-bands?

A. The 6 meter, 2 meter, and 70 cm bands

B. The 2 meter and 13 cm bands

C. The 6 meter, 2 meter, and 1.25 meter bands

D. The 2 meter and 70 cm bands

Parts of the 6, 2, and 1.25 meter bands are reserved for particular types of signals, or “modes.”

Since all the wrong answers include wavelengths shorter than a meter, remember, “On wavelengths shorter than a meter, any mode is okay..”

T1B13 (B) [97.305(c)]

Which emission may be used between 219 and 220 MHz?

A. Spread spectrum

B. Data

C. SSB voice

D. Fast-scan television

Remember, 219 to 220 MHz – the bottom of the 1.25 meter band – is reserved for Fixed Digital Message Forwarding Systems only, and that's Data.

Chapter 5 - Your Call Sign

Your call sign is your ham “name” that you will use to identify yourself on the air. The FCC will assign your call sign after you pass your license exam. Call signs are assigned sequentially – KX5AAA, then KX5AAB, etc.

Call signs come in different formats, but they all include at least one letter, then a number, then at least one more letter. The formats are assigned according to a wonderfully (?) complex formula. Good news, you don't need to memorize the entire formula for any level of amateur test, but you do need to know some basics.

Let's start with the short version of this call sign topic.

Each US call sign has a one letter prefix (K, N, W) or a two letter prefix (AA-AL, KA-KZ, NA-NZ, WA-WZ) and a one, two, or three letter suffix separated by a numeral (0-9) indicating the geographic region. Certain combinations of letters are not used. When the call signs in any regional-group list are exhausted, the selection is made from the next lower group.

The format of a call can be described as “something by something”, for instance “2 x 3.” A 2 x 3 call sign would be one with a two letter prefix, a region number, then a three letter suffix. “KG7NVJ” is a 2 x 3 call. As a Technician Class licensee, your call sign will be a 1 x 3 or (much more likely) a 2 x 3. In other words, one or two letters, then a number, then three letters.

Shorter call signs than 1 x 3 are reserved for Amateur Extra Class licenses and Special Event Call Signs. (They were also reserved for the now discontinued Advanced Class licenses.)

These are all valid formats for US amateur call signs:

2 x 3 Call Signs for Technician, General Class -- AA7XXX, KX7XXX, NX7XXX, WX7XXX

1 x 3 Call Signs for Technician, General Class -- K7XXX, N7XXX, W7XXX

2 x 2 Call Signs for Amateur Extra Class and grandfathered Advanced Class -- AA7XX, KX7XX, NX7XX, WX7XX

1 x 2 Call Signs for Amateur Extra Class and grandfathered Advanced Class -- A7XX, N7XX, W7XX

1 x 1 Call Signs for Special Event Stations -- K7X, N7X, W7X

You have the option of applying for what the FCC calls a “Vanity Call Sign”, much like the vanity license plates your state probably sells. There is a small fee for the service, and you can only be granted a call sign that would be used for your class of license or lower. A Technician will not be given a short Extra Class call sign.

An amateur radio club may apply for its own call sign, and temporary 1x1 call signs can be granted for special events.

All US amateur call signs begin with either A, K, N or W.

The number in the middle indicates the region of the mailing address you give when you fill out your license application. 1 is Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont; 2 is New Jersey and New York, etc. If you hear a ham say something like, “Greetings from 6 land!” that's “Howdy from California!” You’ll find the full list at

http://wireless.fcc.gov/services/index.htm?id=amateur&job=call_signs_1

The last letter or letters are assigned by the FCC computer and have no official meaning.

Finally, if you upgrade to Amateur Extra class, you are not required to change your call sign to a shorter call sign. It's your choice.

T1C01 (C) [97.3(a)(11)(iii)]

Which type of call sign has a single letter in both its prefix and suffix?

A. Vanity

B. Sequential

C. Special event

D. In-memoriam

Here's what the FCC has to say about Special Event call signs:

When transmitting in conjunction with an event of special significance, an amateur station ("special event station") may transmit the identification announcement using a special event call sign ...

Substituting a special event call sign for its assigned call sign may help a special event station call attention "on-air" to its participation in the special event and to the unique opportunity for the amateur service community to exchange greetings with the station.

Use of these provisions, however, must not detract from the station making the source of its transmissions known to those receiving them. The special event station must also transmit its assigned call sign at least once per hour during such operation.

T1C02 (B)

Which of the following is a valid US amateur radio station call sign?

A. KMA3505

B. W3ABC

C. KDKA

D. 11Q1176

Answer A is a made-up call sign that resembles a typical commercial or public service two-way station such as police radio.

Answer C is a rather famous AM radio station in Pittsburgh, PA, said by some to be the first commercial broadcasting station in history. Definitely not a ham station.

Answer D is also fictional, but looks (very) vaguely like an aircraft radio call sign.

The only answer here that looks remotely like an amateur radio call sign is B. (It actually is a real call sign. I wonder if W3ABC knows he's famous?)

T1C05 (A)

Which of the following is a vanity call sign which a technician class amateur operator might select if available?

A. K1XXX

B. KA1X

C. W1XX

D. All of these choices are correct

Choices B and C here are for Amateur Extra or grandfathered Amateur Advanced licensees. The correct answer is the 1 x 3 call sign, K1XXX. (Yep, that's a real ham's call sign, too.)

T1C12 (D) [97.19]

Who may select a desired call sign under the vanity call sign rules?

A. Only licensed amateurs with general or extra class licenses

B. Only licensed amateurs with an extra class license

C. Only an amateur licensee who has been licensed continuously for more than 10 years

D. Any licensed amateur

Yes, the FCC will be delighted to accept money ($13.30 at this writing) from any licensed amateur to give them a vanity call sign. The process is a bit complicated and has to be done just right, so the folks at W5YI.org have a service to walk your application through the steps. They charge a fee for that service

One service they provide is allowing family members to effectively transfer their call signs. That W3ABC call, for instance, seems to have now been held by three members of the family, perhaps grandfather to father to son.

T1C14 (D) [97.21(a) (1)]

Who may select a vanity call sign for a club station?

A. Any Extra Class member of the club

B. Any member of the club

C. Any officer of the club

D. Only the person named as trustee on the club station license grant

A club station license allows members of an amateur radio club to have a station operating under a club call sign. The license is granted only to the trustee of the club. It conveys no operating privileges.

To be granted a club station license, a club must have:

- A name and a document of organization.

- Management and at least four members.

- A primary purpose devoted to amateur service activities consistent with the FCC Rules

- A license trustee designated by an officer of the club. The trustee must hold an amateur service operator license grant.

Chapter 6 - About Your License

T1C07 (B) [97.23]

What may result when correspondence from the FCC is returned as undeliverable because the grantee failed to provide the correct mailing address?

A. Fine or imprisonment

B. Revocation of the station license or suspension of the operator license

C. Require the licensee to be re-examined

D. A reduction of one rank in operator class

It's important you keep a valid mailing address on file at the FCC. If they send you mail that is returned as undeliverable, they may – and probably will – presume you no longer wish to have an FCC license.

T1C08 (C) [97.25]

What is the normal term for an FCC-issued primary station/operator amateur radio license grant?

A. Five years

B. Life

C. Ten years

D. Twenty years

“An FCC-issued primary station/operator amateur radio license grant” is the official name of your amateur radio license. When you get yours, you can tell all your friends, “It’s not just a ham license, they gave me an FCC issued primary station/operator amateur radio license!” You’ll be very popular.

It's good for ten years from the time it is issued, then you must renew it if you want it to remain valid.

T1C09 (A) [97.21(a)(b)]

What is the grace period following the expiration of an amateur license within which the license may be renewed?

A. Two years

B. Three years

C. Five years

D. Ten years

If you allow your license to expire, you will still have two years in which you may renew it. During those two years, you may NOT transmit ham signals until the license is renewed.

T1C10 (C) [97.5a]

How soon after passing the examination for your first amateur radio license may you operate a transmitter on an amateur service frequency?

A. Immediately

B. 30 days after the test date

C. As soon as your operator/station license grant appears in the FCC license database

D. You must wait until you receive your license in the mail from the FCC

You don't have to wait for the mailman to deliver your new license. Just check the FCC database:

http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/searchAmateur.jsp

You'll need to enter your name in the format Last Name, First Name. Once your call sign is listed, you can go on the air.

T1C11 (A) [97.21(b)]

If your license has expired and is still within the allowable grace period, may you continue to operate a transmitter on amateur service frequencies?

A. No, transmitting is not allowed until the FCC license database shows that the license has been renewed

B. Yes, but only if you identify using the suffix GP

C. Yes, but only during authorized nets

D. Yes, for up to two years

That two year grace period is only for renewing your license without taking the test(s) again. Your expired license is not valid until you renew it and the FCC database shows the license has been renewed.

T1C13 (D) [97.9(a), 97.17(a)]

For which license classes are new licenses currently available from the FCC?

A. Novice, Technician, General, Advanced

B. Technician, Technician Plus, General, Advanced

C. Novice, Technician Plus, General, Advanced

D. Technician, General, Amateur Extra

There are still people who hold Novice, Technician Plus, and Advanced licenses, but the FCC is not issuing any new ones. (Those who hold them may renew them for life.)

The only new amateur licenses being issued are Technician, General and Amateur Extra. (The correct answer is the only one that lists three license classes.)

T1F12 (B) [97.5(b)(2)]

How many persons are required to be members of a club for a club station license to be issued by the FCC?

A. At least 5

B. At least 4

C. A trustee and 2 officers

D. At least 2

If you have fewer than four people in your ham club, it isn't a ham club according to the FCC. Time for a membership drive?

T1F13 (B) [97.103(c)]

When must the station licensee make the station and its records available for FCC inspection?

A. At any time ten days after notification by the FCC of such an inspection

B. At any time upon request by an FCC representative

C. Only after failing to comply with an FCC notice of violation

D. Only when presented with a valid warrant by an FCC official or government agent

When you apply for your license, you're giving the FCC permission to inspect your station any time they choose. (In practice, they seldom conduct “surprise” inspections of home stations unless there has been some history of complaints that have gone unresolved.)

Chapter 7 - International Relations

There are three different situations covered in this section, and the rules are different for each situation.  The situations are:

- A US licensed ham transmitting from the United States to another ham in a foreign country.

- A US licensed ham transmitting from a foreign country or international waters.

- A US licensed ham transmitting from the United States and either transmitting a message to a foreign country on behalf of an unlicensed person or transmitting with the intent of getting a message to an unlicensed person in a foreign country. This is called third party traffic.

T1B01 (B)

What is the ITU?

A. An agency of the United States Department of Telecommunications Management

B. A United Nations agency for information and communication technology issues

C. An independent frequency coordination agency

D. A department of the FCC

Radio waves don't stop at international borders, so without international frequency coordination there would be constant interference among all the nations' various commercial radio stations, amateur stations, television stations, and all the many other services spread out around the spectrum. It would be a mess. Just as was mentioned in the section about local frequency coordination, this would be chaos on an international scale, resulting in a system that was much less useful than it is now.

The international organization in charge of allocating frequencies worldwide is a part of the United Nations called the International Telecommunications Union, or the ITU. Their main function is frequency allocation and coordination.

The ITU has divided the world into three regions. The US is in Region 2.

T1B02 (A) [97.301]

Why are the frequency assignments for some U.S. Territories different from those in the 50 U.S. States?

A. Some U. S. Territories are located in ITU regions other than region 2

B. Territorial governments are allowed to select their own frequency allocations

C. Territorial frequency allocations must also include those of adjacent countries

D. Any territory that was in existence before the ratification of the Communications Act of 1934 is exempt from FCC frequency regulations

Once you leave Region 2 you will find frequency allocations are sometimes quite different than what we're accustomed to here. If you are traveling internationally, it is very important that you familiarize yourself with – and follow – the local laws that apply to you. Having a US ham license does not necessarily even give you the right to operate at all in another country, and certainly does not confer the right to violate their communications laws. Once you're on their territory, their laws apply.

Fortunately, US amateurs are welcome to operate in many foreign nations. Planning a trip? Check the ARRL web site for information on foreign travel with your ham radio.

T1B12 (B) [97.301]

Why are frequency assignments for U.S. stations operating maritime mobile not the same everywhere in the world?

A. Amateur maritime mobile stations in international waters must conform to the frequency assignments of the country nearest to their vessel

B. Amateur frequency assignments can vary among the three ITU regions

C. Frequency assignments are determined by the captain of the vessel

D. Amateur frequency assignments are different in each of the 90 ITU zones

Marconi sent the first Trans-Atlantic radio message in 1901, but it wasn't until 1906 that an international conference established some basic guidelines for radio frequency allocations. Comprehensive regulations weren't fully formulated until 1927. In the intervening years, services were established that weren't consistent from country to country, and many of those services were “grandfathered in” when rules were established. The result is even today there is still a certain patchwork quality to frequency assignments.

It's important to be aware of the varying assignments if you are traveling internationally and plan any amateur radio activity on your travels.

T1C03 (A) [97.117]

What types of international communications are permitted by an FCC-licensed amateur station?

A. Communications incidental to the purposes of the amateur service and remarks of a personal character

B. Communications incidental to conducting business or remarks of a personal nature

C. Only communications incidental to contest exchanges, all other communications are prohibited

D. Any communications that would be permitted by an international broadcast station

This correct answer is almost word for word from Part 97: “Transmissions to a different country, where permitted, shall be limited to communications incidental to the purposes of the amateur service and to remarks of a personal character.”

T1C04 (A) [97.107]

When are you allowed to operate your amateur station in a foreign country?

A. When the foreign country authorizes it

B. When there is a mutual agreement allowing third party communications

C. When authorization permits amateur communications in a foreign language

D. When you are communicating with non-licensed individuals in another country

Things can get quite complicated for us hams when we step outside the borders of the US and into another country with our radio.

As you might imagine, not every country is friendly to the idea of unlimited communication. We need permission from any foreign country before we operate a radio within their borders. Some nations will not even permit us to bring a radio into the country, and it would be a sad thing indeed to have to leave an expensive ham radio with the customs guards – or worse.

In many cases, that permission has been worked out between our government and theirs in the form of reciprocal operating agreements. Before you travel, do some research on the ARRL.org site so you know exactly what is permitted and what is not.

T1C06 (D) [97.5(a)(2)]

From which of the following locations may an FCC-licensed amateur station transmit, in addition to places where the FCC regulates communications?

A. From within any country that belongs to the International Telecommunications Union

B. From within any country that is a member of the United Nations

C. From anywhere within in ITU Regions 2 and 3

D. From any vessel or craft located in international waters and documented or registered in the United States

In this case, the best answer to this question is D. We're not able to operate from all of the countries that might fall into the groups mentioned in answers A, B or C.

Be aware that we're also not necessarily able to operate from the ship described in answer D, either – we need the written permission of the captain of the vessel even to bring our radio aboard, and more permission to operate it from the ship. Of course, if you're the captain of the ship in question, this shouldn't be a problem, but if you decide to take a Caribbean cruise, be sure you get permission before bringing a radio aboard.

What if you're in international waters on a ship that isn't documented or registered in the United States? Then you're effectively in the foreign country where the ship is documented or registered, and you must operate by their rules if you may operate at all.

T1D01 (A) [97.111(a)(1)]

With which countries are FCC-licensed amateur stations prohibited from exchanging communications?

A. Any country whose administration has notified the ITU that it objects to such communications

B. Any country whose administration has notified the ARRL that it objects to such communications

C. Any country engaged in hostilities with another country

D. Any country in violation of the War Powers Act of 1934

Believe it or not, as of this writing there are precisely zero countries on that list, but stay up-to-date by checking with http://wireless.fcc.gov/

By the way, you can presently talk to hams in any country but that doesn't guarantee their country will let them talk back to you.

T1F07 (B) [97.115(a)(2)]

Which of the following restrictions apply when a non-licensed person is allowed to speak to a foreign station using a station under the control of a Technician Class control operator?

A. The person must be a U.S. citizen

B. The foreign station must be one with which the U.S. has a third party agreement

C. The licensed control operator must do the station identification

D. All of these choices are correct

Notice this question deals with a non-licensed person speaking to a foreign nation. The rules are different than for licensed people.

Allowing a non-licensed person to use your station to contact a foreign country – or even passing along a message from a non-licensed person – requires that the US has what's called a third party agreement with that country.

Be clear, this is a completely different circumstance from when you, as a licensed person, talk to someone in another country on your amateur radio. This only applies if you are passing along a message to someone in a foreign country on behalf of a non-licensed person, or allowing that non-licensed person to use your equipment to contact someone in a foreign country.

You'll find an up-to-date list of permitted countries at http://www.arrl.org/third-party-operating-agreements.

You won't be asked for anything from this list, but in case you're curious here is the current list of countries with whom we have a third party agreement:

The United Nations also has arrangements with the United States to permit an amateur station regulated by the FCC to exchange messages for a third party with amateur stations 4U1ITU in Geneva, Switzerland, and 4U1VIC in Vienna, Austria.

Note this restriction only applies to passing messages from non-licensed persons. You can pass along all the messages you want from another licensed ham to any other country so long as the country isn't on the prohibited list – and there's no one on that list at the moment.

T1F11 (A) [97.115(a)]

To which foreign stations do the FCC rules authorize the transmission of non-emergency third party communications?

A. Any station whose government permits such communications

B. Those in ITU Region 2 only

C. Those in ITU Regions 2 and 3 only

D. Those in ITU Region 3 only

This is more or less a rephrasing of the previous question covering third party agreements with foreign countries – that foreign country would give permission by entering into a third-party agreement.

Chapter 8 - Content You Can and Can't Transmit

T1D02 (A) [97.111(a)(5)]

On which of the following occasions may an FCC-licensed amateur station exchange messages with a U.S. military station?

A. During an Armed Forces Day Communications Test

B. During a Memorial Day Celebration

C. During an Independence Day celebration

D. During a propagation test

Once a year, in May, amateurs are invited to make contact with select Armed Forces radio stations in a “cross band communication test.” Cross band means you listen on a military frequency, and then send on an amateur frequency. (Of course, this requires the military station to be doing the opposite.) Check the ARRL.org web site for more information if this interests you.

T1D03 (C) [97.211(b), 97.215(b)]

When is the transmission of codes or ciphers that hide the meaning of a message allowed by an amateur station?

A. Only during contests

B. Only when operating mobile

C. Only when transmitting control commands to space stations or radio control craft

D. Only when frequencies above 1280 MHz are used

We're generally prohibited from using encryption to hide the meaning of our messages in amateur radio, but in the case of telecommand of space stations we get granted an exception for security reasons.

We also get an exception if we're using ham radio for radio control of model craft such as airplanes.

T1D04 (A) [97.113(a)(4), 97.113(c)]

What is the only time an amateur station is authorized to transmit music?

A. When incidental to an authorized retransmission of manned spacecraft communications

B. When the music produces no spurious emissions

C. When the purpose is to interfere with an illegal transmission

D. When the music is transmitted above 1280 MHz

If one of the astronauts in a manned spacecraft happens to have some music playing in the background when he or she is communicating with Mission Control, it's okay to retransmit that music. Other than that, no music.

T1D05 (A) [97.113(a)(3)(ii)]

When may amateur radio operators use their stations to notify other amateurs of the availability of equipment for sale or trade?

A. When the equipment is normally used in an amateur station and such activity is not conducted on a regular basis

B. When the asking price is $100.00 or less

C. When the asking price is less than its appraised value

D. When the equipment is not the personal property of either the station licensee or the control operator or their close relatives

You can't use amateur radio to sell your magnificent 1973 Ford Pinto (“ready to be restored!”) but you can use it to sell or trade ham equipment, provided you don't do so “on a regular basis.”

What's a “regular basis?” The regulations don't define it precisely, but use your common sense.

Some amateur clubs promote on-the-air swap meets for the sale and trade of equipment.

T1D06 (B) [97.113(a)(4)]

What, if any, are the restrictions concerning transmission of language that may be considered indecent or obscene?

A. The FCC maintains a list of words that are not permitted to be used on amateur frequencies

B. Any such language is prohibited

C. The ITU maintains a list of words that are not permitted to be used on amateur frequencies

D. There is no such prohibition

No matter what George Carlin told you, there really isn't a secret FCC list of seven words you can't say on the radio. That doesn't mean “anything goes”, though.

So what can't you say? Here's another opportunity to use common sense. Think of it this way: There is no age limit on amateur radio licenses. When you're on the air, there could very well be an eight-year-old ham out there listening to you. If you wouldn't say something in front of an eight-year-old, don't say it on the radio.

T1D07 (B) [97.113(d)]

What types of amateur stations can automatically retransmit the signals of other amateur stations?

A. Auxiliary, beacon, or Earth stations

B. Auxiliary, repeater, or space stations

C. Beacon, repeater, or space stations

D. Earth, repeater, or space stations

Amateurs have gotten very clever at linking various stations together for all sorts of purposes, and covering all of them is far beyond the scope of this book. You just need to know some basics at this stage of your ham career.

A repeater, you'll recall, is a radio that retransmits signals it receives. A system like this might allow you to use a low-powered hand-held radio to “hit the repeater”, which would then retransmit your signal at high power, allowing you to talk over long distances.

An auxiliary station might be used to relay a signal to a repeater, but its primary characteristic is that it is the remote control point for another transmitter. Here's what the FCC says about auxiliary stations:

[An Auxiliary Stations is] an amateur station, other than a message forwarding system, that is transmitting communications point-to-point within a system of cooperating amateur stations [97.3(a)(7)].

1. All amateurs, except Novices, may put auxiliary stations on the air [97.201(a)].

2. An auxiliary station may transmit only on the 2 m and shorter wavelength bands, except the 144.0-144.5 MHz, 145.8-146.0 MHz, 219-220 MHz, 222.00-222.15 MHz, 431-433 MHz, and 435-438 MHz segments.

3. When there is interference, licensees are equally responsible for solving the interference, except where one station is coordinated and the other is not [97.201(c)]. Control links should be coordinated.

An auxiliary station may, under certain circumstances, be automatically controlled and may send one-way transmissions [97.201(d), (e)].

A space station is any amateur station operating from 50 kilometers or higher above the surface of the earth, such as one of our amateur satellites or the International Space Station.

Repeaters, auxiliary, and space stations are the only types of amateur stations that may automatically retransmit the signals of other amateur stations.

Chapter 9 - Control Operators and Station Licensees

T1E01 (D) [97.7(a)]

When is an amateur station permitted to transmit without a control operator?

A. When using automatic control, such as in the case of a repeater

B. When the station licensee is away and another licensed amateur is using the station

C. When the transmitting station is an auxiliary station

D. Never

The concept of control operator is an important one for you, because the control operator and the station licensee of a station are ultimately responsible for everything transmitted by that station.

Who is the station licensee? To understand this it might be helpful to delve a little into the inky shadows of FCC history.

Once upon a time, hams were issued two licenses on two certificates. One was an Operator License, the other a Station License. The station license applied to one location, and if you wanted to set up at a different location you applied for another station license. In the 1970's, the two were combined into a single certificate, but when you look at your soon-to-arrive license you'll see it still shows “Operator Privileges” and “Station Privileges” separately. Yours will say PRIMARY under Station Privileges.

The station license is your license to possess a transmitter capable of transmitting on amateur frequencies. The operator license is your license to actually operate that transmitter.

There are station licenses that come with no operating privileges – those are issued for amateur radio club stations, but to a licensed ham designated as the trustee of the club. So the station licensee is not necessarily the control operator.

If a station is transmitting, there is always a control operator. That control operator might be right there twisting the knobs, using local control. The operator might be using remote control. Or the operator may be using equipment and procedures that enable automatic control, but there is still always a control operator.

The control operator is not necessarily the person who is “talking on the microphone.” It is the licensed person who is officially operating the transmitter.

T1E05 (C) [97.3(a)(14)]

What is an amateur station control point?

A. The location of the station's transmitting antenna

B. The location of the station transmitting apparatus

C. The location at which the control operator function is performed

D. The mailing address of the station licensee

Notice the control point is not necessarily at the transmitter. If a station is operated by remote control, the control point is wherever the remote control apparatus is. If the remote control is the owner's cell phone (yes, it can be done) then it is wherever that cell phone is being used as a remote control.

T1E03 (A) [97.103(b)]

Who must designate the station control operator?

A. The station licensee

B. The FCC

C. The frequency coordinator

D. The ITU

Most likely, 99.9% of the time you are going to designate yourself as the control operator of your station, but you do have the authority to designate someone else so long as they have the appropriate class of license to operate that station.

T1E07 (D) [97.103(a)]

When the control operator is not the station licensee, who is responsible for the proper operation of the station?

A. All licensed amateurs who are present at the operation

B. Only the station licensee

C. Only the control operator

D. The control operator and the station licensee are equally responsible

Be aware that even if you hand over control of your station to someone else, you are still responsible for the proper operation of the station.

T1E04 (D) [97.103(b)]

What determines the transmitting privileges of an amateur station?

A. The frequency authorized by the frequency coordinator

B. The class of operator license held by the station licensee

C. The highest class of operator license held by anyone on the premises

D. The class of operator license held by the control operator

If you upgrade to your General Class license, you still can't grant a Technician Class licensee control operator status on any frequencies outside the Technician privileges.

What you could do, though, is allow that Technician (or even an unlicensed person) to talk on your radio on the General bands while you remain the control operator. This is done quite regularly at Field Day “GOTA” (Get On The Air) demonstrations, when members of the public get to operate ham radios and get excited about the hobby. (Do, however, note the restriction covered in question T1F07 regarding allowing non-licensed persons to contact foreign countries and the requirement for “third party agreements.”)

T1E12 (A) [97.119(e)]

When, under normal circumstances, may a Technician Class licensee be the control operator of a station operating in an exclusive Extra Class operator segment of the amateur bands?

A. At no time

B. When operating a special event station

C. As part of a multi-operator contest team

D. When using a club station whose trustee is an Extra Class operator licensee

There is simply no time under normal circumstances when you can be the control operator of a station operating outside of the Technician frequencies until you upgrade your license to a level that allows it. Of course, the one exception is in the case of an emergency.

You could talk on (or otherwise use) a radio operating on the Extra Class bands under the supervision of an Extra Class licensee, the same as an unlicensed third party, but you can't be the control operator.

T1E02 (D) [97.7(a)]

Who may a station licensee designate to be the control operator of an amateur station?

A. Any U.S. citizen or registered alien

B. Any family member of the station licensee

C. Any person over the age of 18

D. Only a person for whom an amateur operator/primary station license grant appears in the FCC database or who is authorized for alien reciprocal operation

If you loan your radio to a ham friend who holds a valid amateur license, that friend becomes the control operator of that station. (Due diligence would be to make a note to yourself regarding times, dates, and the call sign of the person you loaned it to, but there is no requirement to do so.)

If you lose your mind and loan your radio to someone who is not a ham, you are still the control operator and any violation they commit is your violation. This should tell you that putting ham equipment in the hands of unsupervised non-hams is Not A Good Idea. (Remember that business about your Station License? Technically, unlicensed people are not supposed to have a ham transmitter in their possession.)

“Alien Reciprocal Operation” refers to agreements the US has with certain countries to automatically honor each other's amateur licenses. For instance, Canadian amateurs may operate in the United States, and US hams may operate in Canada, all without filing any special paperwork. (If you're going to Canada with your radio, do be sure to carry a copy of your license, and review the operating procedures on a site such as ARRLorg.) Because Canadian operators have alien reciprocal authorization, you could designate a visiting Canadian friend as the control operator of your station if you so desired.

T1E11 (D) [97.103(a)]

Who does the FCC presume to be the control operator of an amateur station, unless documentation to the contrary is in the station records?

A. The station custodian

B. The third party participant

C. The person operating the station equipment

D. The station licensee

This is why if you designate another ham as the control operator of your station, it is wise to document, even informally, that you have done so.

T1F10 (A) [97.205(g)]

Who is accountable should a repeater inadvertently retransmit communications that violate the FCC rules?

A. The control operator of the originating station

B. The control operator of the repeater

C. The owner of the repeater

D. Both the originating station and the repeater owner

You may have seen a different version of this in older ham radio books. This rule has changed as the FCC has grappled with the nature of digital communications. It used to rather vaguely divide up responsibility between the control operator of the originating station and “possibly” the first retransmitting station. Now it's clearly the originating station.

T1D08 (B) [97.113(a)(3)(iii)]

In which of the following circumstances may the control operator of an amateur station receive compensation for operating the station?

A. When engaging in communications on behalf of their employer

B. When the communication is incidental to classroom instruction at an educational institution

C. When re-broadcasting weather alerts during a RACES net

D. When notifying other amateur operators of the availability for sale or trade of apparatus.

There are only two other exceptions, and one of them only seems to apply to one ham station in the US:

The rule says: “A station licensee or control station operator may participate on behalf of an employer in an emergency preparedness or disaster readiness test or drill, limited to the duration and scope of such test or drill, and operational testing immediately prior to such test or drill. Tests or drills that are not government-sponsored are limited to a total time of one hour per week; except that no more than twice in any calendar year, they may be conducted for a period not to exceed 72 hours.” So that’s one exception – if your employer is part of an emergency preparedness drill and you participate as a ham, you can still get paid your usual compensation.

Then there’s this part: “The control operator of a club station may accept compensation for the periods of time when the station is transmitting telegraphy practice or information bulletins, provided that the station transmits such telegraphy practice and bulletins for at least 40 hours per week; schedules operations on at least six amateur service MF and HF bands using reasonable measures to maximize coverage; where the schedule of normal operating times and frequencies is published at least 30 days in advance of the actual transmissions; and where the control operator does not accept any direct or indirect compensation for any other service as a control operator.” So far as I know, the only ham station in the US, and possibly the world, that meets these criteria is the ARRL's W1AW.

T1E08 (A) [97.3(a)(6), 97.205(d)]

Which of the following is an example of automatic control?

