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. - E1A13

Who must be in physical control of the station apparatus of an amateur station aboard any vessel or craft that is documented or registered in the United States?

Select	Answer
A	Any person holding an FCC issued amateur license or who is authorized for alien reciprocal operation
B	Only a person named in an amateur station license grant
C	Any person named in an amateur station license grant or a person holding an unrestricted Radiotelephone Operator Permit
D	Only a person with an FCC Marine Radio

2. - E1B05

What is the National Radio Quiet Zone?

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

3. - E1C05

When may an automatically controlled station originate third party communications?

Select	Answer
A	Never
B	When approved by the National Telecommunication and Information Administration
C	Only when transmitting RTTY or data emissions
D	When agreed upon by the sending or receiving station

4. - E1D04

What is an Earth station in the amateur satellite service?

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

5. - E1E01

What is the minimum number of qualified VEs required to administer an Element 4 amateur operator license examination?

Select	Answer
A	3
B	2
C	5
D	4

6. - E1F07

When may an amateur station send a message to a business?

Select	Answer
A	When transmitting international third-party communications
B	When the total money involved does not exceed $25
C	When the control operator is employed by the FCC or another government agency
D	When neither the amateur nor his or her employer has a pecuniary interest in the communications

7. - E2A07

Which of the following types of signals can be relayed through a linear transponder?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	FM and CW
C	SSB and SSTV
D	PSK and Packet

8. - E2B05

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

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

9. - E2C11

How should you generally identify your station when attempting to contact a DX station during a contest or in a pileup?

Select	Answer
A	Send your full call sign once or twice
B	Send your full call sign and grid square
C	Send the call sign of the DX station three times, the words "this is", then your call sign three times
D	Send only the last two letters of your call sign until you make contact

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

11. - E2E07

What is the typical bandwidth of a properly modulated MFSK16 signal?

Select	Answer
A	550 Hz
B	316 Hz
C	31 Hz
D	2.16 kHz

12. - E3A08

When a meteor strikes the Earth's atmosphere, a cylindrical region of free electrons is formed at what layer of the ionosphere?

Select	Answer
A	The F2 layer
B	The F1 layer
C	The D layer
D	The E layer

13. - E3B10

What is the cause of gray-line propagation?

Select	Answer
A	At twilight and sunrise, D-layer absorption is low while E-layer and F-layer propagation remains high
B	At midday, the Sun super heats the ionosphere causing increased refraction of radio waves
C	At mid-afternoon, the Sun heats the ionosphere decreasing radio wave refraction and the MUF
D	In darkness, solar absorption drops greatly while atmospheric ionization remains steady

14. - E3C06

By how much does the VHF/UHF radio horizon distance exceed the geometric horizon?

Select	Answer
A	By approximately four times the distance
B	By approximately 50 percent of the distance
C	By approximately twice the distance
D	By approximately 15 percent of the distance

15. - E4A04

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

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

16. - E4B13

Which S parameter is equivalent to forward gain?

Select	Answer
A	S11
B	S12
C	S22
D	S21

17. - E4C14

What transmit frequency might generate an image response signal in a receiver tuned to 14.300 MHz and which uses a 455 kHz IF frequency?

Select	Answer
A	14.755 MHz
B	15.210 MHz
C	13.845 MHz
D	14.445 MHz

18. - E4D11

Why are third-order intermodulation products created within a receiver of particular interest compared to other products?

Select	Answer
A	Third-order intermodulation produces three products for every input signal within the band of interest
B	The third-order product of two signals which are in the band of interest is also likely to be within the band
C	Third-order products are an indication of poor image rejection
D	The third-order intercept is much higher than other orders

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	Received CW signals will appear to be modulated at the DSP clock frequency
C	Ringing in the DSP filter will completely remove the spaces between the CW characters
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 is at a minimum
B	It is at a maximum
C	It equals 1 divided by the quantity 2 times Pi, multiplied by the square root of inductance L multiplied by capacitance C
D	It equals 2 multiplied by Pi, multiplied by frequency, multiplied by inductance

21. - E5B03

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

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

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 3
C	Point 1
D	Point 8

23. - E5D03

What is microstrip?

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

24. - E6A17

What are the names of the three terminals of a field-effect transistor?

Select	Answer
A	Gate, drain, source
B	Emitter, base 1, base 2
C	Emitter, base, collector
D	Gate 1, gate 2, drain

25. - E6B09

What is a common use for point contact diodes?

Select	Answer
A	As a constant voltage source
B	As a high voltage rectifier
C	As a constant current source
D	As an RF detector

26. - E6C03

What is tri-state logic?

Select	Answer
A	Logic devices with 0, 1, and high impedance output states
B	Proprietary logic devices manufactured by Tri-State Devices
C	Low power logic devices designed to operate at 3 volts
D	Logic devices that utilize ternary math

27. - E6D12

What is the definition of saturation in a ferrite core inductor?

