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

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1. - E1A03

With your transceiver displaying the carrier frequency of phone signals, you hear a station calling CQ on 14.349 MHz USB. Is it legal to return the call using upper sideband on the same frequency?

Select	Answer
A	No, the sideband will extend beyond the band edge
B	Yes, because the displayed frequency is within the 20 meter band
C	No, U.S. stations are not permitted to use phone emissions above 14.340 MHz
D	Yes, because you were not the station calling CQ

2. - E1B01

Which of the following constitutes a spurious emission?

Select	Answer
A	A signal transmitted to prevent its detection by any station other than the intended recipient
B	Any transmitted signal that unintentionally interferes with another licensed radio station
C	An emission outside its necessary bandwidth that can be reduced or eliminated without affecting the information transmitted
D	An amateur station transmission made at random without the proper call sign identification

3. - E1C11

Which of the following operating arrangements allows an FCC-licensed U.S. citizen to operate in many European countries, and alien amateurs from many European countries to operate in the U.S.?

Select	Answer
A	CEPT agreement
B	ITU reciprocal license
C	IARP agreement
D	All of these choices are correct

4. - E1D03

What is a telecommand station in the amateur satellite service?

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

5. - E1E10

What must the administering VEs do after the administration of a successful examination for an amateur operator license?

Select	Answer
A	They must collect and send the documents to the FCC according to instructions
B	They must collect and submit the documents to the coordinating VEC for grading
C	They must submit the application document to the coordinating VEC according to the coordinating VEC instructions
D	They must collect and send the documents to the NCVEC for grading

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 144 MHz
C	Only on amateur frequencies above 222 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 uplink and downlink frequency ranges
B	Power limits for uplink and downlink transmissions
C	The location of the ground control station
D	The polarization of uplink and downlink signals

8. - E2B19

What special operating frequency restrictions are imposed on slow scan TV transmissions?

Select	Answer
A	None; they are allowed on all amateur frequencies
B	They are not permitted above 54 MHz
C	They are restricted to phone band segments and their bandwidth can be no greater than that of a voice signal of the same modulation type
D	They are restricted to 7.245 MHz, 14.245 MHz, 21.345 MHz, and 28.945 MHz

9. - E2C09

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

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

10. - E2D07

What digital protocol is used by APRS?

Select	Answer
A	802.11
B	PACTOR
C	AX.25
D	AMTOR

11. - E2E03

How is the timing of JT65 contacts organized?

Select	Answer
A	Stations take turns on alternate days
B	By exchanging ACK/NAK packets
C	It depends on the lunar phase
D	Alternating transmissions at 1 minute intervals

12. - E3A05

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

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

13. - E3B02

What is the approximate maximum range for signals using transequatorial propagation?

Select	Answer
A	7500 miles
B	5000 miles
C	2500 miles
D	1000 miles

14. - E3C15

What might a sudden rise in radio background noise indicate?

Select	Answer
A	A solar flare has occurred
B	Increased transequatorial propagation likely
C	A meteor ping
D	Long-path propagation is occurring

15. - E4A04

What determines the upper frequency limit for a computer soundcard-based oscilloscope program?

Select	Answer
A	Analog-to-digital conversion speed of the soundcard
B	Q of the interface of the interface circuit
C	Amount of memory on the soundcard
D	All of these choices are correct

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 is very precise in obtaining a signal null
C	It can display results directly in Smith chart format
D	It is relatively immune to drift in the signal generator source

17. - E4C17

Which of the following has the largest effect on an SDR receiver's linearity?

Select	Answer
A	RAM speed used for data storage
B	Anti-aliasing input filter bandwidth
C	Analog-to-digital converter sample width in bits
D	CPU register width in bits

18. - E4D12

What is the term for the reduction in receiver sensitivity caused by a strong signal near the received frequency?

Select	Answer
A	Desensitization
B	Cross-modulation interference
C	Squelch gain rollback
D	Quieting

19. - E4E01

Which of the following types of receiver noise can often be reduced by use of a receiver noise blanker?

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

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	Maximum
B	R/L
C	L/R
D	Minimum

21. - E5B05

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

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

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 4
B	Point 6
C	Point 2
D	Point 5

23. - E5D07

What determines the strength of the magnetic field around a conductor?

Select	Answer
A	The ratio of the current to the resistance
B	The resistance divided by the current
C	The diameter of the conductor
D	The amount of current flowing through the conductor

24. - E6A04

What is the name given to an impurity atom that adds holes to a semiconductor crystal structure?

Select	Answer
A	Insulator impurity
B	Donor impurity
C	Acceptor impurity
D	N-type impurity

25. - E6B11

What is used to control the attenuation of RF signals by a PIN diode?

Select	Answer
A	Capacitance of an RF coupling capacitor
B	Reverse voltage larger than the RF signal
C	Forward DC bias current
D	A sub-harmonic pump signal

26. - E6C11

In Figure E6-5, what is the schematic symbol for the NOT operation (inverter)?

