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

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1. - E1A13

Who must be in physical control of the station apparatus of an amateur station aboard any vessel or craft that is documented or registered in the United States?

Select	Answer
A	Any person named in an amateur station license grant or a person holding an unrestricted Radiotelephone Operator Permit
B	Only a person named in an amateur station license grant
C	Any person holding an FCC issued amateur license or who is authorized for alien reciprocal operation
D	Only a person with an FCC Marine Radio

2. - E1B08

What limitations may the FCC place on an amateur station if its signal causes interference to domestic broadcast reception, assuming that the receivers involved are of good engineering design?

Select	Answer
A	The amateur station must cease operation on all frequencies above 30 MHz
B	The amateur station must cease operation on all frequencies below 30 MHz
C	The amateur station must cease operation
D	The amateur station must avoid transmitting during certain hours on frequencies that cause the interference

3. - E1C11

Which of the following operating arrangements allows an FCC-licensed U.S. citizen to operate in many European countries, and alien amateurs from many European countries to operate in the U.S.?

Select	Answer
A	CEPT agreement
B	ITU reciprocal license
C	IARP agreement
D	All of these choices are correct

4. - E1D02

What is the amateur satellite service?

Select	Answer
A	A radio communications service using amateur radio stations on satellites
B	A radio navigation service using satellites for the purpose of self training, intercommunication and technical studies carried out by amateurs
C	A spacecraft launching service for amateur-built satellites
D	A radio communications service using stations on Earth satellites for public service broadcast

5. - E1E01

What is the minimum number of qualified VEs required to administer an Element 4 amateur operator license examination?

Select	Answer
A	2
B	4
C	5
D	3

6. - E1F11

Which of the following best describes one of the standards that must be met by an external RF power amplifier if it is to qualify for a grant of FCC certification?

Select	Answer
A	It must satisfy the FCC's spurious emission standards when operated at the lesser of 1500 watts or its full output power
B	It must produce full legal output when driven by not more than 5 watts of mean RF input power
C	It must exhibit a gain of 0 dB or less over its full output range
D	It must be capable of external RF switching between its input and output networks

7. - E2A10

Why may the received signal from an amateur satellite exhibit a rapidly repeating fading effect?

Select	Answer
A	Because of ionospheric absorption
B	Because of the Doppler Effect
C	Because of the satellite's low orbital altitude
D	Because the satellite is spinning

8. - E2B01

How many times per second is a new frame transmitted in a fast-scan (NTSC) television system?

Select	Answer
A	90
B	60
C	30
D	120

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. - E2D13

What type of modulation is used for JT65 contacts?

Select	Answer
A	Multi-tone AFSK
B	PSK
C	IEEE 802.11
D	RTTY

11. - E2E02

What do the letters FEC mean as they relate to digital operation?

Select	Answer
A	First Error Correction
B	Forward Error Correction
C	Fatal Error Correction
D	Final Error Correction

12. - E3A08

When a meteor strikes the Earth's atmosphere, a cylindrical region of free electrons is formed at what layer of the ionosphere?

Select	Answer
A	The F1 layer
B	The D layer
C	The E layer
D	The F2 layer

13. - E3B02

What is the approximate maximum range for signals using transequatorial propagation?

Select	Answer
A	2500 miles
B	1000 miles
C	5000 miles
D	7500 miles

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	Sporadic-E
D	NVIS

15. - E4A05

What might be an advantage of a digital vs an analog oscilloscope?

Select	Answer
A	Manipulation of time base after trace capture
B	All of these choices are correct
C	Storage of traces for future reference
D	Automatic amplitude and frequency numerical readout

16. - E4B01

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

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

17. - E4C15

What is usually the primary source of noise that is heard from an HF receiver with an antenna connected?

Select	Answer
A	Induction motor noise
B	Detector noise
C	Receiver front-end noise
D	Atmospheric noise

18. - E4D13

Which of the following can cause receiver desensitization?

Select	Answer
A	Audio bias adjusted too high
B	Squelch gain misadjusted
C	Audio gain adjusted too low
D	Strong adjacent channel signals

19. - E4E15

Which of the following can cause shielded cables to radiate or receive interference?

Select	Answer
A	Low inductance ground connections at both ends of the shield
B	Common mode currents on the shield and conductors
C	Use of braided shielding material
D	Tying all ground connections to a common point resulting in differential mode currents in the shield

20. - E5A06

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

Select	Answer
A	It equals 2 multiplied by Pi, multiplied by frequency, multiplied by inductance
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 is at a maximum

21. - E5B06

What is susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	The inverse of reactance
B	The ratio of magnetic field to electric field
C	The magnetic impedance of a circuit
D	A measure of the efficiency of a transformer

22. - E5C06

What does the impedance 50-j25 represent?

Select	Answer
A	50 ohms resistance in series with 25 ohms inductive reactance
B	25 ohms resistance in series with 50 ohms inductive reactance
C	50 ohms resistance in series with 25 ohms capacitive reactance
D	25 ohms resistance in series with 50 ohms capacitive reactance

23. - E5D12

How many watts are consumed in a circuit having a power factor of 0.2 if the input is 100-VAC at 4 amperes?

Select	Answer
A	400 watts
B	2000 watts
C	80 watts
D	50 watts

24. - E6A02

Which of the following semiconductor materials contains excess free electrons?

Select	Answer
A	Bipolar
B	Insulated gate
C	N-type
D	P-type

25. - E6B07

What is the failure mechanism when a junction diode fails due to excessive current?

Select	Answer
A	Excessive junction temperature
B	Insufficient forward voltage
C	Excessive inverse voltage
D	Charge carrier depletion

26. - E6C06

Why do CMOS digital integrated circuits have high immunity to noise on the input signal or power supply?

