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

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1. - E1A14

What is the maximum bandwidth for a data emission on 60 meters?

Select	Answer
A	60 Hz
B	2.8 kHz
C	1.5 kHz
D	170 Hz

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

3. - E1C13

Which of the following is required in order to operate in accordance with CEPT rules in foreign countries where permitted?

Select	Answer
A	The U.S. embassy must approve of your operation
B	You must bring a copy of FCC Public Notice DA 11-221
C	You must append "/CEPT" to your call sign
D	You must identify in the official language of the country in which you are operating

4. - E1D08

Which VHF amateur service bands have frequencies available for space stations?

Select	Answer
A	2 meters
B	2 meters and 1.25 meters
C	6 meters and 2 meters
D	6 meters, 2 meters, and 1.25 meters

5. - E1E09

What may be the penalty for a VE who fraudulently administers or certifies an examination?

Select	Answer
A	A fine of up to $1000 per occurrence
B	Revocation of the VE's amateur station license grant and the suspension of the VE's amateur operator license grant
C	All of these choices are correct
D	A sentence of up to one year in prison

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	The equipment dealer assembled it from a kit
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	It was imported from a manufacturer in another country and was certificated by that country's government

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. - E2B02

How many horizontal lines make up a fast-scan (NTSC) television frame?

Select	Answer
A	525
B	1080
C	30
D	60

9. - E2C10

Why might a DX station state that they are listening on another frequency?

Select	Answer
A	Because the DX station may be transmitting on a frequency that is prohibited to some responding stations
B	All of these choices are correct
C	To improve operating efficiency by reducing interference
D	To separate the calling stations from the DX station

10. - E2D10

How can an APRS station be used to help support a public service communications activity?

Select	Answer
A	APRS stations with General Personnel Scanners can automatically relay the participant numbers and time as they pass the check points
B	An APRS station with an emergency medical technician can automatically transmit medical data to the nearest hospital
C	An APRS station with a GPS unit can automatically transmit information to show a mobile station's position during the event
D	All of these choices are correct

11. - E2E13

Which of the following is a possible reason that attempts to initiate contact with a digital station on a clear frequency are unsuccessful?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	The protocol version you are using is not the supported by the digital station
C	Your transmit frequency is incorrect
D	Another station you are unable to hear is using the frequency

12. - E3A05

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

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

13. - E3B14

What happens to linearly polarized radio waves that split into ordinary and extraordinary waves in the ionosphere?

Select	Answer
A	They become phase-locked
B	They become elliptically polarized
C	Their polarization is randomly modified
D	They are bent toward the magnetic poles

14. - E3C11

What does VOACAP software model?

Select	Answer
A	AC voltage and impedance
B	AC current and impedance
C	VHF radio propagation
D	HF propagation

15. - E4A08

Which of the following instrument would be best for measuring the SWR of a beam antenna?

Select	Answer
A	An antenna analyzer
B	A spectrum analyzer
C	A Q meter
D	An ohmmeter

16. - E4B06

How much power is being absorbed by the load when a directional power meter connected between a transmitter and a terminating load reads 100 watts forward power and 25 watts reflected power?

Select	Answer
A	125 watts
B	75 watts
C	100 watts
D	25 watts

17. - E4C17

Which of the following has the largest effect on an SDR receiver's linearity?

Select	Answer
A	CPU register width in bits
B	Analog-to-digital converter sample width in bits
C	Anti-aliasing input filter bandwidth
D	RAM speed used for data storage

18. - E4D12

What is the term for the reduction in receiver sensitivity caused by a strong signal near the received frequency?

Select	Answer
A	Cross-modulation interference
B	Desensitization
C	Squelch gain rollback
D	Quieting

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

20. - E5A09

How is the Q of an RLC parallel resonant circuit calculated?

Select	Answer
A	Reactance of the inductance multiplied by the reactance of the capacitance
B	Resistance divided by the reactance of either the inductance or capacitance
C	Reactance of either the inductance or capacitance multiplied by the resistance
D	Reactance of either the inductance or capacitance divided by the resistance

21. - E5B03

What happens to the phase angle of a reactance when it is converted to a susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	It is unchanged
B	The sign is reversed
C	It is shifted by 90 degrees
D	The susceptance phase angle is the inverse of the reactance phase angle

22. - E5C13

What coordinate system is often used to display the resistive, inductive, and/or capacitive reactance components of impedance?

Select	Answer
A	Rectangular coordinates
B	Elliptical coordinates
C	Maidenhead grid
D	Faraday grid

23. - E5D03

What is microstrip?

Select	Answer
A	Short lengths of coax mounted on printed circuit boards to minimize time delay between microwave circuits
B	Precision printed circuit conductors above a ground plane that provide constant impedance interconnects at microwave frequencies
C	Miniature coax used for low power applications
D	Lightweight transmission line made of common zip cord

24. - E6A16

What are the majority charge carriers in N-type semiconductor material?

