US Amateur Radio - Amateur Extra (Element 4, 2016-2020) Practice Test

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1. - E1A07

Which amateur band requires transmission on specific channels rather than on a range of frequencies?

Select	Answer
A	30 meter band
B	17 meter band
C	60 meter band
D	12 meter band

2. - E1B06

Which of the following additional rules apply if you are installing an amateur station antenna at a site at or near a public use airport?

Select	Answer
A	You must obtain a construction permit from the airport zoning authority
B	No special rules apply if your antenna structure will be less than 300 feet in height
C	You may have to notify the Federal Aviation Administration and register it with the FCC as required by Part 17 of FCC rules
D	You must file an Environmental Impact Statement with the EPA before construction begins

3. - E1C07

What is meant by local control?

Select	Answer
A	Controlling a station through a local auxiliary link
B	Direct manipulation of the transmitter by a control operator
C	Controlling a repeater using a portable handheld transceiver
D	Automatically manipulating local station controls

4. - E1D10

Which amateur stations are eligible to be telecommand stations?

Select	Answer
A	Any amateur station designated by NASA
B	Any amateur station so designated by the ITU
C	All of these choices are correct
D	Any amateur station so designated by the space station licensee, subject to the privileges of the class of operator license held by the control operator

5. - E1E02

Where are the questions for all written U.S. amateur license examinations listed?

Select	Answer
A	In a question pool maintained by all the VECs
B	In the appropriate FCC Report and Order
C	In FCC Part 97
D	In a question pool maintained by the FCC

6. - E1F04

Which of the following geographic descriptions approximately describes "Line A"?

Select	Answer
A	A line roughly parallel to and east of the U.S. Pacific coastline
B	A line roughly parallel to and west of the U.S. Atlantic coastline
C	A line roughly parallel to and north of the U.S.-Mexican border and Gulf coastline
D	A line roughly parallel to and south of the U.S.-Canadian border

7. - E2A04

What is meant by the term mode as applied to an amateur radio satellite?

Select	Answer
A	The satellite's orientation with respect to the Earth
B	The satellite's uplink and downlink frequency bands
C	The type of signals that can be relayed through the satellite
D	Whether the satellite is in a polar or equatorial orbit

8. - E2B08

Which of the following is a common method of transmitting accompanying audio with amateur fast-scan television?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	Frequency-modulated sub-carrier
C	Frequency modulation of the video carrier
D	A separate VHF or UHF audio link

9. - E2C13

What indicator is required to be used by U.S.-licensed operators when operating a station via remote control where the transmitter is located in the U.S.?

Select	Answer
A	/ followed by the USPS two letter abbreviation for the state in which the remote station is located
B	/R# where # is the district of the remote station
C	No additional indicator is required
D	The ARRL section of the remote station

10. - E2D06

Which of the following describes a method of establishing EME contacts?

Select	Answer
A	Storing and forwarding digital messages
B	High speed CW identification to avoid fading
C	Time synchronous transmissions alternately from each station
D	Judging optimum transmission times by monitoring beacons reflected from the Moon

11. - E2E06

What is the most common data rate used for HF packet?

Select	Answer
A	1200 baud
B	48 baud
C	110 baud
D	300 baud

12. - E3A12

What is the cause of auroral activity?

Select	Answer
A	The interaction in the F2 layer between the solar wind and the Van Allen belt
B	A low sunspot level combined with tropospheric ducting
C	The interaction in the E layer of charged particles from the Sun with the Earth's magnetic field
D	Meteor showers concentrated in the extreme northern and southern latitudes

13. - E3B13

Why is chordal hop propagation desirable?

Select	Answer
A	The MUF for chordal hop propagation is much lower than for normal skip propagation
B	Atmospheric noise is lower in the direction of chordal hop propagation
C	The signal experiences less loss along the path compared to normal skip propagation
D	Signals travel faster along ionospheric chords

14. - E3C13

What type of polarization is best for ground-wave propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Elliptical
B	Vertical
C	Horizontal
D	Circular

15. - E4A06

What is the effect of aliasing in a digital or computer-based oscilloscope?

Select	Answer
A	False signals are displayed
B	Calibration of the vertical scale is no longer valid
C	False triggering occurs
D	All signals will have a DC offset

16. - E4B03

If a frequency counter with a specified accuracy of +/- 1.0 ppm reads 146,520,000 Hz, what is the most the actual frequency being measured could differ from the reading?

