US Amateur Radio - Amateur Extra (Element 4, 2016-2020) Practice Test

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1. - E1A05

What is the maximum power output permitted on the 60 meter band?

Select	Answer
A	100 watts PEP effective radiated power relative to the gain of a half-wave dipole
B	50 watts PEP effective radiated power relative to a dipole
C	50 watts PEP effective radiated power relative to an isotropic radiator
D	100 watts PEP effective radiated power relative to an isotropic radiator

2. - E1B10

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

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

3. - E1C07

What is meant by local control?

Select	Answer
A	Controlling a station through a local auxiliary link
B	Automatically manipulating local station controls
C	Direct manipulation of the transmitter by a control operator
D	Controlling a repeater using a portable handheld transceiver

4. - E1D11

Which amateur stations are eligible to operate as Earth stations?

Select	Answer
A	Any amateur station, subject to the privileges of the class of operator license held by the control operator
B	Any amateur station whose licensee has filed a pre-space notification with the FCC's International Bureau
C	Only those of Amateur Extra Class operators
D	Only those of General, Advanced or Amateur Extra Class operators

5. - E1E01

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

Select	Answer
A	2
B	5
C	4
D	3

6. - E1F04

Which of the following geographic descriptions approximately describes "Line A"?

Select	Answer
A	A line roughly parallel to and east of the U.S. Pacific coastline
B	A line roughly parallel to and west of the U.S. Atlantic coastline
C	A line roughly parallel to and south of the U.S.-Canadian border
D	A line roughly parallel to and north of the U.S.-Mexican border and Gulf coastline

7. - E2A08

Why should effective radiated power to a satellite which uses a linear transponder be limited?

Select	Answer
A	To avoid reducing the downlink power to all other users
B	To prevent the satellite from emitting out-of-band signals
C	To prevent creating errors in the satellite telemetry
D	To avoid interfering with terrestrial QSOs

8. - E2B05

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

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

9. - E2C06

During a VHF/UHF contest, in which band segment would you expect to find the highest level of activity?

Select	Answer
A	In the middle of each band, usually on the national calling frequency
B	At the top of each band, usually in a segment reserved for contests
C	In the weak signal segment of the band, with most of the activity near the calling frequency
D	In the middle of the band, usually 25 kHz above the national calling frequency

10. - E2D14

What is one advantage of using JT65 coding?

Select	Answer
A	The ability to decode signals which have a very low signal to noise ratio
B	Easily copied by ear if necessary
C	Uses only a 65 Hz bandwidth
D	Permits fast-scan TV transmissions over narrow bandwidth

11. - E2E01

Which type of modulation is common for data emissions below 30 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	FSK
B	DTMF tones modulating an FM signal
C	Spread spectrum
D	Pulse modulation

12. - E3A14

From the contiguous 48 states, in which approximate direction should an antenna be pointed to take maximum advantage of aurora propagation?

Select	Answer
A	North
B	South
C	West
D	East

13. - E3B08

What type of HF propagation is probably occurring if radio signals travel along the terminator between daylight and darkness?

Select	Answer
A	Sporadic-E
B	Long-path
C	Transequatorial
D	Gray-line

14. - E3C11

What does VOACAP software model?

Select	Answer
A	VHF radio propagation
B	AC voltage and impedance
C	HF propagation
D	AC current and impedance

15. - E4A06

What is the effect of aliasing in a digital or computer-based oscilloscope?

Select	Answer
A	All signals will have a DC offset
B	Calibration of the vertical scale is no longer valid
C	False triggering occurs
D	False signals are displayed

16. - E4B16

Which S parameter represents return loss or SWR?

Select	Answer
A	S12
B	S11
C	S22
D	S21

17. - E4C06

A CW receiver with the AGC off has an equivalent input noise power density of -174 dBm/Hz. What would be the level of an unmodulated carrier input to this receiver that would yield an audio output SNR of 0 dB in a 400 Hz noise bandwidth?

Select	Answer
A	-155 dBm
B	-174 dBm
C	-164 dBm
D	-148 dBm

18. - E4D05

What transmitter frequencies would cause an intermodulation-product signal in a receiver tuned to 146.70 MHz when a nearby station transmits on 146.52 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	146.88 MHz and 146.34 MHz
B	146.10 MHz and 147.30 MHz
C	173.35 MHz and 139.40 MHz
D	146.34 MHz and 146.61 MHz

19. - E4E12

What is one disadvantage of using some types of automatic DSP notch-filters when attempting to copy CW signals?

Select	Answer
A	Any nearby signal passing through the DSP system will overwhelm the desired signal
B	Ringing in the DSP filter will completely remove the spaces between the CW characters
C	A DSP filter can remove the desired signal at the same time as it removes interfering signals
D	Received CW signals will appear to be modulated at the DSP clock frequency

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	It has no effect on impedance matching
D	Matching range is increased

21. - E5B02

What is the term for the time it takes for a charged capacitor in an RC circuit to discharge to 36.8% of its initial voltage?

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

22. - E5C11

What do the two numbers that are used to define a point on a graph using rectangular coordinates represent?

Select	Answer
A	The tangent and cotangent values
B	The magnitude and phase of the point
C	The coordinate values along the horizontal and vertical axes
D	The sine and cosine values

23. - E5D13

How much power is consumed in a circuit consisting of a 100 ohm resistor in series with a 100 ohm inductive reactance drawing 1 ampere?

