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

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1. - E1A12

With your transceiver displaying the carrier frequency of CW signals, you hear a DX station's CQ on 3.500 MHz. Is it legal to return the call using CW on the same frequency?

Select	Answer
A	Yes, the displayed frequency is within the 80 meter CW band segment
B	No, U.S. stations are not permitted to use CW emissions below 3.525 MHz
C	No, one of the sidebands of the CW signal will be out of the band
D	Yes, the DX station initiated the contact

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. - E1C09

Which of these ranges of frequencies is available for an automatically controlled repeater operating below 30 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	24.940 MHz - 24.990 MHz
B	29.500 MHz - 29.700 MHz
C	10.100 MHz - 10.150 MHz
D	18.110 MHz - 18.168 MHz

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	Only General, Advanced or Amateur Extra Class
C	Any class with appropriate operator privileges
D	Only Amateur Extra Class

5. - E1E12

What must the VE team do with the application form if the examinee does not pass the exam?

Select	Answer
A	Send the application form to the FCC and inform the FCC of the grade
B	Maintain the application form with the VEC's records
C	Return the application document to the examinee
D	Destroy the application form

6. - E1F01

On what frequencies are spread spectrum transmissions permitted?

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

7. - E2A05

What do the letters in a satellite's mode designator specify?

Select	Answer
A	The location of the ground control station
B	The polarization of uplink and downlink signals
C	The uplink and downlink frequency ranges
D	Power limits for uplink and downlink transmissions

8. - E2B16

Which is a video standard used by North American Fast Scan ATV stations?

Select	Answer
A	DRM
B	NTSC
C	Scottie
D	PAL

9. - E2C03

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

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

10. - E2D11

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

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

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. - E3A01

What is the approximate maximum separation measured along the surface of the Earth between two stations communicating by Moon bounce?

Select	Answer
A	5000 miles, if the Moon is at perigee
B	12,000 miles, if the Moon is visible by both stations
C	2000 miles, if the Moon is at apogee
D	500 miles, if the Moon is at perigee

13. - E3B13

Why is chordal hop propagation desirable?

Select	Answer
A	The signal experiences less loss along the path compared to normal skip propagation
B	Atmospheric noise is lower in the direction of chordal hop propagation
C	The MUF for chordal hop propagation is much lower than for normal skip propagation
D	Signals travel faster along ionospheric chords

14. - E3C07

Which of the following descriptors indicates the greatest solar flare intensity?

Select	Answer
A	Class M
B	Class X
C	Class A
D	Class B

15. - E4A02

Which of the following parameters would a spectrum analyzer display on the vertical and horizontal axes?

Select	Answer
A	SWR and time
B	RF amplitude and time
C	SWR and frequency
D	RF amplitude and frequency

16. - E4B14

What happens if a dip meter is too tightly coupled to a tuned circuit being checked?

Select	Answer
A	A less accurate reading results
B	Intermodulation distortion occurs
C	Harmonics are generated
D	Cross modulation occurs

17. - E4C16

Which of the following is caused by missing codes in an SDR receiver's analog-to-digital converter?

Select	Answer
A	Excess output level
B	Overload
C	Loss of sensitivity
D	Distortion

18. - E4D02

Which of the following describes two problems caused by poor dynamic range in a communications receiver?

Select	Answer
A	Oscillator instability requiring frequent retuning and loss of ability to recover the opposite sideband
B	Cross-modulation of the desired signal and desensitization from strong adjacent signals
C	Cross-modulation of the desired signal and insufficient audio power to operate the speaker
D	Oscillator instability and severe audio distortion of all but the strongest received signals

19. - E4E04

How can conducted and radiated noise caused by an automobile alternator be suppressed?

Select	Answer
A	By installing a noise suppression resistor and a blocking capacitor in both leads
B	By installing a high-pass filter in series with the radio's power lead and a low-pass filter in parallel with the field lead
C	By connecting the radio's power leads directly to the battery and by installing coaxial capacitors in line with the alternator leads
D	By installing filter capacitors in series with the DC power lead and a blocking capacitor in the field lead

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

21. - E5B06

What is susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	The inverse of reactance
B	A measure of the efficiency of a transformer
C	The magnetic impedance of a circuit
D	The ratio of magnetic field to electric field

22. - E5C09

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

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

23. - E5D15

What is the power factor of an R-L circuit having a 45 degree phase angle between the voltage and the current?

Select	Answer
A	1.0
B	0.707
C	0.866
D	0.5

24. - E6A15

Which semiconductor material contains excess holes in the outer shell of electrons?

Select	Answer
A	P-type
B	N-type
C	Bipolar-type
D	Superconductor-type

25. - E6B06

Which of the following is a common use of a hot-carrier diode?

Select	Answer
A	As a VHF/UHF mixer or detector
B	As balanced mixers in FM generation
C	As a variable capacitance in an automatic frequency control circuit
D	As a constant voltage reference in a power supply

26. - E6C08

In Figure E6-5, what is the schematic symbol for a NAND gate?

Select	Answer
A	3
B	1
C	2
D	4

27. - E6D12

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

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

28. - E6E08

How is voltage from a power supply normally furnished to the most common type of monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC)?

