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

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1. - E1A14

What is the maximum bandwidth for a data emission on 60 meters?

Select	Answer
A	2.8 kHz
B	60 Hz
C	170 Hz
D	1.5 kHz

2. - E1B06

Which of the following additional rules apply if you are installing an amateur station antenna at a site at or near a public use airport?

Select	Answer
A	You must file an Environmental Impact Statement with the EPA before construction begins
B	No special rules apply if your antenna structure will be less than 300 feet in height
C	You may have to notify the Federal Aviation Administration and register it with the FCC as required by Part 17 of FCC rules
D	You must obtain a construction permit from the airport zoning authority

3. - E1C01

What is a remotely controlled station?

Select	Answer
A	A station controlled indirectly through a control link
B	A station operated away from its regular home location
C	A station operating under automatic control
D	A station controlled by someone other than the licensee

4. - E1D02

What is the amateur satellite service?

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

5. - E1E13

Which of these choices is an acceptable method for monitoring the applicants if a VEC opts to conduct an exam session remotely?

Select	Answer
A	The exam proctor observes the applicants and reports any violations
B	Have each applicant sign an affidavit stating that all session rules were followed
C	Record the exam session on video tape for later review by the VE team
D	Use a real-time video link and the Internet to connect the exam session to the observing VEs

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 the total money involved does not exceed $25
C	When transmitting international third-party communications
D	When neither the amateur nor his or her employer has a pecuniary interest in the communications

7. - E2A02

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

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

8. - E2B09

What hardware, other than a receiver with SSB capability and a suitable computer, is needed to decode SSTV using Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM)?

Select	Answer
A	A special IF converter
B	No other hardware is needed
C	A special notch filter to remove synchronization pulses
D	A special front end limiter

9. - E2C08

Which of the following contacts may be confirmed through the U.S. QSL bureau system?

Select	Answer
A	Contacts between a U.S. station and a non-U.S. station
B	Repeater contacts between U.S. club members
C	Contacts using tactical call signs
D	Special event contacts between stations in the U.S.

10. - E2D01

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

Select	Answer
A	WSPR
B	FSK441
C	APRS
D	Hellschreiber

11. - E2E08

Which of the following HF digital modes can be used to transfer binary files?

Select	Answer
A	Hellschreiber
B	AMTOR
C	RTTY
D	PACTOR

12. - E3A11

What is a typical range for tropospheric propagation of microwave signals?

Select	Answer
A	100 miles to 300 miles
B	2500 miles
C	10 miles to 50 miles
D	1200 miles

13. - E3B03

What is the best time of day for transequatorial propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Afternoon or early evening
B	Morning
C	Noon
D	Late at night

14. - E3C01

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

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

15. - E4A13

How is the compensation of an oscilloscope probe typically adjusted?

Select	Answer
A	A high frequency sine wave is displayed and the probe is adjusted for maximum amplitude
B	A square wave is displayed and the probe is adjusted until the horizontal portions of the displayed wave are as nearly flat as possible
C	A DC voltage standard is displayed and the probe is adjusted until the displayed voltage is accurate
D	A frequency standard is displayed and the probe is adjusted until the deflection time is accurate

16. - E4B15

Which of the following can be used as a relative measurement of the Q for a series-tuned circuit?

Select	Answer
A	The frequency shift
B	The inductance to capacitance ratio
C	The bandwidth of the circuit's frequency response
D	The resonant frequency of the circuit

17. - E4C05

What does a value of -174 dBm/Hz represent with regard to the noise floor of a receiver?

Select	Answer
A	The minimum detectable signal as a function of receive frequency
B	The theoretical noise at the input of a perfect receiver at room temperature
C	The noise figure of a 1 Hz bandwidth receiver
D	The galactic noise contribution to minimum detectable signal

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

19. - E4E16

What current flows equally on all conductors of an unshielded multi-conductor cable?

Select	Answer
A	Return current
B	Differential-mode current
C	Common-mode current
D	Reactive current only

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	7.12 kHz
B	7.12 MHz
C	23.5 kHz
D	23.5 MHz

21. - E5B01

What is the term for the time required for the capacitor in an RC circuit to be charged to 63.2% of the applied voltage?

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

22. - E5C12

If you plot the impedance of a circuit using the rectangular coordinate system and find the impedance point falls on the right side of the graph on the horizontal axis, what do you know about the circuit?

Select	Answer
A	It contains resistance and capacitive reactance
B	It is equivalent to a pure resistance
C	It contains resistance and inductive reactance
D	It has to be a direct current circuit

23. - E5D08

What type of energy is stored in an electromagnetic or electrostatic field?

Select	Answer
A	Thermodynamic energy
B	Kinetic energy
C	Potential energy
D	Electromechanical energy

24. - E6A05

What is the alpha of a bipolar junction transistor?

