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	The exact upper band edge
B	1 kHz below the upper band edge
C	300 Hz below the upper band edge
D	3 kHz below the upper band edge

2. - E1B09

Which amateur stations may be operated under RACES rules?

Select	Answer
A	Any FCC-licensed amateur station participating in the Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS)
B	Any FCC-licensed amateur station except a Technician class
C	Any FCC-licensed amateur station certified by the responsible civil defense organization for the area served
D	Only those club stations licensed to Amateur Extra class operators

3. - E1C10

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

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

4. - E1D09

Which UHF amateur service bands have frequencies available for a space station?

Select	Answer
A	70 cm only
B	70 cm and 33 cm
C	70 cm and 13 cm
D	33 cm and 13 cm

5. - E1E11

What must the VE team do if an examinee scores a passing grade on all examination elements needed for an upgrade or new license?

Select	Answer
A	Issue the examinee the new or upgrade license
B	Three VEs must certify that the examinee is qualified for the license grant and that they have complied with the administering VE requirements
C	All these choices are correct
D	Photocopy all examination documents and forward them to the FCC for processing

6. - E1F12

Who may be the control operator of an auxiliary station?

Select	Answer
A	Any licensed amateur operator
B	Only Technician, General, Advanced or Amateur Extra Class operators
C	Only Amateur Extra Class operators
D	Only General, Advanced or Amateur Extra Class operators

7. - E2A03

What is the orbital period of an Earth satellite?

Select	Answer
A	The point of maximum height of a satellite's orbit
B	The time it takes for a satellite to complete one revolution around the Earth
C	The time it takes for a satellite to travel from perigee to apogee
D	The point of minimum height of a satellite's orbit

8. - E2B01

How many times per second is a new frame transmitted in a fast-scan (NTSC) television system?

Select	Answer
A	90
B	120
C	60
D	30

9. - E2C03

From which of the following bands is amateur radio contesting generally excluded?

Select	Answer
A	2 m
B	30 m
C	6 m
D	33 cm

10. - E2D02

Which of the following is a good technique for making meteor scatter contacts?

Select	Answer
A	Short transmission with rapidly repeated call signs and signal reports
B	All of these choices are correct
C	15 second timed transmission sequences with stations alternating based on location
D	Use of high speed CW or digital modes

11. - E2E04

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

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

12. - E3A05

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

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

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 mid-afternoon, the Sun heats the ionosphere decreasing radio wave refraction and the MUF
C	At midday, the Sun super heats the ionosphere causing increased refraction of radio waves
D	At twilight and sunrise, D-layer absorption is low while E-layer and F-layer propagation remains high

14. - E3C06

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

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

15. - E4A13

How is the compensation of an oscilloscope probe typically adjusted?

Select	Answer
A	A high frequency sine wave is displayed and the probe is adjusted for maximum amplitude
B	A DC voltage standard is displayed and the probe is adjusted until the displayed voltage is accurate
C	A frequency standard is displayed and the probe is adjusted until the deflection time is accurate
D	A square wave is displayed and the probe is adjusted until the horizontal portions of the displayed wave are as nearly flat as possible

16. - E4B09

What is indicated if the current reading on an RF ammeter placed in series with the antenna feed line of a transmitter increases as the transmitter is tuned to resonance?

Select	Answer
A	The transmitter is not properly neutralized
B	There is possibly a short to ground in the feed line
C	There is an impedance mismatch between the antenna and feed line
D	There is more power going into the antenna

17. - E4C01

What is an effect of excessive phase noise in the local oscillator section of a receiver?

Select	Answer
A	It reduces receiver sensitivity
B	It limits the receiver's ability to receive strong signals
C	It can cause strong signals on nearby frequencies to interfere with reception of weak signals
D	It decreases receiver third-order intermodulation distortion dynamic range

18. - E4D13

Which of the following can cause receiver desensitization?

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

19. - E4E07

How can you determine if line noise interference is being generated within your home?

Select	Answer
A	By turning off the AC power line main circuit breaker and listening on a battery operated radio
B	By observing the AC power line voltage with a spectrum analyzer
C	By checking the power line voltage with a time domain reflectometer
D	By observing the AC power line waveform with an oscilloscope

20. - E5A17

What is the result of increasing the Q of an impedance-matching circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Matching bandwidth is increased
B	Matching bandwidth is decreased
C	Matching range is increased
D	It has no effect on impedance matching

21. - E5B08

What is the phase angle between the voltage across and the current through a series RLC circuit if XC is 100 ohms, R is 100 ohms, and XL is 75 ohms?

Select	Answer
A	76 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
B	76 degrees with the voltage leading the current
C	14 degrees with the voltage leading the current
D	14 degrees with the voltage lagging the current

22. - E5C10

When using rectangular coordinates to graph the impedance of a circuit, what does the vertical axis represent?

