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

Logging in (or registering) will help the system to select questions that you need to focus on.

1. - E1A05

What is the maximum power output permitted on the 60 meter band?

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

2. - E1B03

Within what distance must an amateur station protect an FCC monitoring facility from harmful interference?

Select	Answer
A	3 miles
B	10 miles
C	1 mile
D	30 miles

3. - E1C08

What is the maximum permissible duration of a remotely controlled station's transmissions if its control link malfunctions?

Select	Answer
A	10 minutes
B	3 minutes
C	30 seconds
D	5 minutes

4. - E1D04

What is an Earth station in the amateur satellite service?

Select	Answer
A	An amateur station that transmits telemetry consisting of measurement of upper atmosphere
B	Any amateur station on the surface of the Earth
C	An amateur station within 50 km of the Earth's surface intended for communications with amateur stations by means of objects in space
D	An amateur station that is not able to communicate using amateur satellites

5. - E1E10

What must the administering VEs do after the administration of a successful examination for an amateur operator license?

Select	Answer
A	They must collect and send the documents to the FCC according to instructions
B	They must collect and send the documents to the NCVEC for grading
C	They must submit the application document to the coordinating VEC according to the coordinating VEC instructions
D	They must collect and submit the documents to the coordinating VEC for grading

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 provide additional spectrum for personal use
C	To provide temporary operation while awaiting normal licensing
D	To allow regular operation on Land Mobile channels

7. - E2A08

Why should effective radiated power to a satellite which uses a linear transponder be limited?

Select	Answer
A	To prevent the satellite from emitting out-of-band signals
B	To avoid reducing the downlink power to all other users
C	To avoid interfering with terrestrial QSOs
D	To prevent creating errors in the satellite telemetry

8. - E2B07

What is the name of the signal component that carries color information in NTSC video?

Select	Answer
A	Spectral Intensity
B	Chroma
C	Hue
D	Luminance

9. - E2C10

Why might a DX station state that they are listening on another frequency?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	Because the DX station may be transmitting on a frequency that is prohibited to some responding stations
C	To separate the calling stations from the DX station
D	To improve operating efficiency by reducing interference

10. - E2D06

Which of the following describes a method of establishing EME contacts?

Select	Answer
A	Storing and forwarding digital messages
B	Time synchronous transmissions alternately from each station
C	High speed CW identification to avoid fading
D	Judging optimum transmission times by monitoring beacons reflected from the Moon

11. - E2E11

What is the difference between direct FSK and audio FSK?

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

12. - E3A10

Which type of atmospheric structure can create a path for microwave propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Dust devil
B	Wind shear
C	Temperature inversion
D	The jet stream

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 twilight and sunrise, D-layer absorption is low while E-layer and F-layer propagation remains high
C	At mid-afternoon, the Sun heats the ionosphere decreasing radio wave refraction and the MUF
D	In darkness, solar absorption drops greatly while atmospheric ionization remains steady

14. - E3C14

Why does the radio-path horizon distance exceed the geometric horizon?

Select	Answer
A	E-region skip
B	Downward bending due to density variations in the atmosphere
C	D-region skip
D	Downward bending due to aurora refraction

15. - E4A08

Which of the following instrument would be best for measuring the SWR of a beam antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A Q meter
B	An ohmmeter
C	An antenna analyzer
D	A spectrum analyzer

16. - E4B02

What is an advantage of using a bridge circuit to measure impedance?

Select	Answer
A	It is relatively immune to drift in the signal generator source
B	It is very precise in obtaining a signal null
C	It can display results directly in Smith chart format
D	It provides an excellent match under all conditions

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

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

19. - E4E12

What is one disadvantage of using some types of automatic DSP notch-filters when attempting to copy CW signals?

Select	Answer
A	Any nearby signal passing through the DSP system will overwhelm the desired signal
B	Ringing in the DSP filter will completely remove the spaces between the CW characters
C	A DSP filter can remove the desired signal at the same time as it removes interfering signals
D	Received CW signals will appear to be modulated at the DSP clock frequency

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	15.7 kHz
B	218.3 kHz
C	31.4 kHz
D	436.6 kHz

21. - E5B03

What happens to the phase angle of a reactance when it is converted to a susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	It is unchanged
B	The susceptance phase angle is the inverse of the reactance phase angle
C	The sign is reversed
D	It is shifted by 90 degrees

22. - E5C01

Which of the following represents a capacitive reactance in rectangular notation?

Select	Answer
A	Omega
B	X
C	+jX
D	-jX

23. - E5D06

In what direction is the magnetic field oriented about a conductor in relation to the direction of electron flow?

Select	Answer
A	In a direction determined by the left-hand rule
B	In all directions; omni-directional
C	In a direction opposite to the current
D	In the same direction as the current

24. - E6A15

Which semiconductor material contains excess holes in the outer shell of electrons?

Select	Answer
A	P-type
B	Bipolar-type
C	Superconductor-type
D	N-type

25. - E6B03

What special type of diode is capable of both amplification and oscillation?