A. Repeater operation

B. Controlling the station over the Internet

C. Using a computer or other device to automatically send CW

D. Using a computer or other device to automatically identify

By definition, a repeater operates under automatic control. Don't be fooled by the appearance of the word “automatically” in the wrong answers.

T1E06 (A) [97.109(d)]

Under what type of control do APRS network digipeaters operate?

A. Automatic

B. Remote

C. Local

D. Manual

Like other repeaters an “APRS network digipeater” (Automatic Packet Reporting System network digital repeater) operates under automatic control.

T1E09 (D) [97.109(b)]

What type of control is being used when the control operator is at the control point?

A. Radio control

B. Unattended control

C. Automatic control

D. Local control

If you are sitting there twiddling the knobs and throwing the switches, that is local control.

T1E10 (B) [97.3(a)(39)]

Which of the following is an example of remote control as defined in Part 97?

A. Repeater operation

B. Operating the station over the Internet

C. Controlling a model aircraft, boat or car by amateur radio

D. All of these choices are correct

Chapter 10 - Station Identification

T1D11 (D) [97.119(a)]

When may an amateur station transmit without identifying?

A. When the transmissions are of a brief nature to make station adjustments

B. When the transmissions are unmodulated

C. When the transmitted power level is below 1 watt

D. When transmitting signals to control a model craft

If you sent your call sign to your model airplane, the airplane wouldn't know what to do with that information and might crash. Instead of sending your call sign, you're required to attach a tag with your name, address, and call sign to the transmitter you are using to control the model craft.

Frankly, “no license” radio control transmitters have gotten very sophisticated and specialized in the past few years, so if you’re an RC hobbyist you might wonder how much of a boon this is. Hams can use up to 1 watt of power for RC use, which may not impress you much, but we get to use much more efficient antennas than the ones on the hobby shop radios, and that can add up to longer distance control. Some hams are using this technology in conjunction with model aircraft mounted video cameras and doing some amazing stuff!

T1F01 (A)

What type of identification is being used when identifying a station on the air as Race Headquarters?

A. Tactical call sign

B. An official call sign reserved for RACES drills

C. SSID

D. Broadcast station

A tactical call sign is simply some “station name” like “walkathon headquarters” or “first aid booth” that simplifies communication during some special event. So long as it falls within the other content rules, you may use anything you want as a tactical call sign. This is often useful for special events, or during on air net sessions. Using that tactical call sign does not substitute for the usual rules about identification, though.

Don't be fooled by the answer that mentions RACES just because the question mentions “Race Headquarters.” In this case, they mean “race” like a footrace, not the Civil Defense part of amateur radio.

T1F02 (C) [97.119 (a)]

When using tactical identifiers such as "Race Headquarters" during a community service net operation, how often must your station transmit the station's FCC-assigned call sign?

A. Never, the tactical call is sufficient

B. Once during every hour

C. At the end of each communication and every ten minutes during a communication

D. At the end of every transmission

This is the same rule that applies all the time to identification.

T1F03 (D) [97.119(a)]

When is an amateur station required to transmit its assigned call sign?

A. At the beginning of each contact, and every 10 minutes thereafter

B. At least once during each transmission

C. At least every 15 minutes during and at the end of a communication

D. At least every 10 minutes during and at the end of a communication

Hey, it's the same answer again! It seems we're supposed to transmit our call signs – also known as “station identification” – at least every 10 minutes during and at the end of a communication. By the way, now you know why you've heard commercial radio so often say, “We pause now for station identification.”

T1F04 (C) [97.119(b)(2)]

Which of the following is an acceptable language to use for station identification when operating in a phone sub-band?

A. Any language recognized by the United Nations

B. Any language recognized by the ITU

C. The English language

D. English, French, or Spanish

The “English language only” rule applies only to station identification – you may carry on your conversations in any language you choose.

T1F05 (B) [97.119(b)(2)]

What method of call sign identification is required for a station transmitting phone signals?

A. Send the call sign followed by the indicator RPT

B. Send the call sign using CW or phone emission

C. Send the call sign followed by the indicator R

D. Send the call sign using only phone emission

CW – Morse Code – can be used on the phone bands. You'll often hear it on repeaters giving the required station identification.

T2A06 (A)

What must an amateur operator do when making on-air transmissions to test equipment or antennas?

A. Properly identify the transmitting station

B. Make test transmissions only after 10:00 p.m. local time

C. Notify the FCC of the test transmission

D. State the purpose of the test during the test procedure

Are you starting to think it's just about impossible to identify your station too often? You're right!

T2A07 (D)

Which of the following is true when making a test transmission?

A. Station identification is not required if the transmission is less than 15 seconds

B. Station identification is not required if the transmission is less than 1 watt

C. Station identification is only required once an hour when the transmissions are for test purposes only

D. Station identification is required at least every ten minutes during the test and at the end of the test

Every 10 minutes and at the end is the key phrase to remember on these station identification questions. Did you notice this rule never changes, no matter what the circumstance?

T1F06 (D) [97.119(c)]

Which of the following formats of a self-assigned indicator is acceptable when identifying using a phone transmission?

A. KL7CC stroke W3

B. KL7CC slant W3

C. KL7CC slash W3

D. All of these choices are correct

There are several reasons one might choose to voluntarily “self-assign” an indicator to one's call sign. Most commonly would be to indicate something like one's location or assignment when working a special event.

In this case the KL7 part of the call sign shows the amateur is (or was) an Alaskan, but is operating from the W3 call sign area – somewhere around Maryland, Delaware, or Pennsylvania.

What this question is really asking is, what is the correct way to pronounce “/”, and the answer is, you can say “stroke”, “slant” or “slash.”

Trivia bonus: KL7CC is a real call sign and belongs to a member of the committee that created the question pool for the exam.

T1F08 (D) [97.119(f)]

Which indicator is required by the FCC to be transmitted after a station call sign?

A. /M when operating mobile

B. /R when operating a repeater

C. / followed the FCC Region number when operating out of the region in which the license was issued

D. /KT, /AE or /AG when using new license privileges earned by CSCE while waiting for an upgrade to a previously issued license to appear in the FCC license database

This question refers to a situation that honestly doesn't occur very often. When it does occur, it doesn't occur for very long, and it definitely won't immediately apply to you.

Here's the scoop: First, a CSCE is a Certificate of Satisfactory Completion of Examination. It's the piece of paper you'll get when you pass your Technician exam. (Save that CSCE! It's like a receipt, and in the unlikely event your paperwork gets lost somewhere, it's your ticket to getting your license without taking the exam again.)

Since you are a new ham, you won't have any transmitting privileges until your new call sign appears in the FCC database, even if you take and pass your Technician, General and Extra tests all in one sitting. This rule only applies to people who already have a valid amateur radio license then upgrade to another level.

Let's say you operate as a Technician for a month or so, then decide to upgrade to General Class, and you go take the test and pass it. (Yay!) Once you have passed the test and have your CSCE in hand, you can walk right out to your car, switch on your radio and start using the General parts of the ham bands. No need to wait for your results to appear in the FCC database, no need to wait for the mailman to bring your new license. But, if you're using the General bands, you are required to give your call sign as “KX5XXX slash AG” (for Authorized General) until the database shows you are a General. That way, if someone listening looks up your call sign on a site like http://qrz.com, they will know you have General privileges, even though the database says you don't.

Chapter 11 - Operating Procedures

T2A01 (B)

What is the most common repeater frequency offset in the 2 meter band?

A. Plus 500 kHz

B. Plus or minus 600 kHz

C. Minus 500 kHz

D. Only plus 600 kHz

The offset of a repeater is the difference between the “listen” frequency and the “transmit” frequency.

In the 2 meter band, repeaters above 147 MHz usually use a plus offset – they're “listening” on a frequency higher than that frequency on which they transmit. Repeaters below 147 MHz use a minus offset.

Modern radios almost always handle offset almost automatically. If you set your radio to a frequency lower than 147 MHz and switch on “duplex” mode, the offset will be set up. You'll push the Push To Talk button, your radio will switch frequencies and transmit, then switch back to the correct frequency to listen when you release the button.

T2A03 (A)

What is a common repeater frequency offset in the 70 cm band?

A. Plus or minus 5 MHz

B. Plus or minus 600 kHz

C. Minus 600 kHz

D. Plus 600 kHz

On the 70 cm (UHF) band, the dividing point between plus and minus offset is 445 MHz.

All of these repeater “standards”, VHF and UHF, are not really “standard”, they're just “what's done most of the time”, but there are plenty of repeaters out there that don't follow these guidelines. As they say in TV, check your local listings.

T2A08 (D)

What is the meaning of the procedural signal “CQ”?

A. Call on the quarter hour

B. A new antenna is being tested (no station should answer)

C. Only the called station should transmit

D. Calling any station

There are at least two theories of why we use CQ for calling any station. CQ dates back to the days when radio-telegraphy was widely used, especially for international communications. One theory is that it is shorthand for “seek you.”

Another is that it sounds something like the beginning of the French word securite, which was used for “pay attention” by the international postal services.

It is entirely possible that one of those theories is true. Personally, I think “seek you” is the easier one to remember.

T2A04 (B)

What is an appropriate way to call another station on a repeater if you know the other station's call sign?

A. Say break, break then say the station's call sign

B. Say the station's call sign then identify with your call sign

C. Say CQ three times then the other station's call sign

D. Wait for the station to call CQ then answer it

The key phrase here is on a repeater. You'll find the world above 30 MHz is far less formal than the HF bands, mostly because repeaters (and FM) make transmissions much more dependable and easy to hear.

If you want to call your friend on the local repeater, you just say their call sign, then your call sign. No “break, break, CQ CQ CQ”, etc. So if you were calling me, you'd just say, “AF7KB, KG1XXX”, or “AF7KB, this is KG1XXX.”

On the HF bands, on the other hand, you want to give the people who might receive your signal time to find it, then fine-tune it, and maybe even adjust the direction of their directional beam antenna. That's why in those bands we use something like “CQ CQ CQ, KX1XXX, Kilo X-Ray One X-Ray X-Ray X-Ray, CQ CQ CQ.”

T2A09 (B)

What brief statement is often transmitted in place of “CQ” to indicate that you are listening on a repeater?

A. The words “Hello test” followed by your call sign

B. Your call sign

C. The repeater call sign followed by your call sign

D. The letters “QSY” followed by your call sign

When you're listening to a repeater, you'll often hear someone just announce their call sign and nothing else – now you'll know why they're doing that. They're saying, “Hi, I'm here, anybody out there?”

T2A12 (D)

Which of the following is a guideline to use when choosing an operating frequency for calling CQ?

A. Listen first to be sure that no one else is using the frequency

B. Ask if the frequency is in use

C. Make sure you are in your assigned band

D. All of these choices are correct

Your Technician privileges don't include much below 30 MHz; you probably won't be doing a lot of “calling CQ” until you upgrade to General unless you decide to learn Morse Code.

Still, these guidelines are good advice to follow before transmitting on any frequency.

T2A05 (C)

How should you respond to a station calling CQ?

A. Transmit CQ followed by the other station's call sign

B. Transmit your call sign followed by the other station's call sign

C. Transmit the other station's call sign followed by your call sign

D. Transmit a signal report followed by your call sign

When it comes to responding to someone, this would be the same answer if you were on a repeater. So let's say my wife (KG7NVJ) wants to call me (AF7KB). Here's how it goes:

Wife: AF7KB, KG7NVJ…

Michael: KG7NVJ, AF7KB! What's up?

T2A10 (A)

What is a band plan, beyond the privileges established by the FCC?

A. A voluntary guideline for using different modes or activities within an amateur band

B. A mandated list of operating schedules

C. A list of scheduled net frequencies

D. A plan devised by a club to indicate frequency band usage

The band plan doesn't come from the FCC, it's “our” plan for how to best divide up the frequencies we've been granted.

You'll find details of the current band plan at http://www.arrl.org/band-plan. While you visit there, you can download The Considerate Operator's Frequency Guide from http://www.arrl.org/files/file/conop.pdf.

T2A11 (D) [97.313(a)]

Which of the following is an FCC rule regarding power levels used in the amateur bands, under normal, non-distress circumstances?

A. There is no limit to power as long as there is no interference with other services

B. No more than 200 watts PEP may be used

C. Up to 1500 watts PEP may be used on any amateur frequency without restriction

D. While not exceeding the maximum power permitted on a given band, use the minimum power necessary to carry out the desired communication

Different bands and different locations (primarily along the northern border of the US) have different power level limits. You won't have to memorize them all to get your Technician Class license, but it's important to know there are limits so you'll remember to look them up when the time comes. Overriding all the limits, though, is the basic rule that you don't use more power than you need to carry out the desired communication. It's part of making the system work for everyone.

T2B01 (C)

What is the term used to describe an amateur station that is transmitting and receiving on the same frequency?

A. Full duplex communication

B. Diplex communication

C. Simplex communication

D. Multiplex communication

If you have your hand-held 2 meter radio with you, and I have mine, we can set both of our radios to transmit and receive on, say, 147.150 MHz. That's simplex communication.

A repeater “listens” on one frequency and transmits what it is receiving on another frequency at the same time. That's duplex communication. (The repeater couldn't transmit on the same frequency it is receiving, because it would be receiving its own transmission, creating all sorts of problems.)

T2A02 (D)

What is the national calling frequency for FM simplex operations in the 70 cm band?

A. 146.520 MHz

B. 145.000 MHz

C. 432.100 MHz

D. 446.000 MHz

So there you are, driving across North Dakota and wondering if there are any hams to talk to. How would you find them? You could look for local repeater frequencies or you could set your UHF mobile radio to 446.000 MHz (with simplex operation) and announce your call sign. By informal agreement, that's the calling frequency in the 70 cm band – the frequency we use for “Hey, anybody out there?” when we're not using a repeater. As you might guess, there are calling frequencies for each band.

T2B12 (A)

Under what circumstances should you consider communicating via simplex rather than a repeater?

A. When the stations can communicate directly without using a repeater

B. Only when you have an endorsement for simplex operation on your license

C. Only when third party traffic is not being passed

D. Only if you have simplex modulation capability

Simplex is “simple” – it uses one frequency. It's simpler than duplex which uses two. If you can achieve your communication by using one frequency (simplex) instead of two (duplex, through a repeater) do it!

T2B02 (D)

What is the term used to describe the use of a sub-audible tone transmitted with normal voice audio to open the squelch of a receiver?

A. Carrier squelch

B. Tone burst

C. DTMF

D. CTCSS

The Continuous Tone-Coded Squelch System is a clever way we manage to put a lot of repeaters into very little spectrum space. It's used by the vast majority of VHF and UHF repeaters. Here's how it works:

A repeater using the CTCSS system is set up so that it only retransmits signals that include a specific tone. The tones are audible, but very low on the musical scale – under 300 Hz. To use that repeater, your transmitter (or transceiver) has to be set up to send that particular tone (along with your voice, of course) while you have the Push To Talk switch pressed. The repeater hears the tone, switches on the transmitter, and re-transmits whatever you have to say. No tone, or the wrong tone? The transmitter stays off.

Just about any modern VHF/UHF radio will have the CTCSS function built in, but you'll need to learn how to program it properly to make it work with your favorite repeaters.

T2B03 (B)

Which of the following describes the muting of receiver audio controlled solely by the presence or absence of an RF signal?

A. Tone squelch

B. Carrier squelch

C. CTCSS

D. Modulated carrier

Careful! This is asking about an RF – Radio Frequency – signal, not the AF – Audio Frequency – of CTCSS. A repeater using carrier squelch simply switches on the transmitter when it hears any signal on the receive frequency.

T4B03 (D)

What is the purpose of the squelch control on a transceiver?

A. To set the highest level of volume desired

B. To set the transmitter power level

C. To adjust the automatic gain control

D. To mute receiver output noise when no signal is being received

Without a squelch control, you'd hear white noise coming blaring out of your receiver whenever it wasn't picking up someone's signal. The squelch automatically mutes the receiver unless it “hears” a certain level of RF. Once it senses that minimum level of RF, it switches on and you can hear the signal.

If your receiver has a squelch adjustment, you adjust it by turning up the volume on an unused frequency, then turning the squelch knob until you find the precise spot where it switches off the sound. That's where you want it set.

T2B04 (D)

Which of the following common problems might cause you to be able to hear but not access a repeater even when transmitting with the proper offset?

A. The repeater receiver may require an audio tone burst for access

B. The repeater receiver may require a CTCSS tone for access

C. The repeater receiver may require a DCS tone sequence for access

D. All of these choices are correct

Answer A mentions “audio tone burst.” While this could be used by US amateurs, in practice it seldom is – it is more common in commercial two-way radios systems.

The DCS mentioned in answer C stands for “Digital Coded Squelch” – less common than CTCSS, but used on some repeaters.

If you aren't using the proper squelch system, you might be able to hear but not access a repeater.

T2B05 (C)

What determines the amount of deviation of an FM (as opposed to PM) signal?

A. Both the frequency and amplitude of the modulating signal

B. The frequency of the modulating signal

C. The amplitude of the modulating signal

D. The relative phase of the modulating signal and the carrier

A radio signal starts as an unmodulated carrier – just a sine wave at a radio frequency. An unmodulated carrier doesn't carry any useful information. To add information we vary the carrier in some way, and that's called modulation.

Over the years, we've come up with several different modulation methods. The original, CW (for Continuous Wave) was the simplest. Just turn the carrier off and on to send the dots and dashes of the Morse code. It doesn’t get any simpler than that, and CW is still one of the best modes when it comes to sheer “punch through the noise and make communication happen.”

The next modulation system invented – by a brilliant Canadian named Reginald A. Fessenden -- was Amplitude Modulation, also known as AM.

Put simply, Amplitude Modulation varies the strength of the carrier proportionate to the modulating signal, such as your voice.

So here’s an unmodulated carrier.

Here’s an audio signal with a much lower frequency (longer wavelength…)

If we vary the amplitude (strength) of the carrier wave proportionate to the audio signal we end up with an Amplitude Modulated (AM) signal:

Frequency Modulation, FM, varies the frequency of the carrier proportionate to the amplitude of the modulating signal while the amplitude of the carrier wave stays the same. Think of the carrier staying the same amplitude but swinging back and forth across a spot on the radio dial rather than getting louder and softer at the same spot on the dial. The amount that carrier swings back and forth is the deviation of an FM signal. Instead of the Amplitude Modulated signal above, we get a Frequency Modulated signal:

Notice the carrier amplitude stays the same but the frequency changes.

The amount the frequency varies is called the deviation.

T2B06 (A)

What happens when the deviation of an FM transmitter is increased?

A. Its signal occupies more bandwidth

B. Its output power increases

C. Its output power and bandwidth increases

D. Asymmetric modulation occurs

The deviation of an FM transmitter is another way of saying “how much we vary the frequency of the carrier”, it makes sense that more deviation = more bandwidth.

Let's cover this business of bandwidth just a bit.

Even though we talk about radio signals being at, say, 146.820 MHz, any modulated radio signal spreads across the dial. That FM repeater at 146.820 actually spreads from about 146.8125 to 146.8275. It takes that much bandwidth to carry the 15kHz worth of information the repeater can carry.

Every modulated signal occupies some amount of bandwidth. Bandwidth relates directly to how much information we can send and how fast we can send it. You could say the bandwidth limits the information or that the information creates the bandwidth.

Information theory tells us that the amount of information we can transmit can never exceed the bandwidth of the signal. So more bandwidth gives us the capability to transmit more information. That's why fast scan amateur television needs a rather huge 6 MHz of bandwidth to transmit the 30 images per second that make up a television picture, and why FM phone tends to have greater intelligibility than SSB phone. However, less bandwidth lets us concentrate more of the transmitter's power into less space, letting our signal “punch through” more effectively. As with many things, there's always a trade-off.

T2B07 (A)

What could cause your FM signal to interfere with stations on nearby frequencies?

A. Microphone gain too high, causing over-deviation

B. SWR too high

C. Incorrect CTCSS Tone

D. All of these choices are correct

You won't make your FM radio's signal go farther by turning up the gain on your microphone, nor by shouting into it – you just make your signal distorted and possibly interfere with other stations. And while we're on the topic, shouting doesn't make your cell phone go farther, either!

T7A08 (C)

Which of the following describes combining speech with an RF carrier signal?-

A. Impedance matching

B. Oscillation

C. Modulation

D. Low-pass filtering

Combining any information – speech, data, Morse Code, a fax picture – with an RF carrier signal is modulation.

T1B11 (A) [97.301(a), 97.305 (a)(c)]

What emission modes are permitted in the mode-restricted sub-bands at 50.0 to 50.1 MHz and 144.0 to 144.1 MHz?

A. CW only

B. CW and RTTY

C. SSB only

D. CW and SSB

Let's make some sense out of those new terms first, then we'll get to the right answer for this question.

- An emission mode is “how are we modulating the signal?”

- SSB stands for Single Side Band, about which you'll learn more later, and a good deal more if you decide to upgrade to your General Class license. For now, just know it is a way of sending voice (or other sounds) using Amplitude Modulation.

- RTTY stands for Radio TeleTYpe. Originally it was a way to send messages from a teletype keyboard to a teletype printer, such as the AP or UPI teletype machines you might have seen at a newspaper's newsroom. These days, of course, those machines are long obsolete and we use computers. RTTY happens to be one of those “other sounds” mentioned above in the paragraph about SSB. It is sent as a series of tones that have a distinctive warbling sound – often using SSB transmission.

CW stands for Continuous Wave and it means the dots and dashes – Morse Code. Why not just call it MC? CW means a particular way of sending Morse Code, which happens to be the very simplest way: basically, switching the transmitter off and on to send the dots and dashes. Of all the ways we can send signals to each other, good old CW, the original radio system, is still the most consistently reliable and the one that uses the least bandwidth. (Bandwidth refers to how much of the electromagnetic spectrum is taken up by a particular signal. Sometimes you'll hear people say a particular signal is “really wide on the dial”, which means it is occupying a lot of bandwidth. The bandwidth of a signal determines how much information we can send, and how fast we can send it.)   Even though all requirements to learn Morse Code have been eliminated from the amateur license tests, “The Code” is still used extensively in amateur radio.

- It's mostly because CW uses the spectrum so efficiently that certain areas of the ham frequencies are limited to “CW Only”, so you can probably guess that “CW only” is the correct answer to this question.

T8A07 (C)

What is the primary advantage of single sideband over FM for voice transmissions?

A. SSB signals are easier to tune

B. SSB signals are less susceptible to interference

C. SSB signals have narrower bandwidth

D. All of these choices are correct

FM voice is 10 to 15 kHz wide – 10,000 to 15,000, SSB signals only about 3 kHz – 3,000.

T8A11 (B)

What is the approximate maximum bandwidth required to transmit a CW signal?

A. 2.4 kHz

B. 150 Hz

C. 1000 Hz

D. 15 kHz

T8A08 (B)

What is the approximate bandwidth of a single sideband voice signal?

A. 1 kHz

B. 3 kHz

C. 6 kHz

D. 15 kHz

T2B13 (C)

Which of the following is true of the use of SSB phone in amateur bands above 50 MHz?

A. It is permitted only by holders of a General Class or higher license

B. It is permitted only on repeaters

C. It is permitted in at least some portion of all the amateur bands above 50 MHz

D. It is permitted only on when power is limited to no more than 100 watts

SSB, Single SideBand, is permitted (though not as common as FM) in certain portions of all the amateur bands above 50 MHz, which is the 6 meter band.

T8A09 (C)

What is the approximate bandwidth of a VHF repeater FM phone signal?

A. Less than 500 Hz

B. About 150 kHz

C. Between 10 and 15 kHz

D. Between 50 and 125 kHz

T8A10 (B)

What is the typical bandwidth of analog fast-scan TV transmissions on the 70 cm band?

A. More than 10 MHz

B. About 6 MHz

C. About 3 MHz

D. About 1 MHz

Fast scan Television needs to send a new picture 30 times a second – that requires a lot of bandwidth.

T2B08 (A)

Which of the following applies when two stations transmitting on the same frequency interfere with each other?

A. Common courtesy should prevail, but no one has absolute right to an amateur frequency

B. Whoever has the strongest signal has priority on the frequency

C. Whoever has been on the frequency the longest has priority on the frequency

D. The station which has the weakest signal has priority on the frequency

It seems what the FCC is telling us here is, “Play nice and work it out amicably among yourselves.” Amazingly enough, hams have been doing just that for nearly 100 years.

T2B09 (A) [97.119(b)(2)]

Which of the following methods is encouraged by the FCC when identifying your station when using phone?

A. Use of a phonetic alphabet

B. Send your call sign in CW as well as voice

C. Repeat your call sign three times

D. Increase your signal to full power when identifying

There is a semi-official phonetic alphabet, known as the NATO Phonetic Alphabet. Here it is:

There is no legal requirement for us as amateurs to use this particular alphabet, but it is a well-constructed and tested one, and one that is broadly understood in the ham community.

On the other hand, one of the best ham radio teachers ever, Gordon West, WB6NOA, has been calling himself “WB6 Nancy Ocean America” for years, even though the “official” alphabet would have him as “Whiskey Bravo Six November Oscar Alpha”, so whatever works for you and the person receiving you is just fine.

T2C03 (C)

What should be done to insure that voice message traffic containing proper names and unusual words are copied correctly by the receiving station?

A. The entire message should be repeated at least four times

B. Such messages must be limited to no more than 10 words

C. Such words and terms should be spelled out using a standard phonetic alphabet

D. All of these choices are correct

Hams all over the world participate in handling traffic – passing along messages from one person to another. Some have to do with ham radio, others are from non-hams to non-hams, and some are emergency traffic.

Now, honestly, in a world where one can make international phone calls on a cell phone, and send e-mail to practically anyone on the globe in seconds, is there anyone who would track down a ham to send a, “Hi, mom, having a great time in Omaha, wish you were here” message? Probably not. So why do we have traffic nets? In times of emergency, sometimes we're the only way to get messages in and out of a disaster area, and traffic nets keep us in practice and maintain a structure for passing those messages.

You'll probably get a few “welcome to ham radio!” messages from hams via the traffic net when you receive your license.

As you might imagine, passing along the message accurately is important. The standard phonetic alphabet really helps cut down confusion created by interference, the tiny speakers we often have in our radios, the “low-fidelity” nature of most ham transmissions, and noisy environments.

T2B10 (A)

Which Q signal indicates that you are receiving interference from other stations?

A. QRM

B. QRN

C. QTH

D. QSB

Hams use all sorts of what are known as Q signals, especially when sending Morse code. Q signals were first developed by the early telegraphers and are a form of shorthand – they save Morse code operators many dots and dashes. They are also understood by most hams all over the world. You can get around many language difficulties with Q signals.

You will only need to know two Q signals for your Technician exam.

QRM means interference from other stations. I suppose you could remember it as standing for “Quite a Radio Mess.”

T2B11 (B)

Which Q signal indicates that you are changing frequency?

A. QRU

B. QSY

C. QSL

D. QRZ

Here is the only other Q Signal you'll need for your exam. If you pronounce it like “quissy”, it sounds something like the “quency” in frequency, and that's a good way to remember that QSY means changing frequency.

T2C04 (D)

What do RACES and ARES have in common?

A. They represent the two largest ham clubs in the United States

B. Both organizations broadcast road and weather information

C. Neither may handle emergency traffic supporting public service agencies

D. Both organizations may provide communications during emergencies

RACES and ARES are completely separate services, but both may provide communications during emergencies.

ARES is Amateur Radio Emergency Service. ARES exists to offer emergency and auxiliary communications services for public safety organizations. It is a program of the ARRL and is organized and run by amateur radio operators. Most ARES chapters are autonomous local organizations. If you want to volunteer for ARES, contact your local ARES Emergency Coordinator. Most of the ARES chapters require active members to participate in some training so they're ready to go if the worst happens.

RACES is the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service. RACES is a Civil Defense program, created by the FCC , administered by the Federal Emergency Management Administration ( FEMA), and under the immediate control of local Civil Defense authorities. The idea of RACES was created in the early 1950's, with the purpose of creating an “on-demand” emergency radio service utilizing amateur radio operators who had been pre-cleared by the RACES authorities.

The real underlying idea of RACES was that in wartime – remember it was created early in the Cold War – the amateur service would be usurped for the purpose of Civil Defense. Since then it has proved to be useful even though we've managed to avoid a nuclear war.

To participate in RACES you must be registered with the appropriate authorities in your area.

For purposes of the test, remember that any time you see RACES the key phrase is Civil Defense.

If emergency service appeals to you, you'll no doubt be quite welcome in either or both your local ARES and RACES groups. In most areas there are regular on-air meetings – nets – of the groups, and that may be the best way to track down the contact people.

Of course, there is no requirement to provide such emergency service.

T2C05 (D) [97.3(a)(38), 97.407]

Which of the following describes the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES)?

A. A radio service using amateur frequencies for emergency management or civil defense communications

B. A radio service using amateur stations for emergency management or civil defense communications

C. An emergency service using amateur operators certified by a civil defense organization as being enrolled in that organization

D. All of these choices are correct

Any time a question asks about RACES, look for the key phrase Civil Defense. In this question that phrase appears in three answers.

T2C06 (C)

Which of the following is an accepted practice to get the immediate attention of a net control station when reporting an emergency?

A. Repeat the words SOS three times followed by the call sign of the reporting station

B. Press the push-to-talk button three times

C. Begin your transmission by saying "Priority" or "Emergency" followed by your call sign

D. Play a pre-recorded emergency alert tone followed by your call sign

Generally, Priority means, “This is pretty important and/or won't be useful a few minutes from now.” Emergency means, “Life, limb and/or property are in immediate danger, GET OFF THIS FREQUENCY NOW!”

T2C07 (C)

Which of the following is an accepted practice for an amateur operator who has checked into an emergency traffic net?

