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General exam question G8A14

Subelement G8, SIGNALS AND EMISSIONS· Group G8A

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 (correct answer)
  • C.Transmit power minus receiver sensitivity
  • D.Receiver sensitivity plus 3 dB

WhyLink margin is the difference between received power level and the minimum required signal level at the input to the receiver. Link margin is the cushion between the power level actually received and the minimum signal level the receiver needs to work reliably, essentially how much room there is before the link starts to fail, answer B. It isn't simply the opposite of fade margin (the two concepts are closely related, not opposites), isn't found by subtracting receiver sensitivity from transmit power alone (that skips the path losses and gains a link budget accounts for), and isn't an arbitrary fixed offset like sensitivity plus 3 dB, so A, C, and D are wrong.

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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