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

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1. - E1A11

Which of the following describes authorization or licensing required when operating an amateur station aboard a U.S.-registered vessel in international waters?

Select	Answer
A	Any FCC-issued amateur license
B	Any amateur license with an FCC Marine or Aircraft endorsement
C	Only General class or higher amateur licenses
D	An unrestricted Radiotelephone Operator Permit

2. - E1B10

What frequencies are authorized to an amateur station operating under RACES rules?

Select	Answer
A	All amateur service frequencies authorized to the control operator
B	Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) channels
C	Specific segments in the amateur service MF, HF, VHF and UHF bands
D	Specific local government channels

3. - E1C06

Which of the following statements concerning remotely controlled amateur stations is true?

Select	Answer
A	A control operator must be present at the control point
B	Only Extra Class operators may be the control operator of a remote station
C	Repeater and auxiliary stations may not be remotely controlled
D	A control operator need not be present at the control point

4. - E1D08

Which VHF amateur service bands have frequencies available for space stations?

Select	Answer
A	2 meters and 1.25 meters
B	6 meters, 2 meters, and 1.25 meters
C	2 meters
D	6 meters and 2 meters

5. - E1E12

What must the VE team do with the application form if the examinee does not pass the exam?

Select	Answer
A	Return the application document to the examinee
B	Maintain the application form with the VEC's records
C	Send the application form to the FCC and inform the FCC of the grade
D	Destroy the application form

6. - E1F04

Which of the following geographic descriptions approximately describes "Line A"?

Select	Answer
A	A line roughly parallel to and north of the U.S.-Mexican border and Gulf coastline
B	A line roughly parallel to and south of the U.S.-Canadian border
C	A line roughly parallel to and west of the U.S. Atlantic coastline
D	A line roughly parallel to and east of the U.S. Pacific coastline

7. - E2A03

What is the orbital period of an Earth satellite?

Select	Answer
A	The point of minimum height of a satellite's orbit
B	The time it takes for a satellite to complete one revolution around the Earth
C	The time it takes for a satellite to travel from perigee to apogee
D	The point of maximum height of a satellite's orbit

8. - E2B06

What is vestigial sideband modulation?

Select	Answer
A	Narrow-band FM modulation achieved by filtering one sideband from the audio before frequency modulating the carrier
B	Amplitude modulation in which one complete sideband and a portion of the other are transmitted
C	A type of modulation in which one sideband is inverted
D	Spread spectrum modulation achieved by applying FM modulation following single sideband amplitude modulation

9. - E2C03

From which of the following bands is amateur radio contesting generally excluded?

Select	Answer
A	30 m
B	33 cm
C	2 m
D	6 m

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. - E2E10

Which of these digital modes has the narrowest bandwidth?

Select	Answer
A	300-baud packet
B	MFSK16
C	PSK31
D	170 Hz shift, 45 baud RTTY

12. - E3A07

Atmospheric ducts capable of propagating microwave signals often form over what geographic feature?

Select	Answer
A	Mountain ranges
B	Bodies of water
C	Urban areas
D	Forests

13. - E3B13

Why is chordal hop propagation desirable?

Select	Answer
A	The MUF for chordal hop propagation is much lower than for normal skip propagation
B	The signal experiences less loss along the path compared to normal skip propagation
C	Atmospheric noise is lower in the direction of chordal hop propagation
D	Signals travel faster along ionospheric chords

14. - E3C05

What orientation of Bz (B sub z) increases the likelihood that incoming particles from the Sun will cause disturbed conditions?

Select	Answer
A	Westward
B	Eastward
C	Southward
D	Northward

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 antenna analyzer
C	A spectrum analyzer
D	An ohmmeter

16. - E4B09

What is indicated if the current reading on an RF ammeter placed in series with the antenna feed line of a transmitter increases as the transmitter is tuned to resonance?

Select	Answer
A	There is possibly a short to ground in the feed line
B	There is more power going into the antenna
C	There is an impedance mismatch between the antenna and feed line
D	The transmitter is not properly neutralized

17. - E4C13

How does a narrow-band roofing filter affect receiver performance?

Select	Answer
A	It improves sensitivity by reducing front end noise
B	All of these choices are correct
C	It improves dynamic range by attenuating strong signals near the receive frequency
D	It improves intelligibility by using low Q circuitry to reduce ringing

18. - E4D04

Which of the following may reduce or eliminate intermodulation interference in a repeater caused by another transmitter operating in close proximity?

Select	Answer
A	A Class C final amplifier
B	A band-pass filter in the feed line between the transmitter and receiver
C	A properly terminated circulator at the output of the transmitter
D	A Class D final amplifier

19. - E4E06

What is a major cause of atmospheric static?

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

20. - E5A01

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

Select	Answer
A	Resistance
B	Capacitance
C	Conductance
D	Resonance

21. - E5B13

What letter is commonly used to represent susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	X
B	B
C	Y
D	G

22. - E5C02

How are impedances described in polar coordinates?

Select	Answer
A	By phase angle and amplitude
B	By real and imaginary parts
C	By X and R values
D	By Y and G values

23. - E5D05

Which parasitic characteristic increases with conductor length?

Select	Answer
A	Inductance
B	Malleability
C	Permittivity
D	Permeability

24. - E6A13

What do the initials CMOS stand for?

