errors in the questions pool for the General Amateur Radio Licence exam
As you might guess, I’m studying for the exam now. It’s a boring exercise in memorization and regurgitation, something I was never much good at. I do have a solid grasp of electronics theory and radio propagation, so all I have to do is memorize a bunch of crap about where RTTY is in the band plan and what ending a message in SK means.
Just for the heck of it I thought I’d point out a few errors I’ve found in the pool.
G4D08. Which of the following connectors would be a good choice for a serial data port?
A. PL-259
B. Type N
C. Type SMA
D. DB-9
They say the right answer is a DB-9, but there really isn’t a connector called that (at least in common use). Your useless bit of trivia for the day is that the “B” stands for the size of the connector, and a nine pin D-shaped connector is actually called a DE-9 connector.
G6B02. What are the two major ratings that must not be exceeded for silicon-diode rectifiers?
Select Answer
A Peak load impedance; peak voltage
B Capacitive reactance; avalanche voltage
C Average power; average voltage
D Peak inverse voltage; average forward current
While the average forward current part is correct, you can go over the peek inverse voltage as long as the current rating of the diode is not exceeded. I’m being persnickety here because usually if you do exceed that reverse voltage, the “avalanche effect” virtually assures the current level will spike. See the w’pedia article for Avalanche diode where this effect is utilized.
I’ve searched around and found a list or two of questions that have been withdrawn because of errors already. Neither of these two questions are on those lists.
