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

2. - E1B02

Which of the following factors might cause the physical location of an amateur station apparatus or antenna structure to be restricted?

Select	Answer
A	The location is near an area of political conflict
B	The location is of environmental importance or significant in American history, architecture, or culture
C	The location is of geographical or horticultural importance
D	The location is in an ITU Zone designated for coordination with one or more foreign governments

3. - E1C09

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

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

4. - E1D05

What class of licensee is authorized to be the control operator of a space station?

Select	Answer
A	Any class with appropriate operator privileges
B	Only Amateur Extra Class
C	Only General, Advanced or Amateur Extra Class
D	All except Technician Class

5. - E1E06

Who is responsible for the proper conduct and necessary supervision during an amateur operator license examination session?

Select	Answer
A	The VEC coordinating the session
B	Each administering VE
C	The VE session manager
D	The FCC

6. - E1F07

When may an amateur station send a message to a business?

Select	Answer
A	When the control operator is employed by the FCC or another government agency
B	When neither the amateur nor his or her employer has a pecuniary interest in the communications
C	When the total money involved does not exceed $25
D	When transmitting international third-party communications

7. - E2A04

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

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

8. - E2B04

What is blanking in a video signal?

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

9. - E2C12

What might help to restore contact when DX signals become too weak to copy across an entire HF band a few hours after sunset?

Select	Answer
A	Wait 90 minutes or so for the signal degradation to pass
B	Switch to a higher frequency HF band
C	Wait 24 hours before attempting another communication on the band
D	Switch to a lower frequency HF band

10. - E2D05

Which of the following techniques is normally used by low Earth orbiting digital satellites to relay messages around the world?

Select	Answer
A	Multi-satellite relaying
B	Store-and-forward
C	Digipeating
D	Node hopping

11. - E2E11

What is the difference between direct FSK and audio FSK?

Select	Answer
A	Direct FSK applies the data signal to the transmitter VFO
B	Direct FSK uses a DC-coupled data connection
C	Audio FSK has a superior frequency response
D	Audio FSK can be performed anywhere in the transmit chain

12. - E3A13

Which emission mode is best for aurora propagation?

Select	Answer
A	SSB
B	FM
C	CW
D	RTTY

13. - E3B10

What is the cause of gray-line propagation?

Select	Answer
A	At midday, the Sun super heats the ionosphere causing increased refraction of radio waves
B	At mid-afternoon, the Sun heats the ionosphere decreasing radio wave refraction and the MUF
C	At twilight and sunrise, D-layer absorption is low while E-layer and F-layer propagation remains high
D	In darkness, solar absorption drops greatly while atmospheric ionization remains steady

14. - E3C03

Which of the following signal paths is most likely to experience high levels of absorption when the A index or K index is elevated?

Select	Answer
A	Transequatorial propagation
B	Polar paths
C	NVIS
D	Sporadic-E

15. - E4A14

What is the purpose of the prescaler function on a frequency counter?

Select	Answer
A	It multiplies a higher frequency signal so a low-frequency counter can display the operating frequency
B	It divides a higher frequency signal so a low-frequency counter can display the input frequency
C	It amplifies low level signals for more accurate counting
D	It prevents oscillation in a low-frequency counter circuit

16. - E4B03

If a frequency counter with a specified accuracy of +/- 1.0 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 MHz
B	146.52 Hz
C	14.652 kHz
D	165.2 Hz

17. - E4C08

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

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

18. - E4D12

What is the term for the reduction in receiver sensitivity caused by a strong signal near the received frequency?

Select	Answer
A	Squelch gain rollback
B	Desensitization
C	Cross-modulation interference
D	Quieting

19. - E4E06

What is a major cause of atmospheric static?

Select	Answer
A	Meteor showers
B	Thunderstorms
C	Geomagnetic storms
D	Solar radio frequency emissions

20. - E5A01

What can cause the voltage across reactances in series to be larger than the voltage applied to them?

Select	Answer
A	Conductance
B	Resonance
C	Resistance
D	Capacitance

21. - E5B09

What is the relationship between the current through a capacitor and the voltage across a capacitor?

Select	Answer
A	Current leads voltage by 90 degrees
B	Voltage and current are 180 degrees out of phase
C	Voltage leads current by 90 degrees
D	Voltage and current are in phase

22. - E5C14

Which point on Figure E5-2 best represents the impedance of a series circuit consisting of a 400 ohm resistor and a 38 picofarad capacitor at 14 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	Point 2
B	Point 6
C	Point 4
D	Point 5

23. - E5D05

Which parasitic characteristic increases with conductor length?

Select	Answer
A	Permeability
B	Inductance
C	Malleability
D	Permittivity

24. - E6A04

What is the name given to an impurity atom that adds holes to a semiconductor crystal structure?

Select	Answer
A	Acceptor impurity
B	Insulator impurity
C	N-type impurity
D	Donor impurity

25. - E6B12

What is one common use for PIN diodes?

