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

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1. - E1A02

When using a transceiver that displays the carrier frequency of phone signals, which of the following displayed frequencies represents the lowest frequency at which a properly adjusted LSB emission will be totally within the band?

Select	Answer
A	3 kHz above the lower band edge
B	300 Hz above the lower band edge
C	1 kHz above the lower band edge
D	The exact lower band edge

2. - E1B08

What limitations may the FCC place on an amateur station if its signal causes interference to domestic broadcast reception, assuming that the receivers involved are of good engineering design?

Select	Answer
A	The amateur station must avoid transmitting during certain hours on frequencies that cause the interference
B	The amateur station must cease operation on all frequencies below 30 MHz
C	The amateur station must cease operation
D	The amateur station must cease operation on all frequencies above 30 MHz

3. - E1C02

What is meant by automatic control of a station?

Select	Answer
A	Remotely controlling a station's antenna pattern through a directional control link
B	A station operating with its output power controlled automatically
C	The use of a control link between a control point and a locally controlled station
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. - E1D08

Which VHF amateur service bands have frequencies available for space stations?

Select	Answer
A	2 meters
B	2 meters and 1.25 meters
C	6 meters, 2 meters, and 1.25 meters
D	6 meters and 2 meters

5. - E1E14

For which types of out-of-pocket expenses do the Part 97 rules state that VEs and VECs may be reimbursed?

Select	Answer
A	Preparing, processing, administering and coordinating an examination for an amateur radio license
B	Teaching an amateur operator license examination preparation course
C	No expenses are authorized for reimbursement
D	Providing amateur operator license examination preparation training materials

6. - E1F06

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

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

7. - E2A01

What is the direction of an ascending pass for an amateur satellite?

Select	Answer
A	From south to north
B	From east to west
C	From west to east
D	From north to south

8. - E2B08

Which of the following is a common method of transmitting accompanying audio with amateur fast-scan television?

Select	Answer
A	A separate VHF or UHF audio link
B	Frequency-modulated sub-carrier
C	Frequency modulation of the video carrier
D	All of these choices are correct

9. - E2C09

What type of equipment is commonly used to implement a ham radio mesh network?

Select	Answer
A	A 2 meter VHF transceiver with a 1200 baud modem
B	An optical cable connection between the USB ports of 2 separate computers
C	A standard wireless router running custom software
D	A 440 MHz transceiver with a 9600 baud modem

10. - E2D12

How does JT65 improve EME communications?

Select	Answer
A	It controls the receiver to track Doppler shift
B	It can decode signals many dB below the noise floor using FEC
C	It supplies signals to guide the antenna to track the Moon
D	All of these choices are correct

11. - E2E13

Which of the following is a possible reason that attempts to initiate contact with a digital station on a clear frequency are unsuccessful?

Select	Answer
A	Your transmit frequency is incorrect
B	All of these choices are correct
C	Another station you are unable to hear is using the frequency
D	The protocol version you are using is not the supported by the digital station

12. - E3A12

What is the cause of auroral activity?

Select	Answer
A	The interaction in the F2 layer between the solar wind and the Van Allen belt
B	Meteor showers concentrated in the extreme northern and southern latitudes
C	The interaction in the E layer of charged particles from the Sun with the Earth's magnetic field
D	A low sunspot level combined with tropospheric ducting

13. - E3B05

Which amateur bands typically support long-path propagation?

Select	Answer
A	160 meters to 10 meters
B	160 meters to 40 meters
C	6 meters to 2 meters
D	30 meters to 10 meters

14. - E3C06

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

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

15. - E4A04

What determines the upper frequency limit for a computer soundcard-based oscilloscope program?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	Amount of memory on the soundcard
C	Analog-to-digital conversion speed of the soundcard
D	Q of the interface of the interface circuit

16. - E4B15

Which of the following can be used as a relative measurement of the Q for a series-tuned circuit?

Select	Answer
A	The inductance to capacitance ratio
B	The bandwidth of the circuit's frequency response
C	The frequency shift
D	The resonant frequency of the circuit

17. - E4C10

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

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

18. - E4D09

What is the purpose of the preselector in a communications receiver?

Select	Answer
A	To provide a range of AGC time constants
B	To store often-used frequencies
C	To allow selection of the optimum RF amplifier device
D	To increase rejection of unwanted signals

19. - E4E14

What is one type of electrical interference that might be caused by the operation of a nearby personal computer?

Select	Answer
A	A whining type noise that continually pulses off and on
B	A loud AC hum in the audio output of your station receiver
C	A clicking noise at intervals of a few seconds
D	The appearance of unstable modulated or unmodulated signals at specific frequencies

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	436.6 kHz
B	15.7 kHz
C	218.3 kHz
D	31.4 kHz

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

22. - E5C10

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

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

23. - E5D07

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

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

24. - E6A06

What is the beta of a bipolar junction transistor?

Select	Answer
A	The frequency at which the current gain is reduced to 1
B	The change in collector current with respect to base current
C	The switching speed of the transistor
D	The breakdown voltage of the base to collector junction

25. - E6B06

Which of the following is a common use of a hot-carrier diode?

