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	1 kHz below the upper band edge
B	300 Hz below the upper band edge
C	3 kHz below the upper band edge
D	The exact 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	You must file an Environmental Impact Statement with the EPA before construction begins
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	No special rules apply if your antenna structure will be less than 300 feet in height

3. - E1C04

What is meant by IARP?

Select	Answer
A	An indication of increased antenna reflected power
B	A forecast of intermittent aurora radio propagation
C	An international amateur radio permit that allows U.S. amateurs to operate in certain countries of the Americas
D	The internal amateur radio practices policy of the FCC

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	Only the 40 m, 20 m, 17 m, 15 m and 10 m bands
D	All HF bands

5. - E1E02

Where are the questions for all written U.S. amateur license examinations listed?

Select	Answer
A	In the appropriate FCC Report and Order
B	In a question pool maintained by all the VECs
C	In a question pool maintained by the FCC
D	In FCC Part 97

6. - E1F05

Amateur stations may not transmit in which of the following frequency segments if they are located in the contiguous 48 states and north of Line A?

Select	Answer
A	440 MHz - 450 MHz
B	222 MHz - 223 MHz
C	53 MHz - 54 MHz
D	420 MHz - 430 MHz

7. - E2A14

What technology is used to track, in real time, balloons carrying amateur radio transmitters?

Select	Answer
A	Doppler shift of beacon signals
B	Radar
C	Bandwidth compressed LORAN
D	APRS

8. - E2B06

What is vestigial sideband modulation?

Select	Answer
A	A type of modulation in which one sideband is inverted
B	Spread spectrum modulation achieved by applying FM modulation following single sideband amplitude modulation
C	Narrow-band FM modulation achieved by filtering one sideband from the audio before frequency modulating the carrier
D	Amplitude modulation in which one complete sideband and a portion of the other are transmitted

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 and grid square
B	Send your full call sign once or twice
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. - E2D09

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

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

11. - E2E10

Which of these digital modes has the narrowest bandwidth?

Select	Answer
A	MFSK16
B	170 Hz shift, 45 baud RTTY
C	300-baud packet
D	PSK31

12. - E3A04

What do Hepburn maps predict?

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

13. - E3B12

What is the primary characteristic of chordal hop propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Propagation away from the great circle bearing between stations
B	Successive ionospheric reflections without an intermediate reflection from the ground
C	Propagation across the geomagnetic equator
D	Signals reflected back toward the transmitting station

14. - E3C10

What does the 304A solar parameter measure?

Select	Answer
A	The solar wind velocity at 304 degrees from the solar equator, correlated to solar activity
B	The solar emission at 304 GHz, correlated to X-Ray flare levels
C	UV emissions at 304 angstroms, correlated to solar flux index
D	The ratio of X-Ray flux to radio flux, correlated to sunspot number

15. - E4A02

Which of the following parameters would a spectrum analyzer display on the vertical and horizontal axes?

Select	Answer
A	SWR and time
B	SWR and frequency
C	RF amplitude and time
D	RF amplitude and frequency

16. - E4B02

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

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

17. - E4C10

Which of the following is a desirable amount of selectivity for an amateur RTTY HF receiver?

Select	Answer
A	100 Hz
B	6000 Hz
C	2400 Hz
D	300 Hz

18. - E4D13

Which of the following can cause receiver desensitization?

Select	Answer
A	Strong adjacent channel signals
B	Audio gain adjusted too low
C	Audio bias adjusted too high
D	Squelch gain misadjusted

19. - E4E08

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

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

20. - E5A05

What is the magnitude of the current at the input of a series RLC circuit as the frequency goes through resonance?

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

21. - E5B01

What is the term for the time required for the capacitor in an RC circuit to be charged to 63.2% of the applied voltage?

Select	Answer
A	An exponential rate of one
B	One time constant
C	A time factor of one
D	One exponential period

22. - E5C06

What does the impedance 50-j25 represent?

Select	Answer
A	50 ohms resistance in series with 25 ohms capacitive reactance
B	25 ohms resistance in series with 50 ohms capacitive reactance
C	25 ohms resistance in series with 50 ohms inductive reactance
D	50 ohms resistance in series with 25 ohms inductive reactance

23. - E5D07

What determines the strength of the magnetic field around a conductor?

Select	Answer
A	The diameter of the conductor
B	The amount of current flowing through the conductor
C	The ratio of the current to the resistance
D	The resistance divided by the current

24. - E6A10

In Figure E6-2, what is the schematic symbol for an N-channel dual-gate MOSFET?

Select	Answer
A	5
B	6
C	4
D	2

25. - E6B11

What is used to control the attenuation of RF signals by a PIN diode?

