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

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1. - E1A06

Where must the carrier frequency of a CW signal be set to comply with FCC rules for 60 meter operation?

Select	Answer
A	At the highest frequency of the channel
B	On any frequency where the signal's sidebands are within the channel
C	At the center frequency of the channel
D	At the lowest frequency of the channel

2. - E1B09

Which amateur stations may be operated under RACES rules?

Select	Answer
A	Any FCC-licensed amateur station certified by the responsible civil defense organization for the area served
B	Any FCC-licensed amateur station participating in the Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS)
C	Any FCC-licensed amateur station except a Technician class
D	Only those club stations licensed to Amateur Extra class operators

3. - E1C09

Which of these ranges of frequencies is available for an automatically controlled repeater operating below 30 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	10.100 MHz - 10.150 MHz
B	29.500 MHz - 29.700 MHz
C	24.940 MHz - 24.990 MHz
D	18.110 MHz - 18.168 MHz

4. - E1D10

Which amateur stations are eligible to be telecommand stations?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	Any amateur station so designated by the space station licensee, subject to the privileges of the class of operator license held by the control operator
C	Any amateur station so designated by the ITU
D	Any amateur station designated by NASA

5. - E1E02

Where are the questions for all written U.S. amateur license examinations listed?

Select	Answer
A	In a question pool maintained by all the VECs
B	In the appropriate FCC Report and Order
C	In a question pool maintained by the FCC
D	In FCC Part 97

6. - E1F08

Which of the following types of amateur station communications are prohibited?

Select	Answer
A	Communications that have a political content, except as allowed by the Fairness Doctrine
B	Communications that have a religious content
C	Communications in a language other than English
D	Communications transmitted for hire or material compensation, except as otherwise provided in the rules

7. - E2A01

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

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

8. - E2B17

What is the approximate bandwidth of a slow-scan TV signal?

Select	Answer
A	2 MHz
B	6 MHz
C	600 Hz
D	3 kHz

9. - E2C09

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

Select	Answer
A	A 440 MHz transceiver with a 9600 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 2 meter VHF transceiver with a 1200 baud modem

10. - E2D08

What type of packet frame is used to transmit APRS beacon data?

Select	Answer
A	Acknowledgement
B	Disconnect
C	Unnumbered Information
D	Connect

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	Another station you are unable to hear is using the frequency
C	All of these choices are correct
D	The protocol version you are using is not the supported by the digital station

12. - E3A16

Which of the following best describes electromagnetic waves traveling in free space?

Select	Answer
A	Electric and magnetic fields become aligned as they travel
B	The energy propagates through a medium with a high refractive index
C	The waves are reflected by the ionosphere and return to their source
D	Changing electric and magnetic fields propagate the energy

13. - E3B07

Which of the following could account for hearing an echo on the received signal of a distant station?

Select	Answer
A	Meteor scatter
B	High D layer absorption
C	Transmit frequency is higher than the MUF
D	Receipt of a signal by more than one path

14. - E3C11

What does VOACAP software model?

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

15. - E4A13

How is the compensation of an oscilloscope probe typically adjusted?

Select	Answer
A	A high frequency sine wave is displayed and the probe is adjusted for maximum amplitude
B	A frequency standard is displayed and the probe is adjusted until the deflection time is accurate
C	A square wave is displayed and the probe is adjusted until the horizontal portions of the displayed wave are as nearly flat as possible
D	A DC voltage standard is displayed and the probe is adjusted until the displayed voltage is accurate

16. - E4B01

Which of the following factors most affects the accuracy of a frequency counter?

Select	Answer
A	Decade divider accuracy
B	Temperature coefficient of the logic
C	Time base accuracy
D	Input attenuator accuracy

17. - E4C12

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

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

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. - E4E16

What current flows equally on all conductors of an unshielded multi-conductor cable?

Select	Answer
A	Reactive current only
B	Differential-mode current
C	Return current
D	Common-mode current

20. - E5A06

What is the magnitude of the circulating current within the components of a parallel LC circuit at resonance?

Select	Answer
A	It is at a maximum
B	It equals 1 divided by the quantity 2 times Pi, multiplied by the square root of inductance L multiplied by capacitance C
C	It is at a minimum
D	It equals 2 multiplied by Pi, multiplied by frequency, multiplied by inductance

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	110 seconds
B	55 seconds
C	440 seconds
D	220 seconds

22. - E5C17

Which point on Figure E5-2 best represents the impedance of a series circuit consisting of a 300 ohm resistor, a 0.64-microhenry inductor and an 85-picofarad capacitor at 24.900 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	Point 5
B	Point 1
C	Point 3
D	Point 8

23. - E5D01

What is the result of skin effect?

Select	Answer
A	Thermal effects on the surface of the conductor increase the impedance
B	Thermal effects on the surface of the conductor decrease the impedance
C	As frequency decreases, RF current flows in a thinner layer of the conductor, closer to the surface
D	As frequency increases, RF current flows in a thinner layer of the conductor, closer to the surface

24. - E6A14

How does DC input impedance at the gate of a field-effect transistor compare with the DC input impedance of a bipolar transistor?

