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. - E1A09

What is the first action you should take if your digital message forwarding station inadvertently forwards a communication that violates FCC rules?

Select	Answer
A	Discontinue forwarding all messages
B	Notify the originating station that the communication does not comply with FCC rules
C	Discontinue forwarding the communication as soon as you become aware of it
D	Notify the nearest FCC Field Engineer's office

2. - E1B01

Which of the following constitutes a spurious emission?

Select	Answer
A	A signal transmitted to prevent its detection by any station other than the intended recipient
B	An amateur station transmission made at random without the proper call sign identification
C	An emission outside its necessary bandwidth that can be reduced or eliminated without affecting the information transmitted
D	Any transmitted signal that unintentionally interferes with another licensed radio station

3. - E1C04

What is meant by IARP?

Select	Answer
A	An indication of increased antenna reflected power
B	The internal amateur radio practices policy of the FCC
C	A forecast of intermittent aurora radio propagation
D	An international amateur radio permit that allows U.S. amateurs to operate in certain countries of the Americas

4. - E1D09

Which UHF amateur service bands have frequencies available for a space station?

Select	Answer
A	70 cm only
B	70 cm and 13 cm
C	33 cm and 13 cm
D	70 cm and 33 cm

5. - E1E04

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

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

6. - E1F03

Under what circumstances may a dealer sell an external RF power amplifier capable of operation below 144 MHz if it has not been granted FCC certification?

Select	Answer
A	It was imported from a manufacturer in another country and was certificated by that country's government
B	It was purchased in used condition from an amateur operator and is sold to another amateur operator for use at that operator's station
C	It was imported from a manufacturer in a country that does not require certification of RF power amplifiers
D	The equipment dealer assembled it from a kit

7. - E2A04

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

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

8. - E2B01

How many times per second is a new frame transmitted in a fast-scan (NTSC) television system?

Select	Answer
A	120
B	90
C	30
D	60

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

10. - E2D05

Which of the following techniques is normally used by low Earth orbiting digital satellites to relay messages around the world?

Select	Answer
A	Multi-satellite relaying
B	Digipeating
C	Store-and-forward
D	Node hopping

11. - E2E04

What is indicated when one of the ellipses in an FSK crossed-ellipse display suddenly disappears?

Select	Answer
A	One of the signal filters is saturated
B	The receiver has drifted 5 kHz from the desired receive frequency
C	The mark and space signal have been inverted
D	Selective fading has occurred

12. - E3A14

From the contiguous 48 states, in which approximate direction should an antenna be pointed to take maximum advantage of aurora propagation?

Select	Answer
A	West
B	North
C	East
D	South

13. - E3B11

At what time of day is Sporadic-E propagation most likely to occur?

Select	Answer
A	Any time
B	Around sunrise
C	Early evening
D	Around sunset

14. - E3C14

Why does the radio-path horizon distance exceed the geometric horizon?

Select	Answer
A	Downward bending due to density variations in the atmosphere
B	D-region skip
C	Downward bending due to aurora refraction
D	E-region skip

15. - E4A11

Which of the following is good practice when using an oscilloscope probe?

Select	Answer
A	Never use a DC-coupled probe to measure an AC circuit
B	Keep the signal ground connection of the probe as short as possible
C	All of these choices are correct
D	Never use a high impedance probe to measure a low impedance circuit

16. - E4B10

Which of the following describes a method to measure intermodulation distortion in an SSB transmitter?

Select	Answer
A	Modulate the transmitter with two harmonically related audio frequencies and observe the RF output with a peak reading wattmeter
B	Modulate the transmitter with two non-harmonically related radio frequencies and observe the RF output with a spectrum analyzer
C	Modulate the transmitter with two non-harmonically related audio frequencies and observe the RF output with a spectrum analyzer
D	Modulate the transmitter with two harmonically related audio frequencies and observe the RF output with a logic analyzer

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. - E4D06

What is the term for unwanted signals generated by the mixing of two or more signals?

Select	Answer
A	Adjacent channel interference
B	Intermodulation interference
C	Amplifier desensitization
D	Neutralization

19. - E4E09

What undesirable effect can occur when using an IF noise blanker?

Select	Answer
A	Nearby signals may appear to be excessively wide even if they meet emission standards
B	FM signals can no longer be demodulated
C	Received audio in the speech range might have an echo effect
D	The audio frequency bandwidth of the received signal might be compressed

20. - E5A06

What is the magnitude of the circulating current within the components of a parallel LC circuit at resonance?

Select	Answer
A	It is at a minimum
B	It equals 1 divided by the quantity 2 times Pi, multiplied by the square root of inductance L multiplied by capacitance C
C	It is at a maximum
D	It equals 2 multiplied by Pi, multiplied by frequency, multiplied by inductance

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

22. - E5C04

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

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

23. - E5D15

What is the power factor of an R-L circuit having a 45 degree phase angle between the voltage and the current?

Select	Answer
A	1.0
B	0.707
C	0.866
D	0.5

24. - E6A10

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

Select	Answer
A	6
B	5
C	4
D	2

25. - E6B05

What characteristic of a PIN diode makes it useful as an RF switch or attenuator?

Select	Answer
A	Ability to dissipate large amounts of power
B	A large region of intrinsic material
C	Reverse bias controls its forward voltage drop
D	Extremely high reverse breakdown voltage

26. - E6C05

What is an advantage of CMOS logic devices over TTL devices?