Select	Answer
A	As balanced mixers in FM generation
B	As a VHF/UHF mixer or detector
C	As a variable capacitance in an automatic frequency control circuit
D	As a constant voltage reference in a power supply

26. - E6C12

What is BiCMOS logic?

Select	Answer
A	A logic family based on bismuth CMOS devices
B	An integrated circuit logic family using both bipolar and CMOS transistors
C	A FET logic family based on bimetallic semiconductors
D	A logic device with two CMOS circuits per package

27. - E6D05

What is one reason for using ferrite cores rather than powdered-iron in an inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Ferrite toroids generally have better temperature stability
B	Ferrite toroids generally require fewer turns to produce a given inductance value
C	Ferrite toroids are easier to use with surface mount technology
D	Ferrite toroids generally have lower initial permeability

28. - E6E12

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

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

29. - E6F06

Which of these materials is affected the most by photoconductivity?

Select	Answer
A	A heavy metal
B	A crystalline semiconductor
C	A liquid semiconductor
D	An ordinary metal

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	An XOR gate
D	A multiplexer

31. - E7B17

Why are odd-order rather than even-order intermodulation distortion products of concern in linear power amplifiers?

Select	Answer
A	Because they maintain the sidebands, thus causing multiple duplicate signals
B	Because they invert the sidebands causing distortion
C	Because they are relatively far in frequency from the desired signal
D	Because they are relatively close in frequency to the desired signal

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

33. - E7D03

What device is typically used as a stable reference voltage in a linear voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	An SCR
B	A varactor diode
C	A Zener diode
D	A tunnel diode

34. - E7E07

What is meant by the term baseband in radio communications?

Select	Answer
A	The unmodulated bandwidth of the transmitted signal
B	The basic oscillator frequency in an FM transmitter that is multiplied to increase the deviation and carrier frequency
C	The frequency components present in the modulating signal
D	The lowest frequency band that the transmitter or receiver covers

35. - E7F13

What is the function of taps in a digital signal processing filter?

Select	Answer
A	To reduce excess signal pressure levels
B	Provide incremental signal delays for filter algorithms
C	Select the point at which baseband signals are generated
D	Provide access for debugging software

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	38
C	76
D	0.03

37. - E7H14

What is a phase-locked loop circuit?

Select	Answer
A	An electronic servo loop consisting of a phase detector, a low-pass filter, a voltage-controlled oscillator, and a stable reference oscillator
B	An electronic servo loop consisting of a ratio detector, reactance modulator, and voltage-controlled oscillator
C	An electronic circuit also known as a monostable multivibrator
D	An electronic circuit consisting of a precision push-pull amplifier with a differential input

38. - E8A03

What type of wave does a Fourier analysis show to be made up of sine waves of a given fundamental frequency plus all of its harmonics?

Select	Answer
A	A cosine wave
B	A sine wave
C	A sawtooth wave
D	A square wave

39. - E8B09

What is meant by deviation ratio?

Select	Answer
A	The ratio of the audio modulating frequency to the center carrier frequency
B	The ratio of the carrier center frequency to the audio modulating frequency
C	The ratio of the highest audio modulating frequency to the average audio modulating frequency
D	The ratio of the maximum carrier frequency deviation to the highest audio modulating frequency

40. - E8C02

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

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

41. - E8D09

What is considered a good minimum IMD level for an idling PSK signal?

Select	Answer
A	-30 dB
B	+15 dB
C	-20 dB
D	+10 dB

42. - E9A04

Which of the following factors may affect the feed point impedance of an antenna?

Select	Answer
A	The settings of an antenna tuner at the transmitter
B	Sunspot activity and time of day
C	Transmission-line length
D	Antenna height, conductor length/diameter ratio and location of nearby conductive objects

43. - E9B05

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

Select	Answer
A	Radiation resistance
B	Polarization
C	Elevation
D	Azimuth

44. - E9C08

What is a folded dipole antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A dipole one-quarter wavelength long
B	A dipole configured to provide forward gain
C	A type of ground-plane antenna
D	A dipole consisting of one wavelength of wire forming a very thin loop

45. - E9D11

Which of the following types of conductors would be best for minimizing losses in a station's RF ground system?

Select	Answer
A	A single 12 gauge or 10 gauge stainless steel wire
B	A cable with six or seven 18 gauge conductors in parallel
C	A wide flat copper strap
D	A resistive wire, such as spark plug wire

46. - E9E12

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

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

47. - E9F11

What impedance does a 1/8 wavelength transmission line present to a generator when the line is open at the far end?

Select	Answer
A	An inductive reactance
B	The same as the characteristic impedance of the line
C	The same as the input impedance of the final generator stage
D	A capacitive reactance

48. - E9G02

What type of coordinate system is used in a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Resistance lines and reactance chords
B	Voltage circles and current arcs
C	Voltage lines and current chords
D	Resistance circles and reactance arcs

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

50. - E0A11

Which of the following injuries can result from using high-power UHF or microwave transmitters?

Select	Answer
A	Ingestion of ozone gas from the cooling system
B	Hearing loss caused by high voltage corona discharge
C	Localized heating of the body from RF exposure in excess of the MPE limits
D	Blood clotting from the intense magnetic field

Figure E7-4

Figure E9-2