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

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1. - E1A09

What is the first action you should take if your digital message forwarding station inadvertently forwards a communication that violates FCC rules?

Select	Answer
A	Discontinue forwarding the communication as soon as you become aware of it
B	Notify the nearest FCC Field Engineer's office
C	Discontinue forwarding all messages
D	Notify the originating station that the communication does not comply with FCC rules

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 geographical or horticultural importance
C	The location is of environmental importance or significant in American history, architecture, or culture
D	The location is in an ITU Zone designated for coordination with one or more foreign governments

3. - E1C02

What is meant by automatic control of a station?

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

4. - E1D09

Which UHF amateur service bands have frequencies available for a space station?

Select	Answer
A	70 cm and 33 cm
B	70 cm and 13 cm
C	33 cm and 13 cm
D	70 cm only

5. - E1E03

What is a Volunteer Examiner Coordinator?

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

6. - E1F02

What privileges are authorized in the U.S. to persons holding an amateur service license granted by the Government of Canada?

Select	Answer
A	The operating terms and conditions of the Canadian amateur service license, not to exceed U.S. Extra Class privileges
B	Full privileges, up to and including those of the Extra Class License, on the 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meter bands
C	None, they must obtain a U.S. license
D	All privileges of the Extra Class license

7. - E2A02

What is the direction of a descending pass for an amateur satellite?

Select	Answer
A	From north to south
B	From east to west
C	From west to east
D	From south to north

8. - E2B08

Which of the following is a common method of transmitting accompanying audio with amateur fast-scan television?

Select	Answer
A	Frequency-modulated sub-carrier
B	Frequency modulation of the video carrier
C	A separate VHF or UHF audio link
D	All of these choices are correct

9. - E2C11

How should you generally identify your station when attempting to contact a DX station during a contest or in a pileup?

Select	Answer
A	Send your full call sign once or twice
B	Send your full call sign and grid square
C	Send the call sign of the DX station three times, the words "this is", then your call sign three times
D	Send only the last two letters of your call sign until you make contact

10. - E2D02

Which of the following is a good technique for making meteor scatter contacts?

Select	Answer
A	15 second timed transmission sequences with stations alternating based on location
B	Use of high speed CW or digital modes
C	Short transmission with rapidly repeated call signs and signal reports
D	All of these choices are correct

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	The receiver has drifted 5 kHz from the desired receive frequency
D	Selective fading has occurred

12. - E3A05

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

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

13. - E3B03

What is the best time of day for transequatorial propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Morning
B	Afternoon or early evening
C	Late at night
D	Noon

14. - E3C07

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

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

15. - E4A14

What is the purpose of the prescaler function on a frequency counter?

Select	Answer
A	It amplifies low level signals for more accurate counting
B	It divides a higher frequency signal so a low-frequency counter can display the input frequency
C	It multiplies a higher frequency signal so a low-frequency counter can display the operating frequency
D	It prevents oscillation in a low-frequency counter circuit

16. - E4B12

What is the significance of voltmeter sensitivity expressed in ohms per volt?

Select	Answer
A	When used as an ammeter, the full scale reading in amps divided by ohms per volt rating will determine the size of shunt needed
B	When used as a galvanometer, the reading in volts multiplied by the ohms per volt rating will determine the power drawn by the device under test
C	The full scale reading of the voltmeter multiplied by its ohms per volt rating will indicate the input impedance of the voltmeter
D	When used as an ohmmeter, the reading in ohms divided by the ohms per volt rating will determine the voltage applied to the circuit

17. - E4C15

What is usually the primary source of noise that is heard from an HF receiver with an antenna connected?

Select	Answer
A	Induction motor noise
B	Detector noise
C	Atmospheric noise
D	Receiver front-end noise

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. - E4E12

What is one disadvantage of using some types of automatic DSP notch-filters when attempting to copy CW signals?

Select	Answer
A	Any nearby signal passing through the DSP system will overwhelm the desired signal
B	Ringing in the DSP filter will completely remove the spaces between the CW characters
C	A DSP filter can remove the desired signal at the same time as it removes interfering signals
D	Received CW signals will appear to be modulated at the DSP clock frequency

20. - E5A12

What is the half-power bandwidth of a parallel resonant circuit that has a resonant frequency of 3.7 MHz and a Q of 118?

Select	Answer
A	31.4 kHz
B	15.7 kHz
C	436.6 kHz
D	218.3 kHz

21. - E5B02

What is the term for the time it takes for a charged capacitor in an RC circuit to discharge to 36.8% of its initial voltage?

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

22. - E5C12

If you plot the impedance of a circuit using the rectangular coordinate system and find the impedance point falls on the right side of the graph on the horizontal axis, what do you know about the circuit?

Select	Answer
A	It is equivalent to a pure resistance
B	It contains resistance and inductive reactance
C	It has to be a direct current circuit
D	It contains resistance and capacitive reactance

23. - E5D04

Why are short connections necessary at microwave frequencies?

