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

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1. - E1A01

When using a transceiver that displays the carrier frequency of phone signals, which of the following displayed frequencies represents the highest frequency at which a properly adjusted USB emission will be totally within the band?

Select	Answer
A	300 Hz below the upper band edge
B	The exact upper band edge
C	3 kHz below the upper band edge
D	1 kHz below the upper band edge

2. - E1B11

What is the permitted mean power of any spurious emission relative to the mean power of the fundamental emission from a station transmitter or external RF amplifier installed after January 1, 2003 and transmitting on a frequency below 30 MHZ?

Select	Answer
A	At least 43 dB below
B	At least 53 dB below
C	At least 63 dB below
D	At least 73 dB below

3. - E1C12

What types of communications may be transmitted to amateur stations in foreign countries?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	Communications incidental to the purpose of the amateur service and remarks of a personal nature
C	Business-related messages for non-profit organizations
D	Messages intended for connection to users of the maritime satellite service

4. - E1D11

Which amateur stations are eligible to operate as Earth stations?

Select	Answer
A	Any amateur station whose licensee has filed a pre-space notification with the FCC's International Bureau
B	Any amateur station, subject to the privileges of the class of operator license held by the control operator
C	Only those of Amateur Extra Class operators
D	Only those of General, Advanced or Amateur Extra Class operators

5. - E1E01

What is the minimum number of qualified VEs required to administer an Element 4 amateur operator license examination?

Select	Answer
A	3
B	2
C	5
D	4

6. - E1F03

Under what circumstances may a dealer sell an external RF power amplifier capable of operation below 144 MHz if it has not been granted FCC certification?

Select	Answer
A	It was imported from a manufacturer in another country and was certificated by that country's government
B	The equipment dealer assembled it from a kit
C	It was purchased in used condition from an amateur operator and is sold to another amateur operator for use at that operator's station
D	It was imported from a manufacturer in a country that does not require certification of RF power amplifiers

7. - E2A04

What is meant by the term mode as applied to an amateur radio satellite?

Select	Answer
A	The type of signals that can be relayed through the satellite
B	The satellite's uplink and downlink frequency bands
C	Whether the satellite is in a polar or equatorial orbit
D	The satellite's orientation with respect to the Earth

8. - E2B02

How many horizontal lines make up a fast-scan (NTSC) television frame?

Select	Answer
A	30
B	525
C	1080
D	60

9. - E2C12

What might help to restore contact when DX signals become too weak to copy across an entire HF band a few hours after sunset?

Select	Answer
A	Switch to a higher frequency HF band
B	Wait 24 hours before attempting another communication on the band
C	Wait 90 minutes or so for the signal degradation to pass
D	Switch to a lower frequency HF band

10. - E2D08

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

Select	Answer
A	Acknowledgement
B	Disconnect
C	Unnumbered Information
D	Connect

11. - E2E02

What do the letters FEC mean as they relate to digital operation?

Select	Answer
A	Fatal Error Correction
B	Forward Error Correction
C	Final Error Correction
D	First Error Correction

12. - E3A13

Which emission mode is best for aurora propagation?

Select	Answer
A	SSB
B	FM
C	CW
D	RTTY

13. - E3B04

What is meant by the terms extraordinary and ordinary waves?

Select	Answer
A	Independent waves created in the ionosphere that are elliptically polarized
B	Long path and short path waves
C	Extraordinary waves describe rare long skip propagation compared to ordinary waves which travel shorter distances
D	Refracted rays and reflected waves

14. - E3C04

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

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

15. - E4A01

Which of the following parameter determines the bandwidth of a digital or computer-based oscilloscope?

Select	Answer
A	Input impedance
B	Sampling rate
C	Input capacitance
D	Sample resolution

16. - E4B17

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

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

17. - E4C13

How does a narrow-band roofing filter affect receiver performance?

Select	Answer
A	It improves dynamic range by attenuating strong signals near the receive frequency
B	It improves intelligibility by using low Q circuitry to reduce ringing
C	All of these choices are correct
D	It improves sensitivity by reducing front end noise

18. - E4D14

Which of the following is a way to reduce the likelihood of receiver desensitization?

Select	Answer
A	Decrease the RF bandwidth of the receiver
B	Raise the receiver IF frequency
C	Switch from fast AGC to slow AGC
D	Increase the receiver front end gain

19. - E4E15

Which of the following can cause shielded cables to radiate or receive interference?

Select	Answer
A	Use of braided shielding material
B	Low inductance ground connections at both ends of the shield
C	Common mode currents on the shield and conductors
D	Tying all ground connections to a common point resulting in differential mode currents in the shield

20. - E5A16

What is the resonant frequency of a parallel RLC circuit if R is 33 ohms, L is 50 microhenrys and C is 10 picofarads?

Select	Answer
A	23.5 kHz
B	7.12 kHz
C	7.12 MHz
D	23.5 MHz

21. - E5B05

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

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

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	Maidenhead grid
C	Faraday grid
D	Elliptical coordinates

23. - E5D05

Which parasitic characteristic increases with conductor length?

