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

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1. - E1A10

If an amateur station is installed aboard a ship or aircraft, what condition must be met before the station is operated?

Select	Answer
A	The amateur station operator must agree not to transmit when the main radio of the ship or aircraft is in use
B	The amateur operator must have an FCC Marine or Aircraft endorsement on his or her amateur license
C	Its operation must be approved by the master of the ship or the pilot in command of the aircraft
D	The amateur station must have a power supply that is completely independent of the main ship or aircraft power supply

2. - E1B09

Which amateur stations may be operated under RACES rules?

Select	Answer
A	Any FCC-licensed amateur station except a Technician class
B	Only those club stations licensed to Amateur Extra class operators
C	Any FCC-licensed amateur station participating in the Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS)
D	Any FCC-licensed amateur station certified by the responsible civil defense organization for the area served

3. - E1C08

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

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

4. - E1D09

Which UHF amateur service bands have frequencies available for a space station?

Select	Answer
A	33 cm and 13 cm
B	70 cm and 33 cm
C	70 cm and 13 cm
D	70 cm only

5. - E1E06

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

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

6. - E1F08

Which of the following types of amateur station communications are prohibited?

Select	Answer
A	Communications that have a religious content
B	Communications transmitted for hire or material compensation, except as otherwise provided in the rules
C	Communications in a language other than English
D	Communications that have a political content, except as allowed by the Fairness Doctrine

7. - E2A09

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

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

8. - E2B17

What is the approximate bandwidth of a slow-scan TV signal?

Select	Answer
A	2 MHz
B	3 kHz
C	6 MHz
D	600 Hz

9. - E2C02

Which of the following best describes the term self-spotting in regards to HF contest operating?

Select	Answer
A	A manual technique for rapidly zero beating or tuning to a station's frequency before calling that station
B	The generally prohibited practice of posting one's own call sign and frequency on a spotting network
C	The acceptable practice of manually posting the call signs of stations on a spotting network
D	An automatic method for rapidly zero beating or tuning to a station's frequency before calling that station

10. - E2D10

How can an APRS station be used to help support a public service communications activity?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	An APRS station with an emergency medical technician can automatically transmit medical data to the nearest hospital
C	APRS stations with General Personnel Scanners can automatically relay the participant numbers and time as they pass the check points
D	An APRS station with a GPS unit can automatically transmit information to show a mobile station's position during the event

11. - E2E04

What is indicated when one of the ellipses in an FSK crossed-ellipse display suddenly disappears?

Select	Answer
A	The receiver has drifted 5 kHz from the desired receive frequency
B	The mark and space signal have been inverted
C	One of the signal filters is saturated
D	Selective fading has occurred

12. - E3A14

From the contiguous 48 states, in which approximate direction should an antenna be pointed to take maximum advantage of aurora propagation?

Select	Answer
A	East
B	West
C	North
D	South

13. - E3B12

What is the primary characteristic of chordal hop propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Successive ionospheric reflections without an intermediate reflection from the ground
B	Signals reflected back toward the transmitting station
C	Propagation away from the great circle bearing between stations
D	Propagation across the geomagnetic equator

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	NVIS
B	Polar paths
C	Transequatorial propagation
D	Sporadic-E

15. - E4A12

Which of the following procedures is an important precaution to follow when connecting a spectrum analyzer to a transmitter output?

Select	Answer
A	Attenuate the transmitter output going to the spectrum analyzer
B	Use high quality double shielded coaxial cables to reduce signal losses
C	Match the antenna to the load
D	All of these choices are correct

16. - E4B06

How much power is being absorbed by the load when a directional power meter connected between a transmitter and a terminating load reads 100 watts forward power and 25 watts reflected power?

Select	Answer
A	25 watts
B	125 watts
C	75 watts
D	100 watts

17. - E4C15

What is usually the primary source of noise that is heard from an HF receiver with an antenna connected?

Select	Answer
A	Detector noise
B	Receiver front-end noise
C	Induction motor noise
D	Atmospheric noise

18. - E4D09

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

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

19. - E4E14

What is one type of electrical interference that might be caused by the operation of a nearby personal computer?

Select	Answer
A	A loud AC hum in the audio output of your station receiver
B	The appearance of unstable modulated or unmodulated signals at specific frequencies
C	A clicking noise at intervals of a few seconds
D	A whining type noise that continually pulses off and on

20. - E5A08

What is the phase relationship between the current through and the voltage across a series resonant circuit at resonance?

Select	Answer
A	The current leads the voltage by 90 degrees
B	The voltage leads the current by 90 degrees
C	The voltage and current are 180 degrees out of phase
D	The voltage and current are in phase

21. - E5B05

What happens to the magnitude of a reactance when it is converted to a susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	It is unchanged
B	The magnitude of the susceptance is the reciprocal of the magnitude of the reactance
C	It is shifted by 90 degrees
D	The sign is reversed

22. - E5C10

When using rectangular coordinates to graph the impedance of a circuit, what does the vertical axis represent?

Select	Answer
A	Resistive component
B	The difference between the resistive and reactive components
C	The sum of the reactive and resistive components
D	Reactive component

23. - E5D05

Which parasitic characteristic increases with conductor length?

