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

2. - E1B04

What must be done before placing an amateur station within an officially designated wilderness area or wildlife preserve, or an area listed in the National Register of Historical Places?

Select	Answer
A	An Environmental Assessment must be submitted to the FCC
B	A proposal must be submitted to the National Park Service
C	A letter of intent must be filed with the National Audubon Society
D	A form FSD-15 must be submitted to the Department of the Interior

3. - E1C01

What is a remotely controlled station?

Select	Answer
A	A station operated away from its regular home location
B	A station controlled by someone other than the licensee
C	A station operating under automatic control
D	A station controlled indirectly through a control link

4. - E1D06

Which of the following is a requirement of a space station?

Select	Answer
A	The space station must cease all transmissions after 5 years
B	The space station must be capable of terminating transmissions by telecommand when directed by the FCC
C	All of these choices are correct
D	The space station must be capable of changing its orbit whenever such a change is ordered by NASA

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	Revocation of the VE's amateur station license grant and the suspension of the VE's amateur operator license grant
C	A fine of up to $1000 per occurrence
D	All of these choices are correct

6. - E1F12

Who may be the control operator of an auxiliary station?

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

7. - E2A04

What is meant by the term mode as applied to an amateur radio satellite?

Select	Answer
A	Whether the satellite is in a polar or equatorial orbit
B	The type of signals that can be relayed through the satellite
C	The satellite's orientation with respect to the Earth
D	The satellite's uplink and downlink frequency bands

8. - E2B04

What is blanking in a video signal?

Select	Answer
A	Synchronization of the horizontal and vertical sync pulses
B	Turning off the scanning beam while it is traveling from right to left or from bottom to top
C	Turning off the scanning beam at the conclusion of a transmission
D	Transmitting a black and white test pattern

9. - E2C07

What is the Cabrillo format?

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

10. - E2D02

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

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

11. - E2E10

Which of these digital modes has the narrowest bandwidth?

Select	Answer
A	PSK31
B	170 Hz shift, 45 baud RTTY
C	300-baud packet
D	MFSK16

12. - E3A13

Which emission mode is best for aurora propagation?

Select	Answer
A	SSB
B	CW
C	RTTY
D	FM

13. - E3B12

What is the primary characteristic of chordal hop propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Propagation across the geomagnetic equator
B	Signals reflected back toward the transmitting station
C	Successive ionospheric reflections without an intermediate reflection from the ground
D	Propagation away from the great circle bearing between stations

14. - E3C07

Which of the following descriptors indicates the greatest solar flare intensity?

Select	Answer
A	Class M
B	Class A
C	Class B
D	Class X

15. - E4A03

Which of the following test instrument is used to display spurious signals and/or intermodulation distortion products in an SSB transmitter?

Select	Answer
A	A logic analyzer
B	A time-domain reflectometer
C	A wattmeter
D	A spectrum analyzer

16. - E4B10

Which of the following describes a method to measure intermodulation distortion in an SSB transmitter?

Select	Answer
A	Modulate the transmitter with two non-harmonically related radio frequencies and observe the RF output with a spectrum analyzer
B	Modulate the transmitter with two non-harmonically related audio frequencies and observe the RF output with a spectrum analyzer
C	Modulate the transmitter with two harmonically related audio frequencies and observe the RF output with a peak reading wattmeter
D	Modulate the transmitter with two harmonically related audio frequencies and observe the RF output with a logic analyzer

17. - E4C04

How is the noise figure of a receiver defined?

Select	Answer
A	The ratio of atmospheric noise to phase noise
B	The ratio of thermal noise to atmospheric noise
C	The ratio in dB of the noise generated by the receiver to the theoretical minimum noise
D	The ratio of the noise bandwidth in Hertz to the theoretical bandwidth of a resistive network

18. - E4D08

What causes intermodulation in an electronic circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Too little gain
B	Positive feedback
C	Lack of neutralization
D	Nonlinear circuits or devices

19. - E4E04

How can conducted and radiated noise caused by an automobile alternator be suppressed?

Select	Answer
A	By connecting the radio's power leads directly to the battery and by installing coaxial capacitors in line with the alternator leads
B	By installing a noise suppression resistor and a blocking capacitor in both leads
C	By installing a high-pass filter in series with the radio's power lead and a low-pass filter in parallel with the field lead
D	By installing filter capacitors in series with the DC power lead and a blocking capacitor in the field lead

20. - E5A05

What is the magnitude of the current at the input of a series RLC circuit as the frequency goes through resonance?

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

21. - E5B04

What is the time constant of a circuit having two 220 microfarad capacitors and two 1 megohm resistors, all in parallel?

Select	Answer
A	55 seconds
B	220 seconds
C	440 seconds
D	110 seconds

22. - E5C09

When using rectangular coordinates to graph the impedance of a circuit, what does the horizontal 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	All of these choices are correct
B	To maintain component lifetime
C	To avoid unwanted inductive reactance
D	To increase the thermal time constant

24. - E6A03

Why does a PN-junction diode not conduct current when reverse biased?

