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

Logging in (or registering) will help the system to select questions that you need to focus on.

1. - E1A04

With your transceiver displaying the carrier frequency of phone signals, you hear a DX station calling CQ on 3.601 MHz LSB. Is it legal to return the call using lower sideband on the same frequency?

Select	Answer
A	No, the sideband will extend beyond the edge of the phone band segment
B	Yes, because the DX station initiated the contact
C	Yes, because the displayed frequency is within the 75 meter phone band segment
D	No, U.S. stations are not permitted to use phone emissions below 3.610 MHz

2. - E1B03

Within what distance must an amateur station protect an FCC monitoring facility from harmful interference?

Select	Answer
A	30 miles
B	10 miles
C	3 miles
D	1 mile

3. - E1C01

What is a remotely controlled station?

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

4. - E1D03

What is a telecommand station in the amateur satellite service?

Select	Answer
A	An amateur station located more than 50 km above the Earth's surface
B	An amateur station that transmits telemetry consisting of measurements of upper atmosphere
C	An amateur station located on the Earth's surface for communication with other Earth stations by means of Earth satellites
D	An amateur station that transmits communications to initiate, modify or terminate functions of a space station

5. - E1E09

What may be the penalty for a VE who fraudulently administers or certifies an examination?

Select	Answer
A	A fine of up to $1000 per occurrence
B	Revocation of the VE's amateur station license grant and the suspension of the VE's amateur operator license grant
C	All of these choices are correct
D	A sentence of up to one year in prison

6. - E1F01

On what frequencies are spread spectrum transmissions permitted?

Select	Answer
A	Only on amateur frequencies above 222 MHz
B	Only on amateur frequencies above 144 MHz
C	Only on amateur frequencies above 420 MHz
D	Only on amateur frequencies above 50 MHz

7. - E2A06

On what band would a satellite receive signals if it were operating in mode U/V?

Select	Answer
A	435 MHz - 438 MHz
B	29.5 MHz - 29.7 MHz
C	50.0 MHz - 50.2 MHz
D	144 MHz - 146 MHz

8. - E2B04

What is blanking in a video signal?

Select	Answer
A	Turning off the scanning beam while it is traveling from right to left or from bottom to top
B	Transmitting a black and white test pattern
C	Turning off the scanning beam at the conclusion of a transmission
D	Synchronization of the horizontal and vertical sync pulses

9. - E2C03

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

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

10. - E2D03

Which of the following digital modes is especially useful for EME communications?

Select	Answer
A	FSK441
B	Olivia
C	JT65
D	PACTOR III

11. - E2E05

Which type of digital mode does not support keyboard-to-keyboard operation?

Select	Answer
A	MFSK
B	Winlink
C	RTTY
D	PSK31

12. - E3A03

When scheduling EME contacts, which of these conditions will generally result in the least path loss?

Select	Answer
A	When the Moon is at perigee
B	When the Moon is at apogee
C	When the MUF is above 30 MHz
D	When the Moon is full

13. - E3B06

Which of the following amateur bands most frequently provides long-path propagation?

Select	Answer
A	80 meters
B	20 meters
C	6 meters
D	10 meters

14. - E3C04

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

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

15. - E4A03

Which of the following test instrument is used to display spurious signals and/or intermodulation distortion products in an SSB transmitter?

Select	Answer
A	A time-domain reflectometer
B	A wattmeter
C	A logic analyzer
D	A spectrum analyzer

16. - E4B17

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

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

17. - E4C14

What transmit frequency might generate an image response signal in a receiver tuned to 14.300 MHz and which uses a 455 kHz IF frequency?

Select	Answer
A	13.845 MHz
B	14.445 MHz
C	14.755 MHz
D	15.210 MHz

18. - E4D07

Which describes the most significant effect of an off-frequency signal when it is causing cross-modulation interference to a desired signal?

Select	Answer
A	A large increase in background noise
B	A reduction in apparent signal strength
C	The desired signal can no longer be heard
D	The off-frequency unwanted signal is heard in addition to the desired signal

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	A whining type noise that continually pulses off and on
C	A clicking noise at intervals of a few seconds
D	The appearance of unstable modulated or unmodulated signals at specific frequencies

20. - E5A11

What is the half-power bandwidth of a parallel resonant circuit that has a resonant frequency of 7.1 MHz and a Q of 150?

Select	Answer
A	47.3 kHz
B	315.6 Hz
C	157.8 Hz
D	23.67 kHz

21. - E5B03

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

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

22. - E5C05

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

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

23. - E5D01

What is the result of skin effect?

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

24. - E6A11

In Figure E6-2, what is the schematic symbol for a P-channel junction FET?

Select	Answer
A	2
B	3
C	1
D	6

25. - E6B07

What is the failure mechanism when a junction diode fails due to excessive current?

Select	Answer
A	Insufficient forward voltage
B	Excessive junction temperature
C	Charge carrier depletion
D	Excessive inverse voltage

26. - E6C07

What best describes a pull-up or pull-down resistor?