Select	Answer
A	Inductance
B	Permeability
C	Permittivity
D	Malleability

24. - E6A08

What term indicates the frequency at which the grounded-base current gain of a transistor has decreased to 0.7 of the gain obtainable at 1 kHz?

Select	Answer
A	Corner frequency
B	Alpha rejection frequency
C	Alpha cutoff frequency
D	Beta cutoff frequency

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

26. - E6C01

What is the function of hysteresis in a comparator?

Select	Answer
A	To increase the sensitivity
B	To prevent input noise from causing unstable output signals
C	To cause the output to change states continually
D	To allow the comparator to be used with AC input signal

27. - E6D14

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

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

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
C	Silicon dioxide
D	Silicon nitride

29. - E6F10

What is the most common type of photovoltaic cell used for electrical power generation?

Select	Answer
A	Silicon
B	Selenium
C	Cadmium Sulfide
D	Copper oxide

30. - E7A02

What is the function of a decade counter digital IC?

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

31. - E7B10

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

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

32. - E7C03

What advantage does a Pi-L-network have over a regular Pi-network for impedance matching between the final amplifier of a vacuum-tube transmitter and an antenna?

Select	Answer
A	Higher efficiency
B	Greater transformation range
C	Greater harmonic suppression
D	Lower losses

33. - E7D02

What is one characteristic of a switching electronic voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	The controlled device's duty cycle is changed to produce a constant average output voltage
B	It is generally less efficient than a linear regulator
C	The resistance of a control element is varied in direct proportion to the line voltage or load current
D	It gives a ramp voltage at its output

34. - E7E03

How does an analog phase modulator function?

Select	Answer
A	By varying the tuning of an amplifier tank circuit to produce AM signals
B	By varying the tuning of a microphone preamplifier to produce AM signals
C	By varying the tuning of an amplifier tank circuit to produce PM signals
D	By varying the tuning of a microphone preamplifier to produce PM signals

35. - E7F14

Which of the following would allow a digital signal processing filter to create a sharper filter response?

Select	Answer
A	More taps
B	Complex phasor representations
C	Higher data rate
D	Double-precision math routines

36. - E7G07

What magnitude of voltage gain can be expected from the circuit in Figure E7-4 when R1 is 10 ohms and RF is 470 ohms?

Select	Answer
A	47
B	0.21
C	24
D	94

37. - E7H05

How is positive feedback supplied in a Pierce oscillator?

Select	Answer
A	Through a neutralizing capacitor
B	Through link coupling
C	Through a quartz crystal
D	Through a tapped coil

38. - E8A01

What is the name of the process that shows that a square wave is made up of a sine wave plus all of its odd harmonics?

Select	Answer
A	Fourier analysis
B	Vector analysis
C	Differential analysis
D	Numerical analysis

39. - E8B04

What is the modulation index of an FM-phone signal having a maximum carrier deviation of plus or minus 6 kHz when modulated with a 2 kHz modulating frequency?

Select	Answer
A	3
B	6000
C	1/3
D	2000

40. - E8C08

How does ARQ accomplish error correction?

Select	Answer
A	If errors are detected, redundant data is substituted
B	Special binary codes provide automatic correction
C	Special polynomial codes provide automatic correction
D	If errors are detected, a retransmission is requested

41. - E8D09

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

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

42. - E9A13

How much gain does an antenna have compared to a 1/2-wavelength dipole when it has 12 dB gain over an isotropic antenna?

Select	Answer
A	12.5 dB
B	14.15 dB
C	6.17 dB
D	9.85 dB

43. - E9B02

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

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

44. - E9C14

How does the performance of a horizontally polarized antenna mounted on the side of a hill compare with the same antenna mounted on flat ground?

Select	Answer
A	The horizontal beam width decreases in the downhill direction
B	The horizontal beam width increases in the uphill direction
C	The main lobe takeoff angle decreases in the downhill direction
D	The main lobe takeoff angle increases in the downhill direction

45. - E9D03

Where should a high Q loading coil be placed to minimize losses in a shortened vertical antenna?

Select	Answer
A	At a voltage node
B	Near the center of the vertical radiator
C	As low as possible on the vertical radiator
D	As close to the transmitter as possible

46. - E9E03

What is the name of the matching system that uses a section of transmission line connected in parallel with the feed line at or near the feed point?

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

47. - E9F09

What is the approximate physical length of a solid polyethylene dielectric coaxial transmission line that is electrically one-quarter wavelength long at 7.2 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	6.9 meters
B	10 meters
C	24 meters
D	50 meters

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	Prime axis
B	Impedance axis
C	Reactance axis
D	Polar axis

49. - E9H02

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

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

50. - E0A04

When evaluating a site with multiple transmitters operating at the same time, the operators and licensees of which transmitters are responsible for mitigating over-exposure situations?

Select	Answer
A	Only commercial transmitters
B	Only the most powerful transmitter
C	Each transmitter operating with a duty-cycle greater than 50 percent
D	Each transmitter that produces 5 percent or more of its MPE limit at accessible locations

Figure E7-1

Figure E7-4

Figure E9-1

Figure E9-3