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

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1. - E1A09

What is the first action you should take if your digital message forwarding station inadvertently forwards a communication that violates FCC rules?

Select	Answer
A	Notify the originating station that the communication does not comply with FCC rules
B	Discontinue forwarding the communication as soon as you become aware of it
C	Discontinue forwarding all messages
D	Notify the nearest FCC Field Engineer's office

2. - E1B02

Which of the following factors might cause the physical location of an amateur station apparatus or antenna structure to be restricted?

Select	Answer
A	The location is near an area of political conflict
B	The location is of environmental importance or significant in American history, architecture, or culture
C	The location is of geographical or horticultural importance
D	The location is in an ITU Zone designated for coordination with one or more foreign governments

3. - E1C06

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

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

4. - E1D07

Which amateur service HF bands have frequencies authorized for space stations?

Select	Answer
A	Only the 40 m, 20 m, 17 m, 15 m, 12 m and 10 m bands
B	Only the 40 m, 30 m, 20 m, 15 m, 12 m and 10 m bands
C	Only the 40 m, 20 m, 17 m, 15 m and 10 m bands
D	All HF bands

5. - E1E02

Where are the questions for all written U.S. amateur license examinations listed?

Select	Answer
A	In FCC Part 97
B	In the appropriate FCC Report and Order
C	In a question pool maintained by all the VECs
D	In a question pool maintained by the FCC

6. - E1F05

Amateur stations may not transmit in which of the following frequency segments if they are located in the contiguous 48 states and north of Line A?

Select	Answer
A	440 MHz - 450 MHz
B	222 MHz - 223 MHz
C	53 MHz - 54 MHz
D	420 MHz - 430 MHz

7. - E2A09

What do the terms L band and S band specify with regard to satellite communications?

Select	Answer
A	FM and Digital Store-and-Forward systems
B	The 2 meter and 70 centimeter bands
C	The 23 centimeter and 13 centimeter bands
D	Which sideband to use

8. - E2B06

What is vestigial sideband modulation?

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

9. - E2C09

What type of equipment is commonly used to implement a ham radio mesh network?

Select	Answer
A	A 2 meter VHF transceiver with a 1200 baud modem
B	A 440 MHz transceiver with a 9600 baud modem
C	A standard wireless router running custom software
D	An optical cable connection between the USB ports of 2 separate computers

10. - E2D11

Which of the following data are used by the APRS network to communicate your location?

Select	Answer
A	Polar coordinates
B	Latitude and longitude
C	Time and frequency
D	Radio direction finding spectrum analysis

11. - E2E01

Which type of modulation is common for data emissions below 30 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	FSK
B	Pulse modulation
C	DTMF tones modulating an FM signal
D	Spread spectrum

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. - E3B07

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

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

14. - E3C04

What does the value of Bz (B sub Z) represent?

Select	Answer
A	Geomagnetic field stability
B	Duration of long-delayed echoes
C	Direction and strength of the interplanetary magnetic field
D	Critical frequency for vertical transmissions

15. - E4A10

Which of the following displays multiple digital signal states simultaneously?

Select	Answer
A	Bit error rate tester
B	Network analyzer
C	Modulation monitor
D	Logic analyzer

16. - E4B02

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

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

17. - E4C09

Which of the following choices is a good reason for selecting a high frequency for the design of the IF in a conventional HF or VHF communications receiver?

Select	Answer
A	Fewer components in the receiver
B	Improved receiver noise figure
C	Easier for front-end circuitry to eliminate image responses
D	Reduced drift

18. - E4D09

What is the purpose of the preselector in a communications receiver?

Select	Answer
A	To increase rejection of unwanted signals
B	To provide a range of AGC time constants
C	To store often-used frequencies
D	To allow selection of the optimum RF amplifier device

19. - E4E06

What is a major cause of atmospheric static?

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

20. - E5A05

What is the magnitude of the current at the input of a series RLC circuit as the frequency goes through resonance?

Select	Answer
A	L/R
B	Maximum
C	Minimum
D	R/L

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. - E5C05

What is the name of the diagram used to show the phase relationship between impedances at a given frequency?

Select	Answer
A	Venn diagram
B	Far field diagram
C	Phasor diagram
D	Near field diagram

23. - E5D01

What is the result of skin effect?

Select	Answer
A	Thermal effects on the surface of the conductor increase the impedance
B	As frequency decreases, RF current flows in a thinner layer of the conductor, closer to the surface
C	Thermal effects on the surface of the conductor decrease the impedance
D	As frequency increases, RF current flows in a thinner layer of the conductor, closer to the surface

24. - E6A02

Which of the following semiconductor materials contains excess free electrons?

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

25. - E6B09

What is a common use for point contact diodes?

Select	Answer
A	As a high voltage rectifier
B	As a constant current source
C	As an RF detector
D	As a constant voltage source

26. - E6C05

What is an advantage of CMOS logic devices over TTL devices?