Select	Answer
A	Holes
B	Free neutrons
C	Free electrons
D	Free protons

25. - E6B04

What type of semiconductor device is designed for use as a voltage-controlled capacitor?

Select	Answer
A	Silicon-controlled rectifier
B	Varactor diode
C	Tunnel diode
D	Zener diode

26. - E6C12

What is BiCMOS logic?

Select	Answer
A	A FET logic family based on bimetallic semiconductors
B	An integrated circuit logic family using both bipolar and CMOS transistors
C	A logic family based on bismuth CMOS devices
D	A logic device with two CMOS circuits per package

27. - E6D10

What is a primary advantage of using a toroidal core instead of a solenoidal core in an inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Toroidal cores confine most of the magnetic field within the core material
B	Toroidal cores have lower Q characteristics
C	Toroidal cores exhibit greater hysteresis
D	Toroidal cores make it easier to couple the magnetic energy into other components

28. - E6E03

Which of the following materials is likely to provide the highest frequency of operation when used in MMICs?

Select	Answer
A	Gallium nitride
B	Silicon dioxide
C	Silicon nitride
D	Silicon

29. - E6F07

What is a solid state relay?

Select	Answer
A	A mechanical relay that latches in the on or off state each time it is pulsed
B	A relay using transistors to drive the relay coil
C	A passive delay line
D	A device that uses semiconductors to implement the functions of an electromechanical relay

30. - E7A05

Which of the following is a circuit that continuously alternates between two states without an external clock?

Select	Answer
A	Astable multivibrator
B	Monostable multivibrator
C	T flip-flop
D	J-K flip-flop

31. - E7B01

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

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

32. - E7C14

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

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

33. - E7D01

What is one characteristic of a linear electronic voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	The control element duty cycle is proportional to the line or load conditions
B	It eliminates the need for a pass transistor
C	It has a ramp voltage as its output
D	The conduction of a control element is varied to maintain a constant output voltage

34. - E7E09

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

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

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 peaks the response of the decimator, improving bandwidth
D	It notches out the sampling frequency to avoid sampling errors

36. - E7G12

What is an integrated circuit operational amplifier?

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

37. - E7H07

How can an oscillator's microphonic responses be reduced?

Select	Answer
A	Eliminating noise on the oscillator's power supply
B	Using the oscillator only for CW and digital signals
C	Use of NP0 capacitors
D	Mechanically isolating the oscillator circuitry from its enclosure

38. - E8A11

What type of information can be conveyed using digital waveforms?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	Data
C	Video signals
D	Human speech

39. - E8B02

How does the modulation index of a phase-modulated emission vary with RF carrier frequency (the modulated frequency)?

Select	Answer
A	It varies with the square root of the RF carrier frequency
B	It does not depend on the RF carrier frequency
C	It increases as the RF carrier frequency increases
D	It decreases as the RF carrier frequency increases

40. - E8C09

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

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

41. - E8D06

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

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

42. - E9A06

How does the beamwidth of an antenna vary as the gain is increased?

Select	Answer
A	It is essentially unaffected
B	It increases arithmetically
C	It decreases
D	It increases geometrically

43. - E9B01

In the antenna radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-1, what is the 3 dB beam-width?

Select	Answer
A	25 degrees
B	50 degrees
C	30 degrees
D	75 degrees

44. - E9C13

What is the main effect of placing a vertical antenna over an imperfect ground?

Select	Answer
A	It changes the impedance angle of the matching network
B	It reduces low-angle radiation
C	It causes increased SWR
D	It reduces losses in the radiating portion of the antenna

45. - E9D03

Where should a high Q loading coil be placed to minimize losses in a shortened vertical antenna?

Select	Answer
A	As low as possible on the vertical radiator
B	Near the center of the vertical radiator
C	As close to the transmitter as possible
D	At a voltage node

46. - E9E07

What term best describes the interactions at the load end of a mismatched transmission line?

Select	Answer
A	Velocity factor
B	Reflection coefficient
C	Characteristic impedance
D	Dielectric constant

47. - E9F07

How does ladder line compare to small-diameter coaxial cable such as RG-58 at 50 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	Smaller reflection coefficient
B	Lower velocity factor
C	Higher SWR
D	Lower loss

48. - E9G07

On the Smith chart shown in Figure E9-3, what is the only straight line shown?

Select	Answer
A	The current axis
B	The reactance axis
C	The resistance axis
D	The voltage axis

49. - E9H06

What is the triangulation method of direction finding?

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

50. - E0A09

Which insulating material commonly used as a thermal conductor for some types of electronic devices is extremely toxic if broken or crushed and the particles are accidentally inhaled?

Select	Answer
A	Zinc oxide
B	Mica
C	Beryllium Oxide
D	Uranium Hexafluoride

Figure E9-1

Figure E9-3