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. - E1A14

What is the maximum bandwidth for a data emission on 60 meters?

Select	Answer
A	1.5 kHz
B	170 Hz
C	60 Hz
D	2.8 kHz

2. - E1B07

What is the highest modulation index permitted at the highest modulation frequency for angle modulation below 29.0 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	1.0
B	3.0
C	2.0
D	0.5

3. - E1C06

Which of the following statements concerning remotely controlled amateur stations is true?

Select	Answer
A	A control operator must be present at the control point
B	Only Extra Class operators may be the control operator of a remote station
C	A control operator need not be present at the control point
D	Repeater and auxiliary stations may not be remotely controlled

4. - E1D06

Which of the following is a requirement of a space station?

Select	Answer
A	The space station must be capable of changing its orbit whenever such a change is ordered by NASA
B	All of these choices are correct
C	The space station must be capable of terminating transmissions by telecommand when directed by the FCC
D	The space station must cease all transmissions after 5 years

5. - E1E02

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

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

6. - E1F10

What is the maximum permitted transmitter peak envelope power for an amateur station transmitting spread spectrum communications?

Select	Answer
A	10 W
B	1 W
C	1.5 kW
D	1.5 W

7. - E2A04

What is meant by the term mode as applied to an amateur radio satellite?

Select	Answer
A	Whether the satellite is in a polar or equatorial orbit
B	The satellite's orientation with respect to the Earth
C	The type of signals that can be relayed through the satellite
D	The satellite's uplink and downlink frequency bands

8. - E2B16

Which is a video standard used by North American Fast Scan ATV stations?

Select	Answer
A	PAL
B	Scottie
C	NTSC
D	DRM

9. - E2C10

Why might a DX station state that they are listening on another frequency?

Select	Answer
A	To improve operating efficiency by reducing interference
B	Because the DX station may be transmitting on a frequency that is prohibited to some responding stations
C	To separate the calling stations from the DX station
D	All of these choices are correct

10. - E2D03

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

Select	Answer
A	Olivia
B	FSK441
C	PACTOR III
D	JT65

11. - E2E04

What is indicated when one of the ellipses in an FSK crossed-ellipse display suddenly disappears?

Select	Answer
A	The receiver has drifted 5 kHz from the desired receive frequency
B	The mark and space signal have been inverted
C	Selective fading has occurred
D	One of the signal filters is saturated

12. - E3A05

Tropospheric propagation of microwave signals often occurs along what weather related structure?

Select	Answer
A	Gray-line
B	Warm and cold fronts
C	Sprites and jets
D	Lightning discharges

13. - E3B10

What is the cause of gray-line propagation?

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

14. - E3C08

What does the space weather term G5 mean?

Select	Answer
A	Moderate solar wind
B	Waning sunspot numbers
C	Very low solar activity
D	An extreme geomagnetic storm

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

16. - E4B16

Which S parameter represents return loss or SWR?

Select	Answer
A	S12
B	S22
C	S11
D	S21

17. - E4C13

How does a narrow-band roofing filter affect receiver performance?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	It improves dynamic range by attenuating strong signals near the receive frequency
C	It improves sensitivity by reducing front end noise
D	It improves intelligibility by using low Q circuitry to reduce ringing

18. - E4D08

What causes intermodulation in an electronic circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Lack of neutralization
B	Positive feedback
C	Too little gain
D	Nonlinear circuits or devices

19. - E4E03

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

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

20. - E5A12

What is the half-power bandwidth of a parallel resonant circuit that has a resonant frequency of 3.7 MHz and a Q of 118?

Select	Answer
A	15.7 kHz
B	218.3 kHz
C	436.6 kHz
D	31.4 kHz

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

23. - E5D10

How can the true power be determined in an AC circuit where the voltage and current are out of phase?

Select	Answer
A	By dividing the apparent power by the power factor
B	By multiplying the apparent power times the power factor
C	By multiplying the reactive power times the power factor
D	By dividing the reactive power by the power factor

24. - E6A01

In what application is gallium arsenide used as a semiconductor material in preference to germanium or silicon?

Select	Answer
A	In high-current rectifier circuits
B	In high-power audio circuits
C	In microwave circuits
D	In very low frequency RF circuits

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. - E6C02

What happens when the level of a comparator's input signal crosses the threshold?

Select	Answer
A	The IC input can be damaged
B	The comparator changes its output state
C	The feedback loop becomes unstable
D	The comparator enters latch-up

27. - E6D04

Which materials are commonly used as a slug core in a variable inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Polystyrene and polyethylene
B	Cobalt and aluminum
C	Ferrite and brass
D	Teflon and Delrin

28. - E6E11

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

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

29. - E6F02

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

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

30. - E7A04

How many flip-flops are required to divide a signal frequency by 4?

Select	Answer
A	2
B	8
C	4
D	1

31. - E7B04

Where on the load line of a Class A common emitter amplifier would bias normally be set?

