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

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1. - E1A14

What is the maximum bandwidth for a data emission on 60 meters?

Select	Answer
A	60 Hz
B	2.8 kHz
C	170 Hz
D	1.5 kHz

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 73 dB below
B	At least 53 dB below
C	At least 63 dB below
D	At least 43 dB below

3. - E1C08

What is the maximum permissible duration of a remotely controlled station's transmissions if its control link malfunctions?

Select	Answer
A	30 seconds
B	3 minutes
C	10 minutes
D	5 minutes

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

5. - E1E02

Where are the questions for all written U.S. amateur license examinations listed?

Select	Answer
A	In a question pool maintained by the FCC
B	In a question pool maintained by all the VECs
C	In the appropriate FCC Report and Order
D	In FCC Part 97

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

7. - E2A03

What is the orbital period of an Earth satellite?

Select	Answer
A	The point of minimum height of a satellite's orbit
B	The point of maximum height of a satellite's orbit
C	The time it takes for a satellite to complete one revolution around the Earth
D	The time it takes for a satellite to travel from perigee to apogee

8. - E2B05

Which of the following is an advantage of using vestigial sideband for standard fast- scan TV transmissions?

Select	Answer
A	Vestigial sideband reduces bandwidth while allowing for simple video detector circuitry
B	Vestigial sideband provides high frequency emphasis to sharpen the picture
C	The vestigial sideband contains chroma information
D	The vestigial sideband carries the audio information

9. - E2C10

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

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

10. - E2D01

Which of the following digital modes is especially designed for use for meteor scatter signals?

Select	Answer
A	FSK441
B	Hellschreiber
C	APRS
D	WSPR

11. - E2E08

Which of the following HF digital modes can be used to transfer binary files?

Select	Answer
A	Hellschreiber
B	PACTOR
C	AMTOR
D	RTTY

12. - E3A03

When scheduling EME contacts, which of these conditions will generally result in the least path loss?

Select	Answer
A	When the Moon is at apogee
B	When the Moon is at perigee
C	When the MUF is above 30 MHz
D	When the Moon is full

13. - E3B12

What is the primary characteristic of chordal hop propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Signals reflected back toward the transmitting station
B	Propagation across the geomagnetic equator
C	Successive ionospheric reflections without an intermediate reflection from the ground
D	Propagation away from the great circle bearing between stations

14. - E3C08

What does the space weather term G5 mean?

Select	Answer
A	Waning sunspot numbers
B	Moderate solar wind
C	An extreme geomagnetic storm
D	Very low solar activity

15. - E4A07

Which of the following is an advantage of using an antenna analyzer compared to an SWR bridge to measure antenna SWR?

Select	Answer
A	Antenna analyzers automatically tune your antenna for resonance
B	Antenna analyzers display a time-varying representation of the modulation envelope
C	Antenna analyzers do not need an external RF source
D	All of these choices are correct

16. - E4B08

Which of the following is a characteristic of a good DC voltmeter?

Select	Answer
A	High reluctance input
B	High impedance input
C	Low impedance input
D	Low reluctance input

17. - E4C17

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

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

18. - E4D07

Which describes the most significant effect of an off-frequency signal when it is causing cross-modulation interference to a desired signal?

Select	Answer
A	The off-frequency unwanted signal is heard in addition to the desired signal
B	A large increase in background noise
C	The desired signal can no longer be heard
D	A reduction in apparent signal strength

19. - E4E15

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

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

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	15.7 kHz
B	218.3 kHz
C	31.4 kHz
D	436.6 kHz

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 unchanged
C	It is shifted by 90 degrees
D	The sign is reversed

22. - E5C15

Which point in Figure E5-2 best represents the impedance of a series circuit consisting of a 300 ohm resistor and an 18 microhenry inductor at 3.505 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	Point 3
B	Point 8
C	Point 1
D	Point 7

23. - E5D04

Why are short connections necessary at microwave frequencies?

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

24. - E6A12

Why do many MOSFET devices have internally connected Zener diodes on the gates?

Select	Answer
A	To provide a voltage reference for the correct amount of reverse-bias gate voltage
B	To reduce the chance of the gate insulation being punctured by static discharges or excessive voltages
C	To keep the gate voltage within specifications and prevent the device from overheating
D	To protect the substrate from excessive voltages

25. - E6B13

What type of bias is required for an LED to emit light?

Select	Answer
A	Inductive bias
B	Zero bias
C	Forward bias
D	Reverse bias

26. - E6C10

In Figure E6-5, what is the schematic symbol for a NOR gate?

Select	Answer
A	3
B	2
C	4
D	1

27. - E6D12

What is the definition of saturation in a ferrite core inductor?

Select	Answer
A	The inductor windings are over coupled
B	The inductor's voltage rating is exceeded causing a flashover
C	Adjacent inductors become over-coupled
D	The ability of the inductor's core to store magnetic energy has been exceeded

28. - E6E06

What characteristics of the MMIC make it a popular choice for VHF through microwave circuits?

