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

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1. - E1A04

With your transceiver displaying the carrier frequency of phone signals, you hear a DX station calling CQ on 3.601 MHz LSB. Is it legal to return the call using lower sideband on the same frequency?

Select	Answer
A	Yes, because the displayed frequency is within the 75 meter phone band segment
B	No, the sideband will extend beyond the edge of the phone band segment
C	Yes, because the DX station initiated the contact
D	No, U.S. stations are not permitted to use phone emissions below 3.610 MHz

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

3. - E1C08

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

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

4. - E1D11

Which amateur stations are eligible to operate as Earth stations?

Select	Answer
A	Any amateur station whose licensee has filed a pre-space notification with the FCC's International Bureau
B	Only those of General, Advanced or Amateur Extra Class operators
C	Only those of Amateur Extra Class operators
D	Any amateur station, subject to the privileges of the class of operator license held by the control operator

5. - E1E06

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

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

6. - E1F03

Under what circumstances may a dealer sell an external RF power amplifier capable of operation below 144 MHz if it has not been granted FCC certification?

Select	Answer
A	The equipment dealer assembled it from a kit
B	It was purchased in used condition from an amateur operator and is sold to another amateur operator for use at that operator's station
C	It was imported from a manufacturer in another country and was certificated by that country's government
D	It was imported from a manufacturer in a country that does not require certification of RF power amplifiers

7. - E2A02

What is the direction of a descending pass for an amateur satellite?

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

8. - E2B04

What is blanking in a video signal?

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

9. - E2C01

Which of the following is true about contest operating?

Select	Answer
A	It is mandatory to transmit the call sign of the station being worked as part of every transmission to that station
B	Every contest requires a signal report in the exchange
C	Operators are permitted to make contacts even if they do not submit a log
D	Interference to other amateurs is unavoidable and therefore acceptable

10. - E2D01

Which of the following digital modes is especially designed for use for meteor scatter signals?

Select	Answer
A	WSPR
B	APRS
C	FSK441
D	Hellschreiber

11. - E2E06

What is the most common data rate used for HF packet?

Select	Answer
A	48 baud
B	110 baud
C	300 baud
D	1200 baud

12. - E3A03

When scheduling EME contacts, which of these conditions will generally result in the least path loss?

Select	Answer
A	When the MUF is above 30 MHz
B	When the Moon is full
C	When the Moon is at perigee
D	When the Moon is at apogee

13. - E3B07

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

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

14. - E3C01

What does the term ray tracing describe in regard to radio communications?

Select	Answer
A	Determining the radiation pattern from an array of antennas
B	Modeling a radio wave's path through the ionosphere
C	The process in which an electronic display presents a pattern
D	Evaluating high voltage sources for X-Rays

15. - E4A02

Which of the following parameters would a spectrum analyzer display on the vertical and horizontal axes?

Select	Answer
A	SWR and time
B	SWR and frequency
C	RF amplitude and frequency
D	RF amplitude and time

16. - E4B16

Which S parameter represents return loss or SWR?

Select	Answer
A	S22
B	S12
C	S21
D	S11

17. - E4C10

Which of the following is a desirable amount of selectivity for an amateur RTTY HF receiver?

Select	Answer
A	300 Hz
B	2400 Hz
C	6000 Hz
D	100 Hz

18. - E4D11

Why are third-order intermodulation products created within a receiver of particular interest compared to other products?

Select	Answer
A	Third-order intermodulation produces three products for every input signal within the band of interest
B	Third-order products are an indication of poor image rejection
C	The third-order intercept is much higher than other orders
D	The third-order product of two signals which are in the band of interest is also likely to be within the band

19. - E4E04

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

Select	Answer
A	By installing a noise suppression resistor and a blocking capacitor in both leads
B	By connecting the radio's power leads directly to the battery and by installing coaxial capacitors in line with the alternator 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. - E5A16

What is the resonant frequency of a parallel RLC circuit if R is 33 ohms, L is 50 microhenrys and C is 10 picofarads?

Select	Answer
A	23.5 kHz
B	7.12 kHz
C	23.5 MHz
D	7.12 MHz

21. - E5B02

What is the term for the time it takes for a charged capacitor in an RC circuit to discharge to 36.8% of its initial voltage?

Select	Answer
A	One time constant
B	An exponential discharge rate of one
C	A discharge factor of one
D	One discharge period

22. - E5C08

What coordinate system is often used to display the phase angle of a circuit containing resistance, inductive and/or capacitive reactance?

Select	Answer
A	Elliptical coordinates
B	Maidenhead grid
C	Polar coordinates
D	Faraday grid

23. - E5D05

Which parasitic characteristic increases with conductor length?

Select	Answer
A	Permittivity
B	Permeability
C	Malleability
D	Inductance

24. - E6A06

What is the beta of a bipolar junction transistor?

Select	Answer
A	The frequency at which the current gain is reduced to 1
B	The breakdown voltage of the base to collector junction
C	The switching speed of the transistor
D	The change in collector current with respect to base current

25. - E6B05

What characteristic of a PIN diode makes it useful as an RF switch or attenuator?

Select	Answer
A	Extremely high reverse breakdown voltage
B	Reverse bias controls its forward voltage drop
C	A large region of intrinsic material
D	Ability to dissipate large amounts of power

26. - E6C04

What is the primary advantage of tri-state logic?

