All 42 Ham Radio General Class questions for G8 Signals & Emissions with the correct answers marked, from the official 2023-2027 question pool. Test yourself with the free practice exam.
G8A01
How is direct binary FSK modulation generated?
A. By keying an FM transmitter with a sub-audible tone
B. By changing an oscillator’s frequency directly with a digital control signal ✓
C. By using a transceiver’s computer data interface protocol to change frequencies
D. By reconfiguring the CW keying input to act as a tone generator
G8A02
What is the name of the process that changes the phase angle of an RF signal to convey information?
A. Phase convolution
B. Phase modulation ✓
C. Phase transformation
D. Phase inversion
G8A03
What is the name of the process that changes the instantaneous frequency of an RF wave to convey information?
A. Frequency convolution
B. Frequency transformation
C. Frequency conversion
D. Frequency modulation ✓
G8A04
What emission is produced by a reactance modulator connected to a transmitter RF amplifier stage?
A. Multiplex modulation
B. Phase modulation ✓
C. Amplitude modulation
D. Pulse modulation
G8A05
What type of modulation varies the instantaneous power level of the RF signal?
A. Power modulation
B. Phase modulation
C. Frequency modulation
D. Amplitude modulation ✓
G8A06
Which of the following is characteristic of QPSK31?
A. It is sideband sensitive
B. Its encoding provides error correction
C. Its bandwidth is approximately the same as BPSK31
D. All these choices are correct ✓
G8A07
Which of the following phone emissions uses the narrowest bandwidth?
A. Single sideband ✓
B. Vestigial sideband
C. Phase modulation
D. Frequency modulation
G8A08
Which of the following is an effect of overmodulation?
A. Insufficient audio
B. Insufficient bandwidth
C. Frequency drift
D. Excessive bandwidth ✓
G8A09
What type of modulation is used by FT8?
A. 8-tone frequency shift keying ✓
B. Vestigial sideband
C. Amplitude compressed AM
D. 8-bit direct sequence spread spectrum
G8A10
What is meant by the term “flat-topping,” when referring to an amplitude-modulated phone signal?
A. Signal distortion caused by insufficient collector current
B. The transmitter’s automatic level control (ALC) is properly adjusted
C. Signal distortion caused by excessive drive or speech levels ✓
D. The transmitter’s carrier is properly suppressed
G8A11
What is the modulation envelope of an AM signal?
A. The waveform created by connecting the peak values of the modulated signal ✓
B. The carrier frequency that contains the signal
C. Spurious signals that envelop nearby frequencies
D. The bandwidth of the modulated signal
G8A12
What is QPSK modulation?
A. Modulation using quasi-parallel to serial conversion to reduce bandwidth
B. Modulation using quadra-pole sideband keying to generate spread spectrum signals
C. Modulation using Fast Fourier Transforms to generate frequencies at the first, second, third, and fourth harmonics of the carrier frequency to improve noise immunity
D. Modulation in which digital data is transmitted using 0-, 90-, 180- and 270-degrees phase shift to represent pairs of bits ✓
G8A13
What is a link budget?
A. The financial costs associated with operating a radio link
B. The sum of antenna gains minus system losses
C. The sum of transmit power and antenna gains minus system losses as seen at the receiver ✓
D. The difference between transmit power and receiver sensitivity
G8A14
What is link margin?
A. The opposite of fade margin
B. The difference between received power level and minimum required signal level at the input to the receiver ✓
C. Transmit power minus receiver sensitivity
D. Receiver sensitivity plus 3 dB
G8B01
Which mixer input is varied or tuned to convert signals of different frequencies to an intermediate frequency (IF)?
A. Image frequency
B. Local oscillator ✓
C. RF input
D. Beat frequency oscillator
G8B02
What is the term for interference from a signal at twice the IF frequency from the desired signal?
A. Quadrature response
B. Image response ✓
C. Mixer interference
D. Intermediate interference
G8B03
What is another term for the mixing of two RF signals?
A. Heterodyning ✓
B. Synthesizing
C. Frequency inversion
D. Phase inversion
G8B04
What is the stage in a VHF FM transmitter that generates a harmonic of a lower frequency signal to reach the desired operating frequency?
A. Mixer
B. Reactance modulator
C. Balanced converter
D. Multiplier ✓
G8B05
Which intermodulation products are closest to the original signal frequencies?
A. Second harmonics
B. Even-order
C. Odd-order ✓
D. Intercept point
G8B06
What is the total bandwidth of an FM phone transmission having 5 kHz deviation and 3 kHz modulating frequency?
A. 3 kHz
B. 5 kHz
C. 8 kHz
D. 16 kHz ✓
G8B07
What is the frequency deviation for a 12.21 MHz reactance modulated oscillator in a 5 kHz deviation, 146.52 MHz FM phone transmitter?