Select	Answer
A	A resistor connected to an op-amp output that only functions when the logic output is false
B	A resistor in a keying circuit used to reduce key clicks
C	A resistor connected to the positive or negative supply line used to establish a voltage when an input or output is an open circuit
D	A resistor that insures that an oscillator frequency does not drive lower over time

27. - E6D10

What is a primary advantage of using a toroidal core instead of a solenoidal core in an inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Toroidal cores exhibit greater hysteresis
B	Toroidal cores make it easier to couple the magnetic energy into other components
C	Toroidal cores have lower Q characteristics
D	Toroidal cores confine most of the magnetic field within the core material

28. - E6E01

Which of the following is true of a charge-coupled device (CCD)?

Select	Answer
A	Its phase shift changes rapidly with frequency
B	It is a CMOS analog-to-digital converter
C	It is used in a battery charger circuit
D	It samples an analog signal and passes it in stages from the input to the output

29. - E6F04

What is the photovoltaic effect?

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

30. - E7A05

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

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

31. - E7B10

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

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

32. - E7C06

What are the distinguishing features of an elliptical filter?

Select	Answer
A	Gradual passband rolloff with minimal stop band ripple
B	Extremely sharp cutoff with one or more notches in the stop band
C	Gradual passband rolloff with extreme stop band ripple
D	Extremely flat response over its pass band with gradually rounded stop band corners

33. - E7D14

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

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

34. - E7E01

Which of the following can be used to generate FM phone emissions?

Select	Answer
A	A balanced modulator on the audio amplifier
B	A reactance modulator on the oscillator
C	A reactance modulator on the final amplifier
D	A balanced modulator on the oscillator

35. - E7F10

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

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

36. - E7G05

How can unwanted ringing and audio instability be prevented in a multi-section op-amp RC audio filter circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Restrict gain but increase Q
B	Increase both gain and Q
C	Restrict Q but increase gain
D	Restrict both gain and Q

37. - E7H14

What is a phase-locked loop circuit?

Select	Answer
A	An electronic servo loop consisting of a ratio detector, reactance modulator, and voltage-controlled oscillator
B	An electronic servo loop consisting of a phase detector, a low-pass filter, a voltage-controlled oscillator, and a stable reference oscillator
C	An electronic circuit also known as a monostable multivibrator
D	An electronic circuit consisting of a precision push-pull amplifier with a differential input

38. - E8A11

What type of information can be conveyed using digital waveforms?

Select	Answer
A	Video signals
B	Human speech
C	All of these choices are correct
D	Data

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 share the same channel by transmitting time of transmission as the sub-carrier
D	Two or more data streams are assigned to discrete sub-carriers on an FM transmitter

40. - E8C09

Which is the name of a digital code where each preceding or following character changes by only one bit?

Select	Answer
A	Binary Coded Decimal Code
B	Gray code
C	Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code
D	Excess 3 code

41. - E8D10

What are some of the differences between the Baudot digital code and ASCII?

Select	Answer
A	Baudot uses 5 data bits per character, ASCII uses 7 or 8; Baudot uses 2 characters as letters/figures shift codes, ASCII has no letters/figures shift code
B	Baudot uses 4 data bits per character, ASCII uses 7 or 8; Baudot uses 1 character as a letters/figures shift code, ASCII has no letters/figures code
C	Baudot uses 7 data bits per character, ASCII uses 8; Baudot has no letters/figures shift code, ASCII uses 2 letters/figures shift codes
D	Baudot uses 6 data bits per character, ASCII uses 7 or 8; Baudot has no letters/figures shift code, ASCII uses 2 letters/figures shift codes

42. - E9A10

Which of the following choices is a way to improve the efficiency of a ground-mounted quarter-wave vertical antenna?

Select	Answer
A	Isolate the coax shield from ground
B	Install a good radial system
C	Reduce the diameter of the radiating element
D	Shorten the radiating element

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	50 degrees
C	75 degrees
D	25 degrees

44. - E9C05

What is an OCFD antenna?

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

45. - E9D11

Which of the following types of conductors would be best for minimizing losses in a station's RF ground system?

Select	Answer
A	A single 12 gauge or 10 gauge stainless steel wire
B	A wide flat copper strap
C	A resistive wire, such as spark plug wire
D	A cable with six or seven 18 gauge conductors in parallel

46. - E9E13

What is a use for a Wilkinson divider?

Select	Answer
A	It is used to divide power equally between two 50 ohm loads while maintaining 50 ohm input impedance
B	It is used to feed low-impedance loads from a high-impedance source
C	It is used to feed high-impedance antennas from a low-impedance source
D	It divides the operating frequency of a transmitter signal so it can be used on a lower frequency band

47. - E9F11

What impedance does a 1/8 wavelength transmission line present to a generator when the line is open at the far end?

Select	Answer
A	An inductive reactance
B	The same as the characteristic impedance of the line
C	The same as the input impedance of the final generator stage
D	A capacitive reactance

48. - E9G01

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

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

49. - E9H06

What is the triangulation method of direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	A fixed receiving station uses three different antennas to plot the location of the signal source
B	The geometric angles of sky waves from the source are used to determine its position
C	A fixed receiving station plots three headings to the signal source
D	Antenna headings from several different receiving locations are used to locate the signal source

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

Figure E6-2

Figure E7-1

Figure E9-1