Select	Answer
A	Only N-type semiconductor material can conduct current
B	Excess holes in P-type material combine with the electrons in N-type material, converting the entire diode into an insulator
C	Only P-type semiconductor material can conduct current
D	Holes in P-type material and electrons in the N-type material are separated by the applied voltage, widening the depletion region

25. - E6B12

What is one common use for PIN diodes?

Select	Answer
A	As an RF switch
B	As a high voltage rectifier
C	As a constant current source
D	As a constant voltage source

26. - E6C10

In Figure E6-5, what is the schematic symbol for a NOR gate?

Select	Answer
A	1
B	2
C	4
D	3

27. - E6D02

What is the equivalent circuit of a quartz crystal?

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

28. - E6E06

What characteristics of the MMIC make it a popular choice for VHF through microwave circuits?

Select	Answer
A	Controlled gain, low noise figure, and constant input and output impedance over the specified frequency range
B	The ability to retrieve information from a single signal even in the presence of other strong signals
C	Nearly infinite gain, very high input impedance, and very low output impedance
D	Plate current that is controlled by a control grid

29. - E6F04

What is the photovoltaic effect?

Select	Answer
A	The conversion of light to electrical energy
B	The tendency of a battery to discharge when used outside
C	The conversion of voltage to current when exposed to light
D	The conversion of electrical energy to mechanical energy

30. - E7A06

What is a characteristic of a monostable multivibrator?

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

31. - E7B03

Which of the following components form the output of a class D amplifier circuit?

Select	Answer
A	A matched load resistor to prevent damage by switching transients
B	A low-pass filter to remove switching signal components
C	A temperature compensating load resistor to improve linearity
D	A high-pass filter to compensate for low gain at low frequencies

32. - E7C12

Which describes a Pi-L-network used for matching a vacuum tube final amplifier to a 50 ohm unbalanced output?

Select	Answer
A	A network with only three discrete parts
B	A matching network in which all components are isolated from ground
C	A Phase Inverter Load network
D	A Pi-network with an additional series inductor on the output

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. - 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 driving a product detector with a DSB signal
D	By using a reactance modulator followed by a mixer

35. - E7F16

How might the sampling rate of an existing digital signal be adjusted by a factor of 3/4?

Select	Answer
A	Change the gain by a factor of 3/4
B	Multiply each sample value by a factor of 3/4
C	Add 3 to each input value and subtract 4 from each output value
D	Interpolate by a factor of three, then decimate by a factor of four

36. - E7G03

What is the typical input impedance of an integrated circuit op-amp?

Select	Answer
A	Very high
B	Very low
C	1000 ohms
D	100 ohms

37. - E7H11

What are the major spectral impurity components of direct digital synthesizers?

Select	Answer
A	Digital conversion noise
B	Broadband noise
C	Spurious signals at discrete frequencies
D	Nyquist limit noise

38. - E8A06

What is the approximate ratio of PEP-to-average power in a typical single-sideband phone signal?

Select	Answer
A	100 to 1
B	1 to 1
C	25 to 1
D	2.5 to 1

39. - E8B01

What is the term for the ratio between the frequency deviation of an RF carrier wave and the modulating frequency of its corresponding FM-phone signal?

Select	Answer
A	Modulation index
B	Percentage of modulation
C	FM compressibility
D	Quieting index

40. - E8C07

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

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

41. - E8D05

What is the most common method of reducing key clicks?

Select	Answer
A	High-pass filters at the transmitter output
B	Reduce keying waveform rise and fall times
C	Increase keying waveform rise and fall times
D	Low-pass filters at the transmitter output

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

43. - E9B02

In the antenna radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-1, what is the front-to-back ratio?

Select	Answer
A	36 dB
B	24 dB
C	18 dB
D	14 dB

44. - E9C05

What is an OCFD antenna?

Select	Answer
A	An eight band dipole antenna using octophase filters
B	A remotely tunable dipole antenna using orthogonally controlled frequency diversity
C	A dipole feed approximately 1/3 the way from one end with a 4:1 balun to provide multiband operation
D	A multiband dipole antenna using one-way circular polarization for frequency diversity

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 lower the Q
D	To increase the SWR bandwidth

46. - E9E10

Which of these choices is an effective way to match an antenna with a 100 ohm feed point impedance to a 50 ohm coaxial cable feed line?

Select	Answer
A	Connect a 1/4-wavelength open stub of 300 ohm twin-lead in parallel with the coaxial feed line where it connects to the antenna
B	Insert a 1/2 wavelength piece of 300 ohm twin-lead in series between the antenna terminals and the 50 ohm feed cable
C	Insert a 1/4-wavelength piece of 75 ohm coaxial cable transmission line in series between the antenna terminals and the 50 ohm feed cable
D	Connect 1/2 wavelength shorted stub of 75 ohm cable in parallel with the 50 ohm cable where it attaches to the antenna

47. - E9F02

Which of the following determines the velocity factor of a transmission line?

Select	Answer
A	The center conductor resistivity
B	The line length
C	Dielectric materials used in the line
D	The termination impedance

48. - E9G09

What third family of circles is often added to a Smith chart during the process of solving problems?

Select	Answer
A	Radiation-pattern circles
B	Coaxial-length circles
C	Antenna-length circles
D	Standing wave ratio circles

49. - E9H04

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

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

50. - E0A01

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

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

Figure E6-5

Figure E9-1