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

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1. - E1A05

What is the maximum power output permitted on the 60 meter band?

Select	Answer
A	100 watts PEP effective radiated power relative to an isotropic radiator
B	50 watts PEP effective radiated power relative to an isotropic radiator
C	100 watts PEP effective radiated power relative to the gain of a half-wave dipole
D	50 watts PEP effective radiated power relative to a dipole

2. - E1B04

What must be done before placing an amateur station within an officially designated wilderness area or wildlife preserve, or an area listed in the National Register of Historical Places?

Select	Answer
A	A proposal must be submitted to the National Park Service
B	A letter of intent must be filed with the National Audubon Society
C	An Environmental Assessment must be submitted to the FCC
D	A form FSD-15 must be submitted to the Department of the Interior

3. - E1C02

What is meant by automatic control of a station?

Select	Answer
A	The use of devices and procedures for control so that the control operator does not have to be present at a control point
B	A station operating with its output power controlled automatically
C	The use of a control link between a control point and a locally controlled station
D	Remotely controlling a station's antenna pattern through a directional control link

4. - E1D02

What is the amateur satellite service?

Select	Answer
A	A radio communications service using stations on Earth satellites for public service broadcast
B	A radio communications service using amateur radio stations on satellites
C	A radio navigation service using satellites for the purpose of self training, intercommunication and technical studies carried out by amateurs
D	A spacecraft launching service for amateur-built satellites

5. - E1E07

What should a VE do if a candidate fails to comply with the examiner's instructions during an amateur operator license examination?

Select	Answer
A	Immediately terminate the candidate's examination
B	Warn the candidate that continued failure to comply will result in termination of the examination
C	Allow the candidate to complete the examination, but invalidate the results
D	Immediately terminate everyone's examination and close the session

6. - E1F08

Which of the following types of amateur station communications are prohibited?

Select	Answer
A	Communications transmitted for hire or material compensation, except as otherwise provided in the rules
B	Communications that have a religious content
C	Communications in a language other than English
D	Communications that have a political content, except as allowed by the Fairness Doctrine

7. - E2A12

What is one way to predict the location of a satellite at a given time?

Select	Answer
A	By subtracting the mean anomaly from the orbital inclination
B	By means of the Doppler data for the specified satellite
C	By adding the mean anomaly to the orbital inclination
D	By calculations using the Keplerian elements for the specified satellite

8. - E2B16

Which is a video standard used by North American Fast Scan ATV stations?

Select	Answer
A	NTSC
B	DRM
C	Scottie
D	PAL

9. - E2C09

What type of equipment is commonly used to implement a ham radio mesh network?

Select	Answer
A	A standard wireless router running custom software
B	An optical cable connection between the USB ports of 2 separate computers
C	A 440 MHz transceiver with a 9600 baud modem
D	A 2 meter VHF transceiver with a 1200 baud modem

10. - E2D03

Which of the following digital modes is especially useful for EME communications?

Select	Answer
A	PACTOR III
B	FSK441
C	JT65
D	Olivia

11. - E2E09

Which of the following HF digital modes uses variable-length coding for bandwidth efficiency?

Select	Answer
A	PSK31
B	MT63
C	PACTOR
D	RTTY

12. - E3A04

What do Hepburn maps predict?

Select	Answer
A	Locations of auroral reflecting zones
B	Sporadic E propagation
C	Likelihood of rain-scatter along cold or warm fronts
D	Probability of tropospheric propagation

13. - E3B10

What is the cause of gray-line propagation?

Select	Answer
A	At midday, the Sun super heats the ionosphere causing increased refraction of radio waves
B	At mid-afternoon, the Sun heats the ionosphere decreasing radio wave refraction and the MUF
C	In darkness, solar absorption drops greatly while atmospheric ionization remains steady
D	At twilight and sunrise, D-layer absorption is low while E-layer and F-layer propagation remains high

14. - E3C06

By how much does the VHF/UHF radio horizon distance exceed the geometric horizon?