A. Provided that the frequency is quiet, announce the station call sign and location every 5 minutes

B. Move 5 kHz away from the net's frequency and use high power to ask other hams to keep clear of the net frequency

C. Remain on frequency without transmitting until asked to do so by the net control station

D. All of the choices are correct

Nets are on-air meetings, and there are all sorts of nets for all sorts of purposes. One of our local nets is a purely social “Hey, let's all check in with each other at this time each evening”, another is a very formal RACES update net, and yet another is a nightly traffic net, for the purpose of passing along messages being sent by people around the world.

An emergency traffic net would be a net set up to handle messages for people affected by an emergency, so being disciplined and efficient would be of utmost importance.

A net will typically begin with the ham serving as net control asking for check-ins from the people who want to participate. Once I've said, “This is AF7KB, Michael, in Seattle”, I'm checked in. Then I'll wait until net control says something like, “Okay, next up, AF7KB, Michael in Seattle”, then I'll say whatever I have to say. What the question is really describing is good procedure for any net, not just an emergency traffic net.

T2C08 (A)

Which of the following is a characteristic of good emergency traffic handling?

A. Passing messages exactly as received

B. Making decisions as to whether or not messages should be relayed or delivered

C. Communicating messages to the news media for broadcast outside the disaster area

D. All of these choices are correct

If it's an emergency, your job as a ham volunteer is pass messages exactly as received.

T2C09 (D)

Are amateur station control operators ever permitted to operate outside the frequency privileges of their license class?

A. No

B. Yes, but only when part of a FEMA emergency plan

C. Yes, but only when part of a RACES emergency plan

D. Yes, but only if necessary in situations involving the immediate safety of human life or protection of property

We've come across this before – if it's an emergency, the rule book says to throw out the rule book and do what needs to be done to save someone's life or property. There is no other time we can do that.

T2C10 (D)

What is the preamble in a formal traffic message?

A. The first paragraph of the message text

B. The message number

C. The priority handling indicator for the message

D. The information needed to track the message as it passes through the amateur radio traffic handling system

The preamble of a formal traffic message contains such information as the priority of the message, the originating station, the destination, how the message is to be delivered (mail, telephone, etc.) and other information to assure the proper handling of the message.

T2C11 (A)

What is meant by the term “check” in reference to a formal traffic message?

A. The check is a count of the number of words or word equivalents in the text portion of the message

B. The check is the value of a money order attached to the message

C. The check is a list of stations that have relayed the message

D. The check is a box on the message form that tells you the message was received

“Hi, mom, having a great time in Omaha, wish you were here” would have a check of 12, because it consists of 12 words.

T2C12 (A)

What is the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES)?

A. Licensed amateurs who have voluntarily registered their qualifications and equipment for communications duty in the public service

B. Licensed amateurs who are members of the military and who voluntarily agreed to provide message handling services in the case of an emergency

C. A training program that provides licensing courses for those interested in obtaining an amateur license to use during emergencies

D. A training program that certifies amateur operators for membership in the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service

Chapter 12 - Radio Waves and Propagation

T3A01 (D)

What should you do if another operator reports that your station's 2 meter signals were strong just a moment ago, but now they are weak or distorted?

A. Change the batteries in your radio to a different type

B. Turn on the CTCSS tone

C. Ask the other operator to adjust his squelch control

D. Try moving a few feet or changing the direction of your antenna if possible, as reflections may be causing multi-path distortion

Higher frequency signals tend to bounce off solid objects while lower frequency signals tend to, basically, go around those objects. Any reflection is, of course, going to take a slightly longer path to your radio than the direct line from your radio to the transmitter. This means the waves of the reflected signal are offset from the main signal, and can cancel all or part of the main signal. When this happens, we call it multi-path. Sometimes moving just a few feet is enough to correct the problem. (You've experienced this if you've ever moved an FM radio a foot or two and found “no signal” in one spot and good signal in another. Now you know what was happening.)

The correct answer mentions “changing the direction of your antenna”. All antennas are to some extent directional – they pick up and transmit signals better in some directions than in others. If you are having problems receiving or transmitting, it is worth a try to move your antenna in some direction, and sometimes with a bit of trial and error you can make big improvements with small changes. (Some of us are old enough to remember learning this lesson with the “rabbit ear” antenna on our parents' television.)

T3A06 (B)

What term is commonly used to describe the rapid fluttering sound sometimes heard from mobile stations that are moving while transmitting?

A. Flip-flopping

B. Picket fencing

C. Frequency shifting

D. Pulsing

When we experience multi-path distortion while we're in motion, it's called picket fencing. When you're driving and your car FM radio goes, “psst psst psst psst”, that's picket fencing.

T3A08 (C)

Which of the following is a likely cause of irregular fading of signals received by ionospheric reflection?

A. Frequency shift due to Faraday rotation

B. Interference from thunderstorms

C. Random combining of signals arriving via different paths

D. Intermodulation distortion

This is another way of saying multi-path. As a Technician, using mostly frequencies above 30 MHz, most of your multi-path will be the result of objects on Earth, like buildings, rocks, bridge abutments, passing semi-trucks, etc. As we move down in frequency in the HF bands, the effects of the ionosphere become more important, and the effects of things on Earth less important. This question is about multi-path bouncing off the ionosphere.

T3A10 (D)

What may occur if data signals propagate over multiple paths?

A. Transmission rates can be increased by a factor equal to the number of separate paths observed

B. Transmission rates must be decreased by a factor equal to the number of separate paths observed

C. No significant changes will occur if the signals are transmitting using FM

D. Error rates are likely to increase

Just as you might miss a couple of words the DJ is saying on your car radio when you experience some multi-path interference, your receiver might miss a few bytes of a digital transmission if it experienced multi-path.

More technically – and not on this test – some digital modes are very sensitive to the phase distortion that can occur with multi-path.

T3A05 (B)

When using a directional antenna, how might your station be able to access a distant repeater if buildings or obstructions are blocking the direct line of sight path?

A. Change from vertical to horizontal polarization

B. Try to find a path that reflects signals to the repeater

C. Try the long path

D. Increase the antenna SWR

The fact that our signals bounce around isn't necessarily a Bad Thing. By taking advantage of the fact that those waves bounce – especially VHF and UHF waves – sometimes we can make what we might call a ricochet shot to the radio we're trying to reach by pointing our directional antenna toward something that might bounce it in. It's worth a try!

T3A02 (B)

Why are UHF signals often more effective from inside buildings than VHF signals?

A. VHF signals lose power faster over distance

B. The shorter wavelength allows them to more easily penetrate the structure of buildings

C. This is incorrect; VHF works better than UHF inside buildings

D. UHF antennas are more efficient than VHF antennas

Propagation isn’t just about radio waves, it’s about the interaction of radio waves with the rest of the universe and it’s more complicated than, “short waves bounce.”

In the text just above this I mentioned higher frequency waves tend to bounce off solid objects, and that’s generally true. From that you might reason that lower frequency VHF would be less likely to bounce off the inside of a building than higher frequency UHF – and, confusingly enough, that's true, too.

However, this question isn’t asking about reflection, but absorption versus penetration.  If you are inside a perfectly solid steel building, neither VHF nor UHF is going to have much chance of escape. But buildings don’t usually “look” perfectly solid to radio waves, and the smaller UHF waves have a better chance of finding a weak spot and penetrating the walls. Think of those tiny little UHF waves slipping through a crack, out a window, or through the space between two concrete reinforcing bars.

The real, practical truth is neither VHF nor UHF are likely to work superbly when your antenna is indoors. But, UHF is the better bet.

The study of propagation of radio waves is endlessly complicated, fascinating, and still advancing.

T3A03 (C)

What antenna polarization is normally used for long-distance weak-signal CW and SSB contacts using the VHF and UHF bands?

A. Right-hand circular

B. Left-hand circular

C. Horizontal

D. Vertical

The polarization of an antenna refers to its orientation relative to the ground. For an antenna to receive a signal, it is best if it is oriented the same as the transmitting antenna.

There are technical reasons why horizontal polarization tends to work better for long distance weak-signal CW and SSB contacts on the VHF and UHF bands. By long distance, we generally mean “farther away than your usual local repeaters.”

To remember this question's answer you might imagine a long (distance) horizontal line for long distance. For shorter distances on VHF/UHF, we use vertical polarization, so imagine a short (distance) vertical line.

There is also such a thing as circular polarization, though not “left-hand circular” polarization. To picture circular polarization, imagine a whip antenna (like a typical car antenna) with a really fast motor mounted in the center so the antenna can spin. If it could spin fast enough – say, near the speed of light -- it would be as though it was both vertical and horizontal and everything in between. Well, that system is totally impractical, but we can accomplish essentially the same thing electrically through clever antenna design.

Because orbiting satellites spin, we use circularly polarized antennas for amateur satellite communications, but for long-distance weak-signal CW and SSB on the VHF and UHF bands, horizontal polarization is what works best.

T3A09 (B)

Which of the following results from the fact that skip signals refracted from the ionosphere are elliptically polarized?

A. Digital modes are unusable

B. Either vertically or horizontally polarized antennas may be used for transmission or reception

C. FM voice is unusable

D. Both the transmitting and receiving antennas must be of the same polarization

If a signal is elliptically polarized, it is both vertical and horizontal, but more one than another. Think of it as a lopsided variation of circular polarization.

T3A04 (B)

What can happen if the antennas at opposite ends of a VHF or UHF line of sight radio link are not using the same polarization?

A. The modulation sidebands might become inverted

B. Signals could be significantly weaker

C. Signals have an echo effect on voices

D. Nothing significant will happen

Again, for best results, antenna polarizations need to match.

T3A07 (A)

What type of wave carries radio signals between transmitting and receiving stations?

A. Electromagnetic

B. Electrostatic

C. Surface acoustic

D. Magnetostrictive

An antenna radiates both electric and magnetic fields. Put them together and you get electromagnetic waves.

T3B03 (C)

What are the two components of a radio wave?

A. AC and DC

B. Voltage and current

C. Electric and magnetic fields

D. Ionizing and non-ionizing radiation

T3B02 (A)

What property of a radio wave is used to describe its polarization?

A. The orientation of the electric field

B. The orientation of the magnetic field

C. The ratio of the energy in the magnetic field to the energy in the electric field

D. The ratio of the velocity to the wavelength

Remember, a transmitting antenna is radiating both an electric field and a magnetic field. The magnetic field is rotated 90 degrees from the electric field, and is not very strong relative to the electric field. It is the electric field that “does the work” of carrying your signal, so that's the polarization to which we pay attention.

I suggest you not try to picture polarization in three dimensions. I did and my head almost exploded. This is one of those things it is probably best to just take on faith.

T3B08 (B)

What are the frequency limits of the VHF spectrum?

A. 30 to 300 kHz

B. 30 to 300 MHz

C. 300 to 3000 kHz

D. 300 to 3000 MHz

The ham bands below 30 to 300 MHz are HF, for High Frequency.

30 to 300 MHz is Very High Frequency.

300 to 3000 MHz is Ultra High Frequency.

(And 300 to 3000 kHz is not in the ham bands.)

T3B09 (D)

What are the frequency limits of the UHF spectrum?

A. 30 to 300 kHz

B. 30 to 300 MHz

C. 300 to 3000 kHz

D. 300 to 3000 MHz

Always double check the units. Notice they have given you one answer with the right numbers but the wrong units. Tricky devils! Happily, there are not very many “trick answers” on the Technician exam.

T3B10 (C)

What frequency range is referred to as HF?

A. 300 to 3000 MHz

B. 30 to 300 MHz

C. 3 to 30 MHz

D. 300 to 3000 kHz

The ham frequencies below VHF are generally called HF for High Frequency. Technically, the 160 meter band gets down below HF to MF – Medium Frequency – but common usage among hams includes 160 in the HF range, and if you see a modern radio advertised as an “HF radio”, it probably also covers 160.

T3A11 (C)

Which part of the atmosphere enables the propagation of radio signals around the world?

A. The stratosphere

B. The troposphere

C. The ionosphere

D. The magnetosphere

Far above the earth, above the troposphere and the stratosphere, about 50 to 300 miles up, a very few molecules of air interact with charged particles from the sun and create the ever-changing ionosphere. Those charged particles can act as mirrors for radio waves.

As the earth rotates out of day into night, we gain access to different layers of the ionosphere. This changes which frequencies will bounce back to earth and which will just continue on into space.

As a Technician, you probably won't deal much with ionospheric effects, because VHF/UHF signals usually zap right through it. If you decide to move up to General and get more involved with the HF bands, you'll learn much more about how to take advantage of the propagation effects.

T3C01 (C)

Why are direct (not via a repeater) UHF signals rarely heard from stations outside your local coverage area?

A. They are too weak to go very far

B. FCC regulations prohibit them from going more than 50 miles

C. UHF signals are usually not reflected by the ionosphere

D. They collide with trees and shrubbery and fade out

Those UHF signals have a short wavelength – picture them being so small they shoot right by the scattered molecules up there in the thin air of the ionosphere.

T3C02 (D)

Which of the following might be happening when VHF signals are being received from long distances?

A. Signals are being reflected from outer space

B. Signals are arriving by sub-surface ducting

C. Signals are being reflected by lightning storms in your area

D. Signals are being refracted from a sporadic E layer

Sporadic E layer refers to the E layer of the ionosphere.

The ionosphere consists of several layers. The closest to the Earth – about 30 miles up – is the D layer. The D layer is only present during the day.

The E layer is next, followed by the F layers, F1 and F2. Most of the time we're able to bounce HF signals – but not VHF – off the F layers at night, achieving long distance communication. That's called skywave propagation.

Sometimes a solar storm will create dense spots in the E layer that allow us to bounce VHF signals off it and achieve long distance skywave communication with VHF, and those moments are referred to as “sporadic E.” It is not very common to be able to bounce VHF signals off the ionosphere. As you’ll see below, tropospheric effects are more common. However, for this question, “sporadic-e” is the only answer given that makes any sense at all! Neither outer space nor lightning storms reflect radio signals and “sub surface ducting” has nothing to do with radio waves.

T3C04 (B)

Which of the following propagation types is most commonly associated with occasional strong over-the-horizon signals on the 10, 6, and 2 meter bands?

A. Backscatter

B. Sporadic E

C. D layer absorption

D. Gray-line propagation

T3C03 (B)

What is a characteristic of VHF signals received via auroral reflection?

A. Signals from distances of 10,000 or more miles are common

B. The signals exhibit rapid fluctuations of strength and often sound distorted

C. These types of signals occur only during winter nighttime hours

D. These types of signals are generally strongest when your antenna is aimed west

Ever hear those “ghost” voices in a horror movie? That's what aurora signals sound like sometimes. They fade in, they fade out, they turn into whispers, they quaver … you'll never forget the experience!

T3C05 (A)

Which of the following effects might cause radio signals to be heard despite obstructions between the transmitting and receiving stations?

A. Knife-edge diffraction

B. Faraday rotation

C. Quantum tunneling

D. Doppler shift

Sometimes radio waves behave in surprising ways. Knife-edge diffraction occurs when a radio wave passes by a clearly defined edge, such as the corner of a building or perhaps the top of a mountain range, and that edge bends the path of the radio wave. Sometimes this sends our signal off in a useless direction, sometimes it almost miraculously lets our radio “see around a corner.”

T3C06 (A)

What mode is responsible for allowing over-the-horizon VHF and UHF communications to ranges of approximately 300 miles on a regular basis?

A. Tropospheric scatter

B. D layer refraction

C. F2 layer refraction

D. Faraday rotation

The troposphere is the lowest layer of the atmosphere – the layer we're walking around in. Because it has density, it affects our radio signals. Some signals are almost completely unaffected, some are affected more intensely. In the case of VHF and UHF frequencies, the troposphere bounces the signals around just enough to, in effect, bend them just over the horizon. What this means is the range of your VHF/UHF radio is just a bit farther than “line of sight.”

T3C07 (B)

What band is best suited for communicating via meteor scatter?

A. 10 meters

B. 6 meters

C. 2 meters

D. 70 cm

Hams love to try to bounce signals off things to achieve what seems impossible. In the case of communicating via meteor scatter they're attempting to bounce signals off the cylinders of ionized air molecules left, briefly, behind by meteors as they fall toward earth. (As a practical, reliable communication system, this is about as good an idea as sending smoke signals in a hurricane, but who said something had to be practical to be fun?)

Amateurs who specialize in working meteor scatter report their best results are usually in the 6 meter band.

T3C08 (D)

What causes tropospheric ducting?

A. Discharges of lightning during electrical storms

B. Sunspots and solar flares

C. Updrafts from hurricanes and tornadoes

D. Temperature inversions in the atmosphere

Tropospheric ducting is slightly different from tropospheric scatter, though they are related. Tropospheric ducting occurs when a temperature inversion is present.

In normal conditions, as we get farther from the surface of the earth, air temperature gets cooler. A temperature inversion occurs when there is a layer of warm air sandwiched between cool air at the surface, and cool air above. That layer of warm air can form a duct that bounces VHF – and occasionally UHF -- signals between the top of the layer and the bottom, sometimes letting them travel for many miles.

T3C09 (A)

What is generally the best time for long-distance 10 meter band propagation via the F layer?

A. From dawn to shortly after sunset during periods of high sunspot activity

B. From shortly after sunset to dawn during periods of high sunspot activity

C. From dawn to shortly after sunset during periods of low sunspot activity

D. From shortly after sunset to dawn during periods of low sunspot activity

10 meter waves are short enough to punch through the D layer that is present in the daytime, but long enough to bounce off the F layer if that layer has been strengthened by sunspot activity.

As a Technician you do have limited privileges in the 10 meter band. You're restricted to 200 watts, and can send only Data (28.000 – 28.300 MHz) and SSB voice (28.300 – 28.500 MHz.) No 10 meter FM for you until you get your General.

T3C10 (A)

What is the radio horizon?

A. The distance over which two stations can communicate by direct path

B. The distance from the ground to a horizontally mounted antenna

C. The farthest point you can see when standing at the base of your antenna tower

D. The shortest distance between two points on the Earth's surface

The radio horizon is just a bit more distant than the visual horizon.

T3C11 (C)

Why do VHF and UHF radio signals usually travel somewhat farther than the visual line of sight distance between two stations?

A. Radio signals move somewhat faster than the speed of light

B. Radio waves are not blocked by dust particles

C. The Earth seems less curved to radio waves than to light

D. Radio waves are blocked by dust particles

Yes, if you could see radio frequencies, you'd be able to see “over the horizon.” (On the other hand, you wouldn't be able to see anything smaller than the wavelength of the radio wave – so, if you could only “see” in 2 meter radio waves, any object smaller than 1 meter would be invisible. And if you think about it, that explains a lot regarding propagation.)

T3C12 (A)

Which of the following bands may provide long distance communications during the peak of the sunspot cycle?

A. Six or ten meters

B. 23 centimeters

C. 70 centimeters or 1.25 meters

D. All of these choices are correct

Those higher frequencies (shorter wavelengths) in the incorrect answers are too high to bounce off the F layer, even with the help of sunspots. There just aren't enough molecules up there to make it work.

Chapter 13 - Amateur radio practices and station set up

T4A01 (B)

Which of the following is true concerning the microphone connectors on amateur transceivers?

A. All transceivers use the same microphone connector type

B. Some connectors include push-to-talk and voltages for powering the microphone

C. All transceivers using the same connector type are wired identically

D. Un-keyed connectors allow any microphone to be connected

There is no “standard” microphone connection for ham radios that works on every radio, and you could do some serious damage to equipment if you don't match connectors and connections.

T4A02 (D)

How might a computer be used as part of an amateur radio station?

A. For logging contacts and contact information

B. For sending and/or receiving CW

C. For generating and decoding digital signals

D. All of these choices are correct

All of those choices are correct, and that's just the beginning of the uses we make of computers in the ham hobby.

T4A06 (C)

Which of the following would be connected between a transceiver and computer in a packet radio station?

A. Transmatch

B. Mixer

C. Terminal node controller

D. Antenna

A terminal node controller is the “translator” between your ham transceiver and your computer. The sound from the radio receiver goes into the terminal node controller, gets translated into digital, and then fed to the computer. Transmitting works in reverse. This allows you to use the amateur digital modes, such as packet.

Some modern transceivers have terminal node controller built in.

T4A07 (C)

How is a computer's sound card used when conducting digital communications using a computer?

A. The sound card communicates between the computer CPU and the video display

B. The sound card records the audio frequency for video display

C. The sound card provides audio to the microphone input and converts received audio to digital form

D. All of these choices are correct

T4A03 (A)

Which is a good reason to use a regulated power supply for communications equipment?

A. It prevents voltage fluctuations from reaching sensitive circuits

B. A regulated power supply has FCC approval

C. A fuse or circuit breaker regulates the power

D. Power consumption is independent of load

Not all power supplies are regulated power supplies. That little wall wart that charges your cell phone probably isn't a regulated power supply.

Any AC powered ham radio you purchase will almost certainly contain its own regulated power supply, but if – like many hams – you decide to use a 12 volt powered mobile VHF/UHF radio at home as a base station, you'd be well advised to get a regulated power supply for it.

T4A04 (A)

Where must a filter be installed to reduce harmonic emissions from your station?

A. Between the transmitter and the antenna

B. Between the receiver and the transmitter

C. At the station power supply

D. At the microphone

Harmonic emissions are unwanted frequencies being transmitted by your radio. To reduce them, you might need to install a filter between the transmitter and the antenna. That filter wouldn't do a bit of good in any of the other locations listed in the answers to this question.

T4A08 (D)

Which type of conductor is best to use for RF grounding?

A. Round stranded wire

B. Round copper-clad steel wire

C. Twisted-pair cable

D. Flat strap

Effective grounding of your ham equipment is important for many reasons, especially safety. Good grounding also helps eliminate annoyances like your signal making your computer crash every time you switch on the transmitter.

There are at least two reasons why nice, beefy flat strap is preferred for RF grounding. One is simply that it consists of a lot of copper compared to even a battery-cable size wire. (Typical flat strap is four to six inches wide and at least 1/16 inch thick.) More copper means more conductance.

More subtly, RF tends to be conducted only on the outer surface of the conductor carrying it. This is called “skin effect.” Flat strap provides a lot of “skin” to conduct RF to ground.

T4A09 (D)

Which of the following could you use to cure distorted audio caused by RF current flowing on the shield of a microphone cable?

A. Band-pass filter

B. Low-pass filter

C. Preamplifier

D. Ferrite choke

Some of your computer cables probably have a mysterious little black cylinder near one end or the other. It's there to help prevent stray RF interference from getting through that cable and into somewhere it isn't supposed to be. Inside the cylinder is … well … another cylinder. It's a cylinder of a material called ferrite, which is a ceramic made mostly of iron. It has very strong magnetic properties, so it creates inductance in the cable. Anything with inductance can be referred to as a choke – it “chokes” the current, especially high frequencies like RF. The easiest to apply is the snap-on type. You just open it up, then snap it shut around the wire. Here's what one looks like:

If that doesn't do the trick, you might need more wire around the ferrite, in which case you might get yourself a ferrite ring (or toroid) and create something like this:

T4A10 (B)

What is the source of a high-pitched whine that varies with engine speed in a mobile transceiver's receive audio?

A. The ignition system

B. The alternator

C. The electric fuel pump

D. Anti-lock braking system controllers

Once you have heard alternator whine you won't forget it, but you’ll want to. It might be described as a “whistling siren” or “a lot like a dentist's drill.” It goes up and down in pitch as the engine speed varies. It's a very disruptive form of interference. Often the best cure is to hook your mobile transceiver directly to the car's battery, using the appropriate fuses between the battery and the radio, of course.

T4A12 (D)

What could be happening if another operator reports a variable high-pitched whine on the audio from your mobile transmitter?

A. Your microphone is picking up noise from an open window

B. You have the volume on your receiver set too high

C. You need to adjust your squelch control

D. Noise on the vehicle's electrical system is being transmitted along with your speech audio

And as you know, that particular noise on the vehicle's electrical system is from the alternator.

T4A11 (A)

Where should the negative return connection of a mobile transceiver's power cable be connected?

A. At the battery or engine block ground strap

B. At the antenna mount

C. To any metal part of the vehicle

D. Through the transceiver's mounting bracket

Hooking the negative return connection of the transceiver's power line directly to the battery negative terminal or at least to the engine block's ground strap helps assure the radio is properly grounded, minimizing interference from the car's ignition, spark plugs, and alternator.

T4B01 (B)

What may happen if a transmitter is operated with the microphone gain set too high?

A. The output power might be too high

B. The output signal might become distorted

C. The frequency might vary

D. The SWR might increase

Just as your kitchen FM radio will distort if the volume is set too high, your transmitter will distort if you turn up the microphone gain – the microphone's volume – too high. You'll get the same undesirable result for the same reason if you hold the microphone too close to your mouth and/or shout into it.

T4B02 (A)

Which of the following can be used to enter the operating frequency on a modern transceiver?

A. The keypad or VFO knob

B. The CTCSS or DTMF encoder

C. The Automatic Frequency Control

D. All of these choices are correct

Many modern transceivers have push-buttons – the keypad – that let you control various functions, including the operating frequency.

VFO stands for variable frequency oscillator. Technically, the VFO is the electronic system that actually changes the operating frequency, but what you and I might call the “tuning knob” can also be called the VFO.

T4B04 (B)

What is a way to enable quick access to a favorite frequency on your transceiver?

A. Enable the CTCSS tones

B. Store the frequency in a memory channel

C. Disable the CTCSS tones

D. Use the scan mode to select the desired frequency

Lots of modern transceivers include a bank of memory channels, much like the preset buttons on your car stereo. Even my little hand-held VHF/UHF Chinese made radio (about $40) lets me store dozens of repeater frequencies. It's a very useful feature.

T4B05 (C)

Which of the following would reduce ignition interference to a receiver?

A. Change frequency slightly

B. Decrease the squelch setting

C. Turn on the noise blanker

D. Use the RIT control

Most modern amateur HF radios and many VHF/UHF radio contain several different sorts of filters that help us hear signals better. One is called the noise blanker. The noise blanker is used to filter out short bursts of interference, such as might be generated by the spark plugs in your car.

T4B06 (D)

Which of the following controls could be used if the voice pitch of a single-sideband signal seems too high or low?

A. The AGC or limiter

B. The bandwidth selection

C. The tone squelch

D. The receiver RIT or clarifier

The RIT (Receiver Incremental Tuning) or clarifier is used when we're trying to receive an SSB signal. SSB signals are difficult to tune properly, and as one tunes up and down the frequency of the received voice changes from “Darth Vader” to “Minnie Mouse”. The clarifier tunes the radio up or down precisely 4 kHz (4,000 Hz) from what the tuning dial reads, often bringing the radio to just the right frequency to receive properly.

T4B07 (B)

What does the term “RIT” mean?

A. Receiver Input Tone

B. Receiver Incremental Tuning

C. Rectifier Inverter Test

D. Remote Input Transmitter

T4B08 (B)

What is the advantage of having multiple receive bandwidth choices on a multimode transceiver?

A. Permits monitoring several modes at once

B. Permits noise or interference reduction by selecting a bandwidth matching the mode

C. Increases the number of frequencies that can be stored in memory

D. Increases the amount of offset between receive and transmit frequencies

A bandwidth filter is another type of receiver filter that we use to improve the signals we receive. Ideally, we set our bandwidth filter to precisely the same bandwidth as the signal we want to receive so that everything is rejected except the precise information we want. After all, no matter what those signals outside the bandwidth of “our” signal might be, they're just noise to us, and interfering with what we want to hear! In practice, because of how filters work, we have to set it to something “close enough” to the bandwidth of the received signal, but it still usually provides a lot of improvement.

Bandwidth filter is another way to say band pass filter. It allows a particular range of frequencies to pass and blocks all others.

T4B09 (C)

Which of the following is an appropriate receive filter bandwidth to select in order to minimize noise and interference for SSB reception?

A. 500 Hz

B. 1000 Hz

C. 2400 Hz

D. 5000 Hz

The bandwidth of an SSB signal is approximately 3000 Hz, so of these choice, 2400 Hz is “close enough.”

T4B10 (A)

Which of the following is an appropriate receive filter bandwidth to select in order to minimize noise and interference for CW reception?

A. 500 Hz

B. 1000 Hz

C. 2400 Hz

D. 5000 Hz

You'll recall the bandwidth of a CW signal is about 150 Hz. Of these answers, 500 Hz is the one that is “close enough” – and really, anything narrower is not very practical.

T4B12 (A)

What is the function of automatic gain control or AGC?

A. To keep received audio relatively constant

B. To protect an antenna from lightning

C. To eliminate RF on the station cabling

D. An asymmetric goniometer control used for antenna matching

Here's another control you might find on your radio, especially if it is a modern HF rig. (The number of controls on some of those radios is mind boggling.) The Automatic Gain Control tries to raise or lower the radio's volume control automatically to bring all received signals to about the same level of loudness.

That “goniometer” mentioned in answer D? It's a real thing, but it's used for measuring angles, not for controlling gain! Somebody on the question committee is having too much fun putting together some of these answers!

Chapter 14 - Electrical Principles

Let's review a little basic electricity theory.

Atoms contain particles. Some of the particles form the nucleus, some are the electrons that orbit around the nucleus. We're not concerned with anything in the nucleus, just the electrons – in fact, we're only really concerned with the electrons farthest away from the nucleus, those in the “outer shell.” Those electrons are called the “valance electrons” and they're the only part of the whole atom involved in electricity.

Our most common conductor of electricity is copper, and here's a diagram of a copper atom:

Notice how that valance electron is all alone out there in the outer orbit.

That's what makes electricity possible. A bit of energy can knock that electron loose, into the orbit of the atom next door, which then has two atoms in the outer orbit, which is WRONG in the land of atoms. So one electron bounces out into another orbit, etc., etc. and that flow of electrons is what we call electricity.

