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

2. - E1B08

What limitations may the FCC place on an amateur station if its signal causes interference to domestic broadcast reception, assuming that the receivers involved are of good engineering design?

Select	Answer
A	The amateur station must cease operation
B	The amateur station must avoid transmitting during certain hours on frequencies that cause the interference
C	The amateur station must cease operation on all frequencies above 30 MHz
D	The amateur station must cease operation on all frequencies below 30 MHz

3. - E1C10

What types of amateur stations may automatically retransmit the radio signals of other amateur stations?

Select	Answer
A	Only auxiliary, beacon or space stations
B	Only earth stations, repeater stations or model craft
C	Only auxiliary, repeater or space stations
D	Only beacon, repeater or space stations

4. - E1D05

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

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

5. - E1E11

What must the VE team do if an examinee scores a passing grade on all examination elements needed for an upgrade or new license?

Select	Answer
A	Issue the examinee the new or upgrade license
B	Photocopy all examination documents and forward them to the FCC for processing
C	All these choices are correct
D	Three VEs must certify that the examinee is qualified for the license grant and that they have complied with the administering VE requirements

6. - E1F04

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

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

7. - E2A02

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

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

8. - E2B04

What is blanking in a video signal?

Select	Answer
A	Turning off the scanning beam at the conclusion of a transmission
B	Synchronization of the horizontal and vertical sync pulses
C	Transmitting a black and white test pattern
D	Turning off the scanning beam while it is traveling from right to left or from bottom to top

9. - E2C04

What type of transmission is most often used for a ham radio mesh network?

Select	Answer
A	Store and forward on the 440 MHz band
B	Spread spectrum in the 2.4 GHz band
C	Multiple Frequency Shift Keying in the 10 GHz band
D	Frequency division multiplex in the 24 GHz band

10. - E2D12

How does JT65 improve EME communications?

Select	Answer
A	It supplies signals to guide the antenna to track the Moon
B	It can decode signals many dB below the noise floor using FEC
C	All of these choices are correct
D	It controls the receiver to track Doppler shift

11. - E2E12

Which type of control is used by stations using the Automatic Link Enable (ALE) protocol?

Select	Answer
A	ALE can use any type of control
B	Remote
C	Local
D	Automatic

12. - E3A15

What is an electromagnetic wave?

Select	Answer
A	A wave consisting of an electric field and a magnetic field oscillating at right angles to each other
B	A wave consisting of two magnetic fields at right angles to each other
C	A wave of alternating current, in the core of an electromagnet
D	A wave consisting of two electric fields at parallel right angles to each other

13. - E3B09

At what time of year is Sporadic E propagation most likely to occur?

Select	Answer
A	Around the solstices, especially the winter solstice
B	Around the solstices, especially the summer solstice
C	Around the equinoxes, especially the fall equinox
D	Around the equinoxes, especially the spring equinox

14. - E3C12

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

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

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	Analog-to-digital conversion speed of the soundcard
D	All of these choices are correct

16. - E4B12

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

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

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	RAM speed used for data storage
C	CPU register width in bits
D	Analog-to-digital converter sample width in bits

18. - E4D11

Why are third-order intermodulation products created within a receiver of particular interest compared to other products?

Select	Answer
A	Third-order products are an indication of poor image rejection
B	The third-order product of two signals which are in the band of interest is also likely to be within the band
C	The third-order intercept is much higher than other orders
D	Third-order intermodulation produces three products for every input signal within the band of interest

19. - E4E03

Which of the following signals might a receiver noise blanker be able to remove from desired signals?

Select	Answer
A	Signals which appear across a wide bandwidth
B	Signals which are constant at all IF levels
C	Signals which appear at one IF but not another
D	Signals which have a sharply peaked frequency distribution

20. - E5A06

What is the magnitude of the circulating current within the components of a parallel LC circuit at resonance?

Select	Answer
A	It is at a minimum
B	It equals 1 divided by the quantity 2 times Pi, multiplied by the square root of inductance L multiplied by capacitance C
C	It is at a maximum
D	It equals 2 multiplied by Pi, multiplied by frequency, multiplied by inductance

21. - E5B07

What is the phase angle between the voltage across and the current through a series RLC circuit if XC is 500 ohms, R is 1 kilohm, and XL is 250 ohms?

Select	Answer
A	68.2 degrees with the voltage leading the current
B	68.2 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
C	14.0 degrees with the voltage leading the current
D	14.0 degrees with the voltage lagging the current

22. - E5C07

What is a vector?

Select	Answer
A	A quantity with both magnitude and an angular component
B	The inverse of the tangent function
C	The value of a quantity that changes over time
D	The inverse of the sine function

23. - E5D10

How can the true power be determined in an AC circuit where the voltage and current are out of phase?

Select	Answer
A	By dividing the reactive power by the power factor
B	By multiplying the reactive power times the power factor
C	By dividing the apparent power by the power factor
D	By multiplying the apparent power times the power factor

24. - E6A09

What is a depletion-mode FET?