Select	Answer
A	Resistive component
B	The sum of the reactive and resistive components
C	The difference between the resistive and reactive components
D	Reactive component

23. - E5D02

Why is it important to keep lead lengths short for components used in circuits for VHF and above?

Select	Answer
A	To maintain component lifetime
B	All of these choices are correct
C	To increase the thermal time constant
D	To avoid unwanted inductive reactance

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

25. - E6B01

What is the most useful characteristic of a Zener diode?

Select	Answer
A	An internal capacitance that varies with the applied voltage
B	A constant current drop under conditions of varying voltage
C	A negative resistance region
D	A constant voltage drop under conditions of varying current

26. - E6C05

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

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

27. - E6D02

What is the equivalent circuit of a quartz crystal?

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

28. - E6E11

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

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

29. - E6F09

What is the efficiency of a photovoltaic cell?

Select	Answer
A	The relative fraction of light that is converted to current
B	The effective payback period
C	The output RF power divided by the input DC power
D	The open-circuit voltage divided by the short-circuit current under full illumination

30. - E7A05

Which of the following is a circuit that continuously alternates between two states without an external clock?

Select	Answer
A	T flip-flop
B	Monostable multivibrator
C	Astable multivibrator
D	J-K flip-flop

31. - E7B01

For what portion of a signal cycle does a Class AB amplifier operate?

Select	Answer
A	More than 180 degrees but less than 360 degrees
B	Less than 180 degrees
C	Exactly 180 degrees
D	The entire cycle

32. - E7C02

Which of the following is a property of a T-network with series capacitors and a parallel shunt inductor?

Select	Answer
A	It is a low-pass filter
B	It is a high-pass filter
C	It is a band-pass filter
D	It is a notch filter

33. - E7D08

What type of circuit is shown in Figure E7-3?

Select	Answer
A	Grounded emitter amplifier
B	Emitter follower
C	Switching voltage regulator
D	Linear voltage regulator

34. - E7E04

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

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

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

36. - E7G10

What absolute voltage gain can be expected from the circuit in Figure E7-4 when R1 is 1800 ohms and RF is 68 kilohms?

Select	Answer
A	1
B	76
C	38
D	0.03

37. - E7H01

What are three oscillator circuits used in Amateur Radio equipment?

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

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. - 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	1.67
B	60
C	0.6
D	0.167

40. - E8C04

What technique is used to minimize the bandwidth requirements of a PSK31 signal?

Select	Answer
A	Zero-sum character encoding
B	Reed-Solomon character encoding
C	Use of trapezoidal data pulses
D	Use of sinusoidal data pulses

41. - E8D03

How does the spread spectrum technique of frequency hopping work?

Select	Answer
A	A pseudo-random binary bit stream is used to shift the phase of an RF carrier very rapidly in a particular sequence
B	If interference is detected by the receiver it will signal the transmitter to wait until the frequency is clear
C	If interference is detected by the receiver it will signal the transmitter to change frequencies
D	The frequency of the transmitted signal is changed very rapidly according to a particular sequence also used by the receiving station

42. - E9A02

What antenna has no gain in any direction?

Select	Answer
A	Yagi
B	Isotropic antenna
C	Half-wave dipole
D	Quarter-wave vertical

43. - E9B01

In the antenna radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-1, what is the 3 dB beam-width?

Select	Answer
A	75 degrees
B	25 degrees
C	50 degrees
D	30 degrees

44. - E9C04

What happens to the radiation pattern of an unterminated long wire antenna as the wire length is increased?

Select	Answer
A	The front-to-back ratio decreases
B	The lobes become more perpendicular to the wire
C	The vertical angle increases
D	The lobes align more in the direction of the wire

45. - E9D02

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

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

46. - E9E12

What is the primary purpose of a phasing line when used with an antenna having multiple driven elements?

Select	Answer
A	It prevents reflected power from traveling back down the feed line and causing harmonic radiation from the transmitter
B	It allows single-band antennas to operate on other bands
C	It ensures that each driven element operates in concert with the others to create the desired antenna pattern
D	It makes sure the antenna has a low-angle radiation pattern

47. - E9F14

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

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

48. - E9G07

On the Smith chart shown in Figure E9-3, what is the only straight line shown?

Select	Answer
A	The voltage axis
B	The reactance axis
C	The current axis
D	The resistance axis

49. - E9H04

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

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

50. - E0A08

What does SAR measure?

Select	Answer
A	The rate of RF energy reflected from stationary terrain
B	The rate at which RF energy is absorbed by the body
C	Signal Amplification Rating
D	Synthetic Aperture Ratio of the human body

Figure E7-3

Figure E7-4

Figure E9-1

Figure E9-3