Materials the conduct electricity easily are called conductors. Materials that strongly resist the flow of electricity are called insulators. Copper, silver, gold, aluminum, and mercury are all conductors. Wood, glass, rubber, porcelain, and most plastics are all insulators.

Electrons carry a negative charge. So an excess of electrons makes a negative charge. A deficiency of electrons makes a positive charge.

If we have something that gives us a continuous charge across a circuit we cause an electrical current to flow through that circuit. Imagine a small light bulb connected to a battery – that's a circuit. Electrons flow through that circuit from the negative terminal of the battery, through the light, and finally to the positive terminal of the battery. Once enough electrons have made that journey to balance the charges between positive and negative, the battery is dead.

The battery provides current that moves only in one direction. That's called Direct Current, or DC. DC electronics will be the primary focus of learning for you as you study for your Technician exam. We'll touch briefly, and not very deeply, on Alternating Current, or AC. Alternating current is electric current that constantly reverses direction. Imagine that battery somehow constantly reversing its negative and positive terminals. If it did that, current would flow first one way through the circuit, then reverse and flow the opposite way, then reverse again, etc. Of course, batteries can't do that, so AC comes from generators or from inverters that change DC from a battery into AC.

The number of times alternating current reverses direction per second is called its frequency.

Electrical circuits have three fundamental characteristics with which we're concerned at the Technician level.

First, there is voltage. Think of voltage as electrical pressure, something like water pressure is to water. A battery has voltage between the terminals even when no circuit is present to allow current to flow. Voltage is measured in volts. The symbol for volts is a capital V. Voltage is also known as Electromotive Force.

Voltage is always measured “across” something – for instance, across the terminals of a battery, or from one side of a resistor to the other. It's really a measure of the difference in electrical pressure between one point and another. Voltage will change at different points in a circuit, dropping as it passes through each resistance in the circuit.

Second there's current. Current is the actual flow of the electrons. To go back to our water analogy, voltage is the pressure in the hose, current is the water coming out of the hose. Current is measured in amperes, or “amps.” The symbol for amps is a capital A. The current in a circuit remains constant. In other words, current in always equals current out.

Finally, there is resistance. Resistance is opposition to the flow of current. It's a measure of how hard the elements of the circuit are “pushing back” against the electricity. If voltage is the pressure in the hose, and current is the flow of water from the hose, resistance is your thumb on the end of the hose cutting down that flow of water. Resistance is measured in ohms. The symbol for ohms is the Greek letter Omega: Ω. (It occurs to me that I seldom see that Ω symbol any more, probably because it is so inconvenient to type on a computer.)

When we know at least two of those three fundamental characteristics about a circuit, we can calculate how much power is used in the circuit. Power is measured in watts, and is found by multiplying the voltage across the circuit by the current in the circuit. Power is the measure of the rate at which electrical energy is used in the circuit. The symbol for watts is a capital W.

T5A01 (D)

Electrical current is measured in which of the following units?

A. Volts

B. Watts

C. Ohms

D. Amperes

Andre-Marie Ampere was a brilliant scientist and mathematician who did some of the earliest experimentation with electricity. He created the math to describe the relationship between electricity and magnetism.

Andre-Marie Ampere

T5A03 (D)

What is the name for the flow of electrons in an electric circuit?

A. Voltage

B. Resistance

C. Capacitance

D. Current

T5A10 (C)

Which term describes the rate at which electrical energy is used?

A. Resistance

B. Current

C. Power

D. Voltage

T5A02 (B)

Electrical power is measured in which of the following units?

A. Volts

B. Watts

C. Ohms

D. Amperes

The watt is named for James Watt who discovered absolutely nothing in the realm of electricity, but did perfect the steam engine.

James Watt -- Non-electrician

T5A04 (B)

What is the name for a current that flows only in one direction?

A. Alternating current

B. Direct current

C. Normal current

D. Smooth current

T5A09 (A)

What is the name for a current that reverses direction on a regular basis?

A. Alternating current

B. Direct current

C. Circular current

D. Vertical current

Alternating current reverses direction on a regular basis. The current that comes from the plugs in your house reverses direction 60 times every second, so we say it has a frequency of 60 Hz. It's this regular reversal that makes AC so useful in everything from the power distribution system to our ham radios.

T5A12 (D)

What term describes the number of times per second that an alternating current reverses direction?

A. Pulse rate

B. Speed

C. Wavelength

D. Frequency

T5A05 (A)

What is the electrical term for the electromotive force (EMF) that causes electron flow?

A. Voltage

B. Ampere-hours

C. Capacitance

D. Inductance

Remember, another name for voltage is Electromotive Force or EMF.

T5A11 (A)

What is the basic unit of electromotive force?

A. The volt

B. The watt

C. The ampere

D. The ohm

The volt is named for Allesandro Volta, who, among other things, discovered methane and explored the properties of electrical capacitance. Most likely the reason we call electromotive force voltage in his honor, though, was his invention of the first electrical battery. The abbreviation for volt is a capital V.

Allesandro Volta

T5A06 (A)

How much voltage does a mobile transceiver usually require?

A. About 12 volts

B. About 30 volts

C. About 120 volts

D. About 240 volts

Since your car's electrical system provides about 12 volts, mobile transceivers are designed to use 12 volt electricity.

T5A07 (C)

Which of the following is a good electrical conductor?

A. Glass

B. Wood

C. Copper

D. Rubber

The rest of the materials listed are good insulators. Copper is a good electrical conductor.

T5A08 (B)

Which of the following is a good electrical insulator?

A. Copper

B. Glass

C. Aluminum

D. Mercury

Copper, aluminum and mercury are good electrical conductors. Glass is a good electrical insulator.

Chapter 15 - Math for Electronics

If you are part of the estimated 20% of the US population who experiences genuine anxiety whenever math is so much as mentioned, here are a couple of things to know about this section that might help you relax:

- This is really simple math. You plug a couple of numbers into a simple formula, press the right keys on your calculator, and the answer falls out like magic. No quadratic equations, no calculus, no statistics required – nor will there be anything like that even if you go on to get your Amateur Extra license.

- I'm going to show you the easiest path through the easy math, and show you exactly which buttons to press on your calculator to come up with the right answer every time.

- There are a few calculators out there that use different key strokes than I show, but if you have one of those I'm going to assume you know how to use it. (In other words, if you are a member of the Hewlett-Packard RPN cult, you're on your own.)

- Are you “not a math person?” Today's neuroscience seems to show that, with rare exceptions, no one starts life as “a math person” or “not a math person.” The only real difference between “math people” and “not math people” is the “math people” have done a lot of math practice. (Aw, rats!) So, practice, practice, practice and it gets easier and easier.

- Don't just read the formulas, do your best to solve each problem. If something still isn't making any sense, try again. I'm going to do my best to make things as clear as possible, but, to paraphrase my math teacher wife's advice to her math students, “I already passed my ham exam – you're going to have to do your own practice!” Get the basic math of the Technician exam solidly in your grasp and you will be happy you did when you decide to upgrade to General and Extra Class.

- Here's a little secret: If you manage to miss every single math problem on the Technician exam, you'll still pass. (So long as you get everything else right.) So take a deep breath, relax, and remember – ham radio is a hobby, it's supposed to be fun! Feel free to start having fun even before you get your license.

Electronic values span a tremendous range, from trillionths to trillions. For convenience and accuracy, we use several prefixes to designate the “multiplier” for various values. Believe me, this makes things much easier. (Imagine trying to read the printing on a “.00000000001 Farad” capacitor, which might only be about ¼ inch wide!)

Using this system also helps make things more accurate – it is easy to miss a zero or two if you're writing out those 12 digit numbers in full.

The prefixes all are part of the Metric system, so if you are already familiar with that system, you'll be familiar with all the terms.

Note that capitalization is very important, especially for “M” and “m”. “M” means “multiply by 1,000,000.” “m” means “divide by 1,000.”

Prefix

Symbol

Example

Multiplier

Scientific Notation

Giga

G

GHz

1,000,000,000

10^9

Mega

M

MHz

1,000,000

10^6

Kilo

K

kV

1,000

10^3

Deci

D

dB

0.1

10-1

milli

M

mA

0.001

10-3

micro

μ

μF

0.000001

10-6

nano

N

nF

0.000000001

10-9

Pico

P

pF

0.000000000001

10-12

T5B01 (C)

How many milliamperes is 1.5 amperes?

A. 15 milliamperes

B. 150 milliamperes

C. 1,500 milliamperes

D. 15,000 milliamperes

“milli” = 1,000th. Think of a millipede with its 1,000 legs. To convert from large units to small units, multiply the large units (in this case, amperes) by the multiplier. For “milli” the multiplier is 1,000.

T5B05 (B)

Which of the following is equivalent to 500 milliwatts?

A. 0.02 watts

B. 0.5 watts

C. 5 watts

D. 50 watts

In this question you're converting milliwatts to watts. There are 1000 milliwatts in one watt, so divide by 1000.

T5B02 (A)

What is another way to specify a radio signal frequency of 1,500,000 hertz?

A. 1500 kHz

B. 1500 MHz

C. 15 GHz

D. 150 kHz

“k” for “kilo” = 1,000. To calculate “kilohertz”, divide the Hertz by 1,000.

T5B03 (C)

How many volts are equal to one kilovolt?

A. One one-thousandth of a volt

B. One hundred volts

C. One thousand volts

D. One million volts

T5B04 (A)

How many volts are equal to one microvolt?

A. One one-millionth of a volt

B. One million volts

C. One thousand kilovolts

D. One one-thousandth of a volt

“micro” = 1,000,000ths. One microvolt = one one-millionth of a volt. I'm not sure how useful a calculator is for this one, but here are the key strokes:

T5B06 (C)

If an ammeter calibrated in amperes is used to measure a 3000-milliampere current, what reading would it show?

A. 0.003 amperes

B. 0.3 amperes

C. 3 amperes

D. 3,000,000 amperes

T5B07 (C)

If a frequency readout calibrated in megahertz shows a reading of 3.525 MHz, what would it show if it were calibrated in kilohertz?

A. 0.003525 kHz

B. 35.25 kHz

C. 3525 kHz

D. 3,525,000 kHz

To do this one you just need to remember there are 1,000 thousands in a million. (1000 x 1000 = 1,000,000.) To convert MHz to kHz, move the decimal point three places to the right, or multiply the MHz value by 1,000.

T5B12 (A)

Which of the following frequencies is equal to 28,400 kHz?

A. 28.400 MHz

B. 2.800 MHz

C. 284.00 MHz

D. 28.400 kHz

In this question you're converting in the opposite direction from T5B07, just above. Here you're going from kiloHertz to MegaHertz. This calls for division.

T5B13 (C)

If a frequency readout shows a reading of 2425 MHz, what frequency is that in GHz?

A. 0.002425 GHZ

B. 24.25 GHz

C. 2.425 GHz

D. 2425 GHz

GHz = GigaHertz. One GHz = 1,000,000,000 (billion) Hz, or 1,000 MHz. We'll divide the MHz by 1,000 for our answer.

T5B08 (B)

How many microfarads are 1,000,000 picofarads?

A. 0.001 microfarads

B. 1 microfarad

C. 1000 microfarads

D. 1,000,000,000 microfarads

A “pico” is a millionth of a millionth, so 1,000,000 picofarads equals 1 microfarad.

T5B09 (B)

What is the approximate amount of change, measured in decibels (dB), of a power increase from 5 watts to 10 watts?

A. 2 dB

B. 3 dB

C. 5 dB

D. 10 dB

“dB” stands for deciBels, a measure of “loudness.” The “Bel” part is for Alexander Graham Bell – I don't know why they left out an “L.” In fact, a “deciBel” is a tenth of a Bel, but the Bel is almost never used.

DeciBels are a logarithmic scale, and each 10 dB of gain represents a ten times gain in power.

A doubling of power always produces 3 dB (decibels) of gain. Even if you start at 100 dB, 3 dB of gain means the power doubled. 6 dB is two doublings, or a gain of four times.

When you remember 3 db equals a doubling of power, you can estimate any other values you need. 2 dB is approximately the original value plus 2/3 of the original value.

If you are interested in the math, the precise multiple of power equals 10dB/10– 10 raised to the power of the number of dB divided by 10. If you work that on your scientific calculator, you'll find 3 dB = precisely a 1.995262315 times increase in gain. Close enough to 2 times for our purposes! There is no question on any of the exams – Technician, General, or Extra Class – that requires more precision than that.

T5B10 (C)

What is the approximate amount of change, measured in decibels (dB), of a power decrease from 12 watts to 3 watts?

A. -1 dB

B. -3 dB

C. -6 dB

D. -9 dB

This time we have a 4x reduction in power – or, put another way, the power has been cut in half, then cut in half again. The first cut produced 3 dB of gain reduction, or -3 dB of gain. The next cut produced another 3 dB of gain reduction, for a total of -6 dB.

T5B11 (A)

What is the approximate amount of change, measured in decibels (dB), of a power increase from 20 watts to 200 watts?

A. 10 dB

B. 12 dB

C. 18 dB

D. 28 dB

A 10x increase (or reduction) in power always produces 10 dB of change in gain.

T5C02 (A)

What is the basic unit of capacitance?

A. The farad

B. The ohm

C. The volt

D. The henry

Michael Faraday was such a pioneer in electricity and magnetism, I suppose any of the fundamental properties could have been named for him, but the powers that be chose to name the basic unit of capacitance the farad.

The son of a blacksmith, Faraday was self-educated – he had only the most basic education from school. In addition to discovering electrical induction, inventing an electric motor, creating the electric dynamo, demonstrating the connection between light and magnetism, and exploring electrolysis and electrostatic attraction, he had time left over to isolate the elements carbon and chlorine, invent optical glass, and discover the polarization of light.

Michael Faraday

It was Faraday who discovered that running electricity through a wire created a magnetic field, and that passing a magnetic field across a wire induced a current – the basis for generating and transforming electricity.

What a mind!

T5C04 (C)

What is the basic unit of inductance?

A. The coulomb

B. The farad

C. The henry

D. The ohm

The basic unit of inductance is the henry, named for American scientist Joseph Henry. Henry had the good fortune to discover inductance at about the same time Michael Faraday did, but Faraday already had the basic unit of capacitance named for him, so Henry got to be famous forever as the basic unit of inductance.

Joseph Henry

Besides, Henry invented at least three practical uses for inductance: The electromagnet, the electric relay, and – as if that wasn’t enough! -- the doorbell. And he was the first Secretary of the Smithsonian.

T5C05 (A)

What is the unit of frequency?

A. Hertz

B. Henry

C. Farad

D. Tesla

Heinrich Hertz proved electromagnetic waves exist. He did it by almost single-handedly inventing radio.

Heinrich Hertz

It seems fitting to name the unit of frequency (equal to one cycle per second) for Hertz.

Until Hertz provided the proof, the notion of electromagnetic waves was purely theoretical – a prediction based on some equations that showed they should exist and that they should radiate at the speed of light. (Indeed, that they are a lower frequency version of light – which all turned out to be correct.)

Hertz provided that proof by sending signals across his laboratory using electromagnetic waves in 1886. It was quite an earth-shaking experiment. It would be only fifteen years after that experiment that Marconi sent his signals across the Atlantic.

Heinrich Hertz was no relation to the man who founded the Hertz rental car company, by the way – that guy was from Hungary. Heinrich was German.

T5C06 (A)

What does the abbreviation “RF” refer to?

A. Radio frequency signals of all types

B. The resonant frequency of a tuned circuit

C. The real frequency transmitted as opposed to the apparent frequency

D. Reflective force in antenna transmission lines

RF is simply Radio Frequency.

T5C07 (C)

What is a usual name for electromagnetic waves that travel through space?

A. Gravity waves

B. Sound waves

C. Radio waves

D. Pressure waves

Sound waves are pulses of air pressure, and we don't know yet if gravity waves even exist. We're all here about radio, right? The right answer must be radio waves.

T5C12 (A)

What is meant by the term impedance?

A. It is a measure of the opposition to AC current flow in a circuit

B. It is the inverse of resistance

C. It is a measure of the Q or Quality Factor of a component

D. It is a measure of the power handling capability of a component

Impedance is a function of the inductance, capacitance, and resistance in a circuit, as well as the frequency being applied to the circuit. As you might guess, there's a good deal of higher math involved in calculating it, but – yay! – we don't have to know it at the Technician level, and even the Extra class test problems are relatively simple. At this stage it's enough to know that impedance is a measure of the opposition to AC current flow in a circuit and that it is measured in ohms, just like resistance.

T5C13 (D)

What are the units of impedance?

A. Volts

B. Amperes

C. Coulombs

D. Ohms

Inductance and impedance are terms that are easy to get confused, especially before you have really worked with them – and you might not do that until you decide to upgrade to your Extra class license.

Impedance is measured in ohms. Think of impedance as being an “impediment” to current flow, just like resistance which is also measured in ohms.

Inductance – which sounds so similar, and is even related to impedance – is measured in henrys.

Chapter 16 - Ohm's Law

The cornerstone for all the mathematics that create the science of electronics is Ohm's Law. Georg Simon Ohm's Law describes the relationship among Voltage, Current and Resistance in an electrical circuit. Those three values are always interconnected. If you increase the voltage into the same resistance, more current will flow. Keep the voltage the same and reduce the resistance, more current flows again. Makes sense, right? Believe it or not, that was Ohm's big discovery – that voltage, current and resistance are always proportional.

Georg Simon Ohm

Ohm's Law has probably affected our modern world as profoundly as a couple of other simple equations – the Pythagorean Theorem, a^2 + b^2 = c^2, or Einstein's Mass/Energy Equivalence, E = mc^2.

Just like those brilliant equations, it's really rather simple: Voltage equals Current multiplied by Resistance.

E = I * R

E = Voltage in volts

I = Current in amps

R = Resistance in ohms

Why in the world did they make “E” stand for volts and “I” stand for amps? Well, when Georg Simon Ohm published his Law in 1827, the volt had not yet been named for Volta – that wouldn't happen until 1893. In Ohm's time, voltage was “electromotive force”, or “E” for short.

The ampere had not been named for Andre-Marie Ampere yet, either. Ampere called electric current “intensité”, French for intensity. Thus, the “I” in our formula.

Of course, Ohm didn't name the unit of resistance after himself, either. Those were more civilized times!

So, we have had it handed down to us as

E = I * R

but if you want to remember it as Voltage = Current * Resistance, that's perfectly fine.

With a little algebra, we can turn E = I * R into I = E/R or R = E/I. Those formulas let us figure out either E, I or R so long as we know the two other values.

Here's an easy way to remember all the variations. I call it Ohm's Pie, but I'm sure it has other names.

To use Ohm's Pie, you just cover up the value you don't know and you'll be left with the formula to figure it out. So if you want to know the current in a circuit, you cover up the “I” and you're left with E/R. Divide the volts by the resistance and you'll get the current. Need to know the voltage? Cover up the E and what's left is I * R.

You can't take a copy of Ohm's Pie into the Technician exam, but you can certainly draw an Ohm's Pie chart on your scratch paper while you take the test – that's perfectly legal. As you'll see on the questions below, it can be very helpful to have that chart.

The other formula you'll need for this section is the formula for power – the Watts used in a circuit. The formula for Watts is P = E * I. Power equals voltage times current. Again, there's a simple chart we'll call the Power Pie that will let you calculate wattage when you know two of the values, and it works the same way as Ohm's Pie.

If you know a circuit is carrying 10 amps and is using 100 watts, and you want to know the voltage, you cover up the “E” and see that E = P/I. Divide 100 Watts by 10 amps and get 10 volts as the answer.

That's it, we've now covered all the math on the Technician exam! Now we'll go over the questions on this section.

T5D01 (B)

What formula is used to calculate current in a circuit?

A. Current (I) equals voltage (E) multiplied by resistance (R)

B. Current (I) equals voltage (E) divided by resistance (R)

C. Current (I) equals voltage (E) added to resistance (R)

D. Current (I) equals voltage (E) minus resistance (R)

We consult Ohm's Pie, cover up the I, and we see that I = E/R. Current (I) equals voltage (E) divided by resistance (R).

T5D02 (A)

What formula is used to calculate voltage in a circuit?

A. Voltage (E) equals current (I) multiplied by resistance (R)

B. Voltage (E) equals current (I) divided by resistance (R)

C. Voltage (E) equals current (I) added to resistance (R)

D. Voltage (E) equals current (I) minus resistance (R)

To find voltage, we cover up the E and can see that voltage (E) equals current (I) multiplied by resistance (R.)

T5D03 (B)

What formula is used to calculate resistance in a circuit?

A. Resistance (R) equals voltage (E) multiplied by current (I)

B. Resistance (R) equals voltage (E) divided by current (I)

C. Resistance (R) equals voltage (E) added to current (I)

D. Resistance (R) equals voltage (E) minus current (I)

All you need for all these Ohm's Law problems is your Ohm's Pie.

T5D04 (B)

What is the resistance of a circuit in which a current of 3 amperes flows through a resistor connected to 90 volts?

A. 3 ohms

B. 30 ohms

C. 93 ohms

D. 270 ohms

You're given the current and the voltage of the circuit, so consult your Ohm's Pie to get the correct formula.

It's E divided by I, so 90 volts / 3 amps = 30 ohms.

T5D05 (C)

What is the resistance in a circuit for which the applied voltage is 12 volts and the current flow is 1.5 amperes?

A. 18 ohms

B. 0.125 ohms

C. 8 ohms

D. 13.5 ohms

Ohm's Pie tells us resistance = voltage divided by current, so:

Use Ohm's Pie. That way you won't reverse the values and come up with 0.125 ohms – and notice the question committee has stuck that in as one of the incorrect answers. Sly devils! I have no idea how many Ohm's Law problems I've solved in my life, but it must be hundreds, at least. I still use Ohm's Pie every single time.

T5D06 (A)

What is the resistance of a circuit that draws 4 amperes from a 12-volt source?

A. 3 ohms

B. 16 ohms

C. 48 ohms

D. 8 Ohms

Voltage divided by current gives us resistance:

T5D07 (D)

What is the current flow in a circuit with an applied voltage of 120 volts and a resistance of 80 ohms?

A. 9600 amperes

B. 200 amperes

C. 0.667 amperes

D. 1.5 amperes

In this question, the missing piece is the current. Take a look at Ohm's Pie and you'll see that to calculate current, we divide the voltage by the resistance, or E/R.

T5D08 (C)

What is the current flowing through a 100-ohm resistor connected across 200 volts?

A. 20,000 amperes

B. 0.5 amperes

C. 2 amperes

D. 100 amperes

Same question, different numbers!

T5D09 (C)

What is the current flowing through a 24-ohm resistor connected across 240 volts?

A. 24,000 amperes

B. 0.1 amperes

C. 10 amperes

D. 216 amperes

T5D10 (A)

What is the voltage across a 2-ohm resistor if a current of 0.5 amperes flows through it?

A. 1 volt

B. 0.25 volts

C. 2.5 volts

D. 1.5 volts

When voltage is the value we want to calculate, we multiply the current (I) by the resistance,  R.

T5D11 (B)

What is the voltage across a 10-ohm resistor if a current of 1 ampere flows through it?

A. 1 volt

B. 10 volts

C. 11 volts

D. 9 volts

You may have noticed you can solve most of these in your head, if you use Ohm's Pie to remember the correct formula. They really don't care about your arithmetic skills, they want to know if you know the formulas. You'll find that's true clear through the Extra Class exam.

T5D12 (D)

What is the voltage across a 10-ohm resistor if a current of 2 amperes flows through it?

A. 8 volts

B. 0.2 volts

C. 12 volts

D. 20 volts

T5C08 (A)

What is the formula used to calculate electrical power in a DC circuit?

A. Power (P) equals voltage (E) multiplied by current (I)

B. Power (P) equals voltage (E) divided by current (I)

C. Power (P) equals voltage (E) minus current (I)

D. Power (P) equals voltage (E) plus current (I)

For Power questions, you'll use the Power Pie.

Remember, it works just like Ohm's Pie – you cover up the missing value and what's left is the formula to calculate it. In this case the missing value is Power, so the formula is I x E, the current multiplied by the voltage.

T5C09 (A)

How much power is being used in a circuit when the applied voltage is 13.8 volts DC and the current is 10 amperes?

A. 138 watts

B. 0.7 watts

C. 23.8 watts

D. 3.8 watts

The Power Pie tells us Power = Current times Voltage.

T5C10 (B)

How much power is being used in a circuit when the applied voltage is 12 volts DC and the current is 2.5 amperes?

A. 4.8 watts

B. 30 watts

C. 14.5 watts

D. 0.208 watts

T5C11 (B)

How many amperes are flowing in a circuit when the applied voltage is 12 volts DC and the load is 120 watts?

A. 0.1 amperes

B. 10 amperes

C. 12 amperes

D. 132 amperes

If we know the power and the voltage, we can calculate the current by dividing the watts by the volts (P/E).

Chapter 17 - Parts! Part 1 –

Electrical Components

This section covers a few basic electronic components with which you may not yet be familiar.

Resistors resist the flow of electricity. Resistance is measured in ohms. By resisting that electricity, resistors can be used to provide a useful voltage difference in a circuit. Resistors affect Direct Current (DC) and Alternating Current (AC) equally.

Just for your knowledge, not for this test: The values of resistors are often coded with color bands. The bands read from left to right from the end to which they are the closest. A black band indicates a “0”, brown a “1”, red a “2” and so on through orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, gray and white. The last band shows the tolerance of the resistor – how much it can vary from the value it says it is. Gold indicates +/- 5%, silver +/- 10%, and no band means +/- 20%. The band just before the tolerance band (usually the third from the left) is a multiplier. It says “multiply those first two numbers by 10 raised to this power.” So brown-green-red would be 15 x 10^2 = 1500 ohms. There are all sorts of colorful memory aids for the resistor color code. Unfortunately, most seem to have been created in a time when the world of electronics was an almost all male culture and while they are certainly memorable they won't be reprinted here! We'll go with “Bill Brown Realized Only Yesterday Good Boys Value Good Work.”

A Potentiometer is a variable resistor. The volume knob on your radio is attached to a potentiometer.

Capacitors consist of two conductors separated by a dielectric. Dielectric is a fancy way to say “insulator.” You could make a capacitor out of two sheets of aluminum foil with a piece of paper between them, and in fact that's almost exactly what's inside some of the capacitors in your radio.

Capacitors store a charge in an electric field. How do they do this? Without going into far more detail than you need at this stage, the voltage attached to the capacitor creates a static electricity charge on those two conductors. Imagine you have just walked across a carpet on a dry day. You reach out for the doorknob and zap, you get a little shock of static. Well, just before you touched that doorknob your body was acting like one of the conductors in a capacitor, building up a big charge of static electricity. The electricity wasn't going anywhere, there was no current flow, but that charge was certainly present.

Capacitors have many uses in electronics circuits, often having to do with filtering out certain frequencies or creating certain frequencies.

Capacitors allow AC to pass through them, but will not conduct DC.

You might hear capacitors called “caps” or, in older publications, “condensers.”

Capacitance is measured in farads, but most of the capacitors we use are in the picofarad (billionths of a Farad) or microfarad (millionths of a farad) range.

Capacitor values are usually printed on the capacitor, though occasionally you'll find one using the same color code as resistors.

Inductors are coils of wire. They might be wound around a solid core of iron or other material, or might be wound around air, depending on the characteristics needed for the particular circuit

Inductors store a charge in a magnetic field. How? Remember Faraday's great discovery that when a current flows through a wire it creates a magnetic field around the wire, and that when a magnetic field crosses a wire it creates an electric current. When you pass a current through a coil it creates a magnetic field around the coil. Then when you turn off the current the magnetic field collapses crossing the wires of the coil and inducing an electric current in the coil.

An inductor resists the flow of AC, and allows the flow of DC, just the opposite of a capacitor.  That symmetry turns out to be extraordinarily useful. We use the property of inductance in filters, oscillators, power supplies, and all sorts of other circuits. Inductors are often paired with capacitors to create resonant circuits. Inductance is measured in henrys.

Transformers use inductance for a different purpose. A transformer consists of two (or more) coils placed close together. The alternating current in the first coil – called the primary – creates an alternating magnetic field around the primary. In turn, that magnetic field induces an alternating current in the second coil – the secondary.

What makes this effect so useful is that the voltage induced in the secondary is proportional to the number of turns of wire in the coil of the secondary relative to the number of turns in the primary. So if we put 120 volts into a 100 turn primary and the secondary has 10 turns we get 12 volts at the secondary. If we reverse the situation, with 10 turns in the primary and 100 turns in the secondary, and put in the same 120 volts, we'd get 1200 volts at the secondary. (Since energy is always conserved, we would also get 10x more or fewer amps at the secondary in those respective examples.) A transformer is used to transform one alternating voltage to another.

Transformers only work on Alternating Current.

A fuse is used to protect electronic components from damage from excessive current flow. Fuses contain a conductor that has been sized to melt at some particular current, measured in amperes or amps. When the conductor in the fuse melts it stops the flow of current in the circuit preventing damage that could include components melting or even catching fire.

A switch is used to connect or disconnect an electrical circuit. An open switch will not conduct electricity, a closed switch will.

A relay is a type of switch operated by an electromagnet. Relays are often used to control a high-current circuit with a low-current control. (The headlight switch in your car is probably connected to a relay. You switch on the switch, the switch energizes the electromagnet in the relay and closes the switch on the relay, and the headlights come on.) Semiconductors, such as transistors can also be used as switches.

Batteries come in many different sizes, shapes, capacities, and materials.

T6A01 (B)

What electrical component is used to oppose the flow of current in a DC circuit?

A. Inductor

B. Resistor

C. Voltmeter

D. Transformer

As you take your Technician exam it is important to read each question carefully. This question asks about a DC circuit, and the only component listed that opposes the flow of current in a DC circuit is the resistor.

