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

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1. - E1A06

Where must the carrier frequency of a CW signal be set to comply with FCC rules for 60 meter operation?

Select	Answer
A	At the highest frequency of the channel
B	On any frequency where the signal's sidebands are within the channel
C	At the center frequency of the channel
D	At the lowest frequency of the channel

2. - E1B05

What is the National Radio Quiet Zone?

Select	Answer
A	An area in Florida surrounding Cape Canaveral
B	An area surrounding the National Radio Astronomy Observatory
C	An area in New Mexico surrounding the White Sands Test Area
D	An area in Puerto Rico surrounding the Arecibo Radio Telescope

3. - E1C12

What types of communications may be transmitted to amateur stations in foreign countries?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	Business-related messages for non-profit organizations
C	Communications incidental to the purpose of the amateur service and remarks of a personal nature
D	Messages intended for connection to users of the maritime satellite service

4. - E1D04

What is an Earth station in the amateur satellite service?

Select	Answer
A	An amateur station that is not able to communicate using amateur satellites
B	An amateur station that transmits telemetry consisting of measurement of upper atmosphere
C	An amateur station within 50 km of the Earth's surface intended for communications with amateur stations by means of objects in space
D	Any amateur station on the surface of the Earth

5. - E1E12

What must the VE team do with the application form if the examinee does not pass the exam?

Select	Answer
A	Send the application form to the FCC and inform the FCC of the grade
B	Destroy the application form
C	Return the application document to the examinee
D	Maintain the application form with the VEC's records

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 a country that does not require certification of RF power amplifiers
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 another country and was certificated by that country's government
D	The equipment dealer assembled it from a kit

7. - E2A10

Why may the received signal from an amateur satellite exhibit a rapidly repeating fading effect?

Select	Answer
A	Because of the Doppler Effect
B	Because the satellite is spinning
C	Because of the satellite's low orbital altitude
D	Because of ionospheric absorption

8. - E2B16

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

Select	Answer
A	Scottie
B	NTSC
C	DRM
D	PAL

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. - E2D05

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

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

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

12. - E3A16

Which of the following best describes electromagnetic waves traveling in free space?

Select	Answer
A	The waves are reflected by the ionosphere and return to their source
B	Electric and magnetic fields become aligned as they travel
C	Changing electric and magnetic fields propagate the energy
D	The energy propagates through a medium with a high refractive index

13. - E3B03

What is the best time of day for transequatorial propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Morning
B	Late at night
C	Afternoon or early evening
D	Noon

14. - E3C08

What does the space weather term G5 mean?

Select	Answer
A	An extreme geomagnetic storm
B	Very low solar activity
C	Moderate solar wind
D	Waning sunspot numbers

15. - E4A12

Which of the following procedures is an important precaution to follow when connecting a spectrum analyzer to a transmitter output?

Select	Answer
A	Use high quality double shielded coaxial cables to reduce signal losses
B	Attenuate the transmitter output going to the spectrum analyzer
C	All of these choices are correct
D	Match the antenna to the load

16. - E4B02

What is an advantage of using a bridge circuit to measure impedance?

Select	Answer
A	It is relatively immune to drift in the signal generator source
B	It provides an excellent match under all conditions
C	It is very precise in obtaining a signal null
D	It can display results directly in Smith chart format

17. - E4C05

What does a value of -174 dBm/Hz represent with regard to the noise floor of a receiver?

Select	Answer
A	The noise figure of a 1 Hz bandwidth receiver
B	The galactic noise contribution to minimum detectable signal
C	The theoretical noise at the input of a perfect receiver at room temperature
D	The minimum detectable signal as a function of receive frequency

18. - E4D02

Which of the following describes two problems caused by poor dynamic range in a communications receiver?

Select	Answer
A	Cross-modulation of the desired signal and insufficient audio power to operate the speaker
B	Cross-modulation of the desired signal and desensitization from strong adjacent signals
C	Oscillator instability and severe audio distortion of all but the strongest received signals
D	Oscillator instability requiring frequent retuning and loss of ability to recover the opposite sideband

19. - E4E12

What is one disadvantage of using some types of automatic DSP notch-filters when attempting to copy CW signals?

Select	Answer
A	A DSP filter can remove the desired signal at the same time as it removes interfering signals
B	Ringing in the DSP filter will completely remove the spaces between the CW characters
C	Received CW signals will appear to be modulated at the DSP clock frequency
D	Any nearby signal passing through the DSP system will overwhelm the desired signal

20. - E5A06

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

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

21. - E5B13

What letter is commonly used to represent susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	Y
B	X
C	G
D	B

22. - E5C09

When using rectangular coordinates to graph the impedance of a circuit, what does the horizontal axis represent?

