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

2. - E1B09

Which amateur stations may be operated under RACES rules?

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

3. - E1C01

What is a remotely controlled station?

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

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 only
C	70 cm and 13 cm
D	70 cm and 33 cm

5. - E1E04

Which of the following best describes the Volunteer Examiner accreditation process?

Select	Answer
A	Each General, Advanced and Amateur Extra Class operator is automatically accredited as a VE when the license is granted
B	The prospective VE obtains accreditation from the FCC
C	The procedure by which a VEC confirms that the VE applicant meets FCC requirements to serve as an examiner
D	The amateur operator applying must pass a VE examination administered by the FCC Enforcement Bureau

6. - E1F04

Which of the following geographic descriptions approximately describes "Line A"?

Select	Answer
A	A line roughly parallel to and east of the U.S. Pacific coastline
B	A line roughly parallel to and west of the U.S. Atlantic coastline
C	A line roughly parallel to and north of the U.S.-Mexican border and Gulf coastline
D	A line roughly parallel to and south of the U.S.-Canadian border

7. - E2A13

What type of satellite appears to stay in one position in the sky?

Select	Answer
A	Geostationary
B	LEO
C	HEO
D	Geomagnetic

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	Turning off the scanning beam at the conclusion of a transmission
C	Synchronization of the horizontal and vertical sync pulses
D	Transmitting a black and white test pattern

9. - E2C10

Why might a DX station state that they are listening on another frequency?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	To separate the calling stations from the DX station
C	Because the DX station may be transmitting on a frequency that is prohibited to some responding stations
D	To improve operating efficiency by reducing interference

10. - E2D08

What type of packet frame is used to transmit APRS beacon data?

Select	Answer
A	Connect
B	Disconnect
C	Unnumbered Information
D	Acknowledgement

11. - E2E03

How is the timing of JT65 contacts organized?

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

12. - E3A11

What is a typical range for tropospheric propagation of microwave signals?

Select	Answer
A	1200 miles
B	2500 miles
C	10 miles to 50 miles
D	100 miles to 300 miles

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	The signal experiences less loss along the path compared to normal skip propagation
C	Signals travel faster along ionospheric chords
D	Atmospheric noise is lower in the direction of chordal hop propagation

14. - E3C05

What orientation of Bz (B sub z) increases the likelihood that incoming particles from the Sun will cause disturbed conditions?

Select	Answer
A	Northward
B	Eastward
C	Southward
D	Westward

15. - E4A04

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

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

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	75 watts
C	125 watts
D	100 watts

17. - E4C07

What does the MDS of a receiver represent?

Select	Answer
A	The meter display sensitivity
B	The multiplex distortion stability
C	The minimum discernible signal
D	The maximum detectable spectrum

18. - E4D02

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

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

19. - E4E14

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

Select	Answer
A	The appearance of unstable modulated or unmodulated signals at specific frequencies
B	A loud AC hum in the audio output of your station receiver
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 voltage leads the current by 90 degrees
B	The current leads the voltage by 90 degrees
C	The voltage and current are 180 degrees out of phase
D	The voltage and current are in phase

21. - E5B01

What is the term for the time required for the capacitor in an RC circuit to be charged to 63.2% of the applied voltage?

Select	Answer
A	An exponential rate of one
B	One exponential period
C	A time factor of one
D	One time constant

22. - E5C04

Which of the following represents a capacitive reactance in polar coordinates?

Select	Answer
A	A negative real part
B	A negative phase angle
C	A positive phase angle
D	A positive real part

23. - E5D02

Why is it important to keep lead lengths short for components used in circuits for VHF and above?

Select	Answer
A	To increase the thermal time constant
B	All of these choices are correct
C	To maintain component lifetime
D	To avoid unwanted inductive reactance

24. - E6A10

In Figure E6-2, what is the schematic symbol for an N-channel dual-gate MOSFET?

Select	Answer
A	4
B	6
C	2
D	5

25. - E6B05

What characteristic of a PIN diode makes it useful as an RF switch or attenuator?

Select	Answer
A	Reverse bias controls its forward voltage drop
B	Ability to dissipate large amounts of power
C	A large region of intrinsic material
D	Extremely high reverse breakdown voltage

26. - E6C11

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

Select	Answer
A	5
B	2
C	4
D	6

27. - E6D06

What core material property determines the inductance of a toroidal inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Resistance
B	Reactivity
C	Permeability
D	Thermal impedance

28. - E6E04

Which is the most common input and output impedance of circuits that use MMICs?

Select	Answer
A	10 ohms
B	450 ohms
C	300 ohms
D	50 ohms

29. - E6F14

Which of the following is true of LCD displays?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	They may be hard view through polarized lenses
C	They are hard to view in high ambient light conditions
D	They only display alphanumeric symbols

30. - E7A11

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

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

31. - E7B10

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

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

32. - E7C13

What is one advantage of a Pi-matching network over an L-matching network consisting of a single inductor and a single capacitor?

