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

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1. - E1A07

Which amateur band requires transmission on specific channels rather than on a range of frequencies?

Select	Answer
A	30 meter band
B	12 meter band
C	17 meter band
D	60 meter band

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	No special rules apply if your antenna structure will be less than 300 feet in height
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	You must file an Environmental Impact Statement with the EPA before construction begins

3. - E1C02

What is meant by automatic control of a station?

Select	Answer
A	The use of a control link between a control point and a locally controlled station
B	A station operating with its output power controlled automatically
C	Remotely controlling a station's antenna pattern through a directional control link
D	The use of devices and procedures for control so that the control operator does not have to be present at a control point

4. - E1D03

What is a telecommand station in the amateur satellite service?

Select	Answer
A	An amateur station that transmits communications to initiate, modify or terminate functions of a space station
B	An amateur station that transmits telemetry consisting of measurements of upper atmosphere
C	An amateur station located more than 50 km above the Earth's surface
D	An amateur station located on the Earth's surface for communication with other Earth stations by means of Earth satellites

5. - E1E04

Which of the following best describes the Volunteer Examiner accreditation process?

Select	Answer
A	The prospective VE obtains accreditation from the FCC
B	The amateur operator applying must pass a VE examination administered by the FCC Enforcement Bureau
C	Each General, Advanced and Amateur Extra Class operator is automatically accredited as a VE when the license is granted
D	The procedure by which a VEC confirms that the VE applicant meets FCC requirements to serve as an examiner

6. - E1F06

Under what circumstances might the FCC issue a Special Temporary Authority (STA) to an amateur station?

Select	Answer
A	To allow regular operation on Land Mobile channels
B	To provide temporary operation while awaiting normal licensing
C	To provide additional spectrum for personal use
D	To provide for experimental amateur communications

7. - E2A11

What type of antenna can be used to minimize the effects of spin modulation and Faraday rotation?

Select	Answer
A	A circularly polarized antenna
B	An isotropic antenna
C	A linearly polarized antenna
D	A log-periodic dipole array

8. - E2B11

What is the function of the Vertical Interval Signaling (VIS) code sent as part of an SSTV transmission?

Select	Answer
A	To identify the SSTV mode being used
B	To provide vertical synchronization
C	To lock the color burst oscillator in color SSTV images
D	To identify the call sign of the station transmitting

9. - E2C13

What indicator is required to be used by U.S.-licensed operators when operating a station via remote control where the transmitter is located in the U.S.?

Select	Answer
A	/ followed by the USPS two letter abbreviation for the state in which the remote station is located
B	The ARRL section of the remote station
C	/R# where # is the district of the remote station
D	No additional indicator is required

10. - E2D11

Which of the following data are used by the APRS network to communicate your location?

Select	Answer
A	Time and frequency
B	Radio direction finding spectrum analysis
C	Polar coordinates
D	Latitude and longitude

11. - E2E06

What is the most common data rate used for HF packet?

Select	Answer
A	48 baud
B	110 baud
C	1200 baud
D	300 baud

12. - E3A07

Atmospheric ducts capable of propagating microwave signals often form over what geographic feature?

Select	Answer
A	Urban areas
B	Bodies of water
C	Mountain ranges
D	Forests

13. - E3B11

At what time of day is Sporadic-E propagation most likely to occur?

Select	Answer
A	Around sunrise
B	Early evening
C	Around sunset
D	Any time

14. - E3C01

What does the term ray tracing describe in regard to radio communications?

Select	Answer
A	Modeling a radio wave's path through the ionosphere
B	The process in which an electronic display presents a pattern
C	Evaluating high voltage sources for X-Rays
D	Determining the radiation pattern from an array of antennas

15. - E4A07

Which of the following is an advantage of using an antenna analyzer compared to an SWR bridge to measure antenna SWR?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	Antenna analyzers display a time-varying representation of the modulation envelope
C	Antenna analyzers do not need an external RF source
D	Antenna analyzers automatically tune your antenna for resonance

16. - E4B04

If a frequency counter with a specified accuracy of +/- 0.1 ppm reads 146,520,000 Hz, what is the most the actual frequency being measured could differ from the reading?

Select	Answer
A	1.4652 Hz
B	1.4652 kHz
C	0.1 MHz
D	14.652 Hz

17. - E4C12

What is an undesirable effect of using too wide a filter bandwidth in the IF section of a receiver?

Select	Answer
A	Thermal-noise distortion
B	Undesired signals may be heard
C	Output-offset overshoot
D	Filter ringing

18. - E4D01

What is meant by the blocking dynamic range of a receiver?

Select	Answer
A	The difference in dB between the noise floor and the third order intercept point
B	The minimum difference in dB between two signals which produce third order intermodulation products greater than the noise floor
C	The minimum difference in dB between the levels of two FM signals which will cause one signal to block the other
D	The difference in dB between the noise floor and the level of an incoming signal which will cause 1 dB of gain compression

19. - E4E13

What might be the cause of a loud roaring or buzzing AC line interference that comes and goes at intervals?

Select	Answer
A	A defective doorbell or doorbell transformer inside a nearby residence
B	A malfunctioning illuminated advertising display
C	All of these choices are correct
D	Arcing contacts in a thermostatically controlled device

20. - E5A07

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

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

21. - E5B03

What happens to the phase angle of a reactance when it is converted to a susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	It is unchanged
B	The susceptance phase angle is the inverse of the reactance phase angle
C	It is shifted by 90 degrees
D	The sign is reversed

22. - E5C15

Which point in Figure E5-2 best represents the impedance of a series circuit consisting of a 300 ohm resistor and an 18 microhenry inductor at 3.505 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	Point 1
B	Point 3
C	Point 7
D	Point 8

23. - E5D11

What is the power factor of an R-L circuit having a 60 degree phase angle between the voltage and the current?