Select	Answer
A	By approximately 50 percent of the distance
B	By approximately twice the distance
C	By approximately four times the distance
D	By approximately 15 percent of the distance

15. - E4A04

What determines the upper frequency limit for a computer soundcard-based oscilloscope program?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	Q of the interface of the interface circuit
C	Analog-to-digital conversion speed of the soundcard
D	Amount of memory on the soundcard

16. - E4B08

Which of the following is a characteristic of a good DC voltmeter?

Select	Answer
A	High impedance input
B	Low reluctance input
C	High reluctance input
D	Low impedance input

17. - E4C11

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

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

18. - E4D14

Which of the following is a way to reduce the likelihood of receiver desensitization?

Select	Answer
A	Decrease the RF bandwidth of the receiver
B	Raise the receiver IF frequency
C	Switch from fast AGC to slow AGC
D	Increase the receiver front end gain

19. - E4E05

How can noise from an electric motor be suppressed?

Select	Answer
A	By installing a high pass filter in series with the motor's power leads
B	By installing a bypass capacitor in series with the motor leads
C	By installing a brute-force AC-line filter in series with the motor leads
D	By using a ground-fault current interrupter in the circuit used to power the motor

20. - E5A12

What is the half-power bandwidth of a parallel resonant circuit that has a resonant frequency of 3.7 MHz and a Q of 118?

Select	Answer
A	218.3 kHz
B	31.4 kHz
C	15.7 kHz
D	436.6 kHz

21. - E5B09

What is the relationship between the current through a capacitor and the voltage across a capacitor?

Select	Answer
A	Voltage and current are in phase
B	Current leads voltage by 90 degrees
C	Voltage and current are 180 degrees out of phase
D	Voltage leads current by 90 degrees

22. - E5C02

How are impedances described in polar coordinates?

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

23. - E5D08

What type of energy is stored in an electromagnetic or electrostatic field?

Select	Answer
A	Electromechanical energy
B	Potential energy
C	Kinetic energy
D	Thermodynamic energy

24. - E6A09

What is a depletion-mode FET?

Select	Answer
A	Any FET for which holes are the majority carriers
B	An FET that has no current flow between source and drain when no gate voltage is applied
C	Any FET without a channel
D	An FET that exhibits a current flow between source and drain when no gate voltage is applied

25. - E6B03

What special type of diode is capable of both amplification and oscillation?

Select	Answer
A	Point contact
B	Junction
C	Tunnel
D	Zener

26. - E6C07

What best describes a pull-up or pull-down resistor?

Select	Answer
A	A resistor connected to an op-amp output that only functions when the logic output is false
B	A resistor in a keying circuit used to reduce key clicks
C	A resistor that insures that an oscillator frequency does not drive lower over time
D	A resistor connected to the positive or negative supply line used to establish a voltage when an input or output is an open circuit

27. - E6D17

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

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

28. - E6E10

What is the packaging technique in which leadless components are soldered directly to circuit boards?

Select	Answer
A	Stripped lead
B	Surface mount
C	Virtual lead mounting
D	Direct soldering

29. - E6F11

What is the approximate open-circuit voltage produced by a fully-illuminated silicon photovoltaic cell?

Select	Answer
A	0.1 V
B	12 V
C	0.5 V
D	1.5 V

30. - E7A02

What is the function of a decade counter digital IC?

Select	Answer
A	It produces ten output pulses for every input pulse
B	It produces one output pulse for every ten input pulses
C	It adds two decimal numbers together
D	It decodes a decimal number for display on a seven segment LED display

31. - E7B10

In Figure E7-1, what is the purpose of R1 and R2?

Select	Answer
A	Feedback
B	Load resistors
C	Self bias
D	Fixed bias

32. - E7C01

How are the capacitors and inductors of a low-pass filter Pi-network arranged between the network's input and output?

