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

2. - E1B03

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

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

3. - E1C02

What is meant by automatic control of a station?

Select	Answer
A	The use of a control link between a control point and a locally controlled station
B	A station operating with its output power controlled automatically
C	The use of devices and procedures for control so that the control operator does not have to be present at a control point
D	Remotely controlling a station's antenna pattern through a directional control link

4. - E1D05

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

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

5. - E1E03

What is a Volunteer Examiner Coordinator?

Select	Answer
A	An organization that has entered into an agreement with the FCC to coordinate amateur operator license examinations
B	A person who has volunteered to prepare amateur operator license examinations
C	The person who has entered into an agreement with the FCC to be the VE session manager
D	A person who has volunteered to administer amateur operator license examinations

6. - E1F11

Which of the following best describes one of the standards that must be met by an external RF power amplifier if it is to qualify for a grant of FCC certification?

Select	Answer
A	It must satisfy the FCC's spurious emission standards when operated at the lesser of 1500 watts or its full output power
B	It must be capable of external RF switching between its input and output networks
C	It must exhibit a gain of 0 dB or less over its full output range
D	It must produce full legal output when driven by not more than 5 watts of mean RF input power

7. - E2A07

Which of the following types of signals can be relayed through a linear transponder?

Select	Answer
A	SSB and SSTV
B	All of these choices are correct
C	FM and CW
D	PSK and Packet

8. - E2B18

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

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

9. - E2C01

Which of the following is true about contest operating?

Select	Answer
A	Interference to other amateurs is unavoidable and therefore acceptable
B	Operators are permitted to make contacts even if they do not submit a log
C	Every contest requires a signal report in the exchange
D	It is mandatory to transmit the call sign of the station being worked as part of every transmission to that station

10. - E2D03

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

Select	Answer
A	JT65
B	Olivia
C	FSK441
D	PACTOR III

11. - E2E04

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

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

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	North
C	South
D	West

13. - E3B13

Why is chordal hop propagation desirable?

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

14. - E3C12

How does the maximum distance of ground-wave propagation change when the signal frequency is increased?

Select	Answer
A	It decreases
B	It stays the same
C	It peaks at roughly 14 MHz
D	It increases

15. - E4A05

What might be an advantage of a digital vs an analog oscilloscope?

Select	Answer
A	Manipulation of time base after trace capture
B	Storage of traces for future reference
C	Automatic amplitude and frequency numerical readout
D	All of these choices are correct

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	Harmonics are generated
C	Cross modulation occurs
D	Intermodulation distortion occurs

17. - E4C01

What is an effect of excessive phase noise in the local oscillator section of a receiver?

Select	Answer
A	It decreases receiver third-order intermodulation distortion dynamic range
B	It can cause strong signals on nearby frequencies to interfere with reception of weak signals
C	It reduces receiver sensitivity
D	It limits the receiver's ability to receive strong signals

18. - E4D10

What does a third-order intercept level of 40 dBm mean with respect to receiver performance?

Select	Answer
A	Signals less than 40 dBm will not generate audible third-order intermodulation products
B	A pair of 40 dBm signals will theoretically generate a third-order intermodulation product with the same level as the input signals
C	A pair of 1 mW input signals will produce a third-order intermodulation product which is 40 dB stronger than the input signal
D	The receiver can tolerate signals up to 40 dB above the noise floor without producing third-order intermodulation products

19. - E4E16

What current flows equally on all conductors of an unshielded multi-conductor cable?

Select	Answer
A	Common-mode current
B	Return current
C	Reactive current only
D	Differential-mode current

20. - E5A14

What is the resonant frequency of a series RLC circuit if R is 22 ohms, L is 50 microhenrys and C is 40 picofarads?

Select	Answer
A	3.56 MHz
B	22.36 MHz
C	1.78 MHz
D	44.72 MHz

21. - E5B13

What letter is commonly used to represent susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	X
B	Y
C	G
D	B

22. - E5C13

What coordinate system is often used to display the resistive, inductive, and/or capacitive reactance components of impedance?

Select	Answer
A	Rectangular coordinates
B	Faraday grid
C	Maidenhead grid
D	Elliptical coordinates

23. - E5D18

How many watts are consumed in a circuit having a power factor of 0.71 if the apparent power is 500VA?

Select	Answer
A	704 W
B	252 W
C	355 W
D	1.42 mW

24. - E6A16

What are the majority charge carriers in N-type semiconductor material?

Select	Answer
A	Free neutrons
B	Holes
C	Free electrons
D	Free protons

25. - E6B11

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

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

26. - E6C06

Why do CMOS digital integrated circuits have high immunity to noise on the input signal or power supply?