Select	Answer
A	Common Mode Oscillating System
B	Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor
C	Complementary Mica-Oxide Silicon
D	Common Mode Organic Silicon

25. - E6B08

Which of the following describes a type of semiconductor diode?

Select	Answer
A	Metal-semiconductor junction
B	Electrolytic rectifier
C	Thermionic emission diode
D	CMOS-field effect

26. - E6C09

What is a Programmable Logic Device (PLD)?

Select	Answer
A	An algorithm for simulating logic functions during circuit design
B	Programmable equipment used for testing digital logic integrated circuits
C	A device to control industrial equipment
D	A programmable collection of logic gates and circuits in a single integrated circuit

27. - E6D15

What is current in the primary winding of a transformer called if no load is attached to the secondary?

Select	Answer
A	Direct current
B	Stabilizing current
C	Excitation current
D	Magnetizing current

28. - E6E12

Why are high-power RF amplifier ICs and transistors sometimes mounted in ceramic packages?

Select	Answer
A	High-voltage insulating ability
B	Enhanced sensitivity to light
C	To provide a low-pass frequency response
D	Better dissipation of heat

29. - E6F04

What is the photovoltaic effect?

Select	Answer
A	The tendency of a battery to discharge when used outside
B	The conversion of voltage to current when exposed to light
C	The conversion of light to electrical energy
D	The conversion of electrical energy to mechanical energy

30. - E7A11

What type of logic defines "1" as a high voltage?

Select	Answer
A	Reverse Logic
B	Negative logic
C	Assertive Logic
D	Positive Logic

31. - E7B10

In Figure E7-1, what is the purpose of R1 and R2?

Select	Answer
A	Load resistors
B	Self bias
C	Feedback
D	Fixed bias

32. - E7C15

What is a crystal lattice filter?

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

33. - E7D15

What is the purpose of a "step-start" circuit in a high voltage power supply?

Select	Answer
A	To allow for remote control of the power supply
B	To compensate for variations of the incoming line voltage
C	To provide a dual-voltage output for reduced power applications
D	To allow the filter capacitors to charge gradually

34. - E7E08

What are the principal frequencies that appear at the output of a mixer circuit?

Select	Answer
A	The sum, difference and square root of the input frequencies
B	The two input frequencies along with their sum and difference frequencies
C	1.414 and 0.707 times the input frequency
D	Two and four times the original frequency

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

36. - E7G08

How does the gain of an ideal operational amplifier vary with frequency?

Select	Answer
A	It increases linearly with increasing frequency
B	It does not vary with frequency
C	It decreases logarithmically with increasing frequency
D	It decreases linearly with increasing frequency

37. - E7H11

What are the major spectral impurity components of direct digital synthesizers?

Select	Answer
A	Broadband noise
B	Spurious signals at discrete frequencies
C	Nyquist limit noise
D	Digital conversion noise

38. - E8A04

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

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

39. - E8B07

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing is a technique used for which type of amateur communication?

Select	Answer
A	OFDM signals are not allowed on amateur bands
B	Extremely low-power contacts
C	High speed digital modes
D	EME

40. - E8C04

What technique is used to minimize the bandwidth requirements of a PSK31 signal?

Select	Answer
A	Use of trapezoidal data pulses
B	Zero-sum character encoding
C	Reed-Solomon character encoding
D	Use of sinusoidal data pulses

41. - E8D09

What is considered a good minimum IMD level for an idling PSK signal?

Select	Answer
A	+15 dB
B	-20 dB
C	+10 dB
D	-30 dB

42. - E9A14

What is meant by the radiation resistance of an antenna?

Select	Answer
A	The combined losses of the antenna elements and feed line
B	The value of a resistance that would dissipate the same amount of power as that radiated from an antenna
C	The resistance in the atmosphere that an antenna must overcome to be able to radiate a signal
D	The specific impedance of the antenna

43. - E9B03

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

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

44. - E9C06

What is the effect of a terminating resistor on a rhombic antenna?

Select	Answer
A	It decreases the ground loss
B	It reflects the standing waves on the antenna elements back to the transmitter
C	It changes the radiation pattern from bidirectional to unidirectional
D	It changes the radiation pattern from horizontal to vertical polarization

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 increased
C	It is decreased
D	No change occurs

46. - E9E02

What is the name of an antenna matching system that matches an unbalanced feed line to an antenna by feeding the driven element both at the center of the element and at a fraction of a wavelength to one side of center?

Select	Answer
A	The epsilon match
B	The gamma match
C	The stub match
D	The delta match

47. - E9F07

How does ladder line compare to small-diameter coaxial cable such as RG-58 at 50 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	Lower loss
B	Lower velocity factor
C	Smaller reflection coefficient
D	Higher SWR

48. - E9G05

What type of chart is shown in Figure E9-3?

Select	Answer
A	Smith chart
B	Free space radiation directivity chart
C	Elevation angle radiation pattern chart
D	Azimuth angle radiation pattern chart

49. - E9H05

What is the main drawback of a wire-loop antenna for direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	It is non-rotatable
B	It has a bidirectional pattern
C	It receives equally well in all directions
D	It is practical for use only on VHF bands

50. - E0A08

What does SAR measure?

Select	Answer
A	Signal Amplification Rating
B	Synthetic Aperture Ratio of the human body
C	The rate of RF energy reflected from stationary terrain
D	The rate at which RF energy is absorbed by the body

Figure E7-1

Figure E9-1

Figure E9-3