Select	Answer
A	165.2 Hz
B	146.52 Hz
C	14.652 kHz
D	1.4652 MHz

17. - E4C13

How does a narrow-band roofing filter affect receiver performance?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	It improves sensitivity by reducing front end noise
C	It improves dynamic range by attenuating strong signals near the receive frequency
D	It improves intelligibility by using low Q circuitry to reduce ringing

18. - E4D01

What is meant by the blocking dynamic range of a receiver?

Select	Answer
A	The difference in dB between the noise floor and the third order intercept point
B	The minimum difference in dB between the levels of two FM signals which will cause one signal to block the other
C	The difference in dB between the noise floor and the level of an incoming signal which will cause 1 dB of gain compression
D	The minimum difference in dB between two signals which produce third order intermodulation products greater than the noise floor

19. - E4E12

What is one disadvantage of using some types of automatic DSP notch-filters when attempting to copy CW signals?

Select	Answer
A	Any nearby signal passing through the DSP system will overwhelm the desired signal
B	Received CW signals will appear to be modulated at the DSP clock frequency
C	A DSP filter can remove the desired signal at the same time as it removes interfering signals
D	Ringing in the DSP filter will completely remove the spaces between the CW characters

20. - E5A11

What is the half-power bandwidth of a parallel resonant circuit that has a resonant frequency of 7.1 MHz and a Q of 150?

Select	Answer
A	47.3 kHz
B	157.8 Hz
C	315.6 Hz
D	23.67 kHz

21. - E5B07

What is the phase angle between the voltage across and the current through a series RLC circuit if XC is 500 ohms, R is 1 kilohm, and XL is 250 ohms?

Select	Answer
A	68.2 degrees with the voltage leading the current
B	14.0 degrees with the voltage leading the current
C	14.0 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
D	68.2 degrees with the voltage lagging the current

22. - E5C04

Which of the following represents a capacitive reactance in polar coordinates?

Select	Answer
A	A negative phase angle
B	A negative real part
C	A positive phase angle
D	A positive real part

23. - E5D10

How can the true power be determined in an AC circuit where the voltage and current are out of phase?

Select	Answer
A	By multiplying the reactive power times the power factor
B	By multiplying the apparent power times the power factor
C	By dividing the reactive power by the power factor
D	By dividing the apparent power by the power factor

24. - E6A17

What are the names of the three terminals of a field-effect transistor?

Select	Answer
A	Emitter, base, collector
B	Gate, drain, source
C	Gate 1, gate 2, drain
D	Emitter, base 1, base 2

25. - E6B13

What type of bias is required for an LED to emit light?

Select	Answer
A	Inductive bias
B	Zero bias
C	Reverse bias
D	Forward bias

26. - E6C09

What is a Programmable Logic Device (PLD)?

Select	Answer
A	An algorithm for simulating logic functions during circuit design
B	Programmable equipment used for testing digital logic integrated circuits
C	A programmable collection of logic gates and circuits in a single integrated circuit
D	A device to control industrial equipment

27. - E6D17

Why should core saturation of a conventional impedance matching transformer be avoided?

Select	Answer
A	Magnetic flux would increase with frequency
B	Harmonics and distortion could result
C	Temporary changes of the core permeability could result
D	RF susceptance would increase

28. - E6E07

Which of the following is typically used to construct a MMIC-based microwave amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	Microstrip construction
B	Point-to-point construction
C	Ground-plane construction
D	Wave-soldering construction

29. - E6F12

What absorbs the energy from light falling on a photovoltaic cell?

Select	Answer
A	Photons
B	Protons
C	Electrons
D	Holes

30. - E7A04

How many flip-flops are required to divide a signal frequency by 4?

Select	Answer
A	4
B	1
C	2
D	8

31. - E7B01

For what portion of a signal cycle does a Class AB amplifier operate?

Select	Answer
A	The entire cycle
B	Exactly 180 degrees
C	More than 180 degrees but less than 360 degrees
D	Less than 180 degrees

32. - E7C06

What are the distinguishing features of an elliptical filter?

Select	Answer
A	Extremely sharp cutoff with one or more notches in the stop band
B	Gradual passband rolloff with minimal stop band ripple
C	Extremely flat response over its pass band with gradually rounded stop band corners
D	Gradual passband rolloff with extreme stop band ripple

33. - E7D07

What is the purpose of C2 in the circuit shown in Figure E7-3?

Select	Answer
A	It bypasses hum around D1
B	It is a brute force filter for the output
C	To provide fixed DC bias for Q1
D	To self-resonate at the hum frequency

34. - E7E11

Which type of detector is used for demodulating SSB signals?