Select	Answer
A	Reverse voltage larger than the RF signal
B	Capacitance of an RF coupling capacitor
C	A sub-harmonic pump signal
D	Forward DC bias current

26. - E6C04

What is the primary advantage of tri-state logic?

Select	Answer
A	Low power consumption
B	High speed operation
C	More efficient arithmetic operations
D	Ability to connect many device outputs to a common bus

27. - E6D14

Which type of slug material decreases inductance when inserted into a coil?

Select	Answer
A	Powdered-iron
B	Ferrite
C	Ceramic
D	Brass

28. - E6E07

Which of the following is typically used to construct a MMIC-based microwave amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	Ground-plane construction
B	Microstrip construction
C	Wave-soldering construction
D	Point-to-point construction

29. - E6F11

What is the approximate open-circuit voltage produced by a fully-illuminated silicon photovoltaic cell?

Select	Answer
A	12 V
B	0.5 V
C	0.1 V
D	1.5 V

30. - E7A03

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

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

31. - E7B15

What is one way to prevent thermal runaway in a bipolar transistor amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	Neutralization
B	Use a resistor in series with the emitter
C	Select transistors with high beta
D	All of these choices are correct

32. - E7C12

Which describes a Pi-L-network used for matching a vacuum tube final amplifier to a 50 ohm unbalanced output?

Select	Answer
A	A network with only three discrete parts
B	A matching network in which all components are isolated from ground
C	A Pi-network with an additional series inductor on the output
D	A Phase Inverter Load network

33. - E7D09

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

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

34. - E7E05

What circuit is added to an FM transmitter to boost the higher audio frequencies?

Select	Answer
A	A heterodyne suppressor
B	An audio prescaler
C	A pre-emphasis network
D	A de-emphasis network

35. - E7F04

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

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

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 Q but increase gain
B	Restrict both gain and Q
C	Restrict gain but increase Q
D	Increase both gain and Q

37. - E7H06

Which of the following oscillator circuits are commonly used in VFOs?

Select	Answer
A	Armstrong and deForest
B	Negative feedback and balanced feedback
C	Pierce and Zener
D	Colpitts and Hartley

38. - E8A04

What is "dither" with respect to analog to digital converters?

Select	Answer
A	An abnormal condition where the converter cannot settle on a value to represent the signal
B	A small amount of noise added to the input signal to allow more precise representation of a signal over time
C	An error caused by irregular quantization step size
D	A method of decimation by randomly skipping samples

39. - E8B03

What is the modulation index of an FM-phone signal having a maximum frequency deviation of 3000 Hz either side of the carrier frequency when the modulating frequency is 1000 Hz?

Select	Answer
A	1000
B	3000
C	3
D	0.3

40. - E8C11

What is the relationship between symbol rate and baud?

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

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

42. - E9A15

What is the effective radiated power relative to a dipole of a repeater station with 150 watts transmitter power output, 2 dB feed line loss, 2.2 dB duplexer loss, and 7 dBd antenna gain?

Select	Answer
A	1977 watts
B	420 watts
C	286 watts
D	78.7 watts

43. - E9B16

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

Select	Answer
A	1
B	7
C	3
D	4

44. - E9C12

Which of the following describes an extended double Zepp antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A wideband vertical antenna constructed from precisely tapered aluminum tubing
B	A portable antenna erected using two push support poles
C	An end fed folded dipole antenna
D	A center fed 1.25 wavelength antenna (two 5/8 wave elements in phase)

45. - E9D08

What happens as the Q of an antenna increases?

Select	Answer
A	Gain is reduced
B	SWR bandwidth decreases
C	SWR bandwidth increases
D	More common-mode current is present on the feed line

46. - E9E04

What is the purpose of the series capacitor in a gamma-type antenna matching network?

Select	Answer
A	To provide DC isolation between the feed line and the antenna
B	To transform the antenna impedance to a higher value
C	To cancel the inductive reactance of the matching network
D	To provide a rejection notch that prevents the radiation of harmonics

47. - E9F09

What is the approximate physical length of a solid polyethylene dielectric coaxial transmission line that is electrically one-quarter wavelength long at 7.2 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	50 meters
B	6.9 meters
C	24 meters
D	10 meters

48. - E9G08

What is the process of normalization with regard to a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Reassigning impedance values with regard to the prime center
B	Reassigning prime center with regard to the reactance axis
C	Reassigning reactance values with regard to the resistance axis
D	Reassigning resistance values with regard to the reactance axis

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 non-rotatable
C	It is practical for use only on VHF bands
D	It receives equally well in all directions

50. - E0A06

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

Select	Answer
A	Ground reflections and scattering make the field impedance vary with location
B	All of these choices are correct
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 E6-2

Figure E9-2