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	At the lowest frequency of the channel
C	On any frequency where the signal's sidebands are within the channel
D	At the center frequency of the channel

2. - E1B02

Which of the following factors might cause the physical location of an amateur station apparatus or antenna structure to be restricted?

Select	Answer
A	The location is of environmental importance or significant in American history, architecture, or culture
B	The location is of geographical or horticultural importance
C	The location is in an ITU Zone designated for coordination with one or more foreign governments
D	The location is near an area of political conflict

3. - E1C10

What types of amateur stations may automatically retransmit the radio signals of other amateur stations?

Select	Answer
A	Only beacon, repeater or space stations
B	Only earth stations, repeater stations or model craft
C	Only auxiliary, repeater or space stations
D	Only auxiliary, beacon or space stations

4. - E1D11

Which amateur stations are eligible to operate as Earth stations?

Select	Answer
A	Any amateur station whose licensee has filed a pre-space notification with the FCC's International Bureau
B	Only those of General, Advanced or Amateur Extra Class operators
C	Any amateur station, subject to the privileges of the class of operator license held by the control operator
D	Only those of Amateur Extra Class operators

5. - E1E07

What should a VE do if a candidate fails to comply with the examiner's instructions during an amateur operator license examination?

Select	Answer
A	Immediately terminate everyone's examination and close the session
B	Allow the candidate to complete the examination, but invalidate the results
C	Immediately terminate the candidate's examination
D	Warn the candidate that continued failure to comply will result in termination of the examination

6. - E1F06

Under what circumstances might the FCC issue a Special Temporary Authority (STA) to an amateur station?

Select	Answer
A	To provide temporary operation while awaiting normal licensing
B	To allow regular operation on Land Mobile channels
C	To provide for experimental amateur communications
D	To provide additional spectrum for personal use

7. - E2A13

What type of satellite appears to stay in one position in the sky?

Select	Answer
A	LEO
B	Geomagnetic
C	Geostationary
D	HEO

8. - E2B05

Which of the following is an advantage of using vestigial sideband for standard fast- scan TV transmissions?

Select	Answer
A	Vestigial sideband provides high frequency emphasis to sharpen the picture
B	Vestigial sideband reduces bandwidth while allowing for simple video detector circuitry
C	The vestigial sideband carries the audio information
D	The vestigial sideband contains chroma information

9. - E2C07

What is the Cabrillo format?

Select	Answer
A	A standard for submission of electronic contest logs
B	A method of exchanging information during a contest QSO
C	The rules of order for meetings between contest sponsors
D	The most common set of contest rules

10. - E2D09

Which of these digital modes has the fastest data throughput under clear communication conditions?

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

11. - E2E09

Which of the following HF digital modes uses variable-length coding for bandwidth efficiency?

Select	Answer
A	MT63
B	PSK31
C	RTTY
D	PACTOR

12. - E3A04

What do Hepburn maps predict?

Select	Answer
A	Likelihood of rain-scatter along cold or warm fronts
B	Locations of auroral reflecting zones
C	Sporadic E propagation
D	Probability of tropospheric propagation

13. - E3B04

What is meant by the terms extraordinary and ordinary waves?

Select	Answer
A	Independent waves created in the ionosphere that are elliptically polarized
B	Long path and short path waves
C	Extraordinary waves describe rare long skip propagation compared to ordinary waves which travel shorter distances
D	Refracted rays and reflected waves

14. - E3C07

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

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

15. - E4A04

What determines the upper frequency limit for a computer soundcard-based oscilloscope program?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	Q of the interface of the interface circuit
C	Amount of memory on the soundcard
D	Analog-to-digital conversion speed of the soundcard

16. - E4B05

If a frequency counter with a specified accuracy of +/- 10 ppm reads 146,520,000 Hz, what is the most the actual frequency being measured could differ from the reading?

Select	Answer
A	1465.20 Hz
B	146.52 Hz
C	10 Hz
D	146.52 kHz

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 minimum detectable signal as a function of receive frequency
D	The theoretical noise at the input of a perfect receiver at room temperature

18. - E4D01

What is meant by the blocking dynamic range of a receiver?

Select	Answer
A	The minimum difference in dB between two signals which produce third order intermodulation products greater than the noise floor
B	The difference in dB between the noise floor and the level of an incoming signal which will cause 1 dB of gain compression
C	The minimum difference in dB between the levels of two FM signals which will cause one signal to block the other
D	The difference in dB between the noise floor and the third order intercept point

19. - E4E13

What might be the cause of a loud roaring or buzzing AC line interference that comes and goes at intervals?

Select	Answer
A	Arcing contacts in a thermostatically controlled device
B	A malfunctioning illuminated advertising display
C	All of these choices are correct
D	A defective doorbell or doorbell transformer inside a nearby residence

20. - E5A03

What is the magnitude of the impedance of a series RLC circuit at resonance?

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

21. - E5B06

What is susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	The inverse of reactance
B	The magnetic impedance of a circuit
C	A measure of the efficiency of a transformer
D	The ratio of magnetic field to electric field

22. - E5C02

How are impedances described in polar coordinates?

Select	Answer
A	By real and imaginary parts
B	By Y and G values
C	By X and R values
D	By phase angle and amplitude

23. - E5D08

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

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

24. - E6A14

How does DC input impedance at the gate of a field-effect transistor compare with the DC input impedance of a bipolar transistor?