Select	Answer
A	To reduce noise figure
B	Because of ground reflections
C	To reduce phase shift along the connection
D	To increase neutralizing resistance

24. - E6A02

Which of the following semiconductor materials contains excess free electrons?

Select	Answer
A	Bipolar
B	N-type
C	P-type
D	Insulated gate

25. - E6B09

What is a common use for point contact diodes?

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

26. - E6C14

What is the primary advantage of using a Programmable Gate Array (PGA) in a logic circuit?

Select	Answer
A	A PGA contains its own internal power supply
B	Complex logic functions can be created in a single integrated circuit
C	All of these choices are correct
D	Many similar gates are less expensive than a mixture of gate types

27. - E6D09

What devices are commonly used as VHF and UHF parasitic suppressors at the input and output terminals of a transistor HF amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	Ferrite beads
B	Steel-core toroids
C	Butterworth filters
D	Electrolytic capacitors

28. - E6E11

What is a characteristic of DIP packaging used for integrated circuits?

Select	Answer
A	A total of two rows of connecting pins placed on opposite sides of the package (Dual In-line Package)
B	Two chips in each package (Dual In Package)
C	Package mounts in a direct inverted position
D	Low leakage doubly insulated package

29. - E6F04

What is the photovoltaic effect?

Select	Answer
A	The tendency of a battery to discharge when used outside
B	The conversion of light to electrical energy
C	The conversion of electrical energy to mechanical energy
D	The conversion of voltage to current when exposed to light

30. - E7A01

Which is a bi-stable circuit?

Select	Answer
A	A flip-flop
B	A clock
C	An "OR" gate
D	An "AND" gate

31. - E7B08

How can an RF power amplifier be neutralized?

Select	Answer
A	By reducing the driving power
B	By increasing the driving power
C	By feeding an in-phase component of the output back to the input
D	By feeding a 180-degree out-of-phase portion of the output back to the input

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	Cascode
B	Omega
C	Pi
D	Pi-L

33. - E7D09

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

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

34. - E7E12

What is a frequency discriminator stage in a FM receiver?

Select	Answer
A	An automatic band-switching circuit
B	A circuit for detecting FM signals
C	A circuit for filtering two closely adjacent signals
D	An FM generator circuit

35. - E7F15

Which of the following is an advantage of a Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filter vs an Infinite Impulse Response (IIR) digital filter?

Select	Answer
A	FIR filters delay all frequency components of the signal by the same amount
B	FIR filters can respond faster to impulses
C	FIR filters are easier to implement for a given set of passband rolloff requirements
D	All of these choices are correct

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 does not vary with frequency
C	It decreases logarithmically with increasing frequency
D	It increases linearly with increasing frequency

37. - E7H10

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

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

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	8 multiplied by the gain of the input amplifier
C	8
D	256

39. - E8B04

What is the modulation index of an FM-phone signal having a maximum carrier deviation of plus or minus 6 kHz when modulated with a 2 kHz modulating frequency?

Select	Answer
A	2000
B	1/3
C	3
D	6000

40. - E8C01

How is Forward Error Correction implemented?

Select	Answer
A	By the receiving station repeating each block of three data characters
B	By varying the frequency shift of the transmitted signal according to a predefined algorithm
C	By transmitting a special algorithm to the receiving station along with the data characters
D	By transmitting extra data that may be used to detect and correct transmission errors

41. - E8D06

Which of the following indicates likely overmodulation of an AFSK signal such as PSK or MFSK?

Select	Answer
A	Strong ALC action
B	Rapid signal fading
C	High reflected power
D	Harmonics on higher bands

42. - E9A12

How much gain does an antenna have compared to a 1/2-wavelength dipole when it has 6 dB gain over an isotropic antenna?

Select	Answer
A	2.79 dB
B	8.15 dB
C	3.85 dB
D	6.0 dB

43. - E9B09

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

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

44. - E9C01

What is the radiation pattern of two 1/4-wavelength vertical antennas spaced 1/2-wavelength apart and fed 180 degrees out of phase?

Select	Answer
A	Omni-directional
B	A figure-8 broadside to the axis of the array
C	Cardioid
D	A figure-8 oriented along 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	As low as possible on the vertical radiator
B	Near the center of the vertical radiator
C	As close to the transmitter as possible
D	At a voltage node

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. - E9F01

What is the velocity factor of a transmission line?

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

48. - E9G01

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

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

49. - E9H07

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

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

50. - E0A04

When evaluating a site with multiple transmitters operating at the same time, the operators and licensees of which transmitters are responsible for mitigating over-exposure situations?

Select	Answer
A	Only commercial transmitters
B	Only the most powerful transmitter
C	Each transmitter that produces 5 percent or more of its MPE limit at accessible locations
D	Each transmitter operating with a duty-cycle greater than 50 percent