Select	Answer
A	Permeability
B	Inductance
C	Permittivity
D	Malleability

24. - E6A11

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

Select	Answer
A	6
B	2
C	3
D	1

25. - E6B09

What is a common use for point contact diodes?

Select	Answer
A	As a constant voltage source
B	As an RF detector
C	As a high voltage rectifier
D	As a constant current source

26. - E6C04

What is the primary advantage of tri-state logic?

Select	Answer
A	Low power consumption
B	High speed operation
C	More efficient arithmetic operations
D	Ability to connect many device outputs to a common bus

27. - E6D08

What is one reason for using powdered-iron cores rather than ferrite cores in an inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Powdered-iron cores generally maintain their characteristics at higher currents
B	Powdered-iron cores generally require fewer turns to produce a given inductance
C	Powdered-iron cores use smaller diameter wire for the same inductance
D	Powdered-iron cores generally have greater initial permeability

28. - E6E10

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

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

29. - E6F10

What is the most common type of photovoltaic cell used for electrical power generation?

Select	Answer
A	Cadmium Sulfide
B	Copper oxide
C	Selenium
D	Silicon

30. - E7A02

What is the function of a decade counter digital IC?

Select	Answer
A	It decodes a decimal number for display on a seven segment LED display
B	It produces one output pulse for every ten input pulses
C	It produces ten output pulses for every input pulse
D	It adds two decimal numbers together

31. - E7B04

Where on the load line of a Class A common emitter amplifier would bias normally be set?

Select	Answer
A	At a point where the bias resistor equals the load resistor
B	Where the load line intersects the voltage axis
C	At a point where the load line intersects the zero bias current curve
D	Approximately half-way between saturation and cutoff

32. - E7C11

Which of the following is the common name for a filter network which is equivalent to two L-networks connected back-to-back with the two inductors in series and the capacitors in shunt at the input and output?

Select	Answer
A	Omega
B	Cascode
C	Pi-L
D	Pi

33. - E7D14

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

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

34. - E7E02

What is the function of a reactance modulator?

Select	Answer
A	To produce AM signals by using an electrically variable inductance or capacitance
B	To produce PM signals by using an electrically variable inductance or capacitance
C	To produce PM signals by using an electrically variable resistance
D	To produce AM signals by using an electrically variable resistance

35. - E7F17

What do the letters I and Q in I/Q Modulation represent?

Select	Answer
A	Instantaneous and Quenched
B	Inactive and Quiescent
C	Instantaneous and Quasi-stable
D	In-phase and Quadrature

36. - E7G08

How does the gain of an ideal operational amplifier vary with frequency?

Select	Answer
A	It decreases linearly with increasing frequency
B	It increases linearly with increasing frequency
C	It does not vary with frequency
D	It decreases logarithmically with increasing frequency

37. - E7H05

How is positive feedback supplied in a Pierce oscillator?

Select	Answer
A	Through a neutralizing capacitor
B	Through link coupling
C	Through a quartz crystal
D	Through a tapped coil

38. - E8A12

What is an advantage of using digital signals instead of analog signals to convey the same information?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	Digital signals can be regenerated multiple times without error
C	Digital signals always occupy a narrower bandwidth
D	Less complex circuitry is required for digital signal generation and detection

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

40. - E8C06

What is the necessary bandwidth of a 170-hertz shift, 300-baud ASCII transmission?

Select	Answer
A	0.1 Hz
B	0.3 kHz
C	0.5 kHz
D	1.0 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 transmit audio levels
D	Excessive numbers of retries

42. - E9A14

What is meant by the radiation resistance of an antenna?

Select	Answer
A	The specific impedance of the antenna
B	The resistance in the atmosphere that an antenna must overcome to be able to radiate a signal
C	The value of a resistance that would dissipate the same amount of power as that radiated from an antenna
D	The combined losses of the antenna elements and feed line

43. - E9B09

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

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

44. - E9C15

How does the radiation pattern of a horizontally polarized 3-element beam antenna vary with its height above ground?

Select	Answer
A	The main lobe takeoff angle decreases with increasing height
B	The main lobe takeoff angle increases with increasing height
C	The horizontal beam width increases with height
D	The horizontal beam width decreases with height

45. - E9D06

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

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

46. - E9E04

What is the purpose of the series capacitor in a gamma-type antenna matching network?

Select	Answer
A	To cancel the inductive reactance of the matching network
B	To provide a rejection notch that prevents the radiation of harmonics
C	To provide DC isolation between the feed line and the antenna
D	To transform the antenna impedance to a higher value

47. - E9F07

How does ladder line compare to small-diameter coaxial cable such as RG-58 at 50 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	Smaller reflection coefficient
B	Higher SWR
C	Lower velocity factor
D	Lower loss

48. - E9G07

On the Smith chart shown in Figure E9-3, what is the only straight line shown?

Select	Answer
A	The reactance axis
B	The current axis
C	The voltage axis
D	The resistance axis

49. - E9H09

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

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

50. - E0A07

How may dangerous levels of carbon monoxide from an emergency generator be detected?

Select	Answer
A	By the odor
B	Only with a carbon monoxide detector
C	By the yellowish appearance of the gas
D	Any ordinary smoke detector can be used

Figure E6-2

Figure E9-3