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

Logging in (or registering) will help the system to select questions that you need to focus on.

1. - E1A13

Who must be in physical control of the station apparatus of an amateur station aboard any vessel or craft that is documented or registered in the United States?

Select	Answer
A	Any person holding an FCC issued amateur license or who is authorized for alien reciprocal operation
B	Only a person with an FCC Marine Radio
C	Any person named in an amateur station license grant or a person holding an unrestricted Radiotelephone Operator Permit
D	Only a person named in an amateur station license grant

2. - E1B09

Which amateur stations may be operated under RACES rules?

Select	Answer
A	Only those club stations licensed to Amateur Extra class operators
B	Any FCC-licensed amateur station except a Technician class
C	Any FCC-licensed amateur station certified by the responsible civil defense organization for the area served
D	Any FCC-licensed amateur station participating in the Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS)

3. - E1C07

What is meant by local control?

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

4. - E1D06

Which of the following is a requirement of a space station?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	The space station must be capable of changing its orbit whenever such a change is ordered by NASA
C	The space station must be capable of terminating transmissions by telecommand when directed by the FCC
D	The space station must cease all transmissions after 5 years

5. - E1E13

Which of these choices is an acceptable method for monitoring the applicants if a VEC opts to conduct an exam session remotely?

Select	Answer
A	Use a real-time video link and the Internet to connect the exam session to the observing VEs
B	Have each applicant sign an affidavit stating that all session rules were followed
C	The exam proctor observes the applicants and reports any violations
D	Record the exam session on video tape for later review by the VE team

6. - E1F11

Which of the following best describes one of the standards that must be met by an external RF power amplifier if it is to qualify for a grant of FCC certification?

Select	Answer
A	It must satisfy the FCC's spurious emission standards when operated at the lesser of 1500 watts or its full output power
B	It must be capable of external RF switching between its input and output networks
C	It must produce full legal output when driven by not more than 5 watts of mean RF input power
D	It must exhibit a gain of 0 dB or less over its full output range

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	Whether the satellite is in a polar or equatorial orbit
D	The type of signals that can be relayed through the satellite

8. - E2B15

What signals SSTV receiving equipment to begin a new picture line?

Select	Answer
A	Specific tone amplitudes
B	Specific tone frequencies
C	A two-tone signal
D	Elapsed time

9. - E2C09

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

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

10. - E2D04

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

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

11. - E2E10

Which of these digital modes has the narrowest bandwidth?

Select	Answer
A	300-baud packet
B	170 Hz shift, 45 baud RTTY
C	PSK31
D	MFSK16

12. - E3A12

What is the cause of auroral activity?

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

13. - E3B12

What is the primary characteristic of chordal hop propagation?

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

14. - E3C07

Which of the following descriptors indicates the greatest solar flare intensity?

Select	Answer
A	Class A
B	Class B
C	Class X
D	Class M

15. - E4A05

What might be an advantage of a digital vs an analog oscilloscope?

Select	Answer
A	Automatic amplitude and frequency numerical readout
B	Manipulation of time base after trace capture
C	Storage of traces for future reference
D	All of these choices are correct

16. - E4B04

If a frequency counter with a specified accuracy of +/- 0.1 ppm reads 146,520,000 Hz, what is the most the actual frequency being measured could differ from the reading?

Select	Answer
A	1.4652 Hz
B	14.652 Hz
C	0.1 MHz
D	1.4652 kHz

17. - E4C12

What is an undesirable effect of using too wide a filter bandwidth in the IF section of a receiver?

Select	Answer
A	Undesired signals may be heard
B	Output-offset overshoot
C	Thermal-noise distortion
D	Filter ringing

18. - E4D04

Which of the following may reduce or eliminate intermodulation interference in a repeater caused by another transmitter operating in close proximity?

Select	Answer
A	A Class C final amplifier
B	A Class D final amplifier
C	A properly terminated circulator at the output of the transmitter
D	A band-pass filter in the feed line between the transmitter and receiver

19. - E4E11

Which is the most likely cause if you are hearing combinations of local AM broadcast signals within one or more of the MF or HF ham bands?

Select	Answer
A	Nearby corroded metal joints are mixing and re-radiating the broadcast signals
B	Your station receiver IF amplifier stage is defective
C	You are receiving sky wave signals from a distant station
D	The broadcast station is transmitting an over-modulated signal

20. - E5A04

What is the magnitude of the impedance of a circuit with a resistor, an inductor and a capacitor all in parallel, at resonance?

Select	Answer
A	Approximately equal to capacitive reactance
B	Low, as compared to the circuit resistance
C	Approximately equal to inductive reactance
D	Approximately equal to circuit resistance

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

22. - E5C11

What do the two numbers that are used to define a point on a graph using rectangular coordinates represent?

Select	Answer
A	The magnitude and phase of the point
B	The tangent and cotangent values
C	The sine and cosine values
D	The coordinate values along the horizontal and vertical axes

23. - E5D13

How much power is consumed in a circuit consisting of a 100 ohm resistor in series with a 100 ohm inductive reactance drawing 1 ampere?

Select	Answer
A	100 Watts
B	200 Watts
C	70.7 Watts
D	141.4 Watts

24. - E6A10

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

Select	Answer
A	6
B	4
C	5
D	2

25. - E6B09

What is a common use for point contact diodes?

Select	Answer
A	As a constant current source
B	As an RF detector
C	As a constant voltage source
D	As a high voltage rectifier

26. - E6C04

What is the primary advantage of tri-state logic?

