General exam question G2A09
Subelement G2, OPERATING PROCEDURES· Group G2A
Why do most amateur stations use lower sideband on the 160-, 75-, and 40-meter bands?
- A.Lower sideband is more efficient than upper sideband at these frequencies
- B.Lower sideband is the only sideband legal on these frequency bands
- C.Because it is fully compatible with an AM detector
- D.It is commonly accepted amateur practice (correct answer)
WhyMost amateur stations use lower sideband on the 160, 75, and 40 meter bands simply because it's commonly accepted amateur practice, not for any technical reason. There's no technical reason LSB works better than USB below 10 MHz, it's simply the sideband amateur operators have conventionally settled on for those bands, answer D. It isn't more efficient, it isn't the only legal sideband there (either sideband is technically legal, only the convention differs), and AM-detector compatibility isn't why the convention exists.
Published 2026-08-28 · Last updated 2026-08-28 · Question text is verbatim from the 2023-2027 NCVEC Element 3 pool (public domain); the explanation above is original writing, see our methodology.
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