Select	Answer
A	141.4 Watts
B	70.7 Watts
C	200 Watts
D	100 Watts

24. - E6A05

What is the alpha of a bipolar junction transistor?

Select	Answer
A	The change of collector current with respect to base current
B	The change of collector current with respect to emitter current
C	The change of base current with respect to collector current
D	The change of collector current with respect to gate current

25. - E6B07

What is the failure mechanism when a junction diode fails due to excessive current?

Select	Answer
A	Charge carrier depletion
B	Insufficient forward voltage
C	Excessive inverse voltage
D	Excessive junction temperature

26. - E6C07

What best describes a pull-up or pull-down resistor?

Select	Answer
A	A resistor that insures that an oscillator frequency does not drive lower over time
B	A resistor connected to the positive or negative supply line used to establish a voltage when an input or output is an open circuit
C	A resistor connected to an op-amp output that only functions when the logic output is false
D	A resistor in a keying circuit used to reduce key clicks

27. - E6D17

Why should core saturation of a conventional impedance matching transformer be avoided?

Select	Answer
A	RF susceptance would increase
B	Magnetic flux would increase with frequency
C	Harmonics and distortion could result
D	Temporary changes of the core permeability could result

28. - E6E10

What is the packaging technique in which leadless components are soldered directly to circuit boards?

Select	Answer
A	Surface mount
B	Virtual lead mounting
C	Direct soldering
D	Stripped lead

29. - E6F02

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

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

30. - E7A06

What is a characteristic of a monostable multivibrator?

Select	Answer
A	It stores one bit of data in either a 0 or 1 state
B	It switches momentarily to the opposite binary state and then returns to its original state after a set time
C	It maintains a constant output voltage, regardless of variations in the input voltage
D	It produces a continuous square wave oscillating between 1 and 0

31. - E7B01

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

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

32. - E7C01

How are the capacitors and inductors of a low-pass filter Pi-network arranged between the network's input and output?

Select	Answer
A	Two capacitors are in series between the input and output, and an inductor is connected between the two capacitors and ground
B	An inductor is connected between the input and ground, another inductor is connected between the output and ground, and a capacitor is connected between the input and output
C	A capacitor is connected between the input and ground, another capacitor is connected between the output and ground, and an inductor is connected between input and output
D	Two inductors are in series between the input and output, and a capacitor is connected between the two inductors and ground

33. - E7D01

What is one characteristic of a linear electronic voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	It eliminates the need for a pass transistor
B	The control element duty cycle is proportional to the line or load conditions
C	It has a ramp voltage as its output
D	The conduction of a control element is varied to maintain a constant output voltage

34. - E7E05

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

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

35. - E7F14

Which of the following would allow a digital signal processing filter to create a sharper filter response?

Select	Answer
A	Double-precision math routines
B	Higher data rate
C	Complex phasor representations
D	More taps

36. - E7G08

How does the gain of an ideal operational amplifier vary with frequency?

Select	Answer
A	It increases linearly with increasing frequency
B	It decreases linearly with increasing frequency
C	It decreases logarithmically with increasing frequency
D	It does not vary with frequency

37. - E7H12

Which of the following must be done to insure that a crystal oscillator provides the frequency specified by the crystal manufacturer?

Select	Answer
A	Provide the crystal with a specified parallel capacitance
B	Bias the crystal at a specified voltage
C	Provide the crystal with a specified parallel inductance
D	Bias the crystal at a specified current

38. - E8A08

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

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

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	0.167
B	1.67
C	0.6
D	60

40. - E8C08

How does ARQ accomplish error correction?

Select	Answer
A	If errors are detected, a retransmission is requested
B	Special polynomial codes provide automatic correction
C	Special binary codes provide automatic correction
D	If errors are detected, redundant data is substituted

41. - E8D04

What is the primary effect of extremely short rise or fall time on a CW signal?

Select	Answer
A	Limits data speed
B	The generation of key clicks
C	More difficult to copy
D	The generation of RF harmonics

42. - E9A03

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

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

43. - E9B12

What is the far field of an antenna?

Select	Answer
A	The region of the ionosphere where radiated power is not refracted
B	The region where the shape of the antenna pattern is independent of distance
C	The region where radiated power dissipates over a specified time period
D	The region where radiated field strengths are obstructed by objects of reflection

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

45. - E9D09

What is the function of a loading coil used as part of an HF mobile antenna?

Select	Answer
A	To cancel capacitive reactance
B	To lower the losses
C	To increase the SWR bandwidth
D	To lower the Q

46. - E9E13

What is a use for a Wilkinson divider?

Select	Answer
A	It is used to feed low-impedance loads from a high-impedance source
B	It divides the operating frequency of a transmitter signal so it can be used on a lower frequency band
C	It is used to divide power equally between two 50 ohm loads while maintaining 50 ohm input impedance
D	It is used to feed high-impedance antennas from a low-impedance source

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	Very high impedance
B	Very low impedance
C	The same as the input impedance to the generator
D	The same as the characteristic impedance of the line

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	Standing wave ratio circles
C	Radiation-pattern circles
D	Coaxial-length circles

49. - E9H07

Why is it advisable to use an RF attenuator on a receiver being used for direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	It reduces loss of received signals caused by antenna pattern nulls, thereby increasing sensitivity
B	It prevents receiver overload which could make it difficult to determine peaks or nulls
C	It compensates for the effects of an isotropic antenna, thereby improving directivity
D	It narrows the bandwidth of the received signal to improve signal to noise ratio

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