Select	Answer
A	High speed operation
B	Ability to connect many device outputs to a common bus
C	Low power consumption
D	More efficient arithmetic operations

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. - E6E08

How is voltage from a power supply normally furnished to the most common type of monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC)?

Select	Answer
A	Through a resistor and/or RF choke connected to the amplifier output lead
B	Through a capacitor and RF choke connected to the amplifier input lead
C	MMICs require no operating bias
D	Directly to the bias voltage (VCC IN) lead

29. - E6F08

Why are optoisolators often used in conjunction with solid state circuits when switching 120VAC?

Select	Answer
A	Optoisolators provide a low impedance link between a control circuit and a power circuit
B	Optoisolators eliminate the effects of reflected light in the control circuit
C	Optoisolators provide a very high degree of electrical isolation between a control circuit and the circuit being switched
D	Optoisolators provide impedance matching between the control circuit and power circuit

30. - E7A09

What logical operation is performed by an exclusive NOR gate?

Select	Answer
A	It produces logic "1" at its output if any single input is logic "1"
B	It produces logic "1" at its output only if all inputs are logic "1"
C	It produces logic "0" at its output if any single input is logic "1"
D	It produces logic "0" at its output only if all inputs are logic "0"

31. - E7B08

How can an RF power amplifier be neutralized?

Select	Answer
A	By feeding an in-phase component of the output back to the input
B	By feeding a 180-degree out-of-phase portion of the output back to the input
C	By increasing the driving power
D	By reducing the driving power

32. - E7C06

What are the distinguishing features of an elliptical filter?

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

33. - E7D02

What is one characteristic of a switching electronic voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	It gives a ramp voltage at its output
B	The resistance of a control element is varied in direct proportion to the line voltage or load current
C	It is generally less efficient than a linear regulator
D	The controlled device's duty cycle is changed to produce a constant average output voltage

34. - E7E05

What circuit is added to an FM transmitter to boost the higher audio frequencies?

Select	Answer
A	A pre-emphasis network
B	A heterodyne suppressor
C	A de-emphasis network
D	An audio prescaler

35. - E7F08

What is the function of decimation with regard to digital filters?

Select	Answer
A	Reducing the effective sample rate by removing samples
B	Converting data to binary code decimal form
C	Attenuating the signal
D	Removing unnecessary significant digits

36. - E7G12

What is an integrated circuit operational amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	A digital audio amplifier whose characteristics are determined by components external to the amplifier
B	A high-gain, direct-coupled differential amplifier with very high input impedance and very low output impedance
C	A RF amplifier used in the UHF and microwave regions
D	An amplifier used to increase the average output of frequency modulated amateur signals to the legal limit

37. - E7H01

What are three oscillator circuits used in Amateur Radio equipment?

Select	Answer
A	Colpitts, Hartley and Pierce
B	Taft, Pierce and negative feedback
C	Pierce, Fenner and Beane
D	Taft, Hartley and Pierce

38. - E8A09

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

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

39. - E8B11

What is digital time division multiplexing?

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

40. - E8C08

How does ARQ accomplish error correction?

Select	Answer
A	If errors are detected, a retransmission is requested
B	Special polynomial codes provide automatic correction
C	If errors are detected, redundant data is substituted
D	Special binary codes provide automatic correction

41. - E8D06

Which of the following indicates likely overmodulation of an AFSK signal such as PSK or MFSK?

Select	Answer
A	Harmonics on higher bands
B	Strong ALC action
C	High reflected power
D	Rapid signal fading

42. - E9A05

What is included in the total resistance of an antenna system?

Select	Answer
A	Radiation resistance plus space impedance
B	Transmission-line resistance plus radiation resistance
C	Radiation resistance plus ohmic resistance
D	Radiation resistance plus transmission resistance

43. - E9B05

What type of antenna pattern over real ground is shown in Figure E9-2?

Select	Answer
A	Elevation
B	Azimuth
C	Polarization
D	Radiation resistance

44. - E9C06

What is the effect of a terminating resistor on a rhombic antenna?

Select	Answer
A	It decreases the ground loss
B	It changes the radiation pattern from horizontal to vertical polarization
C	It changes the radiation pattern from bidirectional to unidirectional
D	It reflects the standing waves on the antenna elements back to the transmitter

45. - E9D08

What happens as the Q of an antenna increases?

Select	Answer
A	More common-mode current is present on the feed line
B	SWR bandwidth increases
C	Gain is reduced
D	SWR bandwidth decreases

46. - E9E02

What is the name of an antenna matching system that matches an unbalanced feed line to an antenna by feeding the driven element both at the center of the element and at a fraction of a wavelength to one side of center?

Select	Answer
A	The gamma match
B	The delta match
C	The epsilon match
D	The stub match

47. - E9F12

What impedance does a 1/4 wavelength transmission line present to a generator when the line is open at the far end?

Select	Answer
A	The same as the characteristic impedance of the line
B	Very low impedance
C	The same as the input impedance to the generator
D	Very high impedance

48. - E9G06

On the Smith chart shown in Figure E9-3, what is the name for the large outer circle on which the reactance arcs terminate?

Select	Answer
A	Impedance axis
B	Prime axis
C	Reactance axis
D	Polar axis

49. - E9H06

What is the triangulation method of direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	A fixed receiving station uses three different antennas to plot the location of the signal source
B	A fixed receiving station plots three headings to the signal source
C	Antenna headings from several different receiving locations are used to locate the signal source
D	The geometric angles of sky waves from the source are used to determine its position

50. - E0A07

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

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

Figure E6-2

Figure E9-2

Figure E9-3