Select	Answer
A	Discriminator
B	Product detector
C	Phase comparator
D	Phase detector

35. - E7F09

Why is an anti-aliasing digital filter required in a digital decimator?

Select	Answer
A	It removes low frequency signal components to eliminate the need for DC restoration
B	It removes high-frequency signal components which would otherwise be reproduced as lower frequency components
C	It notches out the sampling frequency to avoid sampling errors
D	It peaks the response of the decimator, improving bandwidth

36. - E7G10

What absolute voltage gain can be expected from the circuit in Figure E7-4 when R1 is 1800 ohms and RF is 68 kilohms?

Select	Answer
A	76
B	38
C	1
D	0.03

37. - E7H10

What information is contained in the lookup table of a direct digital frequency synthesizer?

Select	Answer
A	The phase relationship between a reference oscillator and the output waveform
B	The amplitude values that represent a sine-wave output
C	The synthesizer frequency limits and frequency values stored in the radio memories
D	The phase relationship between a voltage-controlled oscillator and the output waveform

38. - E8A09

How many levels can an analog-to-digital converter with 8 bit resolution encode?

Select	Answer
A	8 multiplied by the gain of the input amplifier
B	8
C	256
D	256 divided by the gain of the input amplifier

39. - E8B03

What is the modulation index of an FM-phone signal having a maximum frequency deviation of 3000 Hz either side of the carrier frequency when the modulating frequency is 1000 Hz?

Select	Answer
A	3000
B	1000
C	3
D	0.3

40. - E8C01

How is Forward Error Correction implemented?

Select	Answer
A	By transmitting extra data that may be used to detect and correct transmission errors
B	By the receiving station repeating each block of three data characters
C	By varying the frequency shift of the transmitted signal according to a predefined algorithm
D	By transmitting a special algorithm to the receiving station along with the data characters

41. - E8D07

What is a common cause of overmodulation of AFSK signals?

Select	Answer
A	Bit errors in the modem
B	Excessive numbers of retries
C	Ground loops
D	Excessive transmit audio levels

42. - E9A09

How is antenna efficiency calculated?

Select	Answer
A	(total resistance / radiation resistance) x 100 per cent
B	(radiation resistance / transmission resistance) x 100 per cent
C	(effective radiated power / transmitter output) x 100 percent
D	(radiation resistance / total resistance) x 100 per cent

43. - E9B09

What type of computer program technique is commonly used for modeling antennas?

Select	Answer
A	Mutual impedance analysis
B	Graphical analysis
C	Method of Moments
D	Calculus differentiation with respect to physical properties

44. - E9C08

What is a folded dipole antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A dipole consisting of one wavelength of wire forming a very thin loop
B	A dipole configured to provide forward gain
C	A type of ground-plane antenna
D	A dipole one-quarter wavelength long

45. - E9D13

What usually occurs if a Yagi antenna is designed solely for maximum forward gain?

Select	Answer
A	The front-to-back ratio decreases
B	The SWR is reduced
C	The front-to-back ratio increases
D	The frequency response is widened over the whole frequency band

46. - E9E13

What is a use for a Wilkinson divider?

Select	Answer
A	It is used to feed high-impedance antennas from a low-impedance source
B	It is used to feed low-impedance loads from a high-impedance source
C	It divides the operating frequency of a transmitter signal so it can be used on a lower frequency band
D	It is used to divide power equally between two 50 ohm loads while maintaining 50 ohm input impedance

47. - E9F08

What is the term for the ratio of the actual speed at which a signal travels through a transmission line to the speed of light in a vacuum?

Select	Answer
A	Velocity factor
B	Standing wave ratio
C	Characteristic impedance
D	Surge impedance

48. - E9G03

Which of the following is often determined using a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Impedance and SWR values in transmission lines
B	Trigonometric functions
C	Beam headings and radiation patterns
D	Satellite azimuth and elevation bearings

49. - E9H08

What is the function of a sense antenna?

Select	Answer
A	It allows DF antennas to receive signals at different vertical angles
B	It provides diversity reception that cancels multipath signals
C	It modifies the pattern of a DF antenna array to provide a null in one direction
D	It increases the sensitivity of a DF antenna array

50. - E0A07

How may dangerous levels of carbon monoxide from an emergency generator be detected?

Select	Answer
A	Only with a carbon monoxide detector
B	By the odor
C	Any ordinary smoke detector can be used
D	By the yellowish appearance of the gas

Figure E7-3

Figure E7-4