Select	Answer
A	Zener
B	Point contact
C	Junction
D	Tunnel

26. - E6C13

Which of the following is an advantage of BiCMOS logic?

Select	Answer
A	Its simplicity results in much less expensive devices than standard CMOS
B	It is totally immune to electrostatic damage
C	It has the high input impedance of CMOS and the low output impedance of bipolar transistors
D	All of these choices are correct

27. - E6D08

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

Select	Answer
A	Powdered-iron cores generally have greater initial permeability
B	Powdered-iron cores generally require fewer turns to produce a given inductance
C	Powdered-iron cores generally maintain their characteristics at higher currents
D	Powdered-iron cores use smaller diameter wire for the same inductance

28. - E6E02

Which of the following device packages is a through-hole type?

Select	Answer
A	SOT
B	Ball grid array
C	PLCC
D	DIP

29. - E6F07

What is a solid state relay?

Select	Answer
A	A mechanical relay that latches in the on or off state each time it is pulsed
B	A device that uses semiconductors to implement the functions of an electromechanical relay
C	A relay using transistors to drive the relay coil
D	A passive delay line

30. - E7A07

What logical operation does a NAND gate perform?

Select	Answer
A	It produces logic "0" at its output if some but not all inputs are logic "1"
B	It produces logic "1" at its output only when all inputs are logic "1"
C	It produces logic "0" at its output only when all inputs are logic "1"
D	It produces logic "0" at its output only when all inputs are logic "0"

31. - E7B06

Which of the following amplifier types reduces or eliminates even order harmonics?

Select	Answer
A	Class AB
B	Class C
C	Push-pull
D	Push-push

32. - E7C06

What are the distinguishing features of an elliptical filter?

Select	Answer
A	Extremely flat response over its pass band with gradually rounded stop band corners
B	Extremely sharp cutoff with one or more notches in the stop band
C	Gradual passband rolloff with minimal stop band ripple
D	Gradual passband rolloff with extreme stop band ripple

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. - E7E09

What occurs when an excessive amount of signal energy reaches a mixer circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Spurious mixer products are generated
B	Automatic limiting occurs
C	A beat frequency is generated
D	Mixer blanking occurs

35. - E7F10

What aspect of receiver analog-to-digital conversion determines the maximum receive bandwidth of a Direct Digital Conversion SDR?

Select	Answer
A	Sample width in bits
B	Sample rate
C	Processor latency
D	Sample clock phase noise

36. - E7G12

What is an integrated circuit operational amplifier?

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

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

38. - E8A01

What is the name of the process that shows that a square wave is made up of a sine wave plus all of its odd harmonics?

Select	Answer
A	Vector analysis
B	Numerical analysis
C	Differential analysis
D	Fourier analysis

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	3
B	3000
C	1000
D	0.3

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 has more possible states than simple binary
C	It increases security
D	It has more resolution than simple binary

41. - E8D12

What is the advantage of including a parity bit with an ASCII character stream?

Select	Answer
A	Some types of errors can be detected SUBELEMENT E9 - ANTENNAS AND TRANSMISSION LINES [8 Exam Questions - 8 Groups] E9A Basic Antenna parameters: radiation resistance, gain, beamwidth, efficiency, beamwidth; effective radiated power, polarization E9A01 (C) What describes an isotropic antenna? A. A grounded antenna used to measure earth conductivity B. A horizontally polarized antenna used to compare Yagi antennas C. A theoretical antenna used as a reference for antenna gain D. A spacecraft antenna used to direct signals toward the earth
B	The signal can overpower interfering signals
C	Faster transmission rate
D	Foreign language characters can be sent

42. - E9A07

What is meant by antenna gain?

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

43. - E9B03

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

Select	Answer
A	24 dB
B	12 dB
C	14 dB
D	18 dB

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

45. - E9D06

What happens to the bandwidth of an antenna as it is shortened through the use of loading coils?

Select	Answer
A	It becomes flat
B	It is decreased
C	No change occurs
D	It is increased

46. - E9E07

What term best describes the interactions at the load end of a mismatched transmission line?

Select	Answer
A	Characteristic impedance
B	Dielectric constant
C	Reflection coefficient
D	Velocity factor

47. - E9F14

What impedance does a 1/2 wavelength transmission line present to a generator when the line is shorted at the far end?

Select	Answer
A	The same as the output impedance of the generator
B	Very low impedance
C	The same as the characteristic impedance of the line
D	Very high impedance

48. - E9G07

On the Smith chart shown in Figure E9-3, what is the only straight line shown?

Select	Answer
A	The current axis
B	The reactance axis
C	The resistance axis
D	The voltage axis

49. - E9H11

What characteristic of a cardioid pattern antenna is useful for direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	A very sharp single null
B	High-radiation angle
C	Broad band response
D	A very sharp peak

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 received noise
C	Lightning protection
D	Reduce RF current flow between pieces of equipment

Figure E9-1

Figure E9-3