T6A02 (C)

What type of component is often used as an adjustable volume control?

A. Fixed resistor

B. Power resistor

C. Potentiometer

D. Transformer

A potentiometer is not a “meter”, it is a variable resistor.

T6A03 (B)

What electrical parameter is controlled by a potentiometer?

A. Inductance

B. Resistance

C. Capacitance

D. Field strength

Potentiometer – a fancy way of saying “variable resistor.”

T6A05 (D)

What type of electrical component consists of two or more conductive surfaces separated by an insulator?

A. Resistor

B. Potentiometer

C. Oscillator

D. Capacitor

Any two conductors separated by an insulator (“dielectric”) form a capacitor. Those power lines over your house even form a capacitor, though not a very useful one. The value of a particular capacitor depends mostly on the size of those conductors – also called “plates” – and the distance between them. Bigger plates = more capacitance. Less distance = more capacitance.

T6A04 (B)

What electrical component stores energy in an electric field?

A. Resistor

B. Capacitor

C. Inductor

D. Diode

There are four possible questions on the test that ask about electrical components that store energy. Be sure to read the question carefully.

A capacitor stores energy in an electric field.

T5C01 (D)

What is the ability to store energy in an electric field called?

A. Inductance

B. Resistance

C. Tolerance

D. Capacitance

Capacitors have the property of capacitance which is the ability to store energy in an electric field.

T5C03 (D)

What is the ability to store energy in a magnetic field called?

A. Admittance

B. Capacitance

C. Resistance

D. Inductance

Inductance – the ability to store energy in a magnetic field.

T6A06 (C)

What type of electrical component stores energy in a magnetic field?

A. Resistor

B. Capacitor

C. Inductor

D. Diode

Aha! Here's another question about storing energy. An inductor stores energy in a magnetic field. “Inductor” is another name for a coil.

T6A07 (D)

What electrical component is usually composed of a coil of wire?

A. Switch

B. Capacitor

C. Diode

D. Inductor

Coils are inductors. Inductance is measured in henrys, but the most common values you will see are millihenrys (thousandths of a henry) or microhenrys (millionths of a henry.)

T6D11 (A)

What is a simple resonant or tuned circuit?

A. An inductor and a capacitor connected in series or parallel to form a filter

B. A type of voltage regulator

C. A resistor circuit used for reducing standing wave ratio

D. A circuit designed to provide high fidelity audio

Tuned circuits are everywhere in radio! From the power supply, through the whole radio, even the antenna, tuned circuits act as filters, oscillators, tuners, and more. It is not an exaggeration to say without tuned (resonant) circuits there would not be radio.

You won't need to know a lot of specifics about resonant circuits until you decide to upgrade to Extra class, but I'll go over some basics.

You remember inductors (coils) store energy in a magnetic field, and capacitors store energy in an electric field. If we hook them together, and feed in an alternating current, here's a very simplified version of what happens:

The coil stores the energy from a positive half of a cycle. Magnetic lines of force form around the coil and build outward as the voltage increases.

As that cycle starts to head back to zero, the magnetic lines of force start to collapse, crossing the wires of the coil and generating a positive current – which flows into the capacitor.

The capacitor stores up energy until the voltage in the circuit reverses again, at which time it dumps that energy back into the circuit …. and into the coil which stores it in a magnetic field …..and we're back to the start of the cycle.

If there was no resistance in the circuit, the electricity would keep going back and forth on its own like an electrical version of a ringing guitar string.

Think of the inductor and the capacitor as two balloons full of water connected with a hose. You squeeze one balloon, the other fills up with water. Let go and squeeze the other balloon, the water flows back.

So the resonant circuit is sort of an electrical seesaw with an inductor on one end of the seesaw and a capacitor on the other. The resonant frequency at which this all happens can be changed – tuned – by changing the value of the coil or the capacitor or, obviously, both. And that – again, drastically simplified – is how an inductor and a capacitor connected in series or parallel create a resonant or “tuned” circuit.

T6D08 (D)

Which of the following is used together with an inductor to make a tuned circuit?

A. Resistor

B. Zener diode

C. Potentiometer

D. Capacitor

T6D12 (C)

Which of the following is a common reason to use shielded wire?

A. To decrease the resistance of DC power connections

B. To increase the current carrying capability of the wire

C. To prevent coupling of unwanted signals to or from the wire

D. To couple the wire to other signals

To prevent coupling of unwanted signals to or from the wire is some pretty fancy language for “the shielding keeps the noise out.”

T6A08 (B)

What electrical component is used to connect or disconnect electrical circuits?

A. Magnetron

B. Switch

C. Thermistor

D. All of these choices are correct

To connect and disconnect electrical circuits we use a switch.

T6D02 (A)

What best describes a relay?

A. A switch controlled by an electromagnet

B. A current controlled amplifier

C. An optical sensor

D. A pass transistor

T6A09 (A)

What electrical component is used to protect other circuit components from current overloads?

A. Fuse

B. Capacitor

C. Inductor

D. All of these choices are correct

T6A10 (D)

Which of the following battery types is rechargeable?

A. Nickel-metal hydride

B. Lithium-ion

C. Lead-acid gel-cell

D. All of these choices are correct

You have probably seen at least some of these types of batteries. Nickel metal hydride batteries usually say NiMH on the case, and lithium ion batteries – very popular in cell phones these days – say LiIon.

Lead acid gel cell batteries are a lot like the lead-acid battery in your car, but instead of liquid sulfuric acid, they contain an acid in gel form, making them safer to carry around.

T6A11 (B)

Which of the following battery types is not rechargeable?

A. Nickel-cadmium

B. Carbon-zinc

C. Lead-acid

D. Lithium-ion

Carbon-zinc batteries are the old style flashlight batteries we had before alkaline batteries came along. They cannot be recharged. (Neither can common alkaline cells, by the way – they explode if you try to charge them!

T6D04 (C)

Which of the following can be used to display signal strength on a numeric scale?

A. Potentiometer

B. Transistor

C. Meter

D. Relay

You read the strength of the signal you are receiving on a signal strength meter. It might look like this one,

but on many modern radios it will be a string of LED's that serve as a meter.

(Meters that use a mechanical needle are becoming a thing of the past. They're expensive to manufacture and easy to break.)

Chapter 18 - Parts! Part 2, Semiconductors

The main components covered in this section all share the property of semiconduction.

Most materials are either conductors (copper, aluminum, iron, steel, silver, etc.), insulators (wood, glass, porcelain, plastic, etc.) or resistors (basically, “a conductor, but not much of one.”) They don't change – you won't wake up tomorrow to find that all the wire in your house has transformed into a lot of skinny insulators.

Semiconductors are different. Sometimes they are conductors. Sometimes they are resistors.  And sometimes they are insulators. This makes them extraordinarily useful in electronic circuits.

A semiconductor material is usually pure silicon that has been “doped” with a minuscule amount of a carefully chosen impurity that transforms the nature of the silicon. Pure silicon is an insulator. But pure silicon with a tiny bit of certain other elements added becomes a semiconductor.

Some semiconductors are what we call “N Type.” The N stands for Negative. N type materials have “too many” electrons, and since electrons have a negative charge, the material is said to be N type.

Other semiconductors are “P” – yes, Positive – type. P type semiconductors have “too few” electrons, meaning they have “too many holes.” (A “hole”, in this case, is a place where an electron is “supposed” to be.)

When join a piece of N material to a piece of P material, very useful things happen at the junction of the two materials. Covering exactly what happens at that junction would require at least a couple of semesters of quantum physics. No kidding. But as hams, we really don't have to know the topic at that level. (Whew!) What we do need to know is that we can use those junctions to create diodes and transistors of various types, and we need to know a little about what those do.

Diodes are formed from two layers of semiconductor material, one piece N type, the other P type. Diodes are like one-way valves for electricity.

The semiconductor pieces are the Cathode and the Anode. Current will flow from the cathode to the anode (and, thus, through the diode) when the cathode is connected to a negative voltage and the anode to a positive voltage. If those voltages are reversed, no current flows. Most diodes look something like resistors – they are cylinders with a wire coming out of each end. The cathode end of the diode is marked with a distinct band. On glass diodes it is a black band. On plastic diodes, it is usually a silver band on the black case.

Diodes are used to convert AC to DC, a process known as rectification.

They can also be used in the detector circuit of radios.

Special types of diodes called Zener diodes are used to regulate power supplies.

Another special type of diode is the light emitting diode, or LED. Actually all diodes emit light, but LED's are designed to do it far more efficiently!

Transistors are capable of using a voltage or current signal to control current flow.

Instead of two layers of semiconductor material, bipolar transistors use three layers. These can consist of a layer of P material sandwiched between two layers of N material (an NPN transistor) or vice versa (PNP.) The layers are called the Emitter, the Base, and the Collector. The base is connected to a low level signal. As the base is energized, it allows a larger current to flow between the emitter and the collector and that current flow is proportional to the signal applied to the base.  In other words, more little signal = more big signal, effectively amplifying the little signal. This is how a transistor can act as an amplifier. Different transistors have different amounts of amplification or gain.

If the control signal is a simple off/on signal, the transistor will act as a switch. Your home computer's CPU contains millions of tiny transistors acting as switches!

Another type of transistor is the Field Effect Transistor, or FET. Rather than three layers of semiconductor material, the FET sandwiches a layer of either P or N material between smaller pieces of the opposite sort of semiconductor and uses the field effect of those outer pieces to control the current through the inner piece. Rather than collector, base, and emitter the equivalent connections for an FET are the drain, gate, and source.

These three parts of the FET can be remembered with the mnemonic Darn Good Semiconductors!

These days it is hard to imagine electronics without integrated circuits. These components combine transistors, diodes, resistors, and capacitors in various combinations – but instead of individual components, they're all in one compact package. All the components in an integrated circuit, or IC, are formed from silicon using a process much like printing. IC's come in many different shapes (“form factors”) with even more different functions. Different IC's can be power regulators, logic gates, amplifiers, tuners, computer memory, filters, and more. Almost every electronic device you own runs on IC's. The CPU in your computer is an IC that contains literally millions of transistors and diodes. Here are just a few form factors:

T6B01 (D)

What class of electronic components is capable of using a voltage or current signal to control current flow?

A. Capacitors

B. Inductors

C. Resistors

D. Transistors

By using a small amount of power to control a large amount of power, transistors can be amplifiers or switches.

T6B03 (C)

Which of these components can be used as an electronic switch or amplifier?

A. Oscillator

B. Potentiometer

C. Transistor

D. Voltmeter

T6B05 (A)

Which of the following electronic components can amplify signals?

A. Transistor

B. Variable resistor

C. Electrolytic capacitor

D. Multi-cell battery

T6B04 (B)

Which of the following components can be made of three layers of semiconductor material?

A. Alternator

B. Transistor

C. Triode

D. Pentagrid converter

Three layers makes it a transistor. Two layers would be a diode.

T6B12 (A)

What is the term that describes a transistor's ability to amplify a signal?

A. Gain

B. Forward resistance

C. Forward voltage drop

D. On resistance

T6B10 (A)

What are the three electrodes of a PNP or NPN transistor?

A. Emitter, base, and collector

B. Source, gate, and drain

C. Cathode, grid, and plate

D. Cathode, drift cavity, and collector

PNP and NPN transistors are also known as bipolar transistors and they have an emitter, base and collector.

T6B08 (A)

What does the abbreviation FET stand for?

A. Field Effect Transistor

B. Fast Electron Transistor

C. Free Electron Transition

D. Field Emission Thickness

Field Effect Transistors are called “unipolar” devices. FET's tend to have lower noise than bipolar transistors, but not as much gain. They are especially useful in high frequency applications such as our VHF and UHF radios.

T6B11 (B)

What at are the three electrodes of a field effect transistor?

A. Emitter, base, and collector

B. Source, gate, and drain

C. Cathode, grid, and plate

D. Cathode, gate, and anode

Yes, there's a typo in this question and it officially reads “What at are the three ...” and now that the questions have been published the rule is they can't be changed. I point it out so it doesn't mess with your head if you get it on the test. They're just asking, “What are the three electrodes...” – it isn't a trick question. And you can remember those FET electrodes by remembering field effect transistors are Darn Good Semiconductors!

T6B02 (C)

What electronic component allows current to flow in only one direction?

A. Resistor

B. Fuse

C. Diode

D. Driven Element

Diodes are like one-way gates for electricity.

T6B06 (B)

How is the cathode lead of a semiconductor diode usually identified?

A. With the word cathode

B. With a stripe

C. With the letter C

D. All of these choices are correct

Because diodes act as one-way valves for electricity, they have to be connected correctly in order to work properly. Except in certain applications, the cathode is connected to negative voltage, and the cathode is usually identified with a stripe.

T6B09 (C)

What are the names of the two electrodes of a diode?

A. Plus and minus

B. Source and drain

C. Anode and cathode

D. Gate and base

Current flows from the cathode to the anode in a diode. “Ode” is from the Greek hodos, meaning “path.” Diode would mean, literally, “two paths”, the cathode being one path and the anode the other. It is probably better to think of it as a “half path” that only runs in one direction.

T6B07 (B)

What does the abbreviation LED stand for?

A. Low Emission Diode

B. Light Emitting Diode

C. Liquid Emission Detector

D. Long Echo Delay

T6D07 (A)

Which of the following is commonly used as a visual indicator?

A. LED

B. FET

C. Zener diode

D. Bipolar transistor

T6D05 (A)

What type of circuit controls the amount of voltage from a power supply?

A. Regulator

B. Oscillator

C. Filter

D. Phase inverter

Regulators are usually integrated circuits in modern equipment, though it is possible to achieve voltage regulation with standard components.  A regulator acts as a voltage sensor and controller.  “Whoops, voltage is a little low, better turn it up ….. whoops, too much, down a little ….”

T6D06 (B)

What component is commonly used to change 120V AC house current to a lower AC voltage for other uses?

A. Variable capacitor

B. Transformer

C. Transistor

D. Diode

T6D09 (C)

What is the name of a device that combines several semiconductors and other components into one package?

A. Transducer

B. Multi-pole relay

C. Integrated circuit

D. Transformer

Legend has it that newly-hired Texas Instruments engineer Jack Kilby had the lab pretty much to himself in the middle of summer, 1958 – everyone else had vacation time.

He spent the time pursuing an idea he had been toying with for some time – the idea that you could build all of the basic electronic components from semiconductor material, and by doing so could put a lot of circuits in a little bit of space. Everything would be "integrated" in one package. That summer he demonstrated the first integrated circuit.

T6D01 (B)

Which of the following devices or circuits changes an alternating current into a varying direct current signal?

A. Transformer

B. Rectifier

C. Amplifier

D. Reflector

You'll see an example of a rectifier in the section on schematic diagrams.

Chapter 19 - Schematic Diagrams

In this section you'll learn about schematic diagrams. A schematic diagram – often known simply as a schematic – is a graphic representation of the components in an electronic circuit and the connections among them.

In a schematic diagram, conductors are represented by lines, and components by schematic symbols. Here are the schematic symbols you'll need to know for the exam:

T6C01 (C)

What is the name for standardized representations of components in an electrical wiring diagram?

A. Electrical depictions

B. Grey sketch

C. Schematic symbols

D. Component callouts

T6C12 (A)

What do the symbols on an electrical circuit schematic diagram represent?

A. Electrical components

B. Logic states

C. Digital codes

D. Traffic nodes

T6C13 (C)

Which of the following is accurately represented in electrical circuit schematic diagrams?

A. Wire lengths

B. Physical appearance of components

C. The way components are interconnected

D. All of these choices are correct

While a schematic accurately (one hopes!) shows the way components are interconnected it isn't a full plan for a device. It doesn't necessarily tell you how the components would be arranged physically, how they would be mounted, on what they would be mounted, nor much else you'd need to know to actually build the circuit shown. Experienced builders can usually translate a schematic into a full plan, though.

Chapter 20 - Reading Schematic Diagrams

The test includes three schematic diagrams and asks you to identify components represented by the symbols. Only one question asks you what the function of a certain component is.

The schematics they've used are quite simple, though completely useless since they don't show a single component value!

As with most schematics, you'll find inputs on the left, outputs on the right. As you learn what components do, you'll learn reading a schematic is like solving a puzzle – “Hmmm ...so they have one of these hooked up to one of those, so what that would do is …..aha!”

I've included explanations of what the circuits are supposed to do, but you won't need that information for the test – it’s just to make those schematics seem less like incomprehensible chicken scratches. For the Technician license, the test is mostly concerned with parts identification.

About Figure T-1

Figure T-1 shows a circuit that will light a lamp in proportion to some sort of input – probably audio. So the lamp will flash in time with the audio, brighter when the music is louder.

The input is on the left of the diagram. One input is connected to chassis ground, which means it is connected to all the chassis grounds. Back when radio dinosaurs roamed the earth, before printed circuit boards, we really did connect chassis ground wires directly to the chassis, which was a metal box upon which one mounted all the components. Today, the “chassis ground” is usually just a conductive strip on a circuit board, but we've kept the term.

The other input goes through a resistor, then to the base of a transistor. You'll recall, the transistor's base controls a larger current that flows between the emitter to the collector. So whatever signal is coming into the base from the input is going to control the output of the transistor.

Why's there a resistor in there? To drop the input voltage down to something the transistor can handle.

There's a battery hooked up with one side going to chassis ground and the other through a lamp (a light bulb) and then to the emitter of the transistor. The collector is connected to chassis ground. (That arrow on the collector indicates the transistor is an NPN type, which you can remember because the arrow is Not Pointing IN.) When the base is energized by the input signal, the transistor will allow current to flow from the battery, through the lamp, through the transistor, and then to ground.

About Figure T-2

Figure T-2 has a few more parts. It's a power supply. Let's start on the left side with the input. You can see it hooks up to an AC source – a wall plug. There's a fuse for safety, a switch to turn the power supply off and on, and then a transformer. After it passes through the primary winding of the transformer – that's the one on the left – it goes back to the neutral side of the AC plug and completes its circuit. The transformer will change the 120 volt AC to some other voltage, though we can't tell what voltage that will be. The new voltage will be on the right side of the transformer, the secondary winding. One side of the secondary is connected to our old friend chassis ground, the other goes through a diode.

A diode is a one-way valve for electricity so here's what will happen at the diode.

There's regular old AC coming out of the transformer. Then it hits that diode, the one-way gate. So the bottom half of the sine wave can't get through. The diode is acting as a rectifier.

Then the capacitor gets into the act. Remember a capacitor stores electrical energy in an electric field. In this circuit, the capacitor gets charged by the “up” part of the cycle, then starts discharging through the “down” and “off” parts. That gives us a waveform something like this:

Finally, the Zener diode is used to regulate the voltage, in other words, to provide a steady, consistent voltage.

This power supply transforms AC current into DC current. It's not “pure DC”, but a lot of your electronics actually don't need pure DC.

About Figure T-3

Figure T-3 looks a lot simpler than T-2, doesn't it? It's an antenna tuner. As you know, it's important to match the impedances of your transceiver and your antenna, and this little circuit gives us one way to do that.

You'll see there's RF coming into the circuit on the left. Then there are two variable capacitors and a variable inductor. Finally, the output goes to an antenna.

When we connect an inductor and a capacitor (or, in the case, two capacitors) we create a tuned circuit and that's exactly what this whole circuit is. By adjusting the values of the capacitors and the inductor, we can change the resonant frequency of the circuit, and as you'll learn if you upgrade to Extra class, impedance and frequency and related.

Now you know way more about the three schematics on the test than you need to pass the exam!

By the way, if you are visually impaired – or you know someone who would like to become a ham but thinks a visual impairment would stop them – there are tests available that eliminate all questions that require looking at a picture. Just let the folks administering your test know, preferably in advance so they can be sure to have the right tests on hand.

Now let's see the questions and the diagrams without all the answers on them.

T6C02 (A)

What is component 1 in figure T1?

A. Resistor

B. Transistor

C. Battery

D. Connector

T6C03 (B)

What is component 2 in figure T1?

A. Resistor

B. Transistor

C. Indicator lamp

D. Connector

T6C04 (C)

What is component 3 in figure T1?

A. Resistor

B. Transistor

C. Lamp

D. Ground symbol

T6C05 (C)

What is component 4 in figure T1?

A. Resistor

B. Transistor

C. Battery

D. Ground symbol

T6D10 (C)

What is the function of component 2 in Figure T1?

A. Give off light when current flows through it

B. Supply electrical energy

C. Control the flow of current

D. Convert electrical energy into radio waves

This is the only question on your Technician exam that asks for the function of a component on these schematic diagrams. Component 2 is a transistor and, of course, transistors are used to control the flow of current.

T6D03 (A)

What type of switch is represented by component 3 in figure T2?

A. Single-pole single-throw

B. Single-pole double-throw

C. Double-pole single-throw

D. Double-pole double-throw

Switches are characterized by how many paths of current they control – the “poles” – and how many places they can send that current – the “throws.” Below you see an illustration of one type of single-pole single-throw switch but they come in many different forms and sizes. Electrically speaking, though, they're all the same, and they simply switch a circuit off or on.

A single-pole double-throw switch would be used to send current either to destination A or destination B.

Unless you happen to be wiring very heavy-duty electric motors or something similar, you'll only see single or double-pole switches.

For your Technician exam, you only need to remember the most basic and by far most common type of switch, the single-pole single-throw switch.

T6C06 (B)

What is component 6 in figure T2?

A. Resistor

B. Capacitor

C. Regulator IC

D. Transistor

T6C07 (D)

What is component 8 in figure T2?

A. Resistor

B. Inductor

C. Regulator IC

D. Light emitting diode

Those arrows coming out of the diode represent light.

T6C08 (C)

What is component 9 in figure T2?

A. Variable capacitor

B. Variable inductor

C. Variable resistor

D. Variable transformer

T6C09 (D)

What is component 4 in figure T2?

A. Variable inductor

B. Double-pole switch

C. Potentiometer

D. Transformer

T6C10 (D)

What is component 3 in figure T3?

A. Connector

B. Meter

C. Variable capacitor

D. Variable inductor

T6C11 (A)

What is component 4 in figure T3?

A. Antenna

B. Transmitter

C. Dummy load

D. Ground

Chapter 21 - Station equipment

T7A01 (B)

Which term describes the ability of a receiver to detect the presence of a signal?

A. Linearity

B. Sensitivity

C. Selectivity

D. Total Harmonic Distortion

Detecting the presence of a signal requires a receiver have sensitivity. If it can only detect a signal from a transmitter that is operating at 1500 watts right next door, that's low sensitivity. If it can detect a 25 watt signal from Guatemala, that's high sensitivity.

T7A04 (C)

Which term describes the ability of a receiver to discriminate between multiple signals?

A. Discrimination ratio

B. Sensitivity

C. Selectivity

D. Harmonic Distortion

Having a radio that can receive that signal from Guatemala doesn't do much good if it picks up everything between here and Guatemala! A high-quality receiver not only picks up weak signals (sensitivity) but can tune in one while rejecting all the others nearby thanks to its excellent selectivity.

T7A02 (B)

What is a transceiver?

A. A type of antenna switch

B. A unit combining the functions of a transmitter and a receiver

C. A component in a repeater which filters out unwanted interference

D. A type of antenna matching network

Transmitter plus Receiver = Transceiver.

In the days of yore – whenever yore was – your ham radio station would probably have consisted of many large, heavy, heat generating boxes. One box for the transmitter, another the receiver, yet another the antenna tuner, maybe an antenna switcher, an SWR meter, etc., etc. Today it's mostly one box called a transceiver.

T7A03 (B)

Which of the following is used to convert a radio signal from one frequency to another?

A. Phase splitter

B. Mixer

C. Inverter

D. Amplifier

This question asks you to know at least a little bit about how a receiver works.

While it is possible to build an AM receiver from a rusty razor blade, a safety pin, a toilet paper roll (to be the core of a coil), some wire and a pair of headphones, that's not a receiver that's what you'd call “sensitive”, “selective”, nor even “very useful.” (Believe me, I know – I built one from plans that were in a comic book when I was about eight years old. It worked! Sort of. Dad had to take me into town and we parked about a block from a radio station's antenna to get it to work. It lacked sensitivity. If you get curious, Google “foxhole radio.”)

Modern, useful receivers are based on an invention called the “super heterodyne receiver”, which uses frequency mixing to demodulate the (AM) signal. The mixer is where that frequency mixing occurs.

Edwin Armstrong devised the super heterodyne receiver with its mixer component in 1918 as a way to allow radio direction finding equipment to operate at what were then considered very high frequencies. Later this brilliant inventor would create modern frequency modulation.

T7A05 (D)

What is the name of a circuit that generates a signal of a desired frequency?

A. Reactance modulator

B. Product detector

C. Low-pass filter

D. Oscillator

An oscillator is a circuit that generates a frequency. You'll find oscillators in both receivers and transmitters.

T7A06 (C)

What device takes the output of a low-powered 28 MHz SSB exciter and produces a 222 MHz output signal?

A. High-pass filter

B. Low-pass filter

C. Transverter

D. Phase converter

A transverter is a two-way frequency converter. One way you might use one is to work the VHF band with an HF radio. When a transmitter is connected to a transverter, the transmitter is referred to as an exciter.

A transverter takes a low-power radio frequency signal from an exciter operating, in this case, at 28 MHz in the 10 meter band and converts it into a higher frequency output. Then, when it receives a signal on that higher frequency, it translates it back down to 28 MHz so the radio serving as an exciter can receive it.

T7A07 (D)

What is meant by term “PTT”?

A. Pre-transmission tuning to reduce transmitter harmonic emission

B. Precise tone transmissions used to limit repeater access to only certain signals

C. A primary transformer tuner use to match antennas

D. The push to talk function which switches between receive and transmit

PTT means Push To Talk, also known less formally as “the microphone switch.”

T7A09 (B)

Which of the following devices is most useful for VHF weak-signal communication?

A. A quarter-wave vertical antenna

B. A multi-mode VHF transceiver

C. An omni-directional antenna

D. A mobile VHF FM transceiver

VHF weak-signal communication means working the VHF bands over long distances, and not through repeaters. This could include taking advantage of tropospheric ducting, bouncing signals off the Moon or even the ion trails left in the upper atmosphere by meteors.

Our hand-held and mobile VHF radios usually only operate in FM mode. For VHF weak-signal communication, you'll probably need a VHF radio that can operate in FM, AM, and SSB modes – also known as a multi-mode VHF transceiver.

Another way to work VHF weak-signal would be to use a multi-mode HF transceiver and a transverter. (See question T7A06.) Either way, multi-mode is what you'll need.

T7A10 (B)

What device increases the low-power output from a hand-held transceiver?

A. A voltage divider

B. An RF power amplifier

C. An impedance network

D. All of these choices are correct

You can hook your little hand-held transceiver into an RF power amplifier and turn it into a “big” hand-held transceiver.

T7A11 (A)

Where is an RF preamplifier installed?

A. Between the antenna and receiver

B. At the output of the transmitter's power amplifier

C. Between a transmitter and antenna tuner

D. At the receiver's audio output

An RF preamplifier would be installed between the antenna and receiver to boost the signals going into the receiver. This is not a necessary piece of equipment, just something with which you might experiment.

T7C01 (A)

What is the primary purpose of a dummy load?

A. To prevent the radiation of signals when making tests

B. To prevent over-modulation of your transmitter

C. To improve the radiation from your antenna

D. To improve the signal to noise ratio of your receiver

A dummy load is just a very big non-inductive resistor with a heat sink. It attaches where you would normally attach the antenna to your transmitter, and it allows you to make adjustments to your transmitter while it is in transmit mode without actually putting a signal on the air.

Some transmitters – especially older HF transmitters that use vacuum tubes – require “tuning up” before they will work correctly. Dummy loads are excellent for getting one's transmitter close to perfectly tuned up without cluttering up the airwaves with one's testing.

T7C13 (B)

What does a dummy load consist of?

A. A high-gain amplifier and a TR switch

B. A non-inductive resistor and a heat sink

C. A low voltage power supply and a DC relay

D. A 50 ohm reactance used to terminate a transmission line

T7C02 (B)

Which of the following instruments can be used to determine if an antenna is resonant at the desired operating frequency?

A. A VTVM

B. An antenna analyzer

C. A Q meter

D. A frequency counter

Hams have great affection for antennas because they know a great antenna can do wonders for a mediocre radio, but no radio can perform well with a bad antenna. So, many of us get involved with experimenting with different antenna designs. The ARRL publishes a very thick book of antenna designs and the science behind them, and antenna construction can be relatively simple – at least until one gets into very large, very high antennas.

If you get to that stage of the hobby, you'll probably want an antenna analyzer. This instrument contains a tiny transmitter. You hook the analyzer up to your antenna feed line and it reads out all sorts of information, including whether your antenna is resonant at the desired frequency.

Chapter 22 - Interference and Other Transmission Problems

Since interference decreases the value of the electromagnetic spectrum for everyone, the FCC is concerned that we not cause it. Beyond that, they expect us to be able to prevent it, detect it, and do something about it when it occurs, and that’s the main subject of this section.

T7B01 (D)

What can you do if you are told your FM hand-held or mobile transceiver is over-deviating?

A. Talk louder into the microphone

B. Let the transceiver cool off

C. Change to a higher power level

D. Talk farther away from the microphone

In a commercial radio station, you'd have an audio mixer to control the audio level of your microphone. In a “base station” (big, non-mobile) radio, you'll probably find a microphone level control. but in the simpler world of mobile and hand-held radios we can adjust our audio level by simply holding the microphone closer or farther away. With the help of feedback from those receiving your signal, you'll quickly learn the right distance for your radio.

T7B02 (A)

What would cause a broadcast AM or FM radio to receive an amateur radio transmission unintentionally?