Select	Answer
A	Approximately half-way between saturation and cutoff
B	Where the load line intersects the voltage axis
C	At a point where the bias resistor equals the load resistor
D	At a point where the load line intersects the zero bias current curve

32. - E7C04

How does an impedance-matching circuit transform a complex impedance to a resistive impedance?

Select	Answer
A	It introduces negative resistance to cancel the resistive part of impedance
B	Network resistances are substituted for load resistances and reactances are matched to the resistances
C	It cancels the reactive part of the impedance and changes the resistive part to a desired value
D	It introduces transconductance to cancel the reactive part of impedance

33. - E7D05

Which of the following types of linear voltage regulator places a constant load on the unregulated voltage source?

Select	Answer
A	A series regulator
B	A shunt current source
C	A constant current source
D	A shunt regulator

34. - E7E06

Why is de-emphasis commonly used in FM communications receivers?

Select	Answer
A	For compatibility with transmitters using phase modulation
B	To remove third-order distortion products
C	To reduce impulse noise reception
D	For higher efficiency

35. - E7F15

Which of the following is an advantage of a Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filter vs an Infinite Impulse Response (IIR) digital filter?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	FIR filters are easier to implement for a given set of passband rolloff requirements
C	FIR filters delay all frequency components of the signal by the same amount
D	FIR filters can respond faster to impulses

36. - E7G01

What is the typical output impedance of an integrated circuit op-amp?

Select	Answer
A	1000 ohms
B	Very low
C	100 ohms
D	Very high

37. - E7H02

Which describes a microphonic?

Select	Answer
A	Excess loading of the microphone by an oscillator
B	Changes in oscillator frequency due to mechanical vibration
C	An IC used for amplifying microphone signals
D	Distortion caused by RF pickup on the microphone cable

38. - E8A07

What determines the PEP-to-average power ratio of a single-sideband phone signal?

Select	Answer
A	The degree of carrier suppression
B	The characteristics of the modulating signal
C	The amplifier gain
D	The frequency of the modulating signal

39. - E8B06

What is the deviation ratio of an FM-phone signal having a maximum frequency swing of plus or minus 7.5 kHz when the maximum modulation frequency is 3.5 kHz?

Select	Answer
A	0.47
B	47
C	0.214
D	2.14

40. - E8C02

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

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

41. - E8D08

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

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

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	78.7 watts
D	286 watts

43. - E9B05

What type of antenna pattern over real ground is shown in Figure E9-2?

Select	Answer
A	Radiation resistance
B	Elevation
C	Polarization
D	Azimuth

44. - E9C02

What is the radiation pattern of two 1/4 wavelength vertical antennas spaced 1/4 wavelength apart and fed 90 degrees out of phase?

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

45. - E9D02

How can linearly polarized Yagi antennas be used to produce circular polarization?

Select	Answer
A	Arrange two Yagis perpendicular to each other with the driven elements at the same point on the boom fed 90 degrees out of phase
B	Stack two Yagis fed 90 degrees out of phase to form an array with the respective elements in parallel planes
C	Stack two Yagis fed in phase to form an array with the respective elements in parallel planes
D	Arrange two Yagis collinear to each other with the driven elements fed 180 degrees out of phase

46. - E9E10

Which of these choices is an effective way to match an antenna with a 100 ohm feed point impedance to a 50 ohm coaxial cable feed line?

Select	Answer
A	Insert a 1/2 wavelength piece of 300 ohm twin-lead in series between the antenna terminals and the 50 ohm feed cable
B	Connect 1/2 wavelength shorted stub of 75 ohm cable in parallel with the 50 ohm cable where it attaches to the antenna
C	Insert a 1/4-wavelength piece of 75 ohm coaxial cable transmission line in series between the antenna terminals and the 50 ohm feed cable
D	Connect a 1/4-wavelength open stub of 300 ohm twin-lead in parallel with the coaxial feed line where it connects to the antenna

47. - E9F12

What impedance does a 1/4 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 to the generator
B	The same as the characteristic impedance of the line
C	Very high impedance
D	Very low impedance

48. - E9G09

What third family of circles is often added to a Smith chart during the process of solving problems?

Select	Answer
A	Antenna-length circles
B	Radiation-pattern circles
C	Standing wave ratio circles
D	Coaxial-length circles

49. - E9H04

What is an advantage of using a shielded loop antenna for direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	It automatically cancels ignition noise in mobile installations
B	It is electro statically balanced against ground, giving better nulls
C	It allows stations to communicate without giving away their position
D	It eliminates tracking errors caused by strong out-of-band signals

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 a hand calculator plus Smith-chart equations to calculate the fields
C	Use a calibrated antenna analyzer
D	Use an antenna modeling program to calculate field strength at accessible locations

Figure E6-3

Figure E9-2