Select	Answer
A	Pi-networks have fewer components
B	The Q of Pi-networks can be varied depending on the component values chosen
C	Pi-networks are designed for balanced input and output
D	L-networks cannot perform impedance transformation

33. - E7D05

Which of the following types of linear voltage regulator places a constant load on the unregulated voltage source?

Select	Answer
A	A constant current source
B	A shunt current source
C	A series regulator
D	A shunt regulator

34. - E7E04

What is one way a single-sideband phone signal can be generated?

Select	Answer
A	By using a reactance modulator followed by a mixer
B	By using a balanced modulator followed by a filter
C	By using a loop modulator followed by a mixer
D	By driving a product detector with a DSB signal

35. - E7F14

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

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

36. - E7G04

What is meant by the term op-amp input offset voltage?

Select	Answer
A	The potential between the amplifier input terminals of the op-amp in an open loop condition
B	The differential input voltage needed to bring the open loop output voltage to zero
C	The difference between the output voltage of the op-amp and the input voltage required in the immediately following stage
D	The output voltage of the op-amp minus its input voltage

37. - E7H12

Which of the following must be done to insure that a crystal oscillator provides the frequency specified by the crystal manufacturer?

Select	Answer
A	Provide the crystal with a specified parallel capacitance
B	Provide the crystal with a specified parallel inductance
C	Bias the crystal at a specified current
D	Bias the crystal at a specified voltage

38. - E8A04

What is "dither" with respect to analog to digital converters?

Select	Answer
A	An abnormal condition where the converter cannot settle on a value to represent the signal
B	A method of decimation by randomly skipping samples
C	An error caused by irregular quantization step size
D	A small amount of noise added to the input signal to allow more precise representation of a signal over time

39. - E8B09

What is meant by deviation ratio?

Select	Answer
A	The ratio of the audio modulating frequency to the center carrier frequency
B	The ratio of the highest audio modulating frequency to the average audio modulating frequency
C	The ratio of the carrier center frequency to the audio modulating frequency
D	The ratio of the maximum carrier frequency deviation to the highest audio modulating frequency

40. - E8C03

When performing phase shift keying, why is it advantageous to shift phase precisely at the zero crossing of the RF carrier?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	This results in the least possible transmitted bandwidth for the particular mode
C	It is easier to demodulate with a conventional, non-synchronous detector
D	It improves carrier suppression

41. - E8D07

What is a common cause of overmodulation of AFSK signals?

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

42. - E9A16

What is the effective radiated power relative to a dipole of a repeater station with 200 watts transmitter power output, 4 dB feed line loss, 3.2 dB duplexer loss, 0.8 dB circulator loss, and 10 dBd antenna gain?

Select	Answer
A	2000 watts
B	317 watts
C	126 watts
D	300 watts

43. - E9B06

What is the elevation angle of peak response in the antenna radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-2?

Select	Answer
A	25 degrees
B	75 degrees
C	7.5 degrees
D	45 degrees

44. - E9C11

How is the far-field elevation pattern of a vertically polarized antenna affected by being mounted over seawater versus rocky ground?

Select	Answer
A	The high-angle radiation increases
B	The low-angle radiation decreases
C	The low-angle radiation increases
D	Both the high-angle and low-angle radiation decrease

45. - E9D06

What happens to the bandwidth of an antenna as it is shortened through the use of loading coils?

Select	Answer
A	It becomes flat
B	No change occurs
C	It is increased
D	It is decreased

46. - E9E11

What is an effective way of matching a feed line to a VHF or UHF antenna when the impedances of both the antenna and feed line are unknown?

Select	Answer
A	Connect a parallel-resonant LC network across the antenna feed terminals
B	Use the universal stub matching technique
C	Use a 50 ohm 1:1 balun between the antenna and feed line
D	Connect a series-resonant LC network across the antenna feed terminals

47. - E9F15

What impedance does a 1/2 wavelength transmission line present to a generator when the line is open at the far end?

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

48. - E9G05

What type of chart is shown in Figure E9-3?

Select	Answer
A	Free space radiation directivity chart
B	Elevation angle radiation pattern chart
C	Smith chart
D	Azimuth angle radiation pattern chart

49. - E9H09

Which of the following describes the construction of a receiving loop antenna?

Select	Answer
A	One or more turns of wire wound in the shape of a large open coil
B	A small coil of wire tightly wound around a toroidal ferrite core
C	A large circularly polarized antenna
D	A vertical antenna coupled to a feed line through an inductive loop of wire

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

Figure E6-2

Figure E6-5

Figure E7-1

Figure E9-2

Figure E9-3