Select	Answer
A	Controlled gain, low noise figure, and constant input and output impedance over the specified frequency range
B	Plate current that is controlled by a control grid
C	Nearly infinite gain, very high input impedance, and very low output impedance
D	The ability to retrieve information from a single signal even in the presence of other strong signals

29. - E6F10

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

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

30. - E7A06

What is a characteristic of a monostable multivibrator?

Select	Answer
A	It maintains a constant output voltage, regardless of variations in the input voltage
B	It stores one bit of data in either a 0 or 1 state
C	It switches momentarily to the opposite binary state and then returns to its original state after a set time
D	It produces a continuous square wave oscillating between 1 and 0

31. - E7B12

What type of amplifier circuit is shown in Figure E7-1?

Select	Answer
A	Common emitter
B	Common collector
C	Emitter follower
D	Common base

32. - E7C08

Which of the following factors has the greatest effect in helping determine the bandwidth and response shape of a crystal ladder filter?

Select	Answer
A	The DC voltage applied to the quartz crystal
B	The amplitude of the signals passing through the filter
C	The relative frequencies of the individual crystals
D	The gain of the RF stage preceding the filter

33. - E7D16

When several electrolytic filter capacitors are connected in series to increase the operating voltage of a power supply filter circuit, why should resistors be connected across each capacitor?

Select	Answer
A	To provide a safety bleeder to discharge the capacitors when the supply is off
B	To equalize, as much as possible, the voltage drop across each capacitor
C	All of these choices are correct
D	To provide a minimum load current to reduce voltage excursions at light loads

34. - E7E10

How does a diode detector function?

Select	Answer
A	By mixing signals with noise in the transition region of the diode
B	By breakdown of the Zener voltage
C	By rectification and filtering of RF signals
D	By sensing the change of reactance in the diode with respect to frequency

35. - E7F04

What is a common method of generating an SSB signal using digital signal processing?

Select	Answer
A	A frequency synthesizer removes the unwanted sidebands
B	Mixing products are converted to voltages and subtracted by adder circuits
C	Emulation of quartz crystal filter characteristics
D	Combine signals with a quadrature phase relationship

36. - E7G07

What magnitude of voltage gain can be expected from the circuit in Figure E7-4 when R1 is 10 ohms and RF is 470 ohms?

Select	Answer
A	0.21
B	24
C	47
D	94

37. - E7H09

What type of frequency synthesizer circuit uses a phase accumulator, lookup table, digital to analog converter, and a low-pass anti-alias filter?

Select	Answer
A	A phase locked loop synthesizer
B	A diode-switching matrix synthesizer
C	A direct digital synthesizer
D	A hybrid synthesizer

38. - E8A11

What type of information can be conveyed using digital waveforms?

Select	Answer
A	Data
B	Human speech
C	All of these choices are correct
D	Video signals

39. - E8B07

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing is a technique used for which type of amateur communication?

Select	Answer
A	Extremely low-power contacts
B	OFDM signals are not allowed on amateur bands
C	High speed digital modes
D	EME

40. - E8C09

Which is the name of a digital code where each preceding or following character changes by only one bit?

Select	Answer
A	Gray code
B	Binary Coded Decimal Code
C	Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code
D	Excess 3 code

41. - E8D08

What parameter might indicate that excessively high input levels are causing distortion in an AFSK signal?

Select	Answer
A	Baud rate
B	Repeat Request Rate (RRR)
C	Signal to noise ratio
D	Intermodulation Distortion (IMD)

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 combined losses of the antenna elements and feed line
D	The value of a resistance that would dissipate the same amount of power as that radiated from an antenna

43. - E9B03

In the antenna radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-1, what is the front-to-side ratio?

Select	Answer
A	14 dB
B	12 dB
C	18 dB
D	24 dB

44. - E9C06

What is the effect of a terminating resistor on a rhombic antenna?

Select	Answer
A	It reflects the standing waves on the antenna elements back to the transmitter
B	It changes the radiation pattern from horizontal to vertical polarization
C	It decreases the ground loss
D	It changes the radiation pattern from bidirectional to unidirectional

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	It is increased
C	It is decreased
D	No change occurs

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 transform the antenna impedance to a higher value
C	To provide DC isolation between the feed line and the antenna
D	To provide a rejection notch that prevents the radiation of harmonics

47. - E9F11

What impedance does a 1/8 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 of the final generator stage
B	An inductive reactance
C	A capacitive reactance
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 impedance values with regard to the prime center
B	Reassigning resistance values with regard to the reactance axis
C	Reassigning reactance values with regard to the resistance axis
D	Reassigning prime center with regard to the reactance axis

49. - E9H08

What is the function of a sense antenna?

Select	Answer
A	It allows DF antennas to receive signals at different vertical angles
B	It modifies the pattern of a DF antenna array to provide a null in one direction
C	It increases the sensitivity of a DF antenna array
D	It provides diversity reception that cancels multipath signals

50. - E0A05

What is one of the potential hazards of using microwaves in the amateur radio bands?

Select	Answer
A	Microwaves often travel long distances by ionospheric reflection
B	Microwaves are ionizing radiation
C	The extremely high frequency energy can damage the joints of antenna structures
D	The high gain antennas commonly used can result in high exposure levels

Figure E5-2

Figure E6-5

Figure E7-1

Figure E7-4

Figure E9-1