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

26. - E6C08

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

Select	Answer
A	4
B	2
C	1
D	3

27. - E6D01

How many turns will be required to produce a 5-microhenry inductor using a powdered-iron toroidal core that has an inductance index (A L) value of 40 microhenrys/100 turns?

Select	Answer
A	79 turns
B	141 turns
C	13 turns
D	35 turns

28. - E6E01

Which of the following is true of a charge-coupled device (CCD)?

Select	Answer
A	It samples an analog signal and passes it in stages from the input to the output
B	It is a CMOS analog-to-digital converter
C	Its phase shift changes rapidly with frequency
D	It is used in a battery charger circuit

29. - E6F11

What is the approximate open-circuit voltage produced by a fully-illuminated silicon photovoltaic cell?

Select	Answer
A	0.1 V
B	1.5 V
C	12 V
D	0.5 V

30. - E7A04

How many flip-flops are required to divide a signal frequency by 4?

Select	Answer
A	4
B	1
C	2
D	8

31. - E7B11

In Figure E7-1, what is the purpose of R3?

Select	Answer
A	Emitter bypass
B	Fixed bias
C	Self bias
D	Output load resistor

32. - E7C15

What is a crystal lattice filter?

Select	Answer
A	A filter with narrow bandwidth and steep skirts made using quartz crystals
B	An audio filter made with four quartz crystals that resonate at 1kHz intervals
C	A power supply filter made with interlaced quartz crystals
D	A filter with wide bandwidth and shallow skirts made using quartz crystals

33. - E7D09

What is the main reason to use a charge controller with a solar power system?

Select	Answer
A	Control of electrolyte levels during battery discharge
B	Prevention of battery damage due to overcharge
C	Matching of day and night charge rates
D	Prevention of battery undercharge

34. - E7E04

What is one way a single-sideband phone signal can be generated?

Select	Answer
A	By driving a product detector with a DSB signal
B	By using a loop modulator followed by a mixer
C	By using a balanced modulator followed by a filter
D	By using a reactance modulator followed by a mixer

35. - E7F05

How frequently must an analog signal be sampled by an analog-to-digital converter so that the signal can be accurately reproduced?

Select	Answer
A	At the same rate as the highest frequency component of the signal
B	At half the rate of the highest frequency component of the signal
C	At four times the rate of the highest frequency component of the signal
D	At twice the rate of the highest frequency component of the signal

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	14
B	7
C	0.07
D	28

37. - E7H10

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

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

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

39. - E8B08

What describes Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing?

Select	Answer
A	A digital modulation technique using subcarriers at frequencies chosen to avoid intersymbol interference
B	A frequency modulation technique which uses non-harmonically related frequencies
C	A digital mode for narrow band, slow speed transmissions
D	A bandwidth compression technique using Fourier transforms

40. - E8C05

What is the necessary bandwidth of a 13-WPM international Morse code transmission?

Select	Answer
A	Approximately 104 Hz
B	Approximately 52 Hz
C	Approximately 26 Hz
D	Approximately 13 Hz

41. - E8D02

What spread spectrum communications technique uses a high speed binary bit stream to shift the phase of an RF carrier?

Select	Answer
A	Frequency hopping
B	Phase compandored spread spectrum
C	Direct sequence
D	Binary phase-shift keying

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	1977 watts
B	420 watts
C	78.7 watts
D	286 watts

43. - E9B12

What is the far field of an antenna?

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

44. - E9C02

What is the radiation pattern of two 1/4 wavelength vertical antennas spaced 1/4 wavelength apart and fed 90 degrees out of phase?

Select	Answer
A	A figure-8 end-fire along the axis of the array
B	A figure-8 broadside to the axis of the array
C	Cardioid
D	Omni-directional

45. - E9D13

What usually occurs if a Yagi antenna is designed solely for maximum forward gain?

Select	Answer
A	The SWR is reduced
B	The front-to-back ratio decreases
C	The frequency response is widened over the whole frequency band
D	The front-to-back ratio increases

46. - E9E06

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

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

47. - E9F10

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

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

48. - E9G11

How are the wavelength scales on a Smith chart calibrated?

Select	Answer
A	In fractions of antenna electrical wavelength
B	In fractions of transmission line electrical frequency
C	In fractions of antenna electrical frequency
D	In fractions of transmission line electrical wavelength

49. - E9H09

Which of the following describes the construction of a receiving loop antenna?

Select	Answer
A	One or more turns of wire wound in the shape of a large open coil
B	A vertical antenna coupled to a feed line through an inductive loop of wire
C	A large circularly polarized antenna
D	A small coil of wire tightly wound around a toroidal ferrite core

50. - E0A10

What toxic material may be present in some electronic components such as high voltage capacitors and transformers?

Select	Answer
A	Polyethylene
B	Polytetrafluroethylene
C	Polymorphic silicon
D	Polychlorinated Biphenyls

Figure E5-2

Figure E6-5

Figure E7-1

Figure E7-4