Select	Answer
A	Immune to damage from static discharge
B	Differential output capability
C	Lower distortion
D	Lower power consumption

27. - E6D03

Which of the following is an aspect of the piezoelectric effect?

Select	Answer
A	Increased conductivity in the presence of light
B	Mechanical deformation of material by the application of a magnetic field
C	Generation of electrical energy in the presence of light
D	Mechanical deformation of material by the application of a voltage

28. - E6E12

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

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

29. - E6F02

What happens to the conductivity of a photoconductive material when light shines on it?

Select	Answer
A	It increases
B	It becomes unstable
C	It stays the same
D	It decreases

30. - E7A02

What is the function of a decade counter digital IC?

Select	Answer
A	It produces one output pulse for every ten input pulses
B	It produces ten output pulses for every input pulse
C	It decodes a decimal number for display on a seven segment LED display
D	It adds two decimal numbers together

31. - E7B16

What is the effect of intermodulation products in a linear power amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	Transmission of spurious signals
B	Low efficiency
C	Creation of parasitic oscillations
D	All of these choices are correct

32. - E7C07

What kind of filter would you use to attenuate an interfering carrier signal while receiving an SSB transmission?

Select	Answer
A	A notch filter
B	A band-pass filter
C	A Pi-network filter
D	An all-pass filter

33. - E7D14

What is one purpose of a "bleeder" resistor in a conventional unregulated power supply?

Select	Answer
A	To boost the amount of output current
B	To balance the low-voltage filament windings
C	To improve output voltage regulation
D	To cut down on waste heat generated by the power supply

34. - E7E11

Which type of detector is used for demodulating SSB signals?

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

35. - E7F10

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

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

36. - E7G10

What absolute voltage gain can be expected from the circuit in Figure E7-4 when R1 is 1800 ohms and RF is 68 kilohms?

Select	Answer
A	1
B	76
C	38
D	0.03

37. - E7H09

What type of frequency synthesizer circuit uses a phase accumulator, lookup table, digital to analog converter, and a low-pass anti-alias filter?

Select	Answer
A	A diode-switching matrix synthesizer
B	A phase locked loop synthesizer
C	A hybrid synthesizer
D	A direct digital synthesizer

38. - E8A13

Which of these methods is commonly used to convert analog signals to digital signals?

Select	Answer
A	Harmonic regeneration
B	Sequential sampling
C	Phase reversal
D	Level shifting

39. - E8B11

What is digital time division multiplexing?

Select	Answer
A	Two or more signals are arranged to share discrete time slots of a data transmission
B	Two or more signals are quadrature modulated to increase bandwidth efficiency
C	Two or more data streams are assigned to discrete sub-carriers on an FM transmitter
D	Two or more data streams share the same channel by transmitting time of transmission as the sub-carrier

40. - E8C11

What is the relationship between symbol rate and baud?

Select	Answer
A	Baud is twice the symbol rate
B	They are the same
C	Symbol rate is only used for packet-based modes
D	Baud is only used for RTTY

41. - E8D04

What is the primary effect of extremely short rise or fall time on a CW signal?

Select	Answer
A	Limits data speed
B	The generation of key clicks
C	More difficult to copy
D	The generation of RF harmonics

42. - E9A09

How is antenna efficiency calculated?

Select	Answer
A	(total resistance / radiation resistance) x 100 per cent
B	(effective radiated power / transmitter output) x 100 percent
C	(radiation resistance / transmission resistance) x 100 per cent
D	(radiation resistance / total resistance) x 100 per cent

43. - E9B01

In the antenna radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-1, what is the 3 dB beam-width?

Select	Answer
A	30 degrees
B	25 degrees
C	75 degrees
D	50 degrees

44. - E9C05

What is an OCFD antenna?

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

45. - E9D09

What is the function of a loading coil used as part of an HF mobile antenna?

Select	Answer
A	To increase the SWR bandwidth
B	To cancel capacitive reactance
C	To lower the Q
D	To lower the losses

46. - E9E04

What is the purpose of the series capacitor in a gamma-type antenna matching network?

Select	Answer
A	To provide a rejection notch that prevents the radiation of harmonics
B	To provide DC isolation between the feed line and the antenna
C	To transform the antenna impedance to a higher value
D	To cancel the inductive reactance of the matching network

47. - E9F02

Which of the following determines the velocity factor of a transmission line?

Select	Answer
A	Dielectric materials used in the line
B	The termination impedance
C	The line length
D	The center conductor resistivity

48. - E9G03

Which of the following is often determined using a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Impedance and SWR values in transmission lines
B	Beam headings and radiation patterns
C	Trigonometric functions
D	Satellite azimuth and elevation bearings

49. - E9H11

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

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

50. - E0A08

What does SAR measure?

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

Figure E7-4

Figure E9-1