Select	Answer
A	Ability to connect many device outputs to a common bus
B	More efficient arithmetic operations
C	Low power consumption
D	High speed operation

27. - E6D14

Which type of slug material decreases inductance when inserted into a coil?

Select	Answer
A	Ceramic
B	Ferrite
C	Brass
D	Powdered-iron

28. - E6E03

Which of the following materials is likely to provide the highest frequency of operation when used in MMICs?

Select	Answer
A	Gallium nitride
B	Silicon dioxide
C	Silicon
D	Silicon nitride

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 digital encryption device often used to encrypt spacecraft control signals
C	A device for generating RTTY signals by means of a rotating light source
D	A device which measures the strength of a beam of light using analog to digital conversion

30. - E7A09

What logical operation is performed by an exclusive NOR gate?

Select	Answer
A	It produces logic "0" at its output if any single input is logic "1"
B	It produces logic "1" at its output if any single input is logic "1"
C	It produces logic "0" at its output only if all inputs are logic "0"
D	It produces logic "1" at its output only if all inputs are logic "1"

31. - E7B13

In Figure E7-2, what is the purpose of R?

Select	Answer
A	Fixed bias
B	Emitter load
C	Collector load
D	Voltage regulation

32. - E7C11

Which of the following is the common name for a filter network which is equivalent to two L-networks connected back-to-back with the two inductors in series and the capacitors in shunt at the input and output?

Select	Answer
A	Omega
B	Pi
C	Cascode
D	Pi-L

33. - E7D12

What is the drop-out voltage of an analog voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	Minimum input-to-output voltage required to maintain regulation
B	Maximum amount that the output voltage drops when the input voltage is varied over its specified range
C	Minimum input voltage for rated power dissipation
D	Maximum amount that the output voltage may decrease at rated load

34. - E7E11

Which type of detector is used for demodulating SSB signals?

Select	Answer
A	Phase comparator
B	Discriminator
C	Phase detector
D	Product detector

35. - E7F08

What is the function of decimation with regard to digital filters?

Select	Answer
A	Reducing the effective sample rate by removing samples
B	Attenuating the signal
C	Removing unnecessary significant digits
D	Converting data to binary code decimal form

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	An amplifier used to increase the average output of frequency modulated amateur signals to the legal limit
D	A digital audio amplifier whose characteristics are determined by components external to the amplifier

37. - E7H04

How is positive feedback supplied in a Colpitts oscillator?

Select	Answer
A	Through a neutralizing capacitor
B	Through link coupling
C	Through a capacitive divider
D	Through a tapped coil

38. - E8A02

What type of wave has a rise time significantly faster than its fall time (or vice versa)?

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

39. - E8B06

What is the deviation ratio of an FM-phone signal having a maximum frequency swing of plus or minus 7.5 kHz when the maximum modulation frequency is 3.5 kHz?

Select	Answer
A	2.14
B	47
C	0.214
D	0.47

40. - E8C01

How is Forward Error Correction implemented?

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

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

42. - E9A18

What term describes station output, taking into account all gains and losses?

Select	Answer
A	Apparent power
B	Effective radiated power
C	Half-power bandwidth
D	Power factor

43. - E9B07

How does the total amount of radiation emitted by a directional gain antenna compare with the total amount of radiation emitted from an isotropic antenna, assuming each is driven by the same amount of power?

Select	Answer
A	The total amount of radiation from the directional antenna is increased by the gain of the antenna
B	The total amount of radiation from the directional antenna is stronger by its front-to-back ratio
C	The radiation from the isotropic antenna is 2.15 dB stronger than that from the directional antenna
D	They are the same

44. - E9C09

What is a G5RV antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A phased array antenna consisting of multiple loops
B	A multi-band trap antenna
C	A wide band dipole using shorted coaxial cable for the radiating elements and fed with a 4:1 balun
D	A multi-band dipole antenna fed with coax and a balun through a selected length of open wire transmission line

45. - E9D13

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

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

46. - E9E11

What is an effective way of matching a feed line to a VHF or UHF antenna when the impedances of both the antenna and feed line are unknown?

Select	Answer
A	Connect a parallel-resonant LC network across the antenna feed terminals
B	Connect a series-resonant LC network across the antenna feed terminals
C	Use a 50 ohm 1:1 balun between the antenna and feed line
D	Use the universal stub matching technique

47. - E9F04

What is the typical velocity factor for a coaxial cable with solid polyethylene dielectric?

Select	Answer
A	0.10
B	0.30
C	2.70
D	0.66

48. - E9G06

On the Smith chart shown in Figure E9-3, what is the name for the large outer circle on which the reactance arcs terminate?

Select	Answer
A	Polar axis
B	Reactance axis
C	Prime axis
D	Impedance axis

49. - E9H06

What is the triangulation method of direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	A fixed receiving station uses three different antennas to plot the location of the signal source
B	Antenna headings from several different receiving locations are used to locate the signal source
C	The geometric angles of sky waves from the source are used to determine its position
D	A fixed receiving station plots three headings to the signal source

50. - E0A05

What is one of the potential hazards of using microwaves in the amateur radio bands?

Select	Answer
A	Microwaves often travel long distances by ionospheric reflection
B	Microwaves are ionizing radiation
C	The high gain antennas commonly used can result in high exposure levels
D	The extremely high frequency energy can damage the joints of antenna structures

Figure E7-2

Figure E9-3