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

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1. - E1A03

With your transceiver displaying the carrier frequency of phone signals, you hear a station calling CQ on 14.349 MHz USB. Is it legal to return the call using upper sideband on the same frequency?

Select	Answer
A	Yes, because you were not the station calling CQ
B	No, the sideband will extend beyond the band edge
C	Yes, because the displayed frequency is within the 20 meter band
D	No, U.S. stations are not permitted to use phone emissions above 14.340 MHz

2. - E1B03

Within what distance must an amateur station protect an FCC monitoring facility from harmful interference?

Select	Answer
A	10 miles
B	3 miles
C	30 miles
D	1 mile

3. - E1C07

What is meant by local control?

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

4. - E1D11

Which amateur stations are eligible to operate as Earth stations?

Select	Answer
A	Only those of General, Advanced or Amateur Extra Class operators
B	Any amateur station, subject to the privileges of the class of operator license held by the control operator
C	Only those of Amateur Extra Class operators
D	Any amateur station whose licensee has filed a pre-space notification with the FCC's International Bureau

5. - E1E04

Which of the following best describes the Volunteer Examiner accreditation process?

Select	Answer
A	The prospective VE obtains accreditation from the FCC
B	The amateur operator applying must pass a VE examination administered by the FCC Enforcement Bureau
C	Each General, Advanced and Amateur Extra Class operator is automatically accredited as a VE when the license is granted
D	The procedure by which a VEC confirms that the VE applicant meets FCC requirements to serve as an examiner

6. - E1F06

Under what circumstances might the FCC issue a Special Temporary Authority (STA) to an amateur station?

Select	Answer
A	To allow regular operation on Land Mobile channels
B	To provide additional spectrum for personal use
C	To provide temporary operation while awaiting normal licensing
D	To provide for experimental amateur communications

7. - E2A13

What type of satellite appears to stay in one position in the sky?

Select	Answer
A	HEO
B	LEO
C	Geostationary
D	Geomagnetic

8. - E2B06

What is vestigial sideband modulation?

Select	Answer
A	Amplitude modulation in which one complete sideband and a portion of the other are transmitted
B	Narrow-band FM modulation achieved by filtering one sideband from the audio before frequency modulating the carrier
C	A type of modulation in which one sideband is inverted
D	Spread spectrum modulation achieved by applying FM modulation following single sideband amplitude modulation

9. - E2C07

What is the Cabrillo format?

Select	Answer
A	A standard for submission of electronic contest logs
B	The rules of order for meetings between contest sponsors
C	The most common set of contest rules
D	A method of exchanging information during a contest QSO

10. - E2D04

What is the purpose of digital store-and-forward functions on an Amateur Radio satellite?

Select	Answer
A	To delay download of telemetry between satellites
B	To store digital messages in the satellite for later download by other stations
C	To upload operational software for the transponder
D	To relay messages between satellites

11. - E2E08

Which of the following HF digital modes can be used to transfer binary files?

Select	Answer
A	AMTOR
B	RTTY
C	Hellschreiber
D	PACTOR

12. - E3A05

Tropospheric propagation of microwave signals often occurs along what weather related structure?

Select	Answer
A	Warm and cold fronts
B	Gray-line
C	Sprites and jets
D	Lightning discharges

13. - E3B12

What is the primary characteristic of chordal hop propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Propagation away from the great circle bearing between stations
B	Propagation across the geomagnetic equator
C	Successive ionospheric reflections without an intermediate reflection from the ground
D	Signals reflected back toward the transmitting station

14. - E3C02

What is indicated by a rising A or K index?

Select	Answer
A	Increasing disruption of the geomagnetic field
B	An increase in the critical frequency
C	Decreasing disruption of the geomagnetic field
D	Higher levels of solar UV radiation

15. - E4A02

Which of the following parameters would a spectrum analyzer display on the vertical and horizontal axes?

Select	Answer
A	SWR and frequency
B	RF amplitude and frequency
C	RF amplitude and time
D	SWR and time

16. - E4B01

Which of the following factors most affects the accuracy of a frequency counter?