Select	Answer
A	Input signals are stronger
B	The input switching threshold is about one-half the power supply voltage
C	Larger bypass capacitors are used in CMOS circuit design
D	The input switching threshold is about two times the power supply voltage

27. - E6D17

Why should core saturation of a conventional impedance matching transformer be avoided?

Select	Answer
A	RF susceptance would increase
B	Harmonics and distortion could result
C	Temporary changes of the core permeability could result
D	Magnetic flux would increase with frequency

28. - E6E10

What is the packaging technique in which leadless components are soldered directly to circuit boards?

Select	Answer
A	Stripped lead
B	Virtual lead mounting
C	Direct soldering
D	Surface mount

29. - E6F05

Which describes an optical shaft encoder?

Select	Answer
A	A device which detects rotation of a control by interrupting a light source with a patterned wheel
B	A device which measures the strength of a beam of light using analog to digital conversion
C	A device for generating RTTY signals by means of a rotating light source
D	A digital encryption device often used to encrypt spacecraft control signals

30. - E7A01

Which is a bi-stable circuit?

Select	Answer
A	An "OR" gate
B	A flip-flop
C	An "AND" gate
D	A clock

31. - E7B06

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

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

32. - E7C05

Which filter type is described as having ripple in the passband and a sharp cutoff?

Select	Answer
A	A Butterworth filter
B	A passive op-amp filter
C	An active LC filter
D	A Chebyshev filter

33. - E7D02

What is one characteristic of a switching electronic voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	It is generally less efficient than a linear regulator
B	It gives a ramp voltage at its output
C	The resistance of a control element is varied in direct proportion to the line voltage or load current
D	The controlled device's duty cycle is changed to produce a constant average output voltage

34. - E7E05

What circuit is added to an FM transmitter to boost the higher audio frequencies?

Select	Answer
A	A de-emphasis network
B	An audio prescaler
C	A heterodyne suppressor
D	A pre-emphasis network

35. - E7F01

What is meant by direct digital conversion as applied to software defined radios?

Select	Answer
A	Incoming RF is digitized by an analog-to-digital converter without being mixed with a local oscillator signal
B	Software is converted from source code to object code during operation of the receiver
C	Incoming RF is converted to a control voltage for a voltage controlled oscillator
D	A switching mixer is used to generate I and Q signals directly from the RF input

36. - E7G01

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

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

37. - E7H05

How is positive feedback supplied in a Pierce oscillator?

Select	Answer
A	Through a tapped coil
B	Through a quartz crystal
C	Through link coupling
D	Through a neutralizing capacitor

38. - E8A04

What is "dither" with respect to analog to digital converters?

Select	Answer
A	A method of decimation by randomly skipping samples
B	An error caused by irregular quantization step size
C	A small amount of noise added to the input signal to allow more precise representation of a signal over time
D	An abnormal condition where the converter cannot settle on a value to represent the signal

39. - E8B10

What describes frequency division multiplexing?

Select	Answer
A	Two or more information streams are merged into a baseband, which then modulates the transmitter
B	Two or more information streams are merged into a digital combiner, which then pulse position modulates the transmitter
C	The transmitted signal jumps from band to band at a predetermined rate
D	The transmitted signal is divided into packets of information

40. - E8C01

How is Forward Error Correction implemented?

Select	Answer
A	By the receiving station repeating each block of three data characters
B	By varying the frequency shift of the transmitted signal according to a predefined algorithm
C	By transmitting a special algorithm to the receiving station along with the data characters
D	By transmitting extra data that may be used to detect and correct transmission errors

41. - E8D05

What is the most common method of reducing key clicks?

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

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	78.7 watts
B	286 watts
C	420 watts
D	1977 watts

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. - E9C12

Which of the following describes an extended double Zepp antenna?

Select	Answer
A	An end fed folded dipole antenna
B	A portable antenna erected using two push support poles
C	A wideband vertical antenna constructed from precisely tapered aluminum tubing
D	A center fed 1.25 wavelength antenna (two 5/8 wave elements in phase)

45. - E9D10

What happens to feed point impedance at the base of a fixed length HF mobile antenna as the frequency of operation is lowered?

Select	Answer
A	The radiation resistance decreases and the capacitive reactance decreases
B	The radiation resistance decreases and the capacitive reactance increases
C	The radiation resistance increases and the capacitive reactance increases
D	The radiation resistance increases and the capacitive reactance decreases

46. - E9E12

What is the primary purpose of a phasing line when used with an antenna having multiple driven elements?

Select	Answer
A	It makes sure the antenna has a low-angle radiation pattern
B	It prevents reflected power from traveling back down the feed line and causing harmonic radiation from the transmitter
C	It allows single-band antennas to operate on other bands
D	It ensures that each driven element operates in concert with the others to create the desired antenna pattern

47. - E9F13

What impedance does a 1/4 wavelength transmission line present to a generator when the line is shorted at the far end?

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

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. - E9H10

How can the output voltage of a multiple turn receiving loop antenna be increased?

Select	Answer
A	By winding adjacent turns in opposing directions
B	By reducing the permeability of the loop shield
C	By increasing either the number of wire turns in the loop or the area of the loop structure or both
D	By increasing the number of wire turns in the loop and reducing the area of the loop structure

50. - E0A02

When evaluating RF exposure levels from your station at a neighbor's home, what must you do?

Select	Answer
A	Advise your neighbors of the results of your tests
B	Make sure signals from your station are less than the uncontrolled MPE limits
C	Make sure signals from your station are less than the controlled MPE limits
D	You need only evaluate exposure levels on your own property

Figure E9-1