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

2. - E1B11

What is the permitted mean power of any spurious emission relative to the mean power of the fundamental emission from a station transmitter or external RF amplifier installed after January 1, 2003 and transmitting on a frequency below 30 MHZ?

Select	Answer
A	At least 73 dB below
B	At least 63 dB below
C	At least 43 dB below
D	At least 53 dB below

3. - E1C08

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

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

4. - E1D05

What class of licensee is authorized to be the control operator of a space station?

Select	Answer
A	All except Technician Class
B	Any class with appropriate operator privileges
C	Only General, Advanced or Amateur Extra Class
D	Only Amateur Extra Class

5. - E1E07

What should a VE do if a candidate fails to comply with the examiner's instructions during an amateur operator license examination?

Select	Answer
A	Immediately terminate everyone's examination and close the session
B	Warn the candidate that continued failure to comply will result in termination of the examination
C	Allow the candidate to complete the examination, but invalidate the results
D	Immediately terminate the candidate's examination

6. - E1F12

Who may be the control operator of an auxiliary station?

Select	Answer
A	Only Technician, General, Advanced or Amateur Extra Class operators
B	Only General, Advanced or Amateur Extra Class operators
C	Only Amateur Extra Class operators
D	Any licensed amateur operator

7. - E2A14

What technology is used to track, in real time, balloons carrying amateur radio transmitters?

Select	Answer
A	Radar
B	APRS
C	Doppler shift of beacon signals
D	Bandwidth compressed LORAN

8. - E2B18

On which of the following frequencies is one likely to find FM ATV transmissions?

Select	Answer
A	52.525 MHz
B	29.6 MHz
C	14.230 MHz
D	1255 MHz

9. - E2C11

How should you generally identify your station when attempting to contact a DX station during a contest or in a pileup?

Select	Answer
A	Send your full call sign and grid square
B	Send only the last two letters of your call sign until you make contact
C	Send the call sign of the DX station three times, the words "this is", then your call sign three times
D	Send your full call sign once or twice

10. - E2D01

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

Select	Answer
A	Hellschreiber
B	FSK441
C	APRS
D	WSPR

11. - E2E08

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

Select	Answer
A	AMTOR
B	RTTY
C	PACTOR
D	Hellschreiber

12. - E3A05

Tropospheric propagation of microwave signals often occurs along what weather related structure?

Select	Answer
A	Gray-line
B	Lightning discharges
C	Warm and cold fronts
D	Sprites and jets

13. - E3B11

At what time of day is Sporadic-E propagation most likely to occur?

Select	Answer
A	Around sunrise
B	Around sunset
C	Any time
D	Early evening

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	Polar paths
B	Transequatorial propagation
C	NVIS
D	Sporadic-E

15. - E4A08

Which of the following instrument would be best for measuring the SWR of a beam antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A spectrum analyzer
B	A Q meter
C	An ohmmeter
D	An antenna analyzer

16. - E4B17

What three test loads are used to calibrate a standard RF vector network analyzer?

Select	Answer
A	Short circuit, open circuit, and resonant circuit
B	Short circuit, open circuit, and 50 ohms
C	50 ohms, 75 ohms, and 90 ohms
D	50 ohms through 1/8 wavelength, 1/4 wavelength, and 1/2 wavelength of coaxial cable

17. - E4C13

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

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

18. - E4D06

What is the term for unwanted signals generated by the mixing of two or more signals?

Select	Answer
A	Amplifier desensitization
B	Intermodulation interference
C	Adjacent channel interference
D	Neutralization

19. - E4E02

Which of the following types of receiver noise can often be reduced with a DSP noise filter?

Select	Answer
A	Ignition noise
B	Power line noise
C	Broadband white noise
D	All of these choices are correct

20. - E5A04

What is the magnitude of the impedance of a circuit with a resistor, an inductor and a capacitor all in parallel, at resonance?

Select	Answer
A	Approximately equal to capacitive reactance
B	Approximately equal to inductive reactance
C	Approximately equal to circuit resistance
D	Low, as compared to the circuit resistance

21. - E5B13

What letter is commonly used to represent susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	Y
B	X
C	G
D	B

22. - E5C14

Which point on Figure E5-2 best represents the impedance of a series circuit consisting of a 400 ohm resistor and a 38 picofarad capacitor at 14 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	Point 2
B	Point 4
C	Point 6
D	Point 5

23. - E5D05

Which parasitic characteristic increases with conductor length?

Select	Answer
A	Inductance
B	Permittivity
C	Permeability
D	Malleability

24. - E6A05

What is the alpha of a bipolar junction transistor?

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

25. - E6B04

What type of semiconductor device is designed for use as a voltage-controlled capacitor?