Select	Answer
A	A capacitor is connected between the input and ground, another capacitor is connected between the output and ground, and an inductor is connected between input and output
B	Two inductors are in series between the input and output, and a capacitor is connected between the two inductors and ground
C	Two capacitors are in series between the input and output, and an inductor is connected between the two capacitors and ground
D	An inductor is connected between the input and ground, another inductor is connected between the output and ground, and a capacitor is connected between the input and output

33. - E7D06

What is the purpose of Q1 in the circuit shown in Figure E7-3?

Select	Answer
A	It increases the current-handling capability of the regulator
B	It provides a constant load for the voltage source
C	It provides D1 with current
D	It provides negative feedback to improve regulation

34. - E7E01

Which of the following can be used to generate FM phone emissions?

Select	Answer
A	A balanced modulator on the oscillator
B	A reactance modulator on the final amplifier
C	A reactance modulator on the oscillator
D	A balanced modulator on the audio amplifier

35. - E7F03

What type of digital signal processing filter is used to generate an SSB signal?

Select	Answer
A	A notch filter
B	An elliptical filter
C	An adaptive filter
D	A Hilbert-transform filter

36. - E7G07

What magnitude of voltage gain can be expected from the circuit in Figure E7-4 when R1 is 10 ohms and RF is 470 ohms?

Select	Answer
A	47
B	0.21
C	94
D	24

37. - E7H04

How is positive feedback supplied in a Colpitts oscillator?

Select	Answer
A	Through link coupling
B	Through a tapped coil
C	Through a neutralizing capacitor
D	Through a capacitive divider

38. - E8A06

What is the approximate ratio of PEP-to-average power in a typical single-sideband phone signal?

Select	Answer
A	25 to 1
B	1 to 1
C	2.5 to 1
D	100 to 1

39. - E8B07

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing is a technique used for which type of amateur communication?

Select	Answer
A	EME
B	High speed digital modes
C	Extremely low-power contacts
D	OFDM signals are not allowed on amateur bands

40. - E8C06

What is the necessary bandwidth of a 170-hertz shift, 300-baud ASCII transmission?

Select	Answer
A	0.5 kHz
B	0.3 kHz
C	1.0 kHz
D	0.1 Hz

41. - E8D08

What parameter might indicate that excessively high input levels are causing distortion in an AFSK signal?

Select	Answer
A	Intermodulation Distortion (IMD)
B	Signal to noise ratio
C	Baud rate
D	Repeat Request Rate (RRR)

42. - E9A17

What is the effective radiated power of a repeater station with 200 watts transmitter power output, 2 dB feed line loss, 2.8 dB duplexer loss, 1.2 dB circulator loss, and 7 dBi antenna gain?

Select	Answer
A	159 watts
B	63.2 watts
C	252 watts
D	632 watts

43. - E9B13

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

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

44. - E9C07

What is the approximate feed point impedance at the center of a two-wire folded dipole antenna?

Select	Answer
A	300 ohms
B	50 ohms
C	450 ohms
D	72 ohms

45. - E9D04

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

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

46. - E9E04

What is the purpose of the series capacitor in a gamma-type antenna matching network?

Select	Answer
A	To transform the antenna impedance to a higher value
B	To cancel the inductive reactance of the matching network
C	To provide DC isolation between the feed line and the antenna
D	To provide a rejection notch that prevents the radiation of harmonics

47. - E9F09

What is the approximate physical length of a solid polyethylene dielectric coaxial transmission line that is electrically one-quarter wavelength long at 7.2 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	24 meters
B	6.9 meters
C	10 meters
D	50 meters

48. - E9G04

What are the two families of circles and arcs that make up a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Voltage and impedance
B	Reactance and voltage
C	Resistance and voltage
D	Resistance and reactance

49. - E9H07

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

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

50. - E0A04

When evaluating a site with multiple transmitters operating at the same time, the operators and licensees of which transmitters are responsible for mitigating over-exposure situations?

Select	Answer
A	Each transmitter operating with a duty-cycle greater than 50 percent
B	Only the most powerful transmitter
C	Each transmitter that produces 5 percent or more of its MPE limit at accessible locations
D	Only commercial transmitters

Figure E7-1

Figure E7-3

Figure E7-4