Select	Answer
A	They are both high impedance
B	An FET has low input impedance; a bipolar transistor has high input impedance
C	They are both low impedance
D	An FET has high input impedance; a bipolar transistor has low input impedance

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 voltage drop under conditions of varying current
D	A constant current drop under conditions of varying voltage

26. - E6C14

What is the primary advantage of using a Programmable Gate Array (PGA) in a logic circuit?

Select	Answer
A	A PGA contains its own internal power supply
B	Many similar gates are less expensive than a mixture of gate types
C	All of these choices are correct
D	Complex logic functions can be created in a single integrated circuit

27. - E6D13

What is the primary cause of inductor self-resonance?

Select	Answer
A	Inductive kickback
B	Non-linear core hysteresis
C	Inter-turn capacitance
D	The skin effect

28. - E6E08

How is voltage from a power supply normally furnished to the most common type of monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC)?

Select	Answer
A	Through a resistor and/or RF choke connected to the amplifier output lead
B	Through a capacitor and RF choke connected to the amplifier input lead
C	Directly to the bias voltage (VCC IN) lead
D	MMICs require no operating bias

29. - E6F09

What is the efficiency of a photovoltaic cell?

Select	Answer
A	The output RF power divided by the input DC power
B	The effective payback period
C	The relative fraction of light that is converted to current
D	The open-circuit voltage divided by the short-circuit current under full illumination

30. - E7A10

What is a truth table?

Select	Answer
A	A diagram showing logic states when the digital device output is true
B	A list of inputs and corresponding outputs for a digital device
C	A table of logic symbols that indicate the logic states of an op-amp
D	A table of logic symbols that indicate the high logic states of an op-amp

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 high-pass filter to compensate for low gain at low frequencies
D	A temperature compensating load resistor to improve linearity

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 Pi-network with an additional series inductor on the output
C	A Phase Inverter Load network
D	A matching network in which all components are isolated from ground

33. - E7D11

What circuit element is controlled by a series analog voltage regulator to maintain a constant output voltage?

Select	Answer
A	Switching inductance
B	Pass transistor
C	Reference voltage
D	Error amplifier

34. - E7E07

What is meant by the term baseband in radio communications?

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

35. - E7F11

What sets the minimum detectable signal level for an SDR in the absence of atmospheric or thermal noise?

Select	Answer
A	Sample clock phase noise
B	Data storage transfer rate
C	Missing codes and jitter
D	Reference voltage level and sample width in bits

36. - E7G12

What is an integrated circuit operational amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	An amplifier used to increase the average output of frequency modulated amateur signals to the legal limit
B	A digital audio amplifier whose characteristics are determined by components external to the amplifier
C	A high-gain, direct-coupled differential amplifier with very high input impedance and very low output impedance
D	A RF amplifier used in the UHF and microwave regions

37. - E7H09

What type of frequency synthesizer circuit uses a phase accumulator, lookup table, digital to analog converter, and a low-pass anti-alias filter?

Select	Answer
A	A direct digital synthesizer
B	A phase locked loop synthesizer
C	A diode-switching matrix synthesizer
D	A hybrid synthesizer

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. - E8B03

What is the modulation index of an FM-phone signal having a maximum frequency deviation of 3000 Hz either side of the carrier frequency when the modulating frequency is 1000 Hz?

Select	Answer
A	3000
B	1000
C	0.3
D	3

40. - E8C03

When performing phase shift keying, why is it advantageous to shift phase precisely at the zero crossing of the RF carrier?

Select	Answer
A	It improves carrier suppression
B	It is easier to demodulate with a conventional, non-synchronous detector
C	All of these choices are correct
D	This results in the least possible transmitted bandwidth for the particular mode

41. - E8D07

What is a common cause of overmodulation of AFSK signals?

Select	Answer
A	Ground loops
B	Bit errors in the modem
C	Excessive numbers of retries
D	Excessive transmit audio levels

42. - E9A15

What is the effective radiated power relative to a dipole of a repeater station with 150 watts transmitter power output, 2 dB feed line loss, 2.2 dB duplexer loss, and 7 dBd antenna gain?

Select	Answer
A	286 watts
B	78.7 watts
C	1977 watts
D	420 watts

43. - E9B03

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

Select	Answer
A	12 dB
B	14 dB
C	24 dB
D	18 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 changes the radiation pattern from horizontal to vertical polarization
C	It changes the radiation pattern from bidirectional to unidirectional
D	It decreases the ground loss

45. - E9D07

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

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

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

48. - E9G03

Which of the following is often determined using a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Impedance and SWR values in transmission lines
B	Satellite azimuth and elevation bearings
C	Trigonometric functions
D	Beam headings and radiation patterns

49. - E9H08

What is the function of a sense antenna?

Select	Answer
A	It provides diversity reception that cancels multipath signals
B	It allows DF antennas to receive signals at different vertical angles
C	It increases the sensitivity of a DF antenna array
D	It modifies the pattern of a DF antenna array to provide a null in one direction

50. - E0A07

How may dangerous levels of carbon monoxide from an emergency generator be detected?

Select	Answer
A	By the yellowish appearance of the gas
B	Any ordinary smoke detector can be used
C	By the odor
D	Only with a carbon monoxide detector

Figure E5-2

Figure E9-1