Select	Answer
A	5
B	4
C	6
D	2

27. - E6D01

How many turns will be required to produce a 5-microhenry inductor using a powdered-iron toroidal core that has an inductance index (A L) value of 40 microhenrys/100 turns?

Select	Answer
A	79 turns
B	141 turns
C	13 turns
D	35 turns

28. - E6E05

Which of the following noise figure values is typical of a low-noise UHF preamplifier?

Select	Answer
A	2 dB
B	-20 dBm
C	44 dBm
D	-10 dB

29. - E6F05

Which describes an optical shaft encoder?

Select	Answer
A	A device which detects rotation of a control by interrupting a light source with a patterned wheel
B	A device for generating RTTY signals by means of a rotating light source
C	A device which measures the strength of a beam of light using analog to digital conversion
D	A digital encryption device often used to encrypt spacecraft control signals

30. - E7A11

What type of logic defines "1" as a high voltage?

Select	Answer
A	Assertive Logic
B	Reverse Logic
C	Positive Logic
D	Negative logic

31. - E7B09

Which of the following describes how the loading and tuning capacitors are to be adjusted when tuning a vacuum tube RF power amplifier that employs a Pi-network output circuit?

Select	Answer
A	The tuning capacitor is set to maximum capacitance and the loading capacitor is adjusted for minimum plate permissible current
B	The loading capacitor is set to maximum capacitance and the tuning capacitor is adjusted for minimum allowable plate current
C	The loading capacitor is adjusted to minimum plate current while alternately adjusting the tuning capacitor for maximum allowable plate current
D	The tuning capacitor is adjusted for minimum plate current, and the loading capacitor is adjusted for maximum permissible plate current

32. - E7C12

Which describes a Pi-L-network used for matching a vacuum tube final amplifier to a 50 ohm unbalanced output?

Select	Answer
A	A Pi-network with an additional series inductor on the output
B	A matching network in which all components are isolated from ground
C	A network with only three discrete parts
D	A Phase Inverter Load network

33. - E7D09

What is the main reason to use a charge controller with a solar power system?

Select	Answer
A	Matching of day and night charge rates
B	Control of electrolyte levels during battery discharge
C	Prevention of battery undercharge
D	Prevention of battery damage due to overcharge

34. - E7E09

What occurs when an excessive amount of signal energy reaches a mixer circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Mixer blanking occurs
B	Spurious mixer products are generated
C	Automatic limiting occurs
D	A beat frequency is generated

35. - E7F11

What sets the minimum detectable signal level for an SDR in the absence of atmospheric or thermal noise?

Select	Answer
A	Sample clock phase noise
B	Data storage transfer rate
C	Missing codes and jitter
D	Reference voltage level and sample width in bits

36. - E7G05

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

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

37. - E7H01

What are three oscillator circuits used in Amateur Radio equipment?

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

38. - E8A09

How many levels can an analog-to-digital converter with 8 bit resolution encode?

Select	Answer
A	256 divided by the gain of the input amplifier
B	256
C	8 multiplied by the gain of the input amplifier
D	8

39. - E8B11

What is digital time division multiplexing?

Select	Answer
A	Two or more signals are quadrature modulated to increase bandwidth efficiency
B	Two or more signals are arranged to share discrete time slots of a data transmission
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. - E8C07

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

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

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. - E9A03

Why would one need to know the feed point impedance of an antenna?

Select	Answer
A	To calculate the front-to-back ratio of the antenna
B	To match impedances in order to minimize standing wave ratio on the transmission line
C	To measure the near-field radiation density from a transmitting antenna
D	To calculate the front-to-side ratio of the antenna

43. - E9B05

What type of antenna pattern over real ground is shown in Figure E9-2?

Select	Answer
A	Radiation resistance
B	Azimuth
C	Elevation
D	Polarization

44. - E9C10

Which of the following describes a Zepp antenna?

Select	Answer
A	An omni-directional antenna commonly used for satellite communications
B	A vertical array capable of quickly changing the direction of maximum radiation by changing phasing lines
C	An end fed dipole antenna
D	A dipole constructed from zip cord

45. - E9D09

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

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

46. - E9E07

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

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

47. - E9F13

What impedance does a 1/4 wavelength transmission line present to a generator when the line is shorted at the far end?

Select	Answer
A	Very high impedance
B	Very low impedance
C	The same as the characteristic impedance of the transmission line
D	The same as the generator output impedance

48. - E9G01

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

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

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	Low loss coax transmission line is essential for good performance
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. - E0A02

When evaluating RF exposure levels from your station at a neighbor's home, what must you do?

Select	Answer
A	Make sure signals from your station are less than the uncontrolled MPE limits
B	You need only evaluate exposure levels on your own property
C	Make sure signals from your station are less than the controlled MPE limits
D	Advise your neighbors of the results of your tests

Figure E5-2

Figure E6-5

Figure E9-2