A. The receiver is unable to reject strong signals outside the AM or FM band

B. The microphone gain of the transmitter is turned up too high

C. The audio amplifier of the transmitter is overloaded

D. The deviation of an FM transmitter is set too low

If you're a little knowledgeable about transmitters, you might pick B or C for this question, but answer A is the correct one. It is also the answer that reflects the “most common case” in the practical world. Notice that the correct answer is the only answer that mentions the receiver.

In an earlier section there was a question about interference and the answer mentioned “FM deviation” which was too high. That was a different scenario than this, because it asked about interference to stations on nearby frequencies. FM commercial radio is not that near any of our frequencies, since there's no ham radio between 54 MHz and 144 MHz and FM commercial is 88 to 108 MHz. AM goes from 530 kHz to 1600 kHz, and the very bottom of the 160 meter band is 1800 kHz.

If there's ham interference in a broadcast radio, chances are very, very good the problem is in the broadcast radio unless there's something radically wrong in your system.

T7B03 (D)

Which of the following may be a cause of radio frequency interference?

A. Fundamental overload

B. Harmonics

C. Spurious emissions

D. All of these choices are correct

Fundamental overload is something that happens in a receiver when it gets blasted by more RF than it is capable of handling.

Harmonics might be generated by your transmitting apparatus. They are frequencies that are multiples of your intended frequency, a common type of spurious emission.

T7B04 (D)

Which of the following is a way to reduce or eliminate interference by an amateur transmitter to a nearby telephone?

A. Put a filter on the amateur transmitter

B. Reduce the microphone gain

C. Reduce the SWR on the transmitter transmission line

D. Put a RF filter on the telephone

An RF filter is a circuit designed not to pass radio frequencies. Of the choices listed, it is the only one likely to help with telephone interference.

T7B05 (A)

How can overload of a non-amateur radio or TV receiver by an amateur signal be reduced or eliminated?

A. Block the amateur signal with a filter at the antenna input of the affected receiver

B. Block the interfering signal with a filter on the amateur transmitter

C. Switch the transmitter from FM to SSB

D. Switch the transmitter to a narrow-band mode

In this case, the filter would be designed to pass only those frequencies the non-amateur receiver is designed to receive.

T7B06 (A)

Which of the following actions should you take if a neighbor tells you that your station's transmissions are interfering with their radio or TV reception?

A. Make sure that your station is functioning properly and that it does not cause interference to your own radio or television when it is tuned to the same channel

B. Immediately turn off your transmitter and contact the nearest FCC office for assistance

C. Tell them that your license gives you the right to transmit and nothing can be done to reduce the interference

D. Install a harmonic doubler on the output of your transmitter and tune it until the interference is eliminated

Answer A is certainly a good first step, and the only one that makes any sense in this context.

Answer B is about 70% wrong. Immediately turning off your transmitter would be polite, and it would certainly eliminate any interference it was causing, but the FCC is not there to assist you with this – and eventually you're going to have to turn the transmitter back on to find the problem, anyway.

Answer C is completely wrong. Your license gives you the privilege of transmitting, but only without causing harmful interference. Plus it says right here in the Technician exam that there are things that can be done about interference. Not only that, the law requires you to do something to eliminate the interference.

And that “harmonic doubler” answer is just a little ham humor. (Very little.)

T7B07 (D)

Which of the following may be useful in correcting a radio frequency interference problem?

A. Snap-on ferrite chokes

B. Low-pass and high-pass filters

C. Band-reject and band-pass filters

D. All of these choices are correct

You can find snap-on ferrite chokes at your local electronic supply store. Ferrite is a material that is particularly effective at creating inductance. The chokes snap around wires that are carrying signals – it will take some experimentation to find which wires are the right ones, but these chokes are very easy to install.

A low-pass filter passes all frequencies below a specific frequency. A high-pass filter passes all frequencies above a certain frequency. A band-reject filter blocks a specific band of frequencies, and a band-pass filter passes only a specific band of frequencies.

T7B08 (D)

What should you do if something in a neighbor's home is causing harmful interference to your amateur station?

A. Work with your neighbor to identify the offending device

B. Politely inform your neighbor about the rules that prohibit the use of devices which cause interference

C. Check your station and make sure it meets the standards of good amateur practice

D. All of these choices are correct

Personally, I'd put answer C first on my list of things to do, but the choice is yours. Just remember, our objective is to be good neighbors – for our own good and for the good of the hobby.

T7B12 (D)

What might be the first step to resolve cable TV interference from your ham radio transmission?

A. Add a low pass filter to the TV antenna input

B. Add a high pass filter to the TV antenna input

C. Add a preamplifier to the TV antenna input

D. Be sure all TV coaxial connectors are installed properly

Being sure all TV coaxial connectors are installed properly mostly means “be sure they are all tight.” A loose coax connector can allow your ham RF to leak into the coax, interfering with the cable TV signal.

T7B09 (A)

What is a Part 15 device?

A. An unlicensed device that may emit low powered radio signals on frequencies used by a licensed service

B. A type of amateur radio that can legally be used in the citizen's band

C. A device for long distance communications using special codes sanctioned by the International Amateur Radio Union

D. A type of test set used to determine whether a transmitter is in compliance with FCC regulation 91.15

A Part 15 device could be almost anything electrical. Your Bluetooth headset is a Part 15 device. Your video game box. Your computer. Your Wi-Fi router. Even your television – because receivers don't just receive, they also emit radio waves as a byproduct of the receiving process. Part 15 is a very thick part of the FCC rules and regulations, and even contains specifications for some electric motors. All these things can emit low power radio frequency signals and might cause interference to your ham radio, because our radios are designed to pick up very weak signals.

Computers are particularly notorious for generating interference. If you're hearing a weird sort of static in your ham radio, try switching off your computer and see if the noise disappears!

T7B10 (D)

What might be the problem if you receive a report that your audio signal through the repeater is distorted or unintelligible?

A. Your transmitter may be slightly off frequency

B. Your batteries may be running low

C. You could be in a bad location

D. All of these choices are correct

Yes, all those choices are correct, and one could list many more possibilities. You might not think having low batteries would produce distortion, but it can.

T7B11 (C)

What is a symptom of RF feedback in a transmitter or transceiver?

A. Excessive SWR at the antenna connection

B. The transmitter will not stay on the desired frequency

C. Reports of garbled, distorted, or unintelligible transmissions

D. Frequent blowing of power supply fuses

Yes, here's another possible cause to check if you're receiving these sorts of signal reports.

We hear audio frequency feedback when a microphone picks up the sound from a speaker and “screeeeech!” RF feedback is the same thing, only at radio frequencies. You won't hear any screeching, but your signal will be a mess. It is caused by your own signal getting back into your transmitter, being re-transmitted, and re-received in an endless loop.

On a typical mobile or hand-held dual band VHF/UHF radio, you probably won't have this problem. Those radios are relatively low power and are usually well shielded. As you advance in the hobby and get something more powerful, RF feedback becomes more of a possibility. The cure is good grounding of everything in your system.

Chapter 23 - Meters

T7D01 (B)

Which instrument would you use to measure electric potential or electromotive force?

A. An ammeter

B. A voltmeter

C. A wavemeter

D. An ohmmeter

Electric potential, electromotive force, EMF, volts, or voltage all mean the same thing.

T7D02 (B)

What is the correct way to connect a voltmeter to a circuit?

A. In series with the circuit

B. In parallel with the circuit

C. In quadrature with the circuit

D. In phase with the circuit

There are two categories of electrical circuits, series and parallel. In a series circuit, there is only one path for the electricity to take. In a parallel circuit, there is more than one path.

If you wanted to measure the voltage across a resistor, you'd connect one lead to each end of the resistor. What you don't want is for your voltmeter to be in series with the circuit, but to accomplish that you'd have to cut a wire somewhere, then connect the meter into the circuit, which is what you do to measure amps.

T7D03 (A)

How is an ammeter usually connected to a circuit?

A. In series with the circuit

B. In parallel with the circuit

C. In quadrature with the circuit

D. In phase with the circuit

T7D04 (D)

Which instrument is used to measure electric current?

A. An ohmmeter

B. A wavemeter

C. A voltmeter

D. An ammeter

Electric current = amperes or “amps” for short. You may hear an ammeter referred to as an “amp meter” – it's the same thing. Ammeter is just a contraction of “Amp meter.”

T7D05 (D)

What instrument is used to measure resistance?

A. An oscilloscope

B. A spectrum analyzer

C. A noise bridge

D. An ohmmeter

Ohms are the unit of resistance, so we measure resistance with an ohmmeter, or, as you'll see in the next question, a multi-meter set to measure resistance.

T7D06 (C)

Which of the following might damage a multimeter?

A. Measuring a voltage too small for the chosen scale

B. Leaving the meter in the milliamps position overnight

C. Attempting to measure voltage when using the resistance setting

D. Not allowing it to warm up properly

A multimeter can be used to measure voltage, current or resistance.

The resistance meter, often referred to as the ohmmeter, uses a battery in the meter to pass a current through the device being measured. Since the meter “knows” the voltage of the battery and the amount of current flowing, it can calculate the resistance using Ohm's Law. If you set your meter to measure resistance and then touch the probes to a voltage, you'll be applying a voltage to the battery in the meter with what could be, literally, explosive results. Always double check that a component has no voltage being applied to it before measuring the resistance.

By the way, a multimeter is almost a must-have item for anyone working on anything electrical or electronic, and they can be had quite inexpensively – unlike some of the other test equipment mentioned in the ham exams! Happily those more expensive items tend to be more “nice-to-have” than “need-to-have.”

T7D07 (D)

Which of the following measurements are commonly made using a multimeter?

A. SWR and RF power

B. Signal strength and noise

C. Impedance and reactance

D. Voltage and resistance

Not only are those other items not “commonly” measured with a multimeter, they're never measured with one.

T7D10 (B)

What is probably happening when an ohmmeter, connected across an unpowered circuit, initially indicates a low resistance and then shows increasing resistance with time?

A. The ohmmeter is defective

B. The circuit contains a large capacitor

C. The circuit contains a large inductor

D. The circuit is a relaxation oscillator

Capacitors take a certain amount of time to charge, and when you hook up your ohmmeter to one you're charging it with the battery in your meter. When you first hook it up, your meter will “see” a lot of electricity flowing, so it thinks it is seeing a low resistance. As the capacitor reaches a full charge, less and less electricity flows to it, so the meter thinks the resistance is getting higher.

T7D11 (B)

Which of the following precautions should be taken when measuring circuit resistance with an ohmmeter?

A. Ensure that the applied voltages are correct

B. Ensure that the circuit is not powered

C. Ensure that the circuit is grounded

D. Ensure that the circuit is operating at the correct frequency

ONLY use an ohmmeter on unpowered circuits, unless you really want to kill your old ohmmeter so you can buy a shiny new one.

T7D12 (B)

Which of the following precautions should be taken when measuring high voltages with a voltmeter?

A. Ensure that the voltmeter has very low impedance

B. Ensure that the voltmeter and leads are rated for use at the voltages to be measured

C. Ensure that the circuit is grounded through the voltmeter

D. Ensure that the voltmeter is set to the correct frequency

Any meter is just another electronic device, and they can be overloaded. Some people jokingly refer to this as “letting the smoke out” of the device. Let's be clear: I do not recommend you let the smoke out of any of your devices.

Chapter 24 - Soldering

T7D08 (C)

Which of the following types of solder is best for radio and electronic use?

A. Acid-core solder

B. Silver solder

C. Rosin-core solder

D. Aluminum solder

Soldering is a method of making permanent connections between electronic components by melting a small amount of a metal (the solder) onto the connection using a heated tool called a soldering iron. Solder comes in a few different forms, only one of which is suitable for our purposes.

We use rosin-core solder for electronics. The rosin acts as a flux – a substance that prevents the solder and the item being soldered from oxidizing in the high heat from the soldering iron, so they bond well.

Acid core solder is used for plumbing and makes a strong bond in that application, but would cause our delicate electronic connections to corrode and fail over time.

Silver solder would make a great electronic solder since it conducts electricity so well, but it melts at such a high heat all our components would melt before the solder.

Aluminum solder is also unsuitable for our purposes – but it is quite unlikely you will find any aluminum solder at your local hardware store, anyway.

T7D09 (C)

What is the characteristic appearance of a cold solder joint?

A. Dark black spots

B. A bright or shiny surface

C. A grainy or dull surface

D. A greenish tint

There's more than a bit of art to good soldering. It requires just enough heat to properly melt the solder and make a good bond, but not so much that it damages the component you are soldering.

If you apply just enough heat to melt the solder but not enough to create a good bond, you'll end up with a cold solder joint. (This usually results from heating only the solder, not the item being soldered.) The join will look as though it is properly soldered, but the solder will have a grainy or dull surface instead of looking bright and shiny – and the joint is doomed to fail at some point.

Chapter 25 - Modulation Modes

T8A01 (C)

Which of the following is a form of amplitude modulation?

A. Spread-spectrum

B. Packet radio

C. Single sideband

D. Phase shift keying

Single sideband is the only modulation method listed that uses amplitude modulation.

What is single sideband? When an amplitude modulated radio signal is created, a product of the process is two “sidebands”, one just below and the other just above the frequency of the main carrier. Both of those sidebands carry the information in the amplitude modulation.

Now here's the useful part – both sidebands carry (essentially) the same information. Not only that, the carrier itself – that frequency right in the center with almost no bandwidth – carries no useful information at all. (I realize this may be at odds with how you might have learned about amplitude modulation in school, but it's just a more detailed look at the process.)

Someone clever thought, “Why bother sending both sidebands? That seems like a waste of good electricity. In fact, why bother even sending the main carrier? Why not use all our expensive watts to just send one of the sidebands and let the receiver put everything back together?” And that's the simple version of how single sideband works. It makes the most of our transmitting power and our bandwidth, but it does take a special transmitter to send it and a special receiver plus a bit of delicate tuning-in to receive it.

How much do we gain by using the efficiency of single sideband instead of simple AM modulation? It is as much as approximately an eight times gain in effective power. Eight times! That means your 1500 watt transmitter, using simple AM, effectively becomes a 12,000 watt transmitter on ssb. No wonder it is so popular.

The sideband just below the carrier frequency is called the lower sideband and the sideband just above the carrier frequency is – you guessed it – the upper sideband.

I’d be remiss if I left out the fact that despite all the advantages of single sideband, there are hams who enjoy using normal AM for voice. Of course, they lose efficiency and can’t work much DX with it, but that audio quality sure sounds good!

T8A03 (C)

Which type of voice mode is most often used for long-distance (weak signal) contacts on the VHF and UHF bands?

A. FM

B. DRM

C. SSB

D. PM

SSB = Single SideBand.

T8A04 (D)

Which type of modulation is most commonly used for VHF and UHF voice repeaters?

A. AM

B. SSB

C. PSK

D. FM

FM = Frequency Modulation.

T8A02 (A)

What type of modulation is most commonly used for VHF packet radio transmissions?

A. FM

B. SSB

C. AM

D. Spread Spectrum

We can use FM to send data as well as voice. Packet radio transmissions are a way hams send messages (quite a bit like e-mail) around the world. “Packets” refers to packets of digital information. If you are familiar with internet technology, it's the same sort of packets used by the internet.

T8A05 (C)

Which of the following types of emission has the narrowest bandwidth?

A. FM voice

B. SSB voice

C. CW

D. Slow-scan TV

By way of comparison, a CW signal can be as narrow as about 150 Hz. An SSB voice signal is about 20 times as wide, at about 3,000 Hz. So is slow-scan TV. FM voice is about 10,000 to 15,000 Hz wide. And fast scan television is 6,000,000 Hz wide. That's a lot of bandwidth!

To give you some sense of the scale we're talking about here, if we imagine the bandwidth of a CW signal as being a foot wide, then an SSB voice signal would be about 20 feet wide, as would a slow-scan TV signal. An FM voice signal would be 100 feet wide, and fast scan amateur television signal would be over 7 miles wide. (And if you think that's big, your home Wi-Fi router's signal would be over 50 miles wide. More bandwidth = more data.)

T8A06 (A)

Which sideband is normally used for 10 meter HF, VHF and UHF single-sideband communications?

A. Upper sideband

B. Lower sideband

C. Suppressed sideband

D. Inverted sideband

There is no particular technical reason for this convention of “10 meter ssb uses upper sideband.”. It's simply what has been done in the past and there's no good reason to change.

T8D04 (C)

What type of transmission is indicated by the term NTSC?

A. A Normal Transmission mode in Static Circuit

B. A special mode for earth satellite uplink

C. An analog fast scan color TV signal

D. A frame compression scheme for TV signals

NTSC (National Television System Committee) is just the formal name for the commercial television system we used in the United States until the switch to digital television in 2009. Much of the rest of the world uses a different system, known as PAL. The two systems are not compatible, so if you get interested in amateur television, you'll need to know the difference.

NTSC is an analog fast scan color TV signal.

Chapter 26 - Hams In Space!

T8B01 (D) [97.301, 97.207(c)]

Who may be the control operator of a station communicating through an amateur satellite or space station?

A. Only an Amateur Extra Class operator

B. A General Class licensee or higher licensee who has a satellite operator certification

C. Only an Amateur Extra Class operator who is also an AMSAT member

D. Any amateur whose license privileges allow them to transmit on the satellite uplink frequency

That's you once you get your Technician License! Yes, you can go out in your back yard, point your antenna at the sky, and use a communications satellite orbiting the Earth to communicate with other hams. How cool is that?

Amateur satellite communication is carried on through our own satellites.

You'll need a computer program that will track the satellites so you know when they're overhead, a good radio and antenna, and a bit of operating knowledge. I think the best way to learn about this mode of communicating is through folks at your local ham club.

T8B02 (B) [97.313]

How much transmitter power should be used on the uplink frequency of an amateur satellite or space station?

A. The maximum power of your transmitter

B. The minimum amount of power needed to complete the contact

C. No more than half the rating of your linear amplifier

D. Never more than 1 watt

This is the same basic power rule that was covered earlier, just applied to satellites.

T8B03 (D)

Which of the following are provided by satellite tracking programs?

A. Maps showing the real-time position of the satellite track over the earth

B. The time, azimuth, and elevation of the start, maximum altitude, and end of a pass

C. The apparent frequency of the satellite transmission, including effects of Doppler shift

D. All of these answers are correct

Your starting point for satellite communication information is http://amsat.org, the organization that operates our amateur satellites. The AMSAT site contains lots of how-to information and satellite tracking programs you can download.

As the satellite passes overhead, it is first moving toward you then away from you, making the frequency shift due to the Doppler shift effect. It's the same effect that makes the sound of a passing train change as it goes by you, only it's happening in the Radio Frequency range. That means you must adjust your equipment to compensate for that effect.

T8B04 (B) [97.301, 97.207(c)]

Which amateur stations may make contact with an amateur station on the International Space Station using 2 meter and 70 cm band amateur radio frequencies?

A. Only members of amateur radio clubs at NASA facilities

B. Any amateur holding a Technician or higher class license

C. Only the astronaut's family members who are hams

D. You cannot talk to the ISS on amateur radio frequencies

Most of the astronauts aboard the International Space Station hold ham licenses, and they have a radio on board. Of course, their time is limited, but you can – with some persistence – have at least a brief chat with them. Schoolteachers who are hams often connect with the ISS to create a great learning opportunity for their students.

T8B05 (D)

What is a satellite beacon?

A. The primary transmit antenna on the satellite

B. An indicator light that that shows where to point your antenna

C. A reflective surface on the satellite

D. A transmission from a space station that contains information about a satellite

T8B06 (B)

Which of the following are inputs to a satellite tracking program?

A. The weight of the satellite

B. The Keplerian elements

C. The last observed time of zero Doppler shift

D. All of these answers are correct

Keplerian elements are named for Johannes Kepler, the German mathematician who worked out the math of orbital mechanics.

Keplerian elements really are not all that intimidating. Here's what a complete set looks like:

1 07530U 74089B  14237.88535572 -.00000039 00000-0 25716-4 0  475

2 07530 101.4796 217.4395 0012081 156.8947 268.3787 12.53606608820253

We don't have to know how to do celestial mechanics calculations. (I, for one, am breathing a sigh of relief.) Finding a satellite is just a matter of copy/pasting that into a satellite tracking program. And, in reality, almost any tracking program is going to include a database that “knows” those numbers already.

T8B07 (C)

With regard to satellite communications, what is Doppler shift?

A. A change in the satellite orbit

B. A mode where the satellite receives signals on one band and transmits on another

C. An observed change in signal frequency caused by relative motion between the satellite and the earth station

D. A special digital communications mode for some satellites

T8B08 (B)

What is meant by the statement that a satellite is operating in mode U/V?

A. The satellite uplink is in the 15 meter band and the downlink is in the 10 meter band

B. The satellite uplink is in the 70 cm band and the downlink is in the 2 meter band

C. The satellite operates using ultraviolet frequencies

D. The satellite frequencies are usually variable

“U” for UHF, “V” for VHF. So for this satellite you'd transmit on the 70 cm band and listen on the 2 meter band. The first letter indicates where you transmit, the second where you receive.

T8B09 (B)

What causes spin fading when referring to satellite signals?

A. Circular polarized noise interference radiated from the sun

B. Rotation of the satellite and its antennas

C. Doppler shift of the received signal

D. Interfering signals within the satellite uplink band

If a satellite didn't constantly rotate it would quickly bake in the sun and fail, so all satellites spin as they orbit. This means the antenna on the satellite is also spinning. If you aren't using a circularly polarized antenna, the signal will fade in and out constantly, and your transmissions to the satellite will fade in and out as well.

There are several ways to create a circularly polarized antenna that are fairly simple, but beyond the scope of this book.

T8B10 (C)

What do the initials LEO tell you about an amateur satellite?

A. The satellite battery is in Low Energy Operation mode

B. The satellite is performing a Lunar Ejection Orbit maneuver

C. The satellite is in a Low Earth Orbit

D. The satellite uses Light Emitting Optics

The lower a satellite is, the faster it has to orbit to stay up there. Geostationary satellites that stay over one spot on Earth are up very high – about 22,000 miles. Maybe some day we'll be able to afford a geostationary satellite, but not yet. Our satellites are in Low Earth Orbit. Some have orbital periods – the time it takes to complete one orbit – of as little as 90 minutes.

T8B11 (C)

What is a commonly used method of sending signals to and from a digital satellite?

A. USB AFSK

B. PSK31

C. FM Packet

D. WSJT

How do you get a message to a place halfway around the world? One way is to upload it to an amateur satellite using FM Packet. The satellite uses a system called store and forward. It waits until it gets to the other side of the Earth, then downloads it to the recipient.

Chapter 27 - Operating Activities

T8C01 (C)

Which of the following methods is used to locate sources of noise interference or jamming?

A. Echolocation

B. Doppler radar

C. Radio direction finding

D. Phase locking

In amateur radio, radio direction finding involves a portable receiver and a directional antenna (probably mounted on a broomstick.) Ideally, the antenna has a strong “null” (weak signal spot) so you know whether the signal you are seeking is toward the “front” of the antenna.

Radio direction finding can also be a ham sport known as foxhunting.

T8C02 (B)

Which of these items would be useful for a hidden transmitter hunt?

A. Calibrated SWR meter

B. A directional antenna

C. A calibrated noise bridge

D. All of these choices are correct

T8C03 (A)

What popular operating activity involves contacting as many stations as possible during a specified period of time?

A. Contesting

B. Net operations

C. Public service events

D. Simulated emergency exercises

Contesting is another of the “sports” of ham radio. There are all sorts of contests – usually at least one in any given week, usually many more. There are many variations. One contest might be “how many voice contacts can you make with US stations on the 20 meter band between the hours of XX:XX and XX:XX on the date of XX/XX/XXXX.” Another might be “how many different countries” or any number of other variations. It's all about speed, efficiency, and excellence in your technical set-up.

Contesting is also how hams keep their skills sharp for that day when they are called on to help out in an emergency. The folks who really get the job done when all other communication systems fail are often experienced contesters.

T8C04 (C)

Which of the following is good procedure when contacting another station in a radio contest?

A. Be sure to sign only the last two letters of your call if there is a pileup calling the station

B. Work the station twice to be sure that you are in his log

C. Send only the minimum information needed for proper identification and the contest exchange

D. All of these choices are correct

Contests are all about “how many contacts in how much time.” They're definitely not the place or time for casual conversation.

T8C05 (A)

What is a grid locator?

A. A letter-number designator assigned to a geographic location

B. A letter-number designator assigned to an azimuth and elevation

C. An instrument for neutralizing a final amplifier

D. An instrument for radio direction finding

Grid locators – known less formally as “grid squares” – are used constantly in contesting so the participants can quickly get the information they need from each other, which is, basically, “Who are you and where are you?” Some contests are even based on such things as “working every grid square in the state of Washington.” Howdy from grid square CN88xa!

A handy way to find your grid square is to use the grid mapper at: http://www.qrz.com/gridmapper. There are also apps for your smart phone that will tell you in what grid square you find yourself at any time.

T8C06 (B)

How is access to an IRLP node accomplished?

A. By obtaining a password which is sent via voice to the node

B. By using DTMF signals

C. By entering the proper Internet password

D. By using CTCSS tone codes

You've heard DTMF – Dual Tone Multi-Frequency – tones many, many times, though you might not have known it. It's those tones your touch tone phone makes when you dial. We use those same tones over the radio to access, among other thing, Internet Linking Radio Project “nodes”. A node is a repeater that is set up to use IRLP.

IRLP is a technique to connect amateur radio systems, such as repeaters, via the Internet using Voice Over Internet Protocol. IRLP lets you set up communications through your local repeater, then through the internet, and finally through a distant repeater. That means you can talk to Wichita, KS from Wilsonville, OR on your hand-held VHF/UHF radio.

To access IRLP you need the appropriate codes for your local repeater which you then send much as you would dial a telephone. Just about every VHF/UHF ham radio can send DTMF. Typically, the back of the microphone has a keypad that you use to send the tones.

T8C07 (B) [97.215(c)]

What is the maximum power allowed when transmitting telecommand signals to radio controlled models?

A. 500 milliwatts

B. 1 watt

C. 25 watts

D. 1500 watts

T8C08 (C) [97.215(a)]

What is required in place of on-air station identification when sending signals to a radio control model using amateur frequencies?

A. Voice identification must be transmitted every 10 minutes

B. Morse code ID must be sent once per hour

C. A label indicating the licensee's name, call sign and address must be affixed to the transmitter

D. A flag must be affixed to the transmitter antenna with the station call sign in 1 inch high letters or larger

Chapter 28 - The Digital World and Ham Radio

T8C09 (C)

How might you obtain a list of active nodes that use VoIP?

A. From the FCC Rulebook

B. From your local emergency coordinator

C. From a repeater directory

D. From the local repeater frequency coordinator

These days there are lots of resources that help you find repeaters. Generally speaking, the people who build repeaters want them to be found and used.

The ARRL still sells paper repeater directories. They also have available a smart-phone app to find repeaters, and there are other smart phone apps built by fellow hams, as well. Some even use your current location information (from your smart-phone) to show you the closest repeaters. A listing will usually show you the location and frequency of the repeater, the offset, the CTCSS tone, the repeater's IRLP capability, if any, and other information. Some repeaters reserve access to certain functions for certain people – such as members of the ham club that operates the repeater.

T8C10 (D)

How do you select a specific IRLP node when using a portable transceiver?

A. Choose a specific CTCSS tone

B. Choose the correct DSC tone

C. Access the repeater autopatch

D. Use the keypad to transmit the IRLP node ID

T8C11 (A)

What name is given to an amateur radio station that is used to connect other amateur stations to the Internet?

A. A gateway

B. A repeater

C. A digipeater

D. A beacon

No, you can't hook your hand-held ham radio to your computer and log on to YouTube. First, that would involve transmitting commercials and possibly music over the ham bands. You'll recall both of those activities are illegal. Second, it would be as slow as a wet week. Amateur data transmission speeds are low speed. Think “early dial-up” speeds. You could be waiting for days for your lolcat video to download.

What we can do with the Internet is use it to send “ham legal” transmissions, via IRLP or other protocols such as Echolink. Echolink lets you use your cell phone to link into repeaters all over the world without even using a radio.

One element of the network that accomplishes such feats is the gateway – a station that connects the ham radio world to the internet world. (If you guessed “digipeaters”, good guess, but they only connect one digital ham radio to another, not to the internet.)

T8C12 (D)

What is meant by Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) as used in amateur radio?

A. A set of rules specifying how to identify your station when linked over the Internet to another station

B. A set of guidelines for working DX during contests using Internet access

C. A technique for measuring the modulation quality of a transmitter using remote sites monitored via the Internet

D. A method of delivering voice communications over the Internet using digital techniques

VoIP is how voice communications in general get sent over the Internet. Skype® is a VoIP service, as is Vonage® and similar services. Your home phone service, if it is provided through your cable company, is probably using VoIP, but VoIP isn't a company, it's a set of standards and systems that eventually gets turned into a set of software.

Hams use VoIP for IRLP and Echolink, among other applications.

T8C13 (A)

What is the Internet Radio Linking Project (IRLP)?

A. A technique to connect amateur radio systems, such as repeaters, via the Internet using Voice Over Internet Protocol

B. A system for providing access to websites via amateur radio

C. A system for informing amateurs in real time of the frequency of active DX stations

D. A technique for measuring signal strength of an amateur transmitter via the Internet

T8D01 (D)

Which of the following is an example of a digital communications method?

A. Packet

B. PSK31

C. MFSK

D. All of these choices are correct

Packet, PSK31, and MFSK are all different digital modes used by amateurs.

Packet radio uses essentially the same protocol as the internet. It moves data around by dividing it into “packets”. Those packets are then routed through a network, in this case, of ham radios until they all reach their destination where they are reassembled. If your message consists of 1000 packets, they might take 1000 different routes to their destination. Hams started experimenting with packet data transmission as early as 1978, 11 years before the invention of the World Wide Web.