Select	Answer
A	Tunnel diode
B	Varactor diode
C	Zener diode
D	Silicon-controlled rectifier

26. - E6C14

What is the primary advantage of using a Programmable Gate Array (PGA) in a logic circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Complex logic functions can be created in a single integrated circuit
B	All of these choices are correct
C	A PGA contains its own internal power supply
D	Many similar gates are less expensive than a mixture of gate types

27. - E6D08

What is one reason for using powdered-iron cores rather than ferrite cores in an inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Powdered-iron cores use smaller diameter wire for the same inductance
B	Powdered-iron cores generally require fewer turns to produce a given inductance
C	Powdered-iron cores generally maintain their characteristics at higher currents
D	Powdered-iron cores generally have greater initial permeability

28. - E6E03

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

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

29. - E6F09

What is the efficiency of a photovoltaic cell?

Select	Answer
A	The effective payback period
B	The relative fraction of light that is converted to current
C	The output RF power divided by the input DC power
D	The open-circuit voltage divided by the short-circuit current under full illumination

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 AB
B	Class C
C	Push-push
D	Push-pull

32. - E7C02

Which of the following is a property of a T-network with series capacitors and a parallel shunt inductor?

Select	Answer
A	It is a low-pass filter
B	It is a notch filter
C	It is a band-pass filter
D	It is a high-pass filter

33. - E7D14

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

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

34. - E7E06

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

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

35. - E7F12

What digital process is applied to I and Q signals in order to recover the baseband modulation information?

Select	Answer
A	Quadrature mixing
B	Decimation
C	Fast Fourier Transform
D	Signal conditioning

36. - E7G11

What absolute voltage gain can be expected from the circuit in Figure E7-4 when R1 is 3300 ohms and RF is 47 kilohms?

Select	Answer
A	0.07
B	14
C	28
D	7

37. - E7H01

What are three oscillator circuits used in Amateur Radio equipment?

Select	Answer
A	Pierce, Fenner and Beane
B	Taft, Hartley and Pierce
C	Colpitts, Hartley and Pierce
D	Taft, Pierce and negative feedback

38. - E8A07

What determines the PEP-to-average power ratio of a single-sideband phone signal?

Select	Answer
A	The frequency of the modulating signal
B	The amplifier gain
C	The characteristics of the modulating signal
D	The degree of carrier suppression

39. - E8B10

What describes frequency division multiplexing?

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

40. - E8C01

How is Forward Error Correction implemented?

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

41. - E8D06

Which of the following indicates likely overmodulation of an AFSK signal such as PSK or MFSK?

Select	Answer
A	Harmonics on higher bands
B	Strong ALC action
C	Rapid signal fading
D	High reflected power

42. - E9A08

What is meant by antenna bandwidth?

Select	Answer
A	The angle formed between two imaginary lines drawn through the element ends
B	The angle between the half-power radiation points
C	Antenna length divided by the number of elements
D	The frequency range over which an antenna satisfies a performance requirement

43. - E9B03

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

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

44. - E9C11

How is the far-field elevation pattern of a vertically polarized antenna affected by being mounted over seawater versus rocky ground?

Select	Answer
A	The low-angle radiation increases
B	Both the high-angle and low-angle radiation decrease
C	The high-angle radiation increases
D	The low-angle radiation decreases

45. - E9D06

What happens to the bandwidth of an antenna as it is shortened through the use of loading coils?

Select	Answer
A	It is increased
B	No change occurs
C	It is decreased
D	It becomes flat

46. - E9E10

Which of these choices is an effective way to match an antenna with a 100 ohm feed point impedance to a 50 ohm coaxial cable feed line?

Select	Answer
A	Insert a 1/2 wavelength piece of 300 ohm twin-lead in series between the antenna terminals and the 50 ohm feed cable
B	Insert a 1/4-wavelength piece of 75 ohm coaxial cable transmission line in series between the antenna terminals and the 50 ohm feed cable
C	Connect a 1/4-wavelength open stub of 300 ohm twin-lead in parallel with the coaxial feed line where it connects to the antenna
D	Connect 1/2 wavelength shorted stub of 75 ohm cable in parallel with the 50 ohm cable where it attaches to the antenna

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 line length
C	The center conductor resistivity
D	The termination impedance

48. - E9G09

What third family of circles is often added to a Smith chart during the process of solving problems?

Select	Answer
A	Radiation-pattern circles
B	Coaxial-length circles
C	Antenna-length circles
D	Standing wave ratio circles

49. - E9H01

When constructing a Beverage antenna, which of the following factors should be included in the design to achieve good performance at the desired frequency?

Select	Answer
A	It should be one or more wavelengths long
B	Its overall length must not exceed 1/4 wavelength
C	It should be configured as a four-sided loop
D	It must be mounted more than 1 wavelength above ground

50. - E0A03

Which of the following would be a practical way to estimate whether the RF fields produced by an amateur radio station are within permissible MPE limits?

Select	Answer
A	Use a calibrated antenna analyzer
B	Use a hand calculator plus Smith-chart equations to calculate the fields
C	All of the choices are correct
D	Use an antenna modeling program to calculate field strength at accessible locations

Figure E5-2

Figure E7-4

Figure E9-1