Select	Answer
A	Differential output capability
B	Lower power consumption
C	Immune to damage from static discharge
D	Lower distortion

27. - E6D08

What is one reason for using powdered-iron cores rather than ferrite cores in an inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Powdered-iron cores generally require fewer turns to produce a given inductance
B	Powdered-iron cores generally maintain their characteristics at higher currents
C	Powdered-iron cores generally have greater initial permeability
D	Powdered-iron cores use smaller diameter wire for the same inductance

28. - E6E09

Which of the following component package types would be most suitable for use at frequencies above the HF range?

Select	Answer
A	Axial lead
B	Radial lead
C	Surface mount
D	TO-220

29. - E6F09

What is the efficiency of a photovoltaic cell?

Select	Answer
A	The output RF power divided by the input DC power
B	The open-circuit voltage divided by the short-circuit current under full illumination
C	The relative fraction of light that is converted to current
D	The effective payback period

30. - E7A12

What type of logic defines "0" as a high voltage?

Select	Answer
A	Reverse Logic
B	Assertive Logic
C	Positive Logic
D	Negative logic

31. - E7B04

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

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

32. - E7C11

Which of the following is the common name for a filter network which is equivalent to two L-networks connected back-to-back with the two inductors in series and the capacitors in shunt at the input and output?

Select	Answer
A	Omega
B	Pi
C	Cascode
D	Pi-L

33. - E7D03

What device is typically used as a stable reference voltage in a linear voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	A tunnel diode
B	A varactor diode
C	An SCR
D	A Zener diode

34. - E7E08

What are the principal frequencies that appear at the output of a mixer circuit?

Select	Answer
A	1.414 and 0.707 times the input frequency
B	Two and four times the original frequency
C	The sum, difference and square root of the input frequencies
D	The two input frequencies along with their sum and difference frequencies

35. - E7F05

How frequently must an analog signal be sampled by an analog-to-digital converter so that the signal can be accurately reproduced?

Select	Answer
A	At the same rate as the highest frequency component of the signal
B	At half the rate of the highest frequency component of the signal
C	At twice the rate of the highest frequency component of the signal
D	At four times the rate of the highest frequency component of the signal

36. - E7G09

What will be the output voltage of the circuit shown in Figure E7-4 if R1 is 1000 ohms, RF is 10,000 ohms, and 0.23 volts DC is applied to the input?

Select	Answer
A	-2.3 volts
B	0.23 volts
C	2.3 volts
D	-0.23 volts

37. - E7H02

Which describes a microphonic?

Select	Answer
A	Changes in oscillator frequency due to mechanical vibration
B	Excess loading of the microphone by an oscillator
C	Distortion caused by RF pickup on the microphone cable
D	An IC used for amplifying microphone signals

38. - E8A03

What type of wave does a Fourier analysis show to be made up of sine waves of a given fundamental frequency plus all of its harmonics?

Select	Answer
A	A square wave
B	A cosine wave
C	A sine wave
D	A sawtooth wave

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	0.3
D	3

40. - E8C09

Which is the name of a digital code where each preceding or following character changes by only one bit?

Select	Answer
A	Gray code
B	Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code
C	Binary Coded Decimal Code
D	Excess 3 code

41. - E8D04

What is the primary effect of extremely short rise or fall time on a CW signal?

Select	Answer
A	The generation of key clicks
B	Limits data speed
C	More difficult to copy
D	The generation of RF harmonics

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	632 watts
B	63.2 watts
C	159 watts
D	252 watts

43. - E9B16

How many elevation lobes appear in the forward direction of the antenna radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-2?

Select	Answer
A	3
B	7
C	4
D	1

44. - E9C15

How does the radiation pattern of a horizontally polarized 3-element beam antenna vary with its height above ground?

Select	Answer
A	The main lobe takeoff angle decreases with increasing height
B	The horizontal beam width decreases with height
C	The horizontal beam width increases with height
D	The main lobe takeoff angle increases with increasing height

45. - E9D11

Which of the following types of conductors would be best for minimizing losses in a station's RF ground system?

Select	Answer
A	A resistive wire, such as spark plug wire
B	A cable with six or seven 18 gauge conductors in parallel
C	A wide flat copper strap
D	A single 12 gauge or 10 gauge stainless steel wire

46. - E9E06

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

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

47. - E9F16

Which of the following is a significant difference between foam dielectric coaxial cable and solid dielectric cable, assuming all other parameters are the same?

Select	Answer
A	Foam dielectric has higher velocity factor
B	All of these choices are correct
C	Foam dielectric has lower loss per unit of length
D	Foam dielectric has lower safe operating voltage limits

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	Reactance axis
B	Polar axis
C	Prime axis
D	Impedance axis

49. - E9H05

What is the main drawback of a wire-loop antenna for direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	It has a bidirectional pattern
B	It is practical for use only on VHF bands
C	It receives equally well in all directions
D	It is non-rotatable

50. - E0A01

What is the primary function of an external earth connection or ground rod?

Select	Answer
A	Reduce RF current flow between pieces of equipment
B	Lightning protection
C	Reduce received noise
D	Reduce RFI to telephones and home entertainment systems

Figure E6-2

Figure E7-4

Figure E9-2

Figure E9-3