PSK31 stands for Phase Shift Keying, 31 Baud. It's an extremely narrow bandwidth digital mode, cleverly designed to transmit at approximately the same speed as the average typist types.

MFSK is Multi Frequency-Shift Keying. Both PSK31 and MFSK are very useful on the HF bands. (Yet another reason to considering upgrading to your General License!)

T8D02 (A)

What does the term “APRS” mean?

A. Automatic Packet Reporting System

B. Associated Public Radio Station

C. Auto Planning Radio Set-up

D. Advanced Polar Radio System

They really had fun making up the wrong answers for this one!  Look for the word packet as your key to the right answer.

APRS – the Automatic Packet Reporting System – uses a form of packet radio to send your present latitude and longitude to a receiver that then plots your position on a map. Of course, APRS must have some way of knowing your position, and it gets that from a GPS unit plugged into a radio that can accommodate APRS.

At least two of the major ham radio manufacturers are marketing radios with APRS built in, and since GPS chips have become so common, I imagine this will become a standard feature within the next few years.

T8D03 (D)

Which of the following devices provides data to the transmitter when sending automatic position reports from a mobile amateur radio station?

A. The vehicle speedometer

B. A WWV receiver

C. A connection to a broadcast FM sub-carrier receiver

D. A Global Positioning System receiver

Automatic position reports come via APRS, and APRS gets its data from a Global Positioning System receiver, in other words, GPS.

T8D05 (A)

Which of the following is an application of APRS (Automatic Packet Reporting System)?

A. Providing real time tactical digital communications in conjunction with a map showing the locations of stations

B. Showing automatically the number of packets transmitted via PACTOR during a specific time interval

C. Providing voice over Internet connection between repeaters

D. Providing information on the number of stations signed into a repeater

Providing real time tactical digital communications in conjunction with a map showing the locations of stations means “we're all sending in our position automatically with these APRS gizmos and we can see where everybody on our team is right here on this computer!”

In a situation like supporting a public event this saves an immense amount of time wasted in conversations like, “Where did you say you are now? Well, who's over at Position B, then?”

T8D06 (B)

What does the abbreviation PSK mean?

A. Pulse Shift Keying

B. Phase Shift Keying

C. Packet Short Keying

D. Phased Slide Keying

Keying is a form of modulation. Modulation is the process by which we turn a simple radio wave into a carrier of useful information. There are several ways we can modulate a carrier to make it a carrier of information. You'll recall Amplitude Modulation and Frequency Modulation are two modulation systems used by amateur radio operators.

We can also send information by varying the phase of the carrier. Remember the diagram of a sine wave? It's the diagram below.

Well, if we were to phase shift that “normal” carrier, it might look something like this:

A half cycle of the carrier that “should” have been a positive half cycle has instead come in as a negative half cycle. It has been shifted, and that's another dimension of the carrier wave that we can modulate.

(In the real world, phase shift modulation is vastly more complex than this oversimplification, but this is the essence of the idea.)

T8D07 (D)

What is PSK31?

A. A high-rate data transmission mode

B. A method of reducing noise interference to FM signals

C. A method of compressing digital television signals

D. A low-rate data transmission mode

Phase Shift Keying, 31 baud is as slow as you can probably imagine a digital transmission mode to be – maybe slower. It is slower than any dial-up connection you ever had “back in the day!” But, speed isn't everything, and PSK31 is extraordinarily dependable in many difficult communication circumstances.

T8D08 (D)

Which of the following may be included in packet transmissions?

A. A check sum which permits error detection

B. A header which contains the call sign of the station to which the information is being sent

C. Automatic repeat request in case of error

D. All of these choices are correct

Check sums are used in lots of applications to verify files have been sent and received correctly. Here's the basic idea. We assign a number value to each possible character in a message or file. Let's say A=1, B=2, etc. Then at the end of the message, we add a number that equals the total of all the character numbers. That's the check sum. The program on the receiving ends adds up all the numbers for the characters it received and calculates what should be the check sum. If the two check sums match, that means the message was received correctly. If the check sums don't match, the receiver sends back a message that is basically, “Didn't get that one, send it again, please.” That's the automatic repeat request. (In practice, check sums are a good deal more clever and complex, but that's the general idea.)

Headers are the part of the message that contain all the routing information. Without the header, the message has no idea where to go, nor where it came from!

T8D11 (C)

What is an ARQ transmission system?

A. A special transmission format limited to video signals

B. A system used to encrypt command signals to an amateur radio satellite

C. A digital scheme whereby the receiving station detects errors and sends a request to the sending station to retransmit the information

D. A method of compressing the data in a message so more information can be sent in a shorter time

ARQ – Automatic Repeat ReQuest – is the digital version of “Huh? Say that again, please?” Some digital protocols include some sort of error correction protocol, some don't. Of course, we generally want to eliminate errors, but sometimes it isn't worth it.

The downside of error correction is it inevitably slows things down.  For example, when you stream audio or video from the internet on your computer, the protocol your computer was using didn’t include error checking.

About this time I imagine you might be thinking something like, “Did these guys EVER meet a simple English phrase they didn't turn into an abbreviation?” I promise, there really aren't too many more.

T8D09 (C)

What code is used when sending CW in the amateur bands?

A. Baudot

B. Hamming

C. International Morse

D. Gray

CW = Continuous Wave = Morse Code = International Morse = the original digital transmission system.

T8D10 (D)

Which of the following can be used to transmit CW in the amateur bands?

A. Straight Key

B. Electronic Keyer

C. Computer Keyboard

D. All of these choices are correct

There are at least three different tools you can use to send International Morse Code, also known as CW.

First, and least expensively, is an old-fashioned telegraph key, known among hams as a straight key.

A straight key will certainly get the job done, but as your Morse Code speed improves you may find yourself limited by the straight key. That's when you might want to look into an electronic keyer .

The electronic keyer uses a pair of paddles. Push on one, it makes a perfectly timed “dit.” Press on the other, it makes a perfect “dah.” A skilled operator can send very quickly with one of these.

And then there's the computer option, which does away with all keying and both sends and receives Morse Code. Seems almost like cheating, doesn't it?

Chapter 29 - Antennas

T9A01 (C)

What is a beam antenna?

A. An antenna built from aluminum I-beams

B. An omnidirectional antenna invented by Clarence Beam

C. An antenna that concentrates signals in one direction

D. An antenna that reverses the phase of received signals

A beam antenna is one that focuses the signal into a beam rather than a sphere. Another way to say this is that it is a directional antenna. In even a modestly well designed and built antenna, that directionality means more power is going “forward” than “back”, and that effectively boosts our power. Remember, as hams – except in the special case of repeaters – our power limits are set by our PEP, our Peak Envelope Power. PEP is, basically, the power of our transmitter. If we could somehow magically gain power after the transmitter sends the signal down the feed line to the antenna, that would be really great!

Well, it turns out directional antennas do almost exactly that because they give us gain by concentrating our signal in one direction while decreasing our signal in the opposite direction. Imagine a magnifying glass focusing the rays of the sun to a point.  The sun itself didn’t get any stronger, but by focusing the rays we get a lot more heat in one spot.

A mere 3 (decibels) of gain is the equivalent of doubling one's transmitter's power. Doubling! 10 dB of gain would be like multiplying our transmitter's power by 10.

No wonder hams are so enthusiastic about antennas and antenna design.

T9A06 (C)

What type of antennas are the quad, Yagi, and dish?

A. Non-resonant antennas

B. Loop antennas

C. Directional antennas

D. Isotropic antennas

T9A11 (C)

What is meant by the gain of an antenna?

A. The additional power that is added to the transmitter power

B. The additional power that is lost in the antenna when transmitting on a higher frequency

C. The increase in signal strength in a specified direction when compared to a reference antenna

D. The increase in impedance on receive or transmit compared to a reference antenna

If an antenna sends more of your signal in one direction than another, we call that gain. It's almost like getting more power out of your transmitter. Almost any antenna has some amount of gain, since building a truly omni-directional (“all directional”) antenna is, for all practical purposes, impossible.

For instance, even a simple half-wave dipole – essentially a wire ½ wavelength long stretched across your roof – offers about 2 dB, or 1.6x, gain compared to a purely theoretical omni-directional antenna. How? That half-wave dipole doesn't radiate much signal at all off the ends, so it is what's called bi-directional. If your half-wave dipole runs from north to south, most of the signal will be radiated east and west.

T9A10 (C)

In which direction is the radiation strongest from a half-wave dipole antenna in free space?

A. Equally in all directions

B. Off the ends of the antenna

C. Broadside to the antenna

D. In the direction of the feed line

This is another way of saying, “if your half-wave dipole runs north and south, your signal goes east and west.”

T9A02 (B)

Which of the following is true regarding vertical antennas?

A. The magnetic field is perpendicular to the Earth

B. The electric field is perpendicular to the Earth

C. The phase is inverted

D. The phase is reversed

Read this question carefully. The electric field radiated by your antenna is parallel to the orientation of the antenna relative to the Earth. So, put simply, a vertical antenna's electric field is, just like the antenna, perpendicular to the Earth.

T9A03 (B)

Which of the following describes a simple dipole mounted so the conductor is parallel to the Earth's surface?

A. A ground wave antenna

B. A horizontally polarized antenna

C. A rhombic antenna

D. A vertically polarized antenna

Imagine a long wire stretched across the roof of your home, or between two tall trees. A feed line from your transmitter goes to the center of that wire, and the wire is approximately one-half wavelength long. If you want to make a dipole for the 40 meter band, you need about 20 meters or 65 feet of wire, arranged like this:

That's a dipole. It is parallel to the Earth, so it is horizontally polarized. It also happens to be very inexpensive and easy to build, and it’s visually unobtrusive, so it is by far the most common ham antenna.

T9A04 (A)

What is a disadvantage of the "rubber duck" antenna supplied with most hand-held radio transceivers?

A. It does not transmit or receive as effectively as a full-sized antenna

B. It transmits a circularly polarized signal

C. If the rubber end cap is lost it will unravel very quickly

D. All of these choices are correct

Rubber duck antennas are the flexible, relatively short antennas that you often see used on hand-held transceivers. They're great for portability and convenience, and fairly robust in the “I can beat it up and it still works” department, but they are not the very best for reception and transmission. Simply put, they're just not as big as a full sized antenna, and they're often used inside cars and other less-than-optimal situations.

What's inside your rubber duck antenna? It's just a “normal size” antenna wire wound into a coil. This makes it smaller and flexible, but it's just not quite as good an antenna as if it was stretched out straight. We pay a certain price in efficiency in exchange for the convenience of not whacking strangers with our antenna as we walk through a crowded area. (If you ever decide to explore the dark art and science of antenna design you will find there is no perfect antenna – each design is a compromise.)

No, I really don't know how they came to be called “rubber ducks” or “rubber duckies.” One rumor is that a very young Caroline Kennedy saw the Secret Service agents at the White House using them, pointed and said, “Rubber ducky!” In any case, that is what they have been called since they came into wide use in the 1960's.

T9A07 (A)

What is a good reason not to use a "rubber duck" antenna inside your car?

A. Signals can be significantly weaker than when it is outside of the vehicle

B. It might cause your radio to overheat

C. The SWR might decrease, decreasing the signal strength

D. All of these choices are correct

You won't get very good performance from a rubber duck antenna inside your car.

One thrifty solution is to obtain a relatively inexpensive magnet-mount dual-band antenna with an adapter for your particular radio. Then you stick the magnet-mount antenna on the top of your car, attach the adapter, and …. WOW, ALL OF A SUDDEN THIS RADIO IS AWESOME!

T9A05 (C)

How would you change a dipole antenna to make it resonant on a higher frequency?

A. Lengthen it

B. Insert coils in series with radiating wires

C. Shorten it

D. Add capacitive loading to the ends of the radiating wires

Just the way shortening a guitar string makes it play a higher frequency note, or the way a shorter pendulum swings faster than a long one, a shorter antenna will be resonant on a higher frequency. Of course, the antenna isn't vibrating in space like a string or pendulum, it is vibrating electrically.

T9A08 (C)

What is the approximate length, in inches, of a quarter-wavelength vertical antenna for 146 MHz?

A. 112

B. 50

C. 19

D. 12

To calculate this answer, we're going to do a lot of what some people call “Kentucky windage”, or estimation. We first need to know the wavelength of 146 MHz. That's calculated by dividing 300 by 146.

300/146 = 2.05 meters. We'll call it 2 meters for simplicity.

Next we divide 2 by 4, because the question specifies a quarter wavelength antenna. 2/4 = .5 meters.

A meter is roughly equal to a yard (plus a little bit.) So .5 meters = (about) 18 inches (plus a little bit.) The closest answer is 19 inches.

T9A09 (C)

What is the approximate length, in inches, of a 6 meter 1/2-wavelength wire dipole antenna?

A. 6

B. 50

C. 112

D. 236

To solve this one, we need to first calculate the length of a ½ wavelength dipole in the 6 meter band. Easy! Half of 6 is 3.

Then we need to convert 3 meters to inches. We know a meter is roughly equal to a yard, or 36 inches. 3 x 36 = 108. The only answer close to this is 112 inches.

T9A12 (A)

What is a reason to use a properly mounted 5/8 wavelength antenna for VHF or UHF mobile service?

A. It offers a lower angle of radiation and more gain than a 1/4 wavelength antenna and usually provides improved coverage

B. It features a very high angle of radiation and is better for communicating via a repeater

C. The 5/8 wavelength antenna completely eliminates distortion caused by reflected signals

D. The 5/8 wavelength antenna offers a 10-times power gain over a 1/4 wavelength design

A lower angle of radiation means less of the signal is going up into the sky – where there are very few hams trying to pick up your signal. That means more of your signal is concentrated down here on Earth.

The disadvantage of a 5/8 wavelength antenna is simply that it is larger. A ¼ wavelength antenna for the 2 meter band is ½ meter long – roughly 20 inches. A 5/8 wavelength antenna for the same band is 1.25 meters long – about four feet.

There are some clever electrical things that can be done to make an antenna physically smaller than its electrical size, but not without side effects that usually include lower efficiency.

T9A13 (C)

Why are VHF or UHF mobile antennas often mounted in the center of the vehicle roof?

A. Roof mounts have the lowest possible SWR of any mounting configuration

B. Only roof mounting can guarantee a vertically polarized signal

C. A roof mounted antenna normally provides the most uniform radiation pattern

D. Roof mounted antennas are always the easiest to install

A roof mounted antenna accomplishes two good things. First, it gives the antenna maximum elevation, and elevation usually improves antenna performance in the VHF/UHF bands. Second, it puts the antenna just above what is essentially as nice big flat piece of metal with no other metal around it to block the signal or create higher SWR.

If you decide to stick an antenna on your roof, you'll need to stay aware that it is up there in low clearance situations, and a permanent roof mount probably means you'll never take that vehicle through a commercial car wash again. (Unless you enjoy sadness and pain.)

T9A14 (A)

Which of the following terms describes a type of loading when referring to an antenna?

A. Inserting an inductor in the radiating portion of the antenna to make it electrically longer

B. Inserting a resistor in the radiating portion of the antenna to make it resonant

C. Installing a spring at the base of the antenna to absorb the effects of collisions with other objects

D. Making the antenna heavier so it will resist wind effects when in motion

A few questions above I mentioned there are some clever electrical tricks to reduce the physical size of an antenna. Easily the most common is the addition of a coil in the middle of the radiating portion of the antenna. This makes the antenna “look like” a longer antenna to your transceiver and to incoming signals.

T9B04 (A)

What does an antenna tuner do?

A. It matches the antenna system impedance to the transceiver's output impedance

B. It helps a receiver automatically tune in weak stations

C. It allows an antenna to be used on both transmit and receive

D. It automatically selects the proper antenna for the frequency band being used

Chapter 30 - Your Feed Line

The feed line is the wire that carries signals between your radio and antenna. Your main concerns regarding feed line are safety, efficiency, and lightning protection.

T7C09 (A)

Which of the following is the most common cause for failure of coaxial cables?

A. Moisture contamination

B. Gamma rays

C. The velocity factor exceeds 1.0

D. Overloading

You've probably seen coaxial cable before, even if you didn't know what it was. It's that wire that brings cable TV into your house. It's probably black, about ¼ inch wide, with screw-on connectors.

Inside is a copper conductor, surrounded by a polyethylene insulator, then a braided copper wire shield, and finally the outer insulation.

It doesn't take much moisture to turn the inside of that connector or that inner insulator into a conductor, creating a short circuit. Moisture is most likely to invade your coaxial cable – a.k.a. “coax” (KOH-axe) – at those screw-on connectors. Then when you switch on your transmitter, POOF, you've burned a hole in your coax, and you won't be sending any more signals until you repair it.

T7C10 (D)

Why should the outer jacket of coaxial cable be resistant to ultraviolet light?

A. Ultraviolet resistant jackets prevent harmonic radiation

B. Ultraviolet light can increase losses in the cable's jacket

C. Ultraviolet and RF signals can mix together, causing interference

D. Ultraviolet light can damage the jacket and allow water to enter the cable

Some coaxial cable is rated for interior use, some for exterior. The exterior rated cable is (supposed to be) resistant to the ultraviolet rays of the sun. Be sure you are using the correctly rated cable for your installation.

T7C11 (C)

What is a disadvantage of air core coaxial cable when compared to foam or solid dielectric types?

A. It has more loss per foot

B. It cannot be used for VHF or UHF antennas

C. It requires special techniques to prevent water absorption

D. It cannot be used at below freezing temperatures

Working with air core coaxial cable is more like doing plumbing than it is like doing electronics. Often, those special techniques mentioned in the correct answer include heavy-duty waterproofing for all the connections and maybe even pressurizing the coax with a bottle of compressed nitrogen to keep water out. Because nothing is 100% leak-proof, you have to regularly check the nitrogen and replace the bottle when it is exhausted.  (I can tell you a very long and sad story about a radio station engineer who didn't check ours on a 100,000 watt commercial FM station. Let's just say the results were explosive and expensive.)

The advantage of air core coax is it has very high power handling capability. (I guess another advantage is that having a big air core coax setup will make all your ham friends say, “Man, I wish I was that rich!”)

T7C12 (B)

Which of the following is a common use of coaxial cable?

A. Carrying dc power from a vehicle battery to a mobile radio

B. Carrying RF signals between a radio and antenna

C. Securing masts, tubing, and other cylindrical objects on towers

D. Connecting data signals from a TNC to a computer

T0A07 (D)

Which of these precautions should be taken when installing devices for lightning protection in a coaxial cable feed line?

A. Include a parallel bypass switch for each protector so that it can be switched out of the circuit when running high power

B. Include a series switch in the ground line of each protector to prevent RF overload from inadvertently damaging the protector

C. Keep the ground wires from each protector separate and connected to station ground

D. Ground all of the protectors to a common plate which is in turn connected to an external ground

The whole point of lightning protection is not to “fight” the lightning. You'll lose that fight. Instead, you want your lightning protection system to say, “Hello, Mr. Lightning! Welcome! I understand you want to go to ground as soon as possible and I've made it as easy as can be for you to do that. Step right this way.”

T0B10 (C)

Which of the following is true concerning grounding conductors used for lightning protection?

A. Only non-insulated wire must be used

B. Wires must be carefully routed with precise right-angle bends

C. Sharp bends must be avoided

D. Common grounds must be avoided

High voltage like lightning (several million volts) doesn't like to turn sharp corners, so if you are grounding things for lightning protection, make gentle bends in the conductors. (This is usually an easy rule to follow if you are using conductors thick enough for the job.)

T9B02 (B)

What is the impedance of the most commonly used coaxial cable in typical amateur radio installations?

A. 8 ohms

B. 50 ohms

C. 600 ohms

D. 12 ohms

When you go to purchase some coaxial cable be sure to check all the specifications, and especially for the power capacity and impedance. Not all coaxial cable is 50 ohm cable. In fact, what you are most likely to find at your local home improvement center is the cable they use for home television installations and that cable is 75 ohm cable.

T9B03 (A)

Why is coaxial cable used more often than any other feed line for amateur radio antenna systems?

A. It is easy to use and requires few special installation considerations

B. It has less loss than any other type of feed line

C. It can handle more power than any other type of feed line

D. It is less expensive than any other types of feed line

Coaxial cable looks like it should be some sort of super wire, doesn't it? In fact, it's kind of crummy in some areas compared to other sorts of feed line. But it's “good enough” and easy to use with few special installation considerations.

T7C07 (C)

What happens to power lost in a feed line?

A. It increases the SWR

B. It comes back into your transmitter and could cause damage

C. It is converted into heat

D. It can cause distortion of your signal

Power lost in the feed line is turned into heat. Turn it into enough heat and your feed line will burn up, but our day to day concern is that any watts that are generating heat aren't being used to send our signal. (Unless you're really interested in “heating”, not “radio”, in which case, carry on!)

Reducing feed line losses is accomplished by using high quality feed line of the proper impedance and power rating, and by good installation practices such as minimizing the number of connections.

T9B05 (D)

What generally happens as the frequency of a signal passing through coaxial cable is increased?

A. The apparent SWR increases

B. The reflected power increases

C. The characteristic impedance increases

D. The loss increases

If your eyes could see electrical currents, you'd see that low frequency currents tend to travel through all of the copper in a wire, but higher frequency currents stay away from the middle and travel toward the outside of the wire. This is called the skin effect. Because there is less copper out there on the skin, the resistance is higher and so as the frequency of a signal passing through a coaxial cable increases, loss increases.

T9B07 (C)

Which of the following is true of PL-259 type coax connectors?

A. They are preferred for microwave operation

B. They are water tight

C. They are commonly used at HF frequencies

D. They are a bayonet type connector

PL-259 connectors are commonly used to connect feed lines to transceivers and antennas. They are quite rugged, and reasonably easy to install on coax, unlike some of the smaller connectors available. What they aren't is water tight, so they're more properly used for connections that will be protected from water.

PL-259's are about ¾ inch wide and a little over an inch long.

Although this question seems to imply they are only for HF, in fact you can use them for just about any common ham band frequency, at least until you get higher than the 70 cm (440 MHz) band.

T9B06 (B)

Which of the following connectors is most suitable for frequencies above 400 MHz?

A. A UHF (PL-259/SO-239) connector

B. A Type N connector

C. An RS-213 connector

D. A DB-25 connector

Once you get above the 70 cm (440 MHz) band, the good old PL-259 is no longer an optimal connector.

Type N connectors are designed for those higher frequencies.

Originally designed to handle up to 1 GHz back in the 1940's, today's Type N's can handle up to 11 GHz. They are a bit more difficult to properly install onto a coax, even though they are about the same size as a PL-259. They tend to be a bit more expensive as well.

T9B08 (A)

Why should coax connectors exposed to the weather be sealed against water intrusion?

A. To prevent an increase in feed line loss

B. To prevent interference to telephones

C. To keep the jacket from becoming loose

D. All of these choices are correct

Even a tiny bit of moisture inside a coaxial cable can turn what should be an insulator into a conductor, creating feed line loss.

T9B10 (C)

What electrical difference exists between the smaller RG-58 and larger RG-8 coaxial cables?

A. There is no significant difference between the two types

B. RG-58 cable has less loss at a given frequency

C. RG-8 cable has less loss at a given frequency

D. RG-58 cable can handle higher power levels

T9B11 (C)

Which of the following types of feed line has the lowest loss at VHF and UHF?

A. 50-ohm flexible coax

B. Multi-conductor unbalanced cable

C. Air-insulated hard line

D. 75-ohm flexible coax

Air-insulated hard line offers the lowest loss, the highest power-handling capability, the highest frequency handling capability, and the greatest resistance to moisture contamination of any kind of feed line. That's why you'll find it in many commercial RF installations. It also is very expensive and difficult to properly install, then difficult and expensive to maintain.

Chapter 31 - SWR – Standing Wave Ratio

T7C03 (A)

What, in general terms, is standing wave ratio (SWR)?

A. A measure of how well a load is matched to a transmission line

B. The ratio of high to low impedance in a feed line

C. The transmitter efficiency ratio

D. An indication of the quality of your station's ground connection

SWR stands for Standing Wave Ratio. It is written as a ratio, such as 2:1 or 2 to 1. A “perfect score” is 1:1 – they don't get any lower than that. 1:1 means all the power coming out of the transmitter is going where it's supposed to go – out the antenna. Trouble starts at about 2:1, and many transmitters just quit at anything above 3:1.

Think of SWR as power bouncing back down your antenna's feed line, coming back into your transmitter instead of radiating out to the world. A high SWR is Not A Good Thing! In fact, you can bounce so much power back into your transmitter that it could be damaged, which is why most modern transmitters include protection circuits that will kick in around 2:1 to reduce power and protect the transmitter.

You'll achieve a low SWR by carefully matching impedances of the transmitter, the feed line, and the antenna. SWR can also be affected by objects near your antenna, especially if they are electrically conductive, and it can take some detective work and experimentation to track down the cause.

You determine the SWR of your setup by using an SWR Meter, a Directional Wattmeter, or an Antenna Analyzer. Many modern transceivers include an internal SWR Meter, but many service technicians hold the opinion that you will get a more accurate reading with an external instrument.

T4A05 (A)

Where should an in-line SWR meter be connected to monitor the standing wave ratio of the station antenna system?

A. In series with the feed line, between the transmitter and antenna

B. In series with the station's ground

C. In parallel with the push-to-talk line and the antenna

D. In series with the power supply cable, as close as possible to the radio

You measure SWR with an SWR meter. (You could also use a Directional Wattmeter or an Antenna Analyzer, but they are more expensive choices.) Some transceivers have an SWR meter built in, but even if yours does, you'll usually get more accurate results with an in-line SWR meter. “In-line” means you connect the meter between your transmitter's output and the antenna.

T9B01 (B)

Why is it important to have a low SWR in an antenna system that uses coaxial cable feed line?

A. To reduce television interference

B. To allow the efficient transfer of power and reduce losses

C. To prolong antenna life

D. All of these choices are correct

Having a low SWR is important in any transmitter/antenna system, including one that uses coaxial cable.

T7C04 (C)

What reading on an SWR meter indicates a perfect impedance match between the antenna and the feed line?

A. 2 to 1

B. 1 to 3

C. 1 to 1

D. 10 to 1

SWR's don't get any lower than 1 to 1 (1:1). An SWR lower than 1:1 would mean more power was going out of the antenna than was coming out of the transmitter. (It would also mean you were well on your way to achieving perpetual motion and world domination – or that you made a bad measurement.)

T7C05 (A)

What is the approximate SWR value above which the protection circuits in most solid-state transmitters begin to reduce transmitter power?

A. 2 to 1

B. 1 to 2

C. 6 to 1

D. 10 to 1

If your SWR is 2 to 1 (2:1) there is twice as much power coming back down the feed line as is getting out of the antenna. All that power coming back into the radio causes heat, and heat is usually bad for electronics.

T7C06 (D)

What does an SWR reading of 4:1 indicate?

A. Loss of -4dB

B. Good impedance match

C. Gain of +4dB

D. Impedance mismatch

An SWR of 4:1 (4 to 1) is terrible! Chances are good your transceiver will shut down when it sees a mess like that.

We will set aside a detailed discussion of impedance until you decide to upgrade your Technician license. For now, it is enough to know that matching your transmitter's output impedance to your feed line's impedance and your antenna's input impedance is very important. Impedance is measured in ohms, and the most common output impedance of ham equipment is 50 ohms. Almost all coaxial cable used by hams has an impedance of 50 ohms.

Some antennas have a 300 ohm input impedance, so some sort of matching equipment is necessary.

T9B09 (B)

What might cause erratic changes in SWR readings?

A. The transmitter is being modulated

B. A loose connection in an antenna or a feed line

C. The transmitter is being over-modulated

D. Interference from other stations is distorting your signal

The only choice among those answers that would create an erratic change in SWR readings is a loose connection.

T7C08 (D)

What instrument other than an SWR meter could you use to determine if a feed line and antenna are properly matched?

A. Voltmeter

B. Ohmmeter

C. Iambic pentameter

D. Directional wattmeter

Yes, there really is such a thing as a Directional Wattmeter

and it is very useful when setting up an antenna, because it lets you see how much power is being reflected back into the transmitter by the antenna. A voltmeter would not help you with this, nor would an ohmmeter. And iambic pentameter?? More ham humor.

Iambic pentameter is a rhyme scheme for poems – Shakespeare often wrote in iambic pentameter, He was a great writer, but I'm pretty sure he wasn't much of an amateur radio operator!

Chapter 32 - Safety First, Last, and Always

There's nothing in ham radio worth getting hurt or killed.

T0A01 (B)

Which of the following is a safety hazard of a 12-volt storage battery?

A. Touching both terminals with the hands can cause electrical shock

B. Shorting the terminals can cause burns, fire, or an explosion

C. RF emissions from the battery

D. All of these choices are correct

Those 12 volt storage batteries, like the one in your car, can really put out the amps! Anyone who has accidentally shorted one out with a wrench has learned that lesson. Tremendous amounts of current flow when the terminals are “shorted” – directly connected to each other – and that current creates a lot of heat. Bad results follow, usually immediately. Take care not to short the terminals of any battery you are using.

Why would we be using a 12 volt storage battery, anyway? Well, they're very useful when we want to operate our radios out in the field. They can be charged off our car or by a solar panel, they can be recharged over and over, and they store a lot of energy in a relatively small package. With adequate safety procedures they are relatively safe, but mishandled they can be quite literally fatal.

T0A10 (A)

What can happen if a lead-acid storage battery is charged or discharged too quickly?