Select	Answer
A	An FET that has no current flow between source and drain when no gate voltage is applied
B	An FET that exhibits a current flow between source and drain when no gate voltage is applied
C	Any FET without a channel
D	Any FET for which holes are the majority carriers

25. - E6B07

What is the failure mechanism when a junction diode fails due to excessive current?

Select	Answer
A	Insufficient forward voltage
B	Charge carrier depletion
C	Excessive inverse voltage
D	Excessive junction temperature

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. - E6D03

Which of the following is an aspect of the piezoelectric effect?

Select	Answer
A	Mechanical deformation of material by the application of a magnetic field
B	Mechanical deformation of material by the application of a voltage
C	Increased conductivity in the presence of light
D	Generation of electrical energy in the presence of light

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	Low leakage doubly insulated package
C	Two chips in each package (Dual In Package)
D	Package mounts in a direct inverted position

29. - E6F08

Why are optoisolators often used in conjunction with solid state circuits when switching 120VAC?

Select	Answer
A	Optoisolators provide a low impedance link between a control circuit and a power circuit
B	Optoisolators provide a very high degree of electrical isolation between a control circuit and the circuit being switched
C	Optoisolators provide impedance matching between the control circuit and power circuit
D	Optoisolators eliminate the effects of reflected light in the control circuit

30. - E7A07

What logical operation does a NAND gate perform?

Select	Answer
A	It produces logic "1" at its output only when all inputs are logic "1"
B	It produces logic "0" at its output if some but not all inputs are logic "1"
C	It produces logic "0" at its output only when all inputs are logic "1"
D	It produces logic "0" at its output only when all inputs are logic "0"

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

32. - E7C15

What is a crystal lattice filter?

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

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

34. - E7E06

Why is de-emphasis commonly used in FM communications receivers?

Select	Answer
A	To remove third-order distortion products
B	For higher efficiency
C	To reduce impulse noise reception
D	For compatibility with transmitters using phase modulation

35. - E7F01

What is meant by direct digital conversion as applied to software defined radios?

Select	Answer
A	Incoming RF is converted to a control voltage for a voltage controlled oscillator
B	Software is converted from source code to object code during operation of the receiver
C	Incoming RF is digitized by an analog-to-digital converter without being mixed with a local oscillator signal
D	A switching mixer is used to generate I and Q signals directly from the RF input

36. - E7G03

What is the typical input impedance of an integrated circuit op-amp?

Select	Answer
A	Very low
B	Very high
C	1000 ohms
D	100 ohms

37. - E7H13

Which of the following is a technique for providing highly accurate and stable oscillators needed for microwave transmission and reception?

Select	Answer
A	Use a rubidium stabilized reference oscillator
B	Use a GPS signal reference
C	All of these choices are correct
D	Use a temperature-controlled high Q dielectric resonator

38. - E8A11

What type of information can be conveyed using digital waveforms?

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

39. - E8B01

What is the term for the ratio between the frequency deviation of an RF carrier wave and the modulating frequency of its corresponding FM-phone signal?

Select	Answer
A	Quieting index
B	Modulation index
C	FM compressibility
D	Percentage of modulation

40. - E8C10

What is an advantage of Gray code in digital communications where symbols are transmitted as multiple bits

Select	Answer
A	It has more resolution than simple binary
B	It increases security
C	It facilitates error detection
D	It has more possible states than simple binary

41. - E8D06

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

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

42. - E9A08

What is meant by antenna bandwidth?

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

43. - E9B04

What may occur when a directional antenna is operated at different frequencies within the band for which it was designed?

Select	Answer
A	The gain may change depending on frequency
B	The E-field and H-field patterns may reverse
C	Feed point impedance may become negative
D	Element spacing limits could be exceeded

44. - E9C13

What is the main effect of placing a vertical antenna over an imperfect ground?

Select	Answer
A	It reduces losses in the radiating portion of the antenna
B	It changes the impedance angle of the matching network
C	It causes increased SWR
D	It reduces low-angle radiation

45. - E9D05

What is a disadvantage of using a multiband trapped antenna?

Select	Answer
A	It is too sharply directional at lower frequencies
B	It radiates the harmonics and fundamental equally well
C	It might radiate harmonics
D	It must be neutralized

46. - E9E01

What system matches a higher impedance transmission line to a lower impedance antenna by connecting the line to the driven element in two places spaced a fraction of a wavelength each side of element center?

Select	Answer
A	The gamma matching system
B	The delta matching system
C	The stub matching system
D	The omega matching system

47. - E9F16

Which of the following is a significant difference between foam dielectric coaxial cable and solid dielectric cable, assuming all other parameters are the same?

Select	Answer
A	Foam dielectric has higher velocity factor
B	All of these choices are correct
C	Foam dielectric has lower safe operating voltage limits
D	Foam dielectric has lower loss per unit of length

48. - E9G05

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

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

49. - E9H05