Select	Answer
A	Temperature coefficient of the logic
B	Time base accuracy
C	Input attenuator accuracy
D	Decade divider accuracy

17. - E4C11

Which of the following is a desirable amount of selectivity for an amateur SSB phone receiver?

Select	Answer
A	1 kHz
B	4.8 kHz
C	4.2 kHz
D	2.4 kHz

18. - E4D08

What causes intermodulation in an electronic circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Too little gain
B	Nonlinear circuits or devices
C	Lack of neutralization
D	Positive feedback

19. - E4E10

What is a common characteristic of interference caused by a touch controlled electrical device?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	The interfering signal sounds like AC hum on an AM receiver or a carrier modulated by 60 Hz hum on a SSB or CW receiver
C	The interfering signal may drift slowly across the HF spectrum
D	The interfering signal can be several kHz in width and usually repeats at regular intervals across a HF band

20. - E5A05

What is the magnitude of the current at the input of a series RLC circuit as the frequency goes through resonance?

Select	Answer
A	Minimum
B	R/L
C	L/R
D	Maximum

21. - E5B08

What is the phase angle between the voltage across and the current through a series RLC circuit if XC is 100 ohms, R is 100 ohms, and XL is 75 ohms?

Select	Answer
A	76 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
B	14 degrees with the voltage leading the current
C	14 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
D	76 degrees with the voltage leading the current

22. - E5C02

How are impedances described in polar coordinates?

Select	Answer
A	By real and imaginary parts
B	By Y and G values
C	By X and R values
D	By phase angle and amplitude

23. - E5D07

What determines the strength of the magnetic field around a conductor?

Select	Answer
A	The amount of current flowing through the conductor
B	The resistance divided by the current
C	The ratio of the current to the resistance
D	The diameter of the conductor

24. - E6A10

In Figure E6-2, what is the schematic symbol for an N-channel dual-gate MOSFET?

Select	Answer
A	4
B	6
C	5
D	2

25. - E6B02

What is an important characteristic of a Schottky diode as compared to an ordinary silicon diode when used as a power supply rectifier?

Select	Answer
A	Enhanced carrier retention time
B	Less forward voltage drop
C	Much higher reverse voltage breakdown
D	Controlled reverse avalanche voltage

26. - E6C03

What is tri-state logic?

Select	Answer
A	Proprietary logic devices manufactured by Tri-State Devices
B	Low power logic devices designed to operate at 3 volts
C	Logic devices that utilize ternary math
D	Logic devices with 0, 1, and high impedance output states

27. - E6D13

What is the primary cause of inductor self-resonance?

Select	Answer
A	Inductive kickback
B	Non-linear core hysteresis
C	Inter-turn capacitance
D	The skin effect

28. - E6E01

Which of the following is true of a charge-coupled device (CCD)?

Select	Answer
A	It is used in a battery charger circuit
B	It is a CMOS analog-to-digital converter
C	It samples an analog signal and passes it in stages from the input to the output
D	Its phase shift changes rapidly with frequency

29. - E6F01

What is photoconductivity?

Select	Answer
A	The conversion of electromotive energy to photon energy
B	The conversion of photon energy to electromotive energy
C	The decreased conductivity of an illuminated semiconductor
D	The increased conductivity of an illuminated semiconductor

30. - E7A10

What is a truth table?

Select	Answer
A	A table of logic symbols that indicate the logic states of an op-amp
B	A list of inputs and corresponding outputs for a digital device
C	A table of logic symbols that indicate the high logic states of an op-amp
D	A diagram showing logic states when the digital device output is true

31. - E7B04

Where on the load line of a Class A common emitter amplifier would bias normally be set?

Select	Answer
A	Approximately half-way between saturation and cutoff
B	At a point where the bias resistor equals the load resistor
C	Where the load line intersects the voltage axis
D	At a point where the load line intersects the zero bias current curve

32. - E7C14

Which mode is most affected by non-linear phase response in a receiver IF filter?

