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E4A06

AMATEUR PRACTICES · Test equipment: analog and digital instruments; spectrum analyzers; antenna analyzers; oscilloscopes; RF measurements

E4A06E4A →

What is the effect of aliasing on a digital oscilloscope when displaying a waveform?

  1. AA false, jittery low-frequency version of the waveform is displayed
  2. BThe waveform DC offset will be inaccurate
  3. CCalibration of the vertical scale is no longer valid
  4. DExcessive blanking occurs, which prevents display of the waveform
Why A digital scope samples the input at discrete intervals; the Nyquist criterion requires the sample rate to be more than twice the highest frequency component present. If the signal exceeds that limit, the samples reconstruct a completely different, much lower frequency waveform that appears to wander or jitter on the screen. That ghost trace is aliasing, and it can look convincingly like a real signal if you do not check the timebase and sample rate.
Watch out Vertical accuracy, DC offset and blanking are all amplitude or display issues; aliasing is purely a time-axis sampling artifact and leaves the vertical calibration untouched.
Aliasing = undersampling. Too few samples makes a fast signal masquerade as a slow, jittery one (like wagon wheels in movies).
HamSandwich explanation, first draft. The question and answers are the NCVEC text.
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The rest of E4A

  1. E4A01 Which of the following limits the highest frequency signal that can be accurately displayed on a digital osci…
  2. E4A02 Which of the following parameters does a spectrum analyzer display on the vertical and horizontal axes?
  3. E4A03 Which of the following test instruments is used to display spurious signals and/or intermodulation distortion…
  4. E4A04 How is compensation of an oscilloscope probe performed?
  5. E4A05 What is the purpose of using a prescaler with a frequency counter?
  6. E4A06 What is the effect of aliasing on a digital oscilloscope when displaying a waveform?
  7. E4A07 Which of the following is an advantage of using an antenna analyzer compared to an SWR bridge?
  8. E4A08 Which of the following is used to measure SWR?
  9. E4A09 Which of the following is good practice when using an oscilloscope probe?
  10. E4A10 Which trigger mode is most effective when using an oscilloscope to measure a linear power supply's output rip…
  11. E4A11 Which of the following can be measured with an antenna analyzer?
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