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

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1. - E1A01

When using a transceiver that displays the carrier frequency of phone signals, which of the following displayed frequencies represents the highest frequency at which a properly adjusted USB emission will be totally within the band?

Select	Answer
A	300 Hz below the upper band edge
B	1 kHz below the upper band edge
C	The exact upper band edge
D	3 kHz below the upper band edge

2. - E1B06

Which of the following additional rules apply if you are installing an amateur station antenna at a site at or near a public use airport?

Select	Answer
A	No special rules apply if your antenna structure will be less than 300 feet in height
B	You may have to notify the Federal Aviation Administration and register it with the FCC as required by Part 17 of FCC rules
C	You must obtain a construction permit from the airport zoning authority
D	You must file an Environmental Impact Statement with the EPA before construction begins

3. - E1C11

Which of the following operating arrangements allows an FCC-licensed U.S. citizen to operate in many European countries, and alien amateurs from many European countries to operate in the U.S.?

Select	Answer
A	IARP agreement
B	ITU reciprocal license
C	All of these choices are correct
D	CEPT agreement

4. - E1D07

Which amateur service HF bands have frequencies authorized for space stations?

Select	Answer
A	Only the 40 m, 20 m, 17 m, 15 m, 12 m and 10 m bands
B	Only the 40 m, 30 m, 20 m, 15 m, 12 m and 10 m bands
C	All HF bands
D	Only the 40 m, 20 m, 17 m, 15 m and 10 m bands

5. - E1E14

For which types of out-of-pocket expenses do the Part 97 rules state that VEs and VECs may be reimbursed?

Select	Answer
A	Providing amateur operator license examination preparation training materials
B	Preparing, processing, administering and coordinating an examination for an amateur radio license
C	No expenses are authorized for reimbursement
D	Teaching an amateur operator license examination preparation course

6. - E1F01

On what frequencies are spread spectrum transmissions permitted?

Select	Answer
A	Only on amateur frequencies above 420 MHz
B	Only on amateur frequencies above 222 MHz
C	Only on amateur frequencies above 50 MHz
D	Only on amateur frequencies above 144 MHz

7. - E2A09

What do the terms L band and S band specify with regard to satellite communications?

Select	Answer
A	FM and Digital Store-and-Forward systems
B	The 2 meter and 70 centimeter bands
C	The 23 centimeter and 13 centimeter bands
D	Which sideband to use

8. - E2B04

What is blanking in a video signal?

Select	Answer
A	Turning off the scanning beam while it is traveling from right to left or from bottom to top
B	Synchronization of the horizontal and vertical sync pulses
C	Turning off the scanning beam at the conclusion of a transmission
D	Transmitting a black and white test pattern

9. - E2C12

What might help to restore contact when DX signals become too weak to copy across an entire HF band a few hours after sunset?

Select	Answer
A	Wait 90 minutes or so for the signal degradation to pass
B	Switch to a lower frequency HF band
C	Switch to a higher frequency HF band
D	Wait 24 hours before attempting another communication on the band

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	All of these choices are correct
C	An APRS station with a GPS unit can automatically transmit information to show a mobile station's position during the event
D	An APRS station with an emergency medical technician can automatically transmit medical data to the nearest hospital

11. - E2E01

Which type of modulation is common for data emissions below 30 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	Pulse modulation
B	DTMF tones modulating an FM signal
C	Spread spectrum
D	FSK

12. - E3A07

Atmospheric ducts capable of propagating microwave signals often form over what geographic feature?

Select	Answer
A	Forests
B	Mountain ranges
C	Urban areas
D	Bodies of water

13. - E3B08

What type of HF propagation is probably occurring if radio signals travel along the terminator between daylight and darkness?

Select	Answer
A	Long-path
B	Transequatorial
C	Gray-line
D	Sporadic-E

14. - E3C01

What does the term ray tracing describe in regard to radio communications?

Select	Answer
A	Modeling a radio wave's path through the ionosphere
B	Determining the radiation pattern from an array of antennas
C	The process in which an electronic display presents a pattern
D	Evaluating high voltage sources for X-Rays

15. - E4A03

Which of the following test instrument is used to display spurious signals and/or intermodulation distortion products in an SSB transmitter?

Select	Answer
A	A time-domain reflectometer
B	A logic analyzer
C	A wattmeter
D	A spectrum analyzer

16. - E4B08

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

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

17. - E4C06

A CW receiver with the AGC off has an equivalent input noise power density of -174 dBm/Hz. What would be the level of an unmodulated carrier input to this receiver that would yield an audio output SNR of 0 dB in a 400 Hz noise bandwidth?

Select	Answer
A	-164 dBm
B	-174 dBm
C	-155 dBm
D	-148 dBm

18. - E4D10

What does a third-order intercept level of 40 dBm mean with respect to receiver performance?

Select	Answer
A	The receiver can tolerate signals up to 40 dB above the noise floor without producing third-order intermodulation products
B	Signals less than 40 dBm will not generate audible third-order intermodulation products
C	A pair of 1 mW input signals will produce a third-order intermodulation product which is 40 dB stronger than the input signal
D	A pair of 40 dBm signals will theoretically generate a third-order intermodulation product with the same level as the input signals

19. - E4E03

Which of the following signals might a receiver noise blanker be able to remove from desired signals?

Select	Answer
A	Signals which have a sharply peaked frequency distribution
B	Signals which appear across a wide bandwidth
C	Signals which are constant at all IF levels
D	Signals which appear at one IF but not another

20. - E5A14

What is the resonant frequency of a series RLC circuit if R is 22 ohms, L is 50 microhenrys and C is 40 picofarads?

