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

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1. - E1A12

With your transceiver displaying the carrier frequency of CW signals, you hear a DX station's CQ on 3.500 MHz. Is it legal to return the call using CW on the same frequency?

Select	Answer
A	No, U.S. stations are not permitted to use CW emissions below 3.525 MHz
B	No, one of the sidebands of the CW signal will be out of the band
C	Yes, the DX station initiated the contact
D	Yes, the displayed frequency is within the 80 meter CW band segment

2. - E1B11

What is the permitted mean power of any spurious emission relative to the mean power of the fundamental emission from a station transmitter or external RF amplifier installed after January 1, 2003 and transmitting on a frequency below 30 MHZ?

Select	Answer
A	At least 43 dB below
B	At least 73 dB below
C	At least 63 dB below
D	At least 53 dB below

3. - E1C03

How do the control operator responsibilities of a station under automatic control differ from one under local control?

Select	Answer
A	Under automatic control the control operator is not required to be present at the control point
B	Under automatic control there is no control operator
C	Under local control there is no control operator
D	Under local control a control operator is not required 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	6 meters, 2 meters, and 1.25 meters
C	6 meters and 2 meters
D	2 meters and 1.25 meters

5. - E1E09

What may be the penalty for a VE who fraudulently administers or certifies an examination?

Select	Answer
A	A sentence of up to one year in prison
B	All of these choices are correct
C	A fine of up to $1000 per occurrence
D	Revocation of the VE's amateur station license grant and the suspension of the VE's amateur operator license grant

6. - E1F04

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

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

7. - E2A09

What do the terms L band and S band specify with regard to satellite communications?

Select	Answer
A	Which sideband to use
B	The 23 centimeter and 13 centimeter bands
C	FM and Digital Store-and-Forward systems
D	The 2 meter and 70 centimeter bands

8. - E2B06

What is vestigial sideband modulation?

Select	Answer
A	Amplitude modulation in which one complete sideband and a portion of the other are transmitted
B	Spread spectrum modulation achieved by applying FM modulation following single sideband amplitude modulation
C	Narrow-band FM modulation achieved by filtering one sideband from the audio before frequency modulating the carrier
D	A type of modulation in which one sideband is inverted

9. - E2C07

What is the Cabrillo format?

Select	Answer
A	The most common set of contest rules
B	A method of exchanging information during a contest QSO
C	The rules of order for meetings between contest sponsors
D	A standard for submission of electronic contest logs

10. - E2D12

How does JT65 improve EME communications?

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

11. - E2E12

Which type of control is used by stations using the Automatic Link Enable (ALE) protocol?

Select	Answer
A	ALE can use any type of control
B	Remote
C	Automatic
D	Local

12. - E3A07

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

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

13. - E3B09

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

Select	Answer
A	Around the equinoxes, especially the fall equinox
B	Around the solstices, especially the summer solstice
C	Around the equinoxes, especially the spring equinox
D	Around the solstices, especially the winter solstice

14. - E3C08

What does the space weather term G5 mean?

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

15. - E4A01

Which of the following parameter determines the bandwidth of a digital or computer-based oscilloscope?

Select	Answer
A	Sample resolution
B	Input capacitance
C	Sampling rate
D	Input impedance

16. - E4B12

What is the significance of voltmeter sensitivity expressed in ohms per volt?

Select	Answer
A	When used as a galvanometer, the reading in volts multiplied by the ohms per volt rating will determine the power drawn by the device under test
B	When used as an ohmmeter, the reading in ohms divided by the ohms per volt rating will determine the voltage applied to the circuit
C	When used as an ammeter, the full scale reading in amps divided by ohms per volt rating will determine the size of shunt needed
D	The full scale reading of the voltmeter multiplied by its ohms per volt rating will indicate the input impedance of the voltmeter

17. - E4C08

An SDR receiver is overloaded when input signals exceed what level?

Select	Answer
A	The maximum count value of the analog-to-digital converter
B	One-half the maximum sampling buffer size
C	The reference voltage of the analog-to-digital converter
D	One-half the maximum sample rate

18. - E4D07

Which describes the most significant effect of an off-frequency signal when it is causing cross-modulation interference to a desired signal?

Select	Answer
A	A large increase in background noise
B	The desired signal can no longer be heard
C	The off-frequency unwanted signal is heard in addition to the desired signal
D	A reduction in apparent signal strength

19. - E4E03

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

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

20. - E5A14

What is the resonant frequency of a series RLC circuit if R is 22 ohms, L is 50 microhenrys and C is 40 picofarads?

Select	Answer
A	22.36 MHz
B	3.56 MHz
C	44.72 MHz
D	1.78 MHz

21. - E5B13

What letter is commonly used to represent susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	Y
B	X
C	G
D	B

22. - E5C08

What coordinate system is often used to display the phase angle of a circuit containing resistance, inductive and/or capacitive reactance?

Select	Answer
A	Polar coordinates
B	Elliptical coordinates
C	Faraday grid
D	Maidenhead grid

23. - E5D02

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

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

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 breakdown voltage of the base to collector junction
C	The change in collector current with respect to base current
D	The switching speed of the transistor

25. - E6B05

What characteristic of a PIN diode makes it useful as an RF switch or attenuator?