Select	Answer
A	Resistive component
B	The difference between the resistive and reactive components
C	The sum of the reactive and resistive components
D	Reactive component

23. - E5D08

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

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

24. - E6A16

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

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

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	Extremely high reverse breakdown voltage
D	Reverse bias controls its forward voltage drop

26. - E6C09

What is a Programmable Logic Device (PLD)?

Select	Answer
A	An algorithm for simulating logic functions during circuit design
B	A programmable collection of logic gates and circuits in a single integrated circuit
C	A device to control industrial equipment
D	Programmable equipment used for testing digital logic integrated circuits

27. - E6D07

What is the usable frequency range of inductors that use toroidal cores, assuming a correct selection of core material for the frequency being used?

Select	Answer
A	From about 100 kHz to at least 1000 GHz
B	From less than 20 Hz to approximately 300 MHz
C	From a few kHz to no more than 30 MHz
D	From approximately 10 Hz to no more than 3000 kHz

28. - E6E05

Which of the following noise figure values is typical of a low-noise UHF preamplifier?

Select	Answer
A	44 dBm
B	2 dB
C	-10 dB
D	-20 dBm

29. - E6F06

Which of these materials is affected the most by photoconductivity?

Select	Answer
A	A crystalline semiconductor
B	An ordinary metal
C	A heavy metal
D	A liquid semiconductor

30. - E7A12

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

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

31. - E7B06

Which of the following amplifier types reduces or eliminates even order harmonics?

Select	Answer
A	Push-pull
B	Push-push
C	Class AB
D	Class C

32. - E7C03

What advantage does a Pi-L-network have over a regular Pi-network for impedance matching between the final amplifier of a vacuum-tube transmitter and an antenna?

Select	Answer
A	Greater harmonic suppression
B	Higher efficiency
C	Greater transformation range
D	Lower losses

33. - E7D08

What type of circuit is shown in Figure E7-3?

Select	Answer
A	Linear voltage regulator
B	Emitter follower
C	Switching voltage regulator
D	Grounded emitter amplifier

34. - E7E12

What is a frequency discriminator stage in a FM receiver?

Select	Answer
A	A circuit for detecting FM signals
B	A circuit for filtering two closely adjacent signals
C	An FM generator circuit
D	An automatic band-switching circuit

35. - E7F04

What is a common method of generating an SSB signal using digital signal processing?

Select	Answer
A	A frequency synthesizer removes the unwanted sidebands
B	Mixing products are converted to voltages and subtracted by adder circuits
C	Combine signals with a quadrature phase relationship
D	Emulation of quartz crystal filter characteristics

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	28
B	7
C	14
D	0.07

37. - E7H07

How can an oscillator's microphonic responses be reduced?

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

38. - E8A09

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

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

39. - E8B10

What describes frequency division multiplexing?

Select	Answer
A	Two or more information streams are merged into a baseband, which then modulates the transmitter
B	Two or more information streams are merged into a digital combiner, which then pulse position modulates the transmitter
C	The transmitted signal is divided into packets of information
D	The transmitted signal jumps from band to band at a predetermined rate

40. - E8C06

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

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

41. - E8D01

Why are received spread spectrum signals resistant to interference?

Select	Answer
A	The receiver is always equipped with a digital blanker
B	If interference is detected by the receiver it will signal the transmitter to change frequencies
C	Signals not using the spread spectrum algorithm are suppressed in the receiver
D	The high power used by a spread spectrum transmitter keeps its signal from being easily overpowered

42. - E9A18

What term describes station output, taking into account all gains and losses?

Select	Answer
A	Effective radiated power
B	Half-power bandwidth
C	Apparent power
D	Power factor

43. - E9B15

What is the front-to-back ratio of the radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-2?

Select	Answer
A	3 dB
B	15 dB
C	24 dB
D	28 dB

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. - E9D10

What happens to feed point impedance at the base of a fixed length HF mobile antenna as the frequency of operation is lowered?

Select	Answer
A	The radiation resistance increases and the capacitive reactance decreases
B	The radiation resistance increases and the capacitive reactance increases
C	The radiation resistance decreases and the capacitive reactance decreases
D	The radiation resistance decreases and the capacitive reactance increases

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 delta match
B	The stub match
C	The gamma match
D	The epsilon match

47. - E9F13

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

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

48. - E9G03

Which of the following is often determined using a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Beam headings and radiation patterns
B	Satellite azimuth and elevation bearings
C	Trigonometric functions
D	Impedance and SWR values in transmission lines

49. - E9H10

How can the output voltage of a multiple turn receiving loop antenna be increased?

Select	Answer
A	By reducing the permeability of the loop shield
B	By increasing the number of wire turns in the loop and reducing the area of the loop structure
C	By increasing either the number of wire turns in the loop or the area of the loop structure or both
D	By winding adjacent turns in opposing directions

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

Figure E7-3

Figure E7-4

Figure E9-2