Select	Answer
A	3.56 MHz
B	44.72 MHz
C	1.78 MHz
D	22.36 MHz

21. - E5B03

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

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

22. - E5C15

Which point in Figure E5-2 best represents the impedance of a series circuit consisting of a 300 ohm resistor and an 18 microhenry inductor at 3.505 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	Point 7
B	Point 8
C	Point 1
D	Point 3

23. - E5D11

What is the power factor of an R-L circuit having a 60 degree phase angle between the voltage and the current?

Select	Answer
A	1.414
B	0.866
C	0.5
D	1.73

24. - E6A08

What term indicates the frequency at which the grounded-base current gain of a transistor has decreased to 0.7 of the gain obtainable at 1 kHz?

Select	Answer
A	Alpha cutoff frequency
B	Beta cutoff frequency
C	Alpha rejection frequency
D	Corner frequency

25. - E6B03

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

Select	Answer
A	Zener
B	Tunnel
C	Point contact
D	Junction

26. - E6C13

Which of the following is an advantage of BiCMOS logic?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	It has the high input impedance of CMOS and the low output impedance of bipolar transistors
C	Its simplicity results in much less expensive devices than standard CMOS
D	It is totally immune to electrostatic damage

27. - E6D13

What is the primary cause of inductor self-resonance?

Select	Answer
A	Inductive kickback
B	Non-linear core hysteresis
C	The skin effect
D	Inter-turn capacitance

28. - E6E11

What is a characteristic of DIP packaging used for integrated circuits?

Select	Answer
A	Low leakage doubly insulated package
B	A total of two rows of connecting pins placed on opposite sides of the package (Dual In-line Package)
C	Package mounts in a direct inverted position
D	Two chips in each package (Dual In Package)

29. - E6F09

What is the efficiency of a photovoltaic cell?

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

30. - E7A12

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

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

31. - E7B13

In Figure E7-2, what is the purpose of R?

Select	Answer
A	Fixed bias
B	Collector load
C	Voltage regulation
D	Emitter load

32. - E7C15

What is a crystal lattice filter?

Select	Answer
A	A filter with wide bandwidth and shallow skirts made using quartz crystals
B	A power supply filter made with interlaced quartz crystals
C	A filter with narrow bandwidth and steep skirts made using quartz crystals
D	An audio filter made with four quartz crystals that resonate at 1kHz intervals

33. - E7D13

What is the equation for calculating power dissipation by a series connected linear voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	Voltage difference from input to output multiplied by output current
B	Output voltage multiplied by output current
C	Input voltage multiplied by input current
D	Input voltage divided by output current

34. - E7E11

Which type of detector is used for demodulating SSB signals?

Select	Answer
A	Phase comparator
B	Discriminator
C	Product detector
D	Phase detector

35. - E7F04

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

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

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. - E7H11

What are the major spectral impurity components of direct digital synthesizers?

Select	Answer
A	Digital conversion noise
B	Broadband noise
C	Nyquist limit noise
D	Spurious signals at discrete frequencies

38. - E8A10

What is the purpose of a low pass filter used in conjunction with a digital-to-analog converter?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	Improve accuracy by removing out of sequence codes from the input
C	Remove harmonics from the output caused by the discrete analog levels generated
D	Lower the input bandwidth to increase the effective resolution

39. - E8B09

What is meant by deviation ratio?

Select	Answer
A	The ratio of the maximum carrier frequency deviation to the highest audio modulating frequency
B	The ratio of the highest audio modulating frequency to the average audio modulating frequency
C	The ratio of the audio modulating frequency to the center carrier frequency
D	The ratio of the carrier center frequency to the audio modulating frequency

40. - E8C10

What is an advantage of Gray code in digital communications where symbols are transmitted as multiple bits

Select	Answer
A	It has more resolution than simple binary
B	It facilitates error detection
C	It has more possible states than simple binary
D	It increases security

41. - E8D02

What spread spectrum communications technique uses a high speed binary bit stream to shift the phase of an RF carrier?

Select	Answer
A	Frequency hopping
B	Phase compandored spread spectrum
C	Binary phase-shift keying
D	Direct sequence

42. - E9A04

Which of the following factors may affect the feed point impedance of an antenna?

Select	Answer
A	Transmission-line length
B	The settings of an antenna tuner at the transmitter
C	Antenna height, conductor length/diameter ratio and location of nearby conductive objects
D	Sunspot activity and time of day

43. - E9B02

In the antenna radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-1, what is the front-to-back ratio?

Select	Answer
A	14 dB
B	18 dB
C	24 dB
D	36 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 reduces losses in the radiating portion of the antenna
D	It causes increased SWR

45. - E9D01

How does the gain of an ideal parabolic dish antenna change when the operating frequency is doubled?

Select	Answer
A	Gain is multiplied by 0.707
B	Gain does not change
C	Gain increases by 6 dB
D	Gain increases by 3 dB

46. - E9E07

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

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

47. - E9F11

What impedance does a 1/8 wavelength transmission line present to a generator when the line is open at the far end?

Select	Answer
A	The same as the input impedance of the final generator stage
B	A capacitive reactance
C	The same as the characteristic impedance of the line
D	An inductive reactance

48. - E9G11

How are the wavelength scales on a Smith chart calibrated?

Select	Answer
A	In fractions of antenna electrical frequency
B	In fractions of antenna electrical wavelength
C	In fractions of transmission line electrical wavelength
D	In fractions of transmission line electrical frequency

49. - E9H07

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

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

50. - E0A03

Which of the following would be a practical way to estimate whether the RF fields produced by an amateur radio station are within permissible MPE limits?

Select	Answer
A	All of the choices are correct
B	Use an antenna modeling program to calculate field strength at accessible locations
C	Use a hand calculator plus Smith-chart equations to calculate the fields
D	Use a calibrated antenna analyzer

Figure E5-2

Figure E7-2

Figure E7-4

Figure E9-1