Select	Answer
A	The input switching threshold is about one-half the power supply voltage
B	Larger bypass capacitors are used in CMOS circuit design
C	Input signals are stronger
D	The input switching threshold is about two times the power supply voltage

27. - E6D04

Which materials are commonly used as a slug core in a variable inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Polystyrene and polyethylene
B	Ferrite and brass
C	Cobalt and aluminum
D	Teflon and Delrin

28. - E6E10

What is the packaging technique in which leadless components are soldered directly to circuit boards?

Select	Answer
A	Surface mount
B	Stripped lead
C	Direct soldering
D	Virtual lead mounting

29. - E6F07

What is a solid state relay?

Select	Answer
A	A mechanical relay that latches in the on or off state each time it is pulsed
B	A relay using transistors to drive the relay coil
C	A device that uses semiconductors to implement the functions of an electromechanical relay
D	A passive delay line

30. - E7A05

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

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

31. - E7B14

Why are switching amplifiers more efficient than linear amplifiers?

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

32. - E7C15

What is a crystal lattice filter?

Select	Answer
A	A power supply filter made with interlaced quartz crystals
B	A filter with narrow bandwidth and steep skirts made using quartz crystals
C	A filter with wide bandwidth and shallow skirts made using quartz crystals
D	An audio filter made with four quartz crystals that resonate at 1kHz intervals

33. - E7D02

What is one characteristic of a switching electronic voltage regulator?

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

34. - E7E03

How does an analog phase modulator function?

Select	Answer
A	By varying the tuning of a microphone preamplifier to produce AM signals
B	By varying the tuning of an amplifier tank circuit 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. - E7F06

What is the minimum number of bits required for an analog-to-digital converter to sample a signal with a range of 1 volt at a resolution of 1 millivolt?

Select	Answer
A	6 bits
B	4 bits
C	10 bits
D	8 bits

36. - E7G06

Which of the following is the most appropriate use of an op-amp active filter?

Select	Answer
A	For smoothing power supply output
B	As an audio filter in a receiver
C	As a low-pass filter used between a transmitter and a transmission line
D	As a high-pass filter used to block RFI at the input to receivers

37. - E7H10

What information is contained in the lookup table of a direct digital frequency synthesizer?

Select	Answer
A	The amplitude values that represent a sine-wave output
B	The phase relationship between a voltage-controlled oscillator and the output waveform
C	The synthesizer frequency limits and frequency values stored in the radio memories
D	The phase relationship between a reference oscillator and the output waveform

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	25 to 1
C	100 to 1
D	2.5 to 1

39. - E8B08

What describes Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing?

Select	Answer
A	A digital mode for narrow band, slow speed transmissions
B	A frequency modulation technique which uses non-harmonically related frequencies
C	A digital modulation technique using subcarriers at frequencies chosen to avoid intersymbol interference
D	A bandwidth compression technique using Fourier transforms

40. - E8C07

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

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

41. - E8D10

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

Select	Answer
A	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
B	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
C	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
D	Baudot uses 7 data bits per character, ASCII uses 8; Baudot has no letters/figures shift code, ASCII uses 2 letters/figures shift codes

42. - E9A08

What is meant by antenna bandwidth?

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

43. - E9B09

What type of computer program technique is commonly used for modeling antennas?

Select	Answer
A	Method of Moments
B	Mutual impedance analysis
C	Calculus differentiation with respect to physical properties
D	Graphical analysis

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

45. - E9D03

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

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

46. - E9E08

Which of the following measurements is characteristic of a mismatched transmission line?

Select	Answer
A	A reflection coefficient greater than 1
B	An SWR greater than 1:1
C	A dielectric constant greater than 1
D	An SWR less than 1:1

47. - E9F12

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

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

48. - E9G08

What is the process of normalization with regard to a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Reassigning prime center with regard to the reactance axis
B	Reassigning reactance values with regard to the resistance axis
C	Reassigning resistance values with regard to the reactance axis
D	Reassigning impedance values with regard to the prime center

49. - E9H07

Why is it advisable to use an RF attenuator on a receiver being used for direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	It prevents receiver overload which could make it difficult to determine peaks or nulls
B	It narrows the bandwidth of the received signal to improve signal to noise ratio
C	It compensates for the effects of an isotropic antenna, thereby improving directivity
D	It reduces loss of received signals caused by antenna pattern nulls, thereby increasing sensitivity

50. - E0A06

Why are there separate electric (E) and magnetic (H) field MPE limits?

Select	Answer
A	The body reacts to electromagnetic radiation from both the E and H fields
B	All of these choices are correct
C	E field and H field radiation intensity peaks can occur at different locations
D	Ground reflections and scattering make the field impedance vary with location