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. - E1A10

If an amateur station is installed aboard a ship or aircraft, what condition must be met before the station is operated?

Select	Answer
A	The amateur operator must have an FCC Marine or Aircraft endorsement on his or her amateur license
B	Its operation must be approved by the master of the ship or the pilot in command of the aircraft
C	The amateur station operator must agree not to transmit when the main radio of the ship or aircraft is in use
D	The amateur station must have a power supply that is completely independent of the main ship or aircraft power supply

2. - E1B10

What frequencies are authorized to an amateur station operating under RACES rules?

Select	Answer
A	All amateur service frequencies authorized to the control operator
B	Specific segments in the amateur service MF, HF, VHF and UHF bands
C	Specific local government channels
D	Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) channels

3. - E1C12

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

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

4. - E1D05

What class of licensee is authorized to be the control operator of a space station?

Select	Answer
A	Any class with appropriate operator privileges
B	Only Amateur Extra Class
C	All except Technician Class
D	Only General, Advanced or Amateur Extra Class

5. - E1E13

Which of these choices is an acceptable method for monitoring the applicants if a VEC opts to conduct an exam session remotely?

Select	Answer
A	Record the exam session on video tape for later review by the VE team
B	Have each applicant sign an affidavit stating that all session rules were followed
C	Use a real-time video link and the Internet to connect the exam session to the observing VEs
D	The exam proctor observes the applicants and reports any violations

6. - E1F02

What privileges are authorized in the U.S. to persons holding an amateur service license granted by the Government of Canada?

Select	Answer
A	All privileges of the Extra Class license
B	Full privileges, up to and including those of the Extra Class License, on the 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meter bands
C	None, they must obtain a U.S. license
D	The operating terms and conditions of the Canadian amateur service license, not to exceed U.S. Extra Class privileges

7. - E2A09

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

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

8. - E2B04

What is blanking in a video signal?

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

9. - E2C09

What type of equipment is commonly used to implement a ham radio mesh network?

Select	Answer
A	A 2 meter VHF transceiver with a 1200 baud modem
B	A standard wireless router running custom software
C	A 440 MHz transceiver with a 9600 baud modem
D	An optical cable connection between the USB ports of 2 separate computers

10. - E2D03

Which of the following digital modes is especially useful for EME communications?

Select	Answer
A	JT65
B	FSK441
C	PACTOR III
D	Olivia

11. - E2E03

How is the timing of JT65 contacts organized?

Select	Answer
A	Alternating transmissions at 1 minute intervals
B	By exchanging ACK/NAK packets
C	It depends on the lunar phase
D	Stations take turns on alternate days

12. - E3A06

Which of the following is required for microwave propagation via rain scatter?

Select	Answer
A	The rain must be within radio range of both stations
B	Rain droplets must be within the E layer
C	Rain droplets must be electrically charged
D	All of these choices are correct

13. - E3B04

What is meant by the terms extraordinary and ordinary waves?

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

14. - E3C04

What does the value of Bz (B sub Z) represent?

Select	Answer
A	Critical frequency for vertical transmissions
B	Duration of long-delayed echoes
C	Direction and strength of the interplanetary magnetic field
D	Geomagnetic field stability

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	An ohmmeter
C	A spectrum analyzer
D	A Q meter

16. - E4B03

If a frequency counter with a specified accuracy of +/- 1.0 ppm reads 146,520,000 Hz, what is the most the actual frequency being measured could differ from the reading?

Select	Answer
A	146.52 Hz
B	14.652 kHz
C	1.4652 MHz
D	165.2 Hz

17. - E4C07

What does the MDS of a receiver represent?

Select	Answer
A	The maximum detectable spectrum
B	The multiplex distortion stability
C	The minimum discernible signal
D	The meter display sensitivity

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 intercept is much higher than other orders
C	The third-order product of two signals which are in the band of interest is also likely to be within the band
D	Third-order products are an indication of poor image rejection

19. - E4E08

What type of signal is picked up by electrical wiring near a radio antenna?

Select	Answer
A	Harmonics of the AC power line frequency
B	A common-mode signal at the frequency of the radio transmitter
C	A differential-mode signal at the AC power line frequency
D	An electrical-sparking signal

20. - E5A07

What is the magnitude of the current at the input of a parallel RLC circuit at resonance?

Select	Answer
A	L/R
B	Maximum
C	R/L
D	Minimum

21. - E5B12

What is admittance?

Select	Answer
A	The inverse of impedance
B	The term for the gain of a field effect transistor
C	The turns ratio of a transformer
D	The unit used for Q factor

22. - E5C17

Which point on Figure E5-2 best represents the impedance of a series circuit consisting of a 300 ohm resistor, a 0.64-microhenry inductor and an 85-picofarad capacitor at 24.900 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	Point 1
B	Point 3
C	Point 5
D	Point 8

23. - E5D14

What is reactive power?

Select	Answer
A	Power lost because of capacitor leakage
B	Power consumed in wire resistance in an inductor
C	Power consumed in circuit Q
D	Wattless, nonproductive power

24. - E6A15

Which semiconductor material contains excess holes in the outer shell of electrons?

