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Learn / Amateur Extra course

Lesson 6: Practical Circuits

Lesson 6 of 10, syllabus topic E7. The exam asks 8 questions from this topic, one from each of its 8 groups.

Practical circuits combine the components into amplifiers, filters, power supplies, software defined radios and oscillators.

What you will learn

  • E7A Digital circuits: digital circuit principles and logic circuits; classes of logic elements; positive and negative logic; frequency dividers; truth tables
  • E7B Amplifiers: class of operation; vacuum tube and solid-state circuits; distortion and intermodulation; spurious and parasitic suppression; switching-type amplifiers
  • E7C Filters and matching networks: types of networks; types of filters; filter applications; filter characteristics; impedance matching
  • E7D Power supplies and voltage regulators; solar array charge controllers
  • E7E Modulation and demodulation: reactance, phase, and balanced modulators; detectors; mixers
  • E7F Software defined radio fundamentals: digital signal processing (DSP) filtering, modulation, and demodulation; analog-digital conversion; digital filters
  • E7G Operational amplifiers: characteristics and applications
  • E7H Oscillators and signal sources: types of oscillators; synthesizers and phase-locked loops; direct digital synthesizers; stabilizing thermal drift; microphonics; high-accuracy oscillators

1. Read

No guide covers this topic yet, so the explained questions are the reading for this lesson. Read each one and its explanation before you practice.

  1. All 99 E7 questions with their answers and explanationsEvery group, with the rule or source behind each answer

2. Explore

  • Low-pass filter designer

    Compare a Butterworth and a Chebyshev filter of the same order. The Chebyshev has ripple in the passband and a sharper cutoff.

    This is exam question E7C05.

  • Matching network

    Design an L network that matches a load to 50 ohms and see how the component values change with frequency.

3. Practice

Practice one group at a time. A group is ready when you have answered every one of its questions and learned at least 80 percent of them; a question counts as learned when your last three answers to it were correct. To review quickly, go through this lesson’s questions as flashcards.

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