Select	Answer
A	The inductor's voltage rating is exceeded causing a flashover
B	The inductor windings are over coupled
C	The ability of the inductor's core to store magnetic energy has been exceeded
D	Adjacent inductors become over-coupled

28. - E6E03

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

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

29. - E6F01

What is photoconductivity?

Select	Answer
A	The increased conductivity of an illuminated semiconductor
B	The conversion of electromotive energy to photon energy
C	The conversion of photon energy to electromotive energy
D	The decreased conductivity of an illuminated semiconductor

30. - E7A07

What logical operation does a NAND gate perform?

Select	Answer
A	It produces logic "0" at its output if some but not all inputs are logic "1"
B	It produces logic "0" at its output only when all inputs are logic "0"
C	It produces logic "0" at its output only when all inputs are logic "1"
D	It produces logic "1" at its output only when all inputs are logic "1"

31. - E7B11

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

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

32. - E7C07

What kind of filter would you use to attenuate an interfering carrier signal while receiving an SSB transmission?

Select	Answer
A	A notch filter
B	A band-pass filter
C	An all-pass filter
D	A Pi-network filter

33. - E7D02

What is one characteristic of a switching electronic voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	It gives a ramp voltage at its output
B	It is generally less efficient than a linear regulator
C	The controlled device's duty cycle is changed to produce a constant average output voltage
D	The resistance of a control element is varied in direct proportion to the line voltage or load current

34. - E7E04

What is one way a single-sideband phone signal can be generated?

Select	Answer
A	By using a reactance modulator followed by a mixer
B	By using a loop modulator followed by a mixer
C	By using a balanced modulator followed by a filter
D	By driving a product detector with a DSB signal

35. - E7F04

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

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

36. - E7G12

What is an integrated circuit operational amplifier?

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

37. - E7H01

What are three oscillator circuits used in Amateur Radio equipment?

Select	Answer
A	Colpitts, Hartley and Pierce
B	Taft, Hartley and Pierce
C	Pierce, Fenner and Beane
D	Taft, Pierce and negative feedback

38. - E8A08

Why would a direct or flash conversion analog-to-digital converter be useful for a software defined radio?

Select	Answer
A	Immunity to out of sequence coding reduces spurious responses
B	Very high speed allows digitizing high frequencies
C	All of these choices are correct
D	Very low power consumption decreases frequency drift

39. - E8B10

What describes frequency division multiplexing?

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

40. - E8C11

What is the relationship between symbol rate and baud?

Select	Answer
A	Baud is twice the symbol rate
B	Baud is only used for RTTY
C	Symbol rate is only used for packet-based modes
D	They are the same

41. - E8D07

What is a common cause of overmodulation of AFSK signals?

Select	Answer
A	Ground loops
B	Excessive transmit audio levels
C	Bit errors in the modem
D	Excessive numbers of retries

42. - E9A03

Why would one need to know the feed point impedance of an antenna?

Select	Answer
A	To match impedances in order to minimize standing wave ratio on the transmission line
B	To calculate the front-to-back ratio of the antenna
C	To measure the near-field radiation density from a transmitting antenna
D	To calculate the front-to-side ratio of the antenna

43. - E9B04

What may occur when a directional antenna is operated at different frequencies within the band for which it was designed?

Select	Answer
A	The E-field and H-field patterns may reverse
B	Element spacing limits could be exceeded
C	The gain may change depending on frequency
D	Feed point impedance may become negative

44. - E9C11

How is the far-field elevation pattern of a vertically polarized antenna affected by being mounted over seawater versus rocky ground?

Select	Answer
A	The low-angle radiation decreases
B	The high-angle radiation increases
C	The low-angle radiation increases
D	Both the high-angle and low-angle radiation decrease

45. - E9D07

What is an advantage of using top loading in a shortened HF vertical antenna?

Select	Answer
A	Improved radiation efficiency
B	Greater structural strength
C	Lower Q
D	Higher losses

46. - E9E11

What is an effective way of matching a feed line to a VHF or UHF antenna when the impedances of both the antenna and feed line are unknown?

Select	Answer
A	Use a 50 ohm 1:1 balun between the antenna and feed line
B	Connect a parallel-resonant LC network across the antenna feed terminals
C	Connect a series-resonant LC network across the antenna feed terminals
D	Use the universal stub matching technique

47. - E9F10

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

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

48. - E9G02

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

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

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 uses three different antennas to plot the location of the signal source
D	A fixed receiving station plots three headings to 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	Mica
B	Uranium Hexafluoride
C	Zinc oxide
D	Beryllium Oxide

Figure E5-2

Figure E7-1