Select	Answer
A	Directly to the bias voltage (VCC IN) lead
B	Through a capacitor and RF choke connected to the amplifier input lead
C	MMICs require no operating bias
D	Through a resistor and/or RF choke connected to the amplifier output lead

29. - E6F13

What is a liquid crystal display (LCD)?

Select	Answer
A	A frequency-determining unit for a transmitter or receiver
B	A modern replacement for a quartz crystal oscillator which displays its fundamental frequency
C	A display utilizing a crystalline liquid and polarizing filters which becomes opaque when voltage is applied
D	A display that uses a glowing liquid to remain brightly lit in dim light

30. - E7A04

How many flip-flops are required to divide a signal frequency by 4?

Select	Answer
A	2
B	1
C	8
D	4

31. - E7B14

Why are switching amplifiers more efficient than linear amplifiers?

Select	Answer
A	Switching amplifiers use push-pull circuits
B	The power transistor is at saturation or cut off most of the time, resulting in low power dissipation
C	Linear amplifiers have high gain resulting in higher harmonic content
D	Switching amplifiers operate at higher voltages

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

33. - E7D08

What type of circuit is shown in Figure E7-3?

Select	Answer
A	Switching voltage regulator
B	Emitter follower
C	Linear voltage regulator
D	Grounded emitter amplifier

34. - E7E05

What circuit is added to an FM transmitter to boost the higher audio frequencies?

Select	Answer
A	A pre-emphasis network
B	A de-emphasis network
C	A heterodyne suppressor
D	An audio prescaler

35. - E7F05

How frequently must an analog signal be sampled by an analog-to-digital converter so that the signal can be accurately reproduced?

Select	Answer
A	At half the rate of the highest frequency component of the signal
B	At the same rate as the highest frequency component of the signal
C	At four times the rate of the highest frequency component of the signal
D	At twice the rate of the highest frequency component of the signal

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	94
B	24
C	0.21
D	47

37. - E7H11

What are the major spectral impurity components of direct digital synthesizers?

Select	Answer
A	Broadband noise
B	Nyquist limit noise
C	Digital conversion noise
D	Spurious signals at discrete frequencies

38. - E8A06

What is the approximate ratio of PEP-to-average power in a typical single-sideband phone signal?

Select	Answer
A	1 to 1
B	2.5 to 1
C	25 to 1
D	100 to 1

39. - E8B07

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing is a technique used for which type of amateur communication?

Select	Answer
A	EME
B	OFDM signals are not allowed on amateur bands
C	Extremely low-power contacts
D	High speed digital modes

40. - E8C07

What is the necessary bandwidth of a 4800-Hz frequency shift, 9600-baud ASCII FM transmission?

Select	Answer
A	4.8 kHz
B	5.76 kHz
C	9.6 kHz
D	15.36 kHz

41. - E8D07

What is a common cause of overmodulation of AFSK signals?

Select	Answer
A	Ground loops
B	Bit errors in the modem
C	Excessive numbers of retries
D	Excessive transmit audio levels

42. - E9A05

What is included in the total resistance of an antenna system?

Select	Answer
A	Radiation resistance plus transmission resistance
B	Transmission-line resistance plus radiation resistance
C	Radiation resistance plus space impedance
D	Radiation resistance plus ohmic resistance

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. - E9C03

What is the radiation pattern of two 1/4 wavelength vertical antennas spaced a 1/2 wavelength apart and fed in phase?

Select	Answer
A	Cardioid
B	A Figure-8 broadside to the axis of the array
C	A Figure-8 end-fire along the axis of the array
D	Omni-directional

45. - E9D02

How can linearly polarized Yagi antennas be used to produce circular polarization?

Select	Answer
A	Stack two Yagis fed 90 degrees out of phase to form an array with the respective elements in parallel planes
B	Arrange two Yagis collinear to each other with the driven elements fed 180 degrees out of phase
C	Stack two Yagis fed in phase to form an array with the respective elements in parallel planes
D	Arrange two Yagis perpendicular to each other with the driven elements at the same point on the boom fed 90 degrees out of phase

46. - E9E07

What term best describes the interactions at the load end of a mismatched transmission line?

Select	Answer
A	Velocity factor
B	Reflection coefficient
C	Dielectric constant
D	Characteristic impedance

47. - E9F01

What is the velocity factor of a transmission line?

Select	Answer
A	The velocity of the wave in the transmission line multiplied by the velocity of light in a vacuum
B	The velocity of the wave in the transmission line divided by the velocity of light in a vacuum
C	The index of shielding for coaxial cable
D	The ratio of the characteristic impedance of the line to the terminating impedance

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	Impedance axis
B	Reactance axis
C	Polar axis
D	Prime axis

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	All of these choices are correct
C	They must be erected at least 1/2 wavelength above the ground to attain good directivity
D	Low loss coax transmission line is essential for good performance

50. - E0A09

Which insulating material commonly used as a thermal conductor for some types of electronic devices is extremely toxic if broken or crushed and the particles are accidentally inhaled?

Select	Answer
A	Beryllium Oxide
B	Mica
C	Uranium Hexafluoride
D	Zinc oxide

Figure E6-5

Figure E7-3

Figure E7-4

Figure E9-1

Figure E9-3