Select	Answer
A	Single-Sideband voice
B	Digital
C	Meteor scatter
D	Video

33. - E7D13

What is the equation for calculating power dissipation by a series connected linear voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	Voltage difference from input to output multiplied by output current
B	Input voltage divided by output current
C	Output voltage multiplied by output current
D	Input voltage multiplied by input current

34. - E7E09

What occurs when an excessive amount of signal energy reaches a mixer circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Automatic limiting occurs
B	A beat frequency is generated
C	Mixer blanking occurs
D	Spurious mixer products are generated

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 peaks the response of the decimator, improving bandwidth
C	It removes high-frequency signal components which would otherwise be reproduced as lower frequency components
D	It notches out the sampling frequency to avoid sampling errors

36. - E7G11

What absolute voltage gain can be expected from the circuit in Figure E7-4 when R1 is 3300 ohms and RF is 47 kilohms?

Select	Answer
A	0.07
B	28
C	7
D	14

37. - E7H12

Which of the following must be done to insure that a crystal oscillator provides the frequency specified by the crystal manufacturer?

Select	Answer
A	Provide the crystal with a specified parallel inductance
B	Provide the crystal with a specified parallel capacitance
C	Bias the crystal at a specified current
D	Bias the crystal at a specified voltage

38. - E8A07

What determines the PEP-to-average power ratio of a single-sideband phone signal?

Select	Answer
A	The frequency of the modulating signal
B	The characteristics of the modulating signal
C	The amplifier gain
D	The degree of carrier suppression

39. - E8B11

What is digital time division multiplexing?

Select	Answer
A	Two or more signals are quadrature modulated to increase bandwidth efficiency
B	Two or more signals are arranged to share discrete time slots of a data transmission
C	Two or more data streams share the same channel by transmitting time of transmission as the sub-carrier
D	Two or more data streams are assigned to discrete sub-carriers on an FM transmitter

40. - E8C01

How is Forward Error Correction implemented?

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

41. - E8D02

What spread spectrum communications technique uses a high speed binary bit stream to shift the phase of an RF carrier?

Select	Answer
A	Direct sequence
B	Binary phase-shift keying
C	Phase compandored spread spectrum
D	Frequency hopping

42. - E9A09

How is antenna efficiency calculated?

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

43. - E9B13

What does the abbreviation NEC stand for when applied to antenna modeling programs?

Select	Answer
A	Numeric Electrical Computation
B	Next Element Comparison
C	Numerical Electromagnetic Code
D	National Electrical Code

44. - E9C01

What is the radiation pattern of two 1/4-wavelength vertical antennas spaced 1/2-wavelength apart and fed 180 degrees out of phase?

Select	Answer
A	Omni-directional
B	A figure-8 broadside to the axis of the array
C	A figure-8 oriented along the axis of the array
D	Cardioid

45. - E9D04

Why should an HF mobile antenna loading coil have a high ratio of reactance to resistance?

Select	Answer
A	To maximize losses
B	To minimize the Q
C	To swamp out harmonics
D	To minimize losses

46. - E9E06

What is the equivalent lumped-constant network for a hairpin matching system of a 3-element Yagi?

Select	Answer
A	A series capacitor
B	A shunt inductor
C	Pi-L-network
D	Pi-network

47. - E9F06

What is the approximate physical length of an air-insulated, parallel conductor transmission line that is electrically one-half wavelength long at 14.10 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	15 meters
B	20 meters
C	71 meters
D	10 meters

48. - E9G05

What type of chart is shown in Figure E9-3?

Select	Answer
A	Elevation angle radiation pattern chart
B	Smith chart
C	Azimuth angle radiation pattern chart
D	Free space radiation directivity chart

49. - E9H07

Why is it advisable to use an RF attenuator on a receiver being used for direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	It compensates for the effects of an isotropic antenna, thereby improving directivity
B	It prevents receiver overload which could make it difficult to determine peaks or nulls
C	It reduces loss of received signals caused by antenna pattern nulls, thereby increasing sensitivity
D	It narrows the bandwidth of the received signal to improve signal to noise ratio

50. - E0A03

Which of the following would be a practical way to estimate whether the RF fields produced by an amateur radio station are within permissible MPE limits?

Select	Answer
A	All of the choices are correct
B	Use a calibrated antenna analyzer
C	Use a hand calculator plus Smith-chart equations to calculate the fields
D	Use an antenna modeling program to calculate field strength at accessible locations

Figure E6-2

Figure E7-4

Figure E9-3