Select	Answer
A	An FET has high input impedance; a bipolar transistor has low input impedance
B	They are both high impedance
C	An FET has low input impedance; a bipolar transistor has high input impedance
D	They are both low impedance

25. - E6B10

In Figure E6-3, what is the schematic symbol for a light-emitting diode?

Select	Answer
A	7
B	6
C	5
D	1

26. - E6C05

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

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

27. - E6D15

What is current in the primary winding of a transformer called if no load is attached to the secondary?

Select	Answer
A	Excitation current
B	Stabilizing current
C	Magnetizing current
D	Direct current

28. - E6E06

What characteristics of the MMIC make it a popular choice for VHF through microwave circuits?

Select	Answer
A	Controlled gain, low noise figure, and constant input and output impedance over the specified frequency range
B	The ability to retrieve information from a single signal even in the presence of other strong signals
C	Nearly infinite gain, very high input impedance, and very low output impedance
D	Plate current that is controlled by a control grid

29. - E6F02

What happens to the conductivity of a photoconductive material when light shines on it?

Select	Answer
A	It increases
B	It becomes unstable
C	It decreases
D	It stays the same

30. - E7A03

Which of the following can divide the frequency of a pulse train by 2?

Select	Answer
A	An XOR gate
B	An OR gate
C	A multiplexer
D	A flip-flop

31. - E7B11

In Figure E7-1, what is the purpose of R3?

Select	Answer
A	Emitter bypass
B	Fixed bias
C	Output load resistor
D	Self bias

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	Pi
B	Pi-L
C	Cascode
D	Omega

33. - E7D12

What is the drop-out voltage of an analog voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	Maximum amount that the output voltage drops when the input voltage is varied over its specified range
B	Minimum input-to-output voltage required to maintain regulation
C	Maximum amount that the output voltage may decrease at rated load
D	Minimum input voltage for rated power dissipation

34. - E7E08

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

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

35. - E7F03

What type of digital signal processing filter is used to generate an SSB signal?

Select	Answer
A	A Hilbert-transform filter
B	An elliptical filter
C	An adaptive filter
D	A notch filter

36. - E7G06

Which of the following is the most appropriate use of an op-amp active filter?

Select	Answer
A	For smoothing power supply output
B	As a high-pass filter used to block RFI at the input to receivers
C	As an audio filter in a receiver
D	As a low-pass filter used between a transmitter and a transmission line

37. - E7H12

Which of the following must be done to insure that a crystal oscillator provides the frequency specified by the crystal manufacturer?

Select	Answer
A	Bias the crystal at a specified voltage
B	Provide the crystal with a specified parallel capacitance
C	Provide the crystal with a specified parallel inductance
D	Bias the crystal at a specified current

38. - E8A13

Which of these methods is commonly used to convert analog signals to digital signals?

Select	Answer
A	Phase reversal
B	Sequential sampling
C	Level shifting
D	Harmonic regeneration

39. - E8B05

What is the deviation ratio of an FM-phone signal having a maximum frequency swing of plus-or-minus 5 kHz when the maximum modulation frequency is 3 kHz?

Select	Answer
A	0.6
B	0.167
C	1.67
D	60

40. - E8C02

What is the definition of symbol rate in a digital transmission?

Select	Answer
A	The number of characters carried per second by the station-to-station link
B	The number of control characters in a message packet
C	The duration of each bit in a message sent over the air
D	The rate at which the waveform of a transmitted signal changes to convey information

41. - E8D08

What parameter might indicate that excessively high input levels are causing distortion in an AFSK signal?

Select	Answer
A	Signal to noise ratio
B	Repeat Request Rate (RRR)
C	Intermodulation Distortion (IMD)
D	Baud rate

42. - E9A13

How much gain does an antenna have compared to a 1/2-wavelength dipole when it has 12 dB gain over an isotropic antenna?

Select	Answer
A	14.15 dB
B	6.17 dB
C	9.85 dB
D	12.5 dB

43. - E9B11

What is a disadvantage of decreasing the number of wire segments in an antenna model below the guideline of 10 segments per half-wavelength?

Select	Answer
A	The computed feed point impedance may be incorrect
B	The antenna will become mechanically unstable
C	The resulting design will favor radiation of harmonic energy
D	Ground conductivity will not be accurately modeled

44. - E9C03

What is the radiation pattern of two 1/4 wavelength vertical antennas spaced a 1/2 wavelength apart and fed in phase?

Select	Answer
A	Omni-directional
B	Cardioid
C	A Figure-8 broadside to the axis of the array
D	A Figure-8 end-fire along the axis of the array

45. - E9D12

Which of the following would provide the best RF ground for your station?

Select	Answer
A	An electrically short connection to 3 or 4 interconnected ground rods via a series RF choke
B	An electrically short connection to a metal water pipe
C	An electrically short connection to 3 or 4 interconnected ground rods driven into the Earth
D	A 50 ohm resistor connected to ground

46. - E9E07

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

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

47. - E9F15

What impedance does a 1/2 wavelength transmission line present to a generator when the line is open at the far end?

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

48. - E9G02

What type of coordinate system is used in a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Resistance circles and reactance arcs
B	Voltage circles and current arcs
C	Resistance lines and reactance chords
D	Voltage lines and current chords

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. - E0A06

Why are there separate electric (E) and magnetic (H) field MPE limits?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	Ground reflections and scattering make the field impedance vary with location
C	The body reacts to electromagnetic radiation from both the E and H fields
D	E field and H field radiation intensity peaks can occur at different locations

Figure E6-3

Figure E7-1