A. 101.75 Hz
B. 416.7 Hz ✓
C. 5 kHz
D. 60 kHz
G8B08
Why is it important to know the duty cycle of the mode you are using when transmitting?
A. To aid in tuning your transmitter
B. Some modes have high duty cycles that could exceed the transmitter’s average power rating ✓
C. To allow time for the other station to break in during a transmission
D. To prevent overmodulation
G8B09
Why is it good to match receiver bandwidth to the bandwidth of the operating mode?
A. It is required by FCC rules
B. It minimizes power consumption in the receiver
C. It improves impedance matching of the antenna
D. It results in the best signal-to-noise ratio ✓
G8B10
What is the relationship between transmitted symbol rate and bandwidth?
A. Symbol rate and bandwidth are not related
B. Higher symbol rates require wider bandwidth ✓
C. Lower symbol rates require wider bandwidth
D. Bandwidth is half the symbol rate
G8B11
What combination of a mixer’s Local Oscillator (LO) and RF input frequencies is found in the output?
A. The ratio
B. The average
C. The sum and difference ✓
D. The arithmetic product
G8B12
What process combines two signals in a non-linear circuit to produce unwanted spurious outputs?
A. Intermodulation ✓
B. Heterodyning
C. Detection
D. Rolloff
G8B13
Which of the following is an odd-order intermodulation product of frequencies F1 and F2?
A. 5F1-3F2
B. 3F1-F2
C. 2F1-F2 ✓
D. All these choices are correct
G8C02
Which digital mode is used as a low-power beacon for assessing HF propagation?
A. WSPR ✓
B. MFSK16
C. PSK31
D. SSB-SC
G8C03
What part of a packet radio frame contains the routing and handling information?
A. Directory
B. Preamble
C. Header ✓
D. Trailer
G8C04
Which of the following describes Baudot code?
A. A 7-bit code with start, stop, and parity bits
B. A code using error detection and correction
C. A 5-bit code with additional start and stop bits ✓
D. A code using SELCAL and LISTEN
G8C05
In an ARQ mode, what is meant by a NAK response to a transmitted packet?
A. Request retransmission of the packet ✓
B. Packet was received without error
C. Receiving station connected and ready for transmissions
D. Entire file received correctly
G8C06
What action results from a failure to exchange information due to excessive transmission attempts when using an ARQ mode?
A. The checksum overflows
B. The connection is dropped ✓
C. Packets will be routed incorrectly
D. Encoding reverts to the default character set
G8C07
Which of the following narrow-band digital modes can receive signals with very low signal-to-noise ratios?
A. MSK144
B. FT8 ✓
C. AMTOR
D. MFSK32
G8C08
Which of the following statements is true about PSK31?
A. Upper case letters are sent with more power
B. Upper case letters use longer Varicode bit sequences and thus slow down transmission ✓
C. Error correction is used to ensure accurate message reception
D. Higher power is needed as compared to RTTY for similar error rates
G8C09
Which is true of mesh network microwave nodes?
A. Having more nodes increases signal strengths
B. If one node fails, a packet may still reach its target station via an alternate node ✓
C. Links between two nodes in a network may have different frequencies and bandwidths
D. More nodes reduce overall microwave out of band interference
G8C10
How does forward error correction (FEC) allow the receiver to correct data errors?
A. By controlling transmitter output power for optimum signal strength
B. By using the Varicode character set
C. By transmitting redundant information with the data ✓
D. By using a parity bit with each character
G8C11
How are the two separate frequencies of a Frequency Shift Keyed (FSK) signal identified?
A. Dot and dash
B. On and off
C. High and low
D. Mark and space ✓
G8C12
Which type of code is used for sending characters in a PSK31 signal?
A. Varicode ✓
B. Viterbi
C. Volumetric
D. Binary
G8C13
What is indicated on a waterfall display by one or more vertical lines on either side of a data mode or RTTY signal?
A. Long path propagation
B. Backscatter propagation
C. Insufficient modulation
D. Overmodulation ✓
G8C14
Which of the following describes a waterfall display?
A. Frequency is horizontal, signal strength is vertical, time is intensity
B. Frequency is vertical, signal strength is intensity, time is horizontal
C. Frequency is horizontal, signal strength is intensity, time is vertical ✓
D. Frequency is vertical, signal strength is horizontal, time is intensity
G8C15
What does an FT8 signal report of +3 mean?
A. The signal is 3 times the noise level of an equivalent SSB signal
B. The signal is S3 (weak signals)
C. The signal-to-noise ratio is equivalent to +3dB in a 2.5 kHz bandwidth ✓
D. The signal is 3 dB over S9
G8C16
Which of the following provide digital voice modes?
A. WSPR, MFSK16, and EasyPAL
B. FT8, FT4, and FST4
C. Winlink, PACTOR II, and PACTOR III
D. DMR, D-STAR, and SystemFusion ✓