Select	Answer
A	Ability to dissipate large amounts of power
B	Reverse bias controls its forward voltage drop
C	A large region of intrinsic material
D	Extremely high reverse breakdown voltage

26. - E6C05

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

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

27. - E6D15

What is current in the primary winding of a transformer called if no load is attached to the secondary?

Select	Answer
A	Stabilizing current
B	Magnetizing current
C	Excitation current
D	Direct current

28. - E6E03

Which of the following materials is likely to provide the highest frequency of operation when used in MMICs?

Select	Answer
A	Gallium nitride
B	Silicon nitride
C	Silicon dioxide
D	Silicon

29. - E6F03

What is the most common configuration of an optoisolator or optocoupler?

Select	Answer
A	An LED and a phototransistor
B	A lens and a photomultiplier
C	An amplitude modulated helium-neon laser
D	A frequency modulated helium-neon laser

30. - E7A08

What logical operation does an OR gate perform?

Select	Answer
A	It only produces logic "0" at its output when all inputs are logic "1"
B	It produces logic "1" at its output if all inputs are logic "0"
C	It produces logic "1" at its output if any or all inputs are logic "1"
D	It produces logic "0" at its output if all inputs are logic "1"

31. - E7B18

What is a characteristic of a grounded-grid amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	Low input impedance
B	High power gain
C	High filament voltage
D	Low bandwidth

32. - E7C04

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

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

33. - E7D13

What is the equation for calculating power dissipation by a series connected linear voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	Output voltage multiplied by output current
B	Input voltage multiplied by input current
C	Voltage difference from input to output multiplied by output current
D	Input voltage divided by output current

34. - E7E03

How does an analog phase modulator function?

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

35. - E7F17

What do the letters I and Q in I/Q Modulation represent?

Select	Answer
A	In-phase and Quadrature
B	Inactive and Quiescent
C	Instantaneous and Quasi-stable
D	Instantaneous and Quenched

36. - E7G11

What absolute voltage gain can be expected from the circuit in Figure E7-4 when R1 is 3300 ohms and RF is 47 kilohms?

Select	Answer
A	7
B	14
C	0.07
D	28

37. - E7H13

Which of the following is a technique for providing highly accurate and stable oscillators needed for microwave transmission and reception?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	Use a GPS signal reference
C	Use a rubidium stabilized reference oscillator
D	Use a temperature-controlled high Q dielectric resonator

38. - E8A09

How many levels can an analog-to-digital converter with 8 bit resolution encode?

Select	Answer
A	256
B	8
C	8 multiplied by the gain of the input amplifier
D	256 divided by the gain of the input amplifier

39. - E8B09

What is meant by deviation ratio?

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

40. - E8C10

What is an advantage of Gray code in digital communications where symbols are transmitted as multiple bits

Select	Answer
A	It facilitates error detection
B	It increases security
C	It has more resolution than simple binary
D	It has more possible states than simple binary

41. - E8D11

What is one advantage of using ASCII code for data communications?

Select	Answer
A	It is possible to transmit both upper and lower case text
B	It uses one character as a shift code to send numeric and special characters
C	It includes built in error correction features
D	It contains fewer information bits per character than any other code

42. - E9A07

What is meant by antenna gain?

Select	Answer
A	The final amplifier gain minus the transmission line losses
B	The ratio of the signal in the forward direction to that in the opposite direction
C	The ratio of the amount of power radiated by an antenna compared to the transmitter output power
D	The ratio of the radiated signal strength of an antenna in the direction of maximum radiation to that of a reference antenna

43. - E9B15

What is the front-to-back ratio of the radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-2?

Select	Answer
A	3 dB
B	24 dB
C	28 dB
D	15 dB

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 decreases the ground loss
C	It changes the radiation pattern from bidirectional to unidirectional
D	It changes the radiation pattern from horizontal to vertical polarization

45. - E9D07

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

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

46. - E9E05

How must the driven element in a 3-element Yagi be tuned to use a hairpin matching system?

Select	Answer
A	The driven element resonance must be lower than the operating frequency
B	The driven element reactance must be inductive
C	The driven element radiation resistance must be higher than the characteristic impedance of the transmission line
D	The driven element reactance must be capacitive

47. - E9F04

What is the typical velocity factor for a coaxial cable with solid polyethylene dielectric?

Select	Answer
A	0.30
B	0.66
C	0.10
D	2.70

48. - E9G10

What do the arcs on a Smith chart represent?

Select	Answer
A	Points with constant reactance
B	Points with constant resistance
C	Frequency
D	SWR

49. - E9H07

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

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

50. - E0A09

Which insulating material commonly used as a thermal conductor for some types of electronic devices is extremely toxic if broken or crushed and the particles are accidentally inhaled?

Select	Answer
A	Mica
B	Beryllium Oxide
C	Zinc oxide
D	Uranium Hexafluoride

Figure E7-4

Figure E9-2