Select	Answer
A	1.414
B	1.73
C	0.5
D	0.866

24. - E6A05

What is the alpha of a bipolar junction transistor?

Select	Answer
A	The change of collector current with respect to gate 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 base current

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 negative resistance region
C	A constant current drop under conditions of varying voltage
D	A constant voltage drop under conditions of varying current

26. - E6C08

In Figure E6-5, what is the schematic symbol for a NAND gate?

Select	Answer
A	2
B	3
C	4
D	1

27. - E6D04

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

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

28. - E6E12

Why are high-power RF amplifier ICs and transistors sometimes mounted in ceramic packages?

Select	Answer
A	Enhanced sensitivity to light
B	To provide a low-pass frequency response
C	Better dissipation of heat
D	High-voltage insulating ability

29. - E6F07

What is a solid state relay?

Select	Answer
A	A relay using transistors to drive the relay coil
B	A passive delay line
C	A mechanical relay that latches in the on or off state each time it is pulsed
D	A device that uses semiconductors to implement the functions of an electromechanical relay

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. - E7B06

Which of the following amplifier types reduces or eliminates even order harmonics?

Select	Answer
A	Push-pull
B	Push-push
C	Class AB
D	Class C

32. - E7C03

What advantage does a Pi-L-network have over a regular Pi-network for impedance matching between the final amplifier of a vacuum-tube transmitter and an antenna?

Select	Answer
A	Lower losses
B	Greater transformation range
C	Greater harmonic suppression
D	Higher efficiency

33. - E7D02

What is one characteristic of a switching electronic voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	The controlled device's duty cycle is changed to produce a constant average output voltage
B	It is generally less efficient than a linear regulator
C	The resistance of a control element is varied in direct proportion to the line voltage or load current
D	It gives a ramp voltage at its output

34. - E7E03

How does an analog phase modulator function?

Select	Answer
A	By varying the tuning of an amplifier tank circuit to produce AM signals
B	By varying the tuning of an amplifier tank circuit to produce PM signals
C	By varying the tuning of a microphone preamplifier to produce PM signals
D	By varying the tuning of a microphone preamplifier to produce AM signals

35. - E7F08

What is the function of decimation with regard to digital filters?

Select	Answer
A	Reducing the effective sample rate by removing samples
B	Converting data to binary code decimal form
C	Attenuating the signal
D	Removing unnecessary significant digits

36. - E7G08

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

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

37. - E7H10

What information is contained in the lookup table of a direct digital frequency synthesizer?

Select	Answer
A	The amplitude values that represent a sine-wave output
B	The phase relationship between a voltage-controlled oscillator and the output waveform
C	The phase relationship between a reference oscillator and the output waveform
D	The synthesizer frequency limits and frequency values stored in the radio memories

38. - E8A13

Which of these methods is commonly used to convert analog signals to digital signals?

Select	Answer
A	Sequential sampling
B	Phase reversal
C	Level shifting
D	Harmonic regeneration

39. - E8B11

What is digital time division multiplexing?

Select	Answer
A	Two or more data streams share the same channel by transmitting time of transmission as the sub-carrier
B	Two or more data streams are assigned to discrete sub-carriers on an FM transmitter
C	Two or more signals are quadrature modulated to increase bandwidth efficiency
D	Two or more signals are arranged to share discrete time slots of a data transmission

40. - E8C07

What is the necessary bandwidth of a 4800-Hz frequency shift, 9600-baud ASCII FM transmission?

Select	Answer
A	9.6 kHz
B	15.36 kHz
C	4.8 kHz
D	5.76 kHz

41. - E8D03

How does the spread spectrum technique of frequency hopping work?

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

42. - E9A11

Which of the following factors determines ground losses for a ground-mounted vertical antenna operating in the 3 MHz to 30 MHz range?

Select	Answer
A	The standing wave ratio
B	Take-off angle
C	Soil conductivity
D	Distance from the transmitter

43. - E9B12

What is the far field of an antenna?

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

44. - E9C06

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

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

45. - E9D07

What is an advantage of using top loading in a shortened HF vertical antenna?

Select	Answer
A	Improved radiation efficiency
B	Greater structural strength
C	Lower Q
D	Higher losses

46. - E9E06

What is the equivalent lumped-constant network for a hairpin matching system of a 3-element Yagi?

Select	Answer
A	Pi-L-network
B	A shunt inductor
C	Pi-network
D	A series capacitor

47. - E9F05

What is the approximate physical length of a solid polyethylene dielectric coaxial transmission line that is electrically one-quarter wavelength long at 14.1 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	0.2 meters
B	2.3 meters
C	3.5 meters
D	20 meters

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

49. - E9H05

What is the main drawback of a wire-loop antenna for direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	It is practical for use only on VHF bands
B	It has a bidirectional pattern
C	It is non-rotatable
D	It receives equally well in all directions

50. - E0A01

What is the primary function of an external earth connection or ground rod?

Select	Answer
A	Reduce RF current flow between pieces of equipment
B	Reduce RFI to telephones and home entertainment systems
C	Lightning protection
D	Reduce received noise

Figure E5-2

Figure E6-5