Select	Answer
A	The change of collector current with respect to emitter current
B	The change of base current with respect to collector current
C	The change of collector current with respect to base current
D	The change of collector current with respect to gate current

25. - E6B02

What is an important characteristic of a Schottky diode as compared to an ordinary silicon diode when used as a power supply rectifier?

Select	Answer
A	Enhanced carrier retention time
B	Controlled reverse avalanche voltage
C	Less forward voltage drop
D	Much higher reverse voltage breakdown

26. - E6C11

In Figure E6-5, what is the schematic symbol for the NOT operation (inverter)?

Select	Answer
A	4
B	5
C	6
D	2

27. - E6D12

What is the definition of saturation in a ferrite core inductor?

Select	Answer
A	The inductor's voltage rating is exceeded causing a flashover
B	The inductor windings are over coupled
C	Adjacent inductors become over-coupled
D	The ability of the inductor's core to store magnetic energy has been exceeded

28. - E6E10

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

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

29. - E6F11

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

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

30. - E7A05

Which of the following is a circuit that continuously alternates between two states without an external clock?

Select	Answer
A	Monostable multivibrator
B	J-K flip-flop
C	Astable multivibrator
D	T flip-flop

31. - E7B12

What type of amplifier circuit is shown in Figure E7-1?

Select	Answer
A	Common base
B	Common collector
C	Common emitter
D	Emitter follower

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-L
C	Cascode
D	Pi

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 provide a dual-voltage output for reduced power applications
C	To allow the filter capacitors to charge gradually
D	To compensate for variations of the incoming line voltage

34. - E7E06

Why is de-emphasis commonly used in FM communications receivers?

Select	Answer
A	For compatibility with transmitters using phase modulation
B	To reduce impulse noise reception
C	For higher efficiency
D	To remove third-order distortion products

35. - E7F15

Which of the following is an advantage of a Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filter vs an Infinite Impulse Response (IIR) digital filter?

Select	Answer
A	FIR filters can respond faster to impulses
B	FIR filters delay all frequency components of the signal by the same amount
C	All of these choices are correct
D	FIR filters are easier to implement for a given set of passband rolloff requirements

36. - E7G02

What is the effect of ringing in a filter?

Select	Answer
A	An echo caused by a long time delay
B	Undesired oscillations added to the desired signal
C	Partial cancellation of the signal over a range of frequencies
D	A reduction in high frequency response

37. - E7H10

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

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

38. - E8A12

What is an advantage of using digital signals instead of analog signals to convey the same information?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	Digital signals can be regenerated multiple times without error
C	Digital signals always occupy a narrower bandwidth
D	Less complex circuitry is required for digital signal generation and detection

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	3000
B	3
C	0.3
D	1000

40. - E8C05

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

Select	Answer
A	Approximately 52 Hz
B	Approximately 13 Hz
C	Approximately 104 Hz
D	Approximately 26 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	Phase compandored spread spectrum
B	Direct sequence
C	Binary phase-shift keying
D	Frequency hopping

42. - E9A02

What antenna has no gain in any direction?

Select	Answer
A	Yagi
B	Isotropic antenna
C	Half-wave dipole
D	Quarter-wave vertical

43. - E9B02

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

Select	Answer
A	24 dB
B	14 dB
C	18 dB
D	36 dB

44. - E9C05

What is an OCFD antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A dipole feed approximately 1/3 the way from one end with a 4:1 balun to provide multiband operation
B	A multiband dipole antenna using one-way circular polarization for frequency diversity
C	An eight band dipole antenna using octophase filters
D	A remotely tunable dipole antenna using orthogonally controlled frequency diversity

45. - E9D01

How does the gain of an ideal parabolic dish antenna change when the operating frequency is doubled?

Select	Answer
A	Gain increases by 6 dB
B	Gain increases by 3 dB
C	Gain is multiplied by 0.707
D	Gain does not change

46. - E9E06

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

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

47. - E9F05

What is the approximate physical length of a solid polyethylene dielectric coaxial transmission line that is electrically one-quarter wavelength long at 14.1 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	20 meters
B	2.3 meters
C	3.5 meters
D	0.2 meters

48. - E9G01

Which of the following can be calculated using a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Radiation resistance
B	Antenna radiation pattern
C	Impedance along transmission lines
D	Radio propagation

49. - E9H02

Which is generally true for low band (160 meter and 80 meter) receiving antennas?

Select	Answer
A	Atmospheric noise is so high that gain over a dipole is not important
B	Low loss coax transmission line is essential for good performance
C	All of these choices are correct
D	They must be erected at least 1/2 wavelength above the ground to attain good directivity

50. - E0A05

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

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

Figure E6-5

Figure E7-1

Figure E9-1