A. The battery could overheat and give off flammable gas or explode

B. The voltage can become reversed

C. The memory effect will reduce the capacity of the battery

D. All of these choices are correct

Lead-acid storage batteries can generate rather large amounts of hydrogen and oxygen while they are charging or discharging, especially if they are charging or discharging quickly. When large amounts of hydrogen gas are generated in the battery one of two bad things will happen. Either the pressure inside the battery will build up, which could cause the battery to explode, or the hydrogen and oxygen gasses will leak out of the battery where they can be ignited, which could cause an explosion. (Remember the Hindenburg?) Either way, you lose.

Any explosion is bad enough. Explosions that spray hot sulfuric acid everywhere are really bad. I've experienced having a battery in a semi- truck explode while I was driving the truck. It sounded and felt like I had run over dynamite.

All this can be avoided by a few safety steps. First, never discharge or charge any battery beyond its published rating. Second, be sure lead-acid batteries are used in adequately ventilated areas. Third, never create a spark near a lead-acid battery. This is why when you read the instructions for your automobile jumper cables – you did read those, right? – they said to hook the ground cable to the chassis, not to the battery. Making that last connection always creates a spark, and you very much want that spark to occur away from the battery.

T0A09 (C)

What kind of hazard is presented by a conventional 12-volt storage battery?

A. It emits ozone which can be harmful to the atmosphere

B. Shock hazard due to high voltage

C. Explosive gas can collect if not properly vented

D. All of these choices are correct

T0A02 (D)

How does current flowing through the body cause a health hazard?

A. By heating tissue

B. It disrupts the electrical functions of cells

C. It causes involuntary muscle contractions

D. All of these choices are correct

You already knew that electricity can make you dead, of course, but this question asks that you know – and, one hopes, gain extra wisdom from – the gory details. It really doesn't take much voltage to do serious, possibly fatal, harm to a human body. If you're working with electricity and you're not 100% certain of the proper precautions to use, learn them before proceeding.

T2C02 (C)

What is one way to recharge a 12-volt lead-acid station battery if the commercial power is out?

A. Cool the battery in ice for several hours

B. Add acid to the battery

C. Connect the battery in parallel with a vehicle's battery and run the engine

D. All of these choices are correct

Cooling the battery in ice would make it less powerful, as anyone who has ever experienced difficulty starting their car on a freezing morning knows! Adding acid to the battery won't help either. Charging it will. Connect the battery in parallel with a vehicle’s battery means hook up some jumper cables and run the engine.

T0A03 (C)

What is connected to the green wire in a three-wire electrical AC plug?

A. Neutral

B. Hot

C. Safety ground

D. The white wire

Green for ground. Ground wires can also be green and yellow, or simply bare wire. In the US, the black wire is “hot”, and white is “neutral” – which is not the same as ground.

T0A04 (B)

What is the purpose of a fuse in an electrical circuit?

A. To prevent power supply ripple from damaging a circuit

B. To interrupt power in case of overload

C. To limit current to prevent shocks

D. All of these choices are correct

Fuses are designed to melt at a certain amperage that is just below what the wiring in the circuit can carry. The fuse blows, the current stops, and the wires cool off.

T0A05 (C)

Why is it unwise to install a 20-ampere fuse in the place of a 5-ampere fuse?

A. The larger fuse would be likely to blow because it is rated for higher current

B. The power supply ripple would greatly increase

C. Excessive current could cause a fire

D. All of these choices are correct

Countless home and car fires have been caused when someone had the not-so-bright thought, “I keep blowing this 5 amp fuse! I'll just replace it with this 20.” Then the fuse stays intact (hooray!) while the wires melt (oops ...) We get to be smarter than that.

By the way, 999 times out of 1000, the problem isn't the fuse. It's that the circuit the fuse is protecting is getting overloaded.

T0A06 (D)

What is a good way to guard against electrical shock at your station?

A. Use three-wire cords and plugs for all AC powered equipment

B. Connect all AC powered station equipment to a common safety ground

C. Use a circuit protected by a ground-fault interrupter

D. All of these choices are correct

I imagine most people don't think of ham radio as a particularly dangerous hobby, and it usually isn't. But when we start working with high voltages, including household AC, good practices are essential.

All three of the safety measures listed keep electricity out of your body. Two do so by routing potential shocks to ground. Ground-fault interrupters operate by sensing when current is going to ground and switching off the circuit. You probably have GFI outlets in your bathroom and kitchen. They're good, relatively inexpensive, and fairly easy to install protection in the room that contains your ham equipment, too.

T0A08 (A)

What safety equipment should always be included in home-built equipment that is powered from 120V AC power circuits?

A. A fuse or circuit breaker in series with the AC hot conductor

B. An AC voltmeter across the incoming power source

C. An inductor in series with the AC power source

D. A capacitor across the AC power source

I'm not sure why this question specifically mentions equipment that is powered from 120V circuits. Fuses or circuit breakers are good practice in any power line, whether it be 1 Volt or 1000 volts.

T0A11 (D)

What kind of hazard might exist in a power supply when it is turned off and disconnected?

A. Static electricity could damage the grounding system

B. Circulating currents inside the transformer might cause damage

C. The fuse might blow if you remove the cover

D. You might receive an electric shock from the charged stored in large capacitors

Large capacitors connected to high voltages can store a charge for a very long time – much longer than you might expect. Days! Ouch! Large capacitors are common in many of our amateur radio power supplies. Best practice is to take steps to drain the charge before getting close to the possible high voltage.

Chapter 33 - Antenna and Tower Safety

Before we get into this section, I’ll remind you again that this book is not a safety course. Antennas work best when they are off the ground, and “off the ground” is a dangerous place for humans. When you decide to install an antenna in one of those “off the ground” places, get training and experienced help, even if your installation is as simple as a roof-mounted wire dipole.

T0B01 (C)When should members of a tower work team wear a hard hat and safety glasses?

A. At all times except when climbing the tower

B. At all times except when belted firmly to the tower

C. At all times when any work is being done on the tower

D. Only when the tower exceeds 30 feet in height

A wrench doesn't have to fall far to become a deadly missile. Hard hats provide some protection from falling objects.

Towers are notorious for gathering dust, paint flakes, bird droppings, and goodness knows what else, so safety glasses help keep that stuff out of your eyes when someone is climbing. The climber needs them, too – getting bird poop in your eye at ground level is unfortunate. At 30 feet up, it's a potential disaster.

T0B02 (C)

What is a good precaution to observe before climbing an antenna tower?

A. Make sure that you wear a grounded wrist strap

B. Remove all tower grounding connections

C. Put on a climbing harness and safety glasses

D. All of the these choices are correct

I just wish they had emphasized a modern climbing harness. Fall protection equipment has gotten a lot better in the past decade or so. Your grandpa's old leather “pole climbing belt” is a nice antique, but not for use by humans.

T0B03 (D)

Under what circumstances is it safe to climb a tower without a helper or observer?

A. When no electrical work is being performed

B. When no mechanical work is being performed

C. When the work being done is not more than 20 feet above the ground

D. Never

As in never. Not even “I'm just going up five feet.” It's not even 100% safe to climb a tower with a helper, an observer, safety glasses, a climbing harness, certified climbing rope, a parachute, a Buck Rogers jet pack and two ambulances standing by. Tower climbing = dangerous. If you're going to do it, get the right equipment and the right training. Please.

T0B04 (C)

Which of the following is an important safety precaution to observe when putting up an antenna tower?

A. Wear a ground strap connected to your wrist at all times

B. Insulate the base of the tower to avoid lightning strikes

C. Look for and stay clear of any overhead electrical wires

D. All of these choices are correct

Wearing a ground strap on your wrist is for when you are working on electronic components that are sensitive to static. Definitely not for when you are putting up an antenna tower.

Insulating the base of the tower won't help you avoid lightning strikes.

It is, however, very important to look for and stay clear of overhead electrical lines. I realize this is common sense, but every year there are many accidents that could have been completely prevented had someone just looked up.

T0B05 (C)

What is the purpose of a gin pole?

A. To temporarily replace guy wires

B. To be used in place of a safety harness

C. To lift tower sections or antennas

D. To provide a temporary ground

A gin pole is a vertical pole that mounts on the side of your tower. The top is above the top of the tower. It has a pulley on the upper end, and that allows you (and your helpers) to winch up whatever is needed to assemble (or service) the tower or antenna.

(This is not an exercise for beginners. If you pursue this route, please get the help of experienced folks, preferably at least one tower climbing professional. Want to learn more? Champion Radio has a whole book on building towers: http://www.championradio.com/UP-THE-TOWER-The Complete-Guide-To-Tower-Construction-1)

T0B06 (D)

What is the minimum safe distance from a power line to allow when installing an antenna?

A. Half the width of your property

B. The height of the power line above ground

C. 1/2 wavelength at the operating frequency

D. So that if the antenna falls unexpectedly, no part of it can come closer than 10 feet to the power wires

You do not want your antenna getting involved with power lines. Aside from the severe danger, you will be liable for every penny of the damage your antenna does to the power system – and you can be pretty sure the utility company won't be trying to save you money as they repair the damage.

10 feet of separation is the minimum. More is better. Even relatively low voltage local power lines have 10 to 12 kilovolts that can easily make a jump to ground from less than 10 feet, and once that jump is made, the damage has been done. After that, it's just a question of how much damage and whether you'll be alive to write the check.

T0B07 (C)

Which of the following is an important safety rule to remember when using a crank-up tower?

A. This type of tower must never be painted

B. This type of tower must never be grounded

C. This type of tower must never be climbed unless it is in the fully retracted position

D. All of these choices are correct

Crank-up towers are very handy when one wants to take one's ham operation “out on tour” – for instance for the annual ham's Field Day. They're reasonably easy to transport and set up. You get to your location, crank up the antenna to a useful height, fire up the radio and you're on the air.

However, because they are built for light weight and ease of transport, one thing crank-up towers aren't good for is supporting a lot of weight. You might be a slim 100 pounder, but if we put you 30 feet up a tower you would have a lot of leverage and could easily collapse that tower.

Do the smart and easy thing: If the antenna needs work, crank the tower down, do the work, then crank it back up. Tower climbing is one of the most dangerous trades there is – and while some of us who have the equipment and know-how (or perhaps “lack of good sense”) do it from time to time, there's absolutely no need for the risk in this scenario when it's so easy to just lower the tower, do the work, and raise it again.

T0B08 (C)

What is considered to be a proper grounding method for a tower?

A. A single four-foot ground rod, driven into the ground no more than 12 inches from the base

B. A ferrite-core RF choke connected between the tower and ground

C. Separate eight-foot long ground rods for each tower leg, bonded to the tower and each other

D. A connection between the tower base and a cold water pipe

The deeper a ground rod is driven into the ground, the better its chance of conducting electricity into the ground. Sand and clay aren't very good conductors until they have some moisture in them, and that's found a few feet down.

Eight feet is quite standard. Chances are good if you look near your home's electrical meter you'll find a bare copper wire going to what looks like the top of a metal stake in the ground. That's the top of an eight-foot long ground rod that provides the ground for your home's electrical system.

T0B09 (C)

Why should you avoid attaching an antenna to a utility pole?

A. The antenna will not work properly because of induced voltages

B. The utility company will charge you an extra monthly fee

C. The antenna could contact high-voltage power wires

D. All of these choices are correct

It's tempting, isn't it? I mean, there's that nice tall pole right there and putting up a tower is expensive and a lot of work if the local authorities will even let you do it....

Don't do it. This question's correct answer probably should read more like: The antenna could contact high-voltage power lines, instantly destroying your expensive antenna, your expensive feed line, your expensive antenna tuner, your expensive transceiver, you, your house wiring, and several thousand dollars worth of power company equipment. Did I mention you get destroyed?

T0B11 (B)

Which of the following establishes grounding requirements for an amateur radio tower or antenna?

A. FCC Part 97 Rules

B. Local electrical codes

C. FAA tower lighting regulations

D. Underwriters Laboratories' recommended practices

The FCC does not – indeed, cannot – overrule your local electrical code. (Most local electrical codes in the US now follow the National Electrical Code, but the NEC is only a suggested code, not the law, so be sure to check your local electrical code.)

T0B12 (C)

Which of the following is good practice when installing ground wires on a tower for lightning protection?

A. Put a loop in the ground connection to prevent water damage to the ground system

B. Make sure that all bends in the ground wires are clean, right angle bends

C. Ensure that connections are short and direct

D. All of these choices are correct

Electricity “wants” to find the shortest, lowest resistance path to ground. Lightning is electricity, and at the enormous voltages of lightning, it will find the shortest path. When it comes to lightning protection, you want that path to be the one you choose, not some random path the lightning chooses. Short, direct connections are key to achieving this.

Chapter 34 - Danger! Radiation Hazard!

Can you believe it? We're almost to the end! Have you located your testing site and made arrangements yet?

The last section deals with a safety hazard most folks never encounter, but that hams often do, and that's exposure to high levels of Radio Frequency Radiation.

Aside from a couple of technical terms, most of this is plain old common sense. Think of a source of RF as a light bulb – one of those ultraviolet tanning bulbs. The closer you are to the bulb, the faster you'll tan. If one light has a higher wattage than the other, you'll tan faster with the higher wattage one. And the longer you sit under the light, the more tan you'll get. It's the same logic when it comes to RF exposure.

RF radiation is not the kind of radiation you'd get from something radioactive, but it can be hazardous, so it's important to know the regulations – and not just to stay legal, but to protect your own health and the health of others.

T0C01 (D)

What type of radiation are VHF and UHF radio signals?

A. Gamma radiation

B. Ionizing radiation

C. Alpha radiation

D. Non-ionizing radiation

An ionized atom has had an electron permanently (or, at least, semi-permanently) removed or added by a collision with high-energy radiation. Relatively low-energy electromagnetic radiation like our radio signals is non-ionizing. While it does move electrons from atom to atom, each electron removed is (almost) instantly replaced.

Non-ionizing does not cause genetic damage – damage to our genetic material that can cause cancer or radiation sickness. It can cause heat damage to our bodies.

Ionizing radiation is what we commonly think of as, simply, radiation – the rays that come from x-ray machines or nuclear reactors, or the cosmic rays from the sun that create the ionosphere. Ionizing radiation is more dangerous than non-ionizing radiation by orders of magnitude because it can cause genetic damage, but non-ionizing radiation is not 100% safe.

T0C02 (B)

Which of the following frequencies has the lowest value for Maximum Permissible Exposure limit?

A. 3.5 MHz

B. 50 MHz

C. 440 MHz

D. 1296 MHz

The lowest RF exposure limits – in other words, the strictest regulations – are in the 30 to 300 MHz range. Why? It has to do with the size of your body! 30 to 300 MHz happens to cover the range where various parts of the human body are resonant, and if you are exposed to sufficient RF at a frequency where you resonate, it's just like putting you in a microwave oven and switching it on. In fact, that's exactly how your microwave oven works – but it operates way up there around 2500 MHz because food is smaller than you, so it resonates at higher frequencies.

Please understand this is not some sort of imaginary danger. It may be true that your Aunt Zelda “lived right next door to the radio station for 82 years and nothing happened to her!”, but Aunt Zelda, bless her heart, was getting exposure well under the limits prescribed by this section of the rules.

I personally knew a tower climber who was climbing a tower while the transmitter feeding an antenna on the tower was operating. He literally cooked a nerve in his arm when he stretched to reach something and made himself into a ½ wavelength resonator. (Besides the serious long-term damage and pain, he had to climb down the tower one-handed. Not an experience you want for yourself.)

Long-term, lower level exposure is harmful, too. Your innards won't work well if they've been roasted, even if they've been slowly roasted.

T0C03 (C)

What is the maximum power level that an amateur radio station may use at VHF frequencies before an RF exposure evaluation is required?

A. 1500 watts PEP transmitter output

B. 1 watt forward power

C. 50 watts PEP at the antenna

D. 50 watts PEP reflected power

So long as your Peak Envelope Power is 50 watts or less on VHF/UHF, you don't need to go through doing a formal RF exposure evaluation. How do you know your PEP? The super-accurate method would be to obtain a directional wattmeter, insert it between your feed line and antenna, then take readings. The far easier – and “close enough for most uses” – way is to assume it is the same as the rated output power of your transmitter.

Other bands have higher power limits before you need to do an RF exposure evaluation, but for the Technician exam, the FCC wants you to know the VHF/UHF limit.

T0C04 (D)

What factors affect the RF exposure of people near an amateur station antenna?

A. Frequency and power level of the RF field

B. Distance from the antenna to a person

C. Radiation pattern of the antenna

D. All of these choices are correct

Longer exposure, closer exposure, higher power exposure all contribute to more exposure to RF, so all those choices are correct.

T0C05 (D)

Why do exposure limits vary with frequency?

A. Lower frequency RF fields have more energy than higher frequency fields

B. Lower frequency RF fields do not penetrate the human body

C. Higher frequency RF fields are transient in nature

D. The human body absorbs more RF energy at some frequencies than at others

If you overhear someone describing you as “medium rare”, you might have absorbed too much RF energy.

T0C06 (D)

Which of the following is an acceptable method to determine that your station complies with FCC RF exposure regulations?

A. By calculation based on FCC OET Bulletin 65

B. By calculation based on computer modeling

C. By measurement of field strength using calibrated equipment

D. All of these choices are correct

When the FCC wrote the RF exposure standards – which, by the way, don't just apply to amateur radio – they gave us quite a bit of leeway in how we determine our RF exposure. We can do it by hand, using their formulas. Those formulas occupy about three pages of the 84 page FCC OET Bulletin 65.

We have the option of measuring field strength using calibrated equipment – but that choice turns out to be both expensive and difficult. Without extensive training, it's common to come up with results that are inaccurate by a factor of 100.

The most convenient of the acceptable methods is to use computer modeling to estimate RF exposure levels. Good news – hams have created free software for this very purpose.

T0C07 (B)

What could happen if a person accidentally touched your antenna while you were transmitting?

A. Touching the antenna could cause television interference

B. They might receive a painful RF burn

C. They might develop radiation poisoning

D. All of these choices are correct

I have done this experiment for you, you don't need to do it. It …. Hertz. You're welcome.

T0C09 (B)

How can you make sure your station stays in compliance with RF safety regulations?

A. By informing the FCC of any changes made in your station

B. By re-evaluating the station whenever an item of equipment is changed

C. By making sure your antennas have low SWR

D. All of these choices are correct

The only correct choice here is B. You're not required to inform the FCC every time you make a change in your station, and “making sure your antennas have low SWR” would actually increase your RF exposure.

Practically speaking, you don't have to re-evaluate your station with every change of equipment. If you buy a new clock and hang it on the wall, or even a new microphone, that's not going to affect your RF exposure. But if you change antennas, transmitters, antenna tuners, or other significant pieces of equipment, you are required to re-evaluate.

You don't need to send in any forms to the FCC when you evaluate your station, but if they happen to ask, you really do need to be able to show you thought things through and took the proper steps.

T0C10 (A)

Why is duty cycle one of the factors used to determine safe RF radiation exposure levels?

A. It affects the average exposure of people to radiation

B. It affects the peak exposure of people to radiation

C. It takes into account the antenna feed line loss

D. It takes into account the thermal effects of the final amplifier

As you'll see in the answer to the next question, duty cycle is simply “what percentage of the time is your transmitter on versus how much it's off.”

More time on – a higher duty cycle – means more RF exposure.

T0C11 (C)

What is the definition of duty cycle during the averaging time for RF exposure?

A. The difference between the lowest power output and the highest power output of a transmitter

B. The difference between the PEP and average power output of a transmitter

C. The percentage of time that a transmitter is transmitting

D. The percentage of time that a transmitter is not transmitting

T0C08 (A)

Which of the following actions might amateur operators take to prevent exposure to RF radiation in excess of FCC-supplied limits?

A. Relocate antennas

B. Relocate the transmitter

C. Increase the duty cycle

D. All of these choices are correct

Be careful on this one. One of the wrong answers says increase the duty cycle, which would create more exposure.

T0C13 (C)

If the averaging time for exposure is 6 minutes, how much power density is permitted if the signal is present for 3 minutes and absent for 3 minutes rather than being present for the entire 6 minutes?

A. 3 times as much

B. 1/2 as much

C. 2 times as much

D. There is no adjustment allowed for shorter exposure times

This is just another look at “duty cycle.” If the duty cycle is half as long, the power density permitted is 2 times as much.

T0C12 (A)

How does RF radiation differ from ionizing radiation (radioactivity)?

A. RF radiation does not have sufficient energy to cause genetic damage

B. RF radiation can only be detected with an RF dosimeter

C. RF radiation is limited in range to a few feet

D. RF radiation is perfectly safe

Ionizing radiation such as you would get from uranium causes genetic damage. All the evidence seems to show definitively that RF radiation does not have sufficient energy to cause genetic damage.

Chapter 35 - Woo HOOOO! I GOT MY LICENSE!! …now what do I do?

Congratulations! You took your test, you passed it, you've been lurking on the FCC database web page until your new call sign came up and now …... ?????

You now are fully licensed to pick up that microphone and talk. And if you're like most new hams, that's suddenly a prospect that is at least a little intimidating.

What do I say?

Who do I talk to?

When should I talk?

What if I mess this all up?

If this is you, here's a suggested plan of action. First, if you don't already have one, get a radio. A reasonably good quality 5 watt VHF/UHF hand-held will probably work just fine for you unless you are way out in the boondocks. In that case, you might want a mobile/base unit with a bit more power, like 40 watts. (I'll wait here while you get that....)

Get out the instruction book for that radio and learn how to tune it to a local repeater. Remember you'll need the output frequency of the repeater – that will be the main one listed. You will also need the offset, and most likely the CTCSS Tone. To find your local repeater(s), you can use http://repeaterbook.com or any number of other on-line resources.

Once you've tuned it in, listen for a bit. You can learn a lot by just listening. Once you've gotten up your nerve, listen again to be sure someone else isn't on the air at the moment, then take a deep breath, press that Push To Talk switch and say your new call sign and the word “monitoring.” See if someone answers you. It might not work the first time. Keep monitoring. Every 15 minutes or so, announce again that you are monitoring. Still nobody? Try a different repeater.

If you're really brave, you could say your call sign, then, “I'm a brand new ham, monitoring.” Oh, man, I know. That first time on the air, we all want to sound like we're old pros who've been doing this since Marconi made his first sparks. Who wants to announce to the world, “Hey, I'm a total noob!” Well, first, no one cares. We all had our first contact on a ham radio, we've all made mistakes on the air, and you'll find 99% of hams are quite forgiving, especially when they find out you are new. Second, it's a bit of an honor to be someone's first contact – most of us get a kick out of it. Third, you are new, and there's a whole world of stuff left to learn, so why not just declare and let the learning begin!

What if you mess it all up?

Oh, relax. You will!

We all do from time to time. The FCC isn't going to arrive with lights and sirens going, you won't be the laughingstock of the ham world, and ARRL won't publish an article about what an idiot you are. Thank goodness, or every ham on earth would have been featured at least once. It's a hobby, not a test – we all make mistakes, we all help each other out of them, and the thing about ham radio I really like is all that is handled politely and in the spirit of friendship.

When I first got my “new” Extra Class call sign, I realized one day I had been giving my old, now invalid call sign for at least 10 minutes. Oh, well. I corrected the mistake and, so far, the FCC hasn't come to put me in Radio Prison.

Sometimes you can even involve someone else in your “bonehead mistake.” Most mobile radios these days let you set up two channels at once then monitor both (with one set as “priority” in case they both transmit at once. You're supposed to pay attention to which one is set to priority, because that's the one you'll transmit on when you push the button.)

By coincidence, a friend and I each had both channels on our radios set the same, but we were transmitting to different repeaters. That meant I was hearing him on one repeater, but sending to another – on which he was hearing me, etc. And that meant we were tying up not one but two major repeaters in our area with a conversation that sounded like utter nonsense, since others were hearing only one side. We rolled merrily along for 15 minutes like this before someone finally figured it out and ever-so-politely asked us if we were “doing some kind of …...cross band repeat......experiment?.....or something?” (We still laugh about that one.)

So, seriously, relax. Bonehead moves are all a part of ham radio. When you make yours, learn from your mistake, laugh a lot, and move ahead. Or as the guy who taught me how to drive a big rig used to say, “If you get to the end of the day and you didn't hit anybody and you didn't break anything, that's a good day. And that's about all there really is to it.”

Chances are good you took your Technician exam through a local ham club. That club would love to have you as a member, and besides offering all sorts of technical help, they can be the start of your circle of ham friends. Consider joining the club and participating in the meetings.

So pick up that radio and start talking. It really is as simple as that.

Finally, I hope you’ll see your new Technician license for what I think it is: A license to learn more. To me, one of the great strengths of ham radio is that there is always something new to learn. Even if you somehow managed to learn 100% of what there is to know today, there will be new stuff to learn next week.  So, enjoy the journey.

Happy hamming, 73, and I hope to hear you on the air soon.

About the Author

Michael Burnette, AF7KB, started playing with radios at age 8 when he found the plans for a crystal radio set in a comic book and wasted a half roll of toilet paper to get the cardboard tube for a coil form. That radio failed as a practical appliance when it proved to only receive high-power stations that were less than one city block away.

This promising beginning blossomed into an equally auspicious 25 year career annoying the public as a commercial broadcaster where he did a bit of everything from being a DJ to serving as a vice president and general manager with Westinghouse Broadcasting (now CBS/Infinity.)

By 1989 he owned his own stations in Bend, Oregon, which afforded him abundant opportunities to repair those stations, often in the middle of the night in a snowstorm.

In 1992, Burnette left the radio business behind, despite absolutely no clamor for him to stay, and took to traveling the world designing and delivering experiential learning seminars on leadership, management, communications, and building relationships.

He has trained people across the US and in Indonesia, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Mexico, Finland, Greece, Austria, Spain, Italy, and Russia. In addition to his public and corporate trainings, he has been a Certified NLP Master Practitioner, National Ski Patroller, a Certified Professional Ski Instructor, a Certified In-Line Skating Instructor, a big-rig driving instructor, and a Certified Firewalking Instructor. (Yes, he can teach you how to walk on fire, but it's not a requirement to get your ham radio license. Yet.)

These days he makes his home in the Seattle, WA area with his wife, Kerry (KG7NVJ) and his dog Suki who has no ham license. Yet.

He is still playing with radios.

Transistors: By Benedikt.Seidl (Own work) [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Diode: Public Domain. http://pixabay.com/en/components-diodes-electronics-24531/

Resistors: Public Domain. http://pixabay.com/en/resistor-electronics-resistors-24520/

"Air core inductor". Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Air_core_inductor.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Air_core_inductor.jpg

“Ampere Andre 1825" by Ambrose Tardieu - The Dibner collection at the Smithsonian Institution (USA),. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ampere_Andre_1825.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Ampere_Andre_1825.jpg

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"Faraday Cochran Pickersgill" by Painted by H.W. Pickersgill, Engraved by John Cochran - Dibner Library, http://ihm.nlm.nih.gov/images/B07069. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Faraday_Cochran_Pickersgill.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Faraday_Cochran_Pickersgill.jpg

"FASTRAC" by Ewferg - AFRL. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FASTRAC.jpg#mediaviewer/File:FASTRAC.jpg

"Ferrite clamp-on" by Karl-Martin Skontorp - originally posted to Flickr as Ferrite clamp-on. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ferrite_clamp-on.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Ferrite_clamp-on.jpg

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Capacitors: Public Domain. http://pixabay.com/en/capacitor-electronic-component-24521/

"Heinrich Rudolf Hertz" by Robert Krewaldt - http://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/imageM0014750.html. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Heinrich_Rudolf_Hertz.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Heinrich_Rudolf_Hertz.jpg

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Integrated Circuits: By Mataresephotos [CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

"J38TelegraphKey". Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:J38TelegraphKey.jpg#mediaviewer/File:J38TelegraphKey.jpg

Joseph Henry: Public Domain

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"Potentiometer" By Iainf (Self-photographed) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC-BY-2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons

"Radiola AR-812 superheterodyne ad" by Unknown - Retrieved February 19, 2014 from Motorboating, International Magazine Co., New York, Vol. 33, No. 5, May, 1924, p. 71 on Google Books. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Radiola_AR-812_superheterodyne_ad.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Radiola_AR-812_superheterodyne_ad.jpg

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"UHF PL Connector" by Appaloosa - Own work. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:UHF_PL_Connector.jpg#mediaviewer/File:UHF_PL_Connector.jpg

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All other illustrations by the author.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 - The Technician Exam Session

Chapter 2 - How To Prepare

Chapter 3 - FCC Rules and Regulations

Chapter 4 - Wavelengths and Frequencies

Chapter 5 - Your Call Sign

Chapter 6 - About Your License

Chapter 7 - International Relations

Chapter 8 - Content You Can and Can’t Transmit

Chapter 9 - Control Operators and Station Licensees

Chapter 10 - Station Identification

Chapter 11 - Operating Procedures

Chapter 12 - Radio Waves and Propagation

Chapter 13 - Amateur Radio Practices and Station Set Up

Chapter 14 - Electrical Principles

Chapter 15 - Math for Electronics

Chapter 16 - Ohm’s Law

Chapter 17 - Parts! Part 1 – Electrical Components

Chapter 18 - Parts! Part 2 - Semiconductors

Chapter 19 - Schematic Diagrams

Chapter 20 - Reading Schematic Diagrams

Chapter 21 - Station Equipment

Chapter 22 - Interference and Other Transmission Problems

Chapter 23 - Meters

Chapter 24 - Soldering

Chapter 25 - Modulation Modes

Chapter 26 - Hams In Space!

Chapter 27 - Operating Activities

Chapter 28 - The Digital World and Ham Radio

Chapter 29 - Antennas

Chapter 30 - Your Feed Line

Chapter 31 - SWR – Standing Wave Ratio

Chapter 32 - Safety First, Last, and Always

Chapter 33 - Antenna and Tower Safety

Chapter 34 - Danger! Radiation Hazard!

Chapter 35 - Woo HOOOO! I GOT MY LICENSE!! …now what do I do?