Select	Answer
A	Superconductor-type
B	Bipolar-type
C	N-type
D	P-type

25. - E6B10

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

Select	Answer
A	1
B	5
C	7
D	6

26. - E6C09

What is a Programmable Logic Device (PLD)?

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

27. - E6D02

What is the equivalent circuit of a quartz crystal?

Select	Answer
A	Motional capacitance, motional inductance, and loss resistance in series, all in parallel with a shunt capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance
B	Motional inductance and loss resistance in series, paralleled with motional capacitance and a capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance
C	Motional capacitance, motional inductance, loss resistance, and a capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance all in parallel
D	Motional capacitance, motional inductance, loss resistance, and a capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance all in series

28. - E6E09

Which of the following component package types would be most suitable for use at frequencies above the HF range?

Select	Answer
A	Radial lead
B	Axial lead
C	Surface mount
D	TO-220

29. - E6F02

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

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

30. - E7A03

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

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

31. - E7B03

Which of the following components form the output of a class D amplifier circuit?

Select	Answer
A	A temperature compensating load resistor to improve linearity
B	A low-pass filter to remove switching signal components
C	A high-pass filter to compensate for low gain at low frequencies
D	A matched load resistor to prevent damage by switching transients

32. - E7C05

Which filter type is described as having ripple in the passband and a sharp cutoff?

Select	Answer
A	A Chebyshev filter
B	An active LC filter
C	A passive op-amp filter
D	A Butterworth filter

33. - E7D09

What is the main reason to use a charge controller with a solar power system?

Select	Answer
A	Prevention of battery undercharge
B	Matching of day and night charge rates
C	Control of electrolyte levels during battery discharge
D	Prevention of battery damage due to overcharge

34. - E7E07

What is meant by the term baseband in radio communications?

Select	Answer
A	The lowest frequency band that the transmitter or receiver covers
B	The unmodulated bandwidth of the transmitted signal
C	The basic oscillator frequency in an FM transmitter that is multiplied to increase the deviation and carrier frequency
D	The frequency components present in the modulating signal

35. - E7F12

What digital process is applied to I and Q signals in order to recover the baseband modulation information?

Select	Answer
A	Decimation
B	Signal conditioning
C	Quadrature mixing
D	Fast Fourier Transform

36. - E7G05

How can unwanted ringing and audio instability be prevented in a multi-section op-amp RC audio filter circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Restrict both gain and Q
B	Restrict Q but increase gain
C	Restrict gain but increase Q
D	Increase both gain and Q

37. - E7H08

Which of the following components can be used to reduce thermal drift in crystal oscillators?

Select	Answer
A	Non-inductive resistors
B	Wirewound resistors
C	Toroidal inductors
D	NP0 capacitors

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	8
D	256

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	60
B	0.167
C	0.6
D	1.67

40. - E8C01

How is Forward Error Correction implemented?

Select	Answer
A	By varying the frequency shift of the transmitted signal according to a predefined algorithm
B	By transmitting a special algorithm to the receiving station along with the data characters
C	By the receiving station repeating each block of three data characters
D	By transmitting extra data that may be used to detect and correct transmission errors

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	Rapid signal fading
C	Harmonics on higher bands
D	Strong ALC action

42. - E9A03

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

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

43. - E9B16

How many elevation lobes appear in the forward direction of the antenna radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-2?

Select	Answer
A	4
B	7
C	3
D	1

44. - E9C06

What is the effect of a terminating resistor on a rhombic antenna?

Select	Answer
A	It changes the radiation pattern from horizontal to vertical polarization
B	It decreases the ground loss
C	It reflects the standing waves on the antenna elements back to the transmitter
D	It changes the radiation pattern from bidirectional to unidirectional

45. - E9D01

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

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

46. - E9E08

Which of the following measurements is characteristic of a mismatched transmission line?

Select	Answer
A	An SWR less than 1:1
B	A dielectric constant greater than 1
C	A reflection coefficient greater than 1
D	An SWR greater than 1:1

47. - E9F03

Why is the physical length of a coaxial cable transmission line shorter than its electrical length?

Select	Answer
A	Skin effect is less pronounced in the coaxial cable
B	The surge impedance is higher in a parallel feed line
C	The characteristic impedance is higher in a parallel feed line
D	Electrical signals move more slowly in a coaxial cable than in air

48. - E9G10

What do the arcs on a Smith chart represent?

Select	Answer
A	Points with constant reactance
B	Points with constant resistance
C	Frequency
D	SWR

49. - E9H02

Which is generally true for low band (160 meter and 80 meter) receiving antennas?

Select	Answer
A	Low loss coax transmission line is essential for good performance
B	They must be erected at least 1/2 wavelength above the ground to attain good directivity
C	All of these choices are correct
D	Atmospheric noise is so high that gain over a dipole is not important

50. - E0A05

What is one of the potential hazards of using microwaves in the amateur radio bands?

Select	Answer
A	The extremely high frequency energy can damage the joints of antenna structures
B	Microwaves often travel long distances by ionospheric reflection
C	Microwaves are ionizing radiation
D	The high gain antennas commonly used can result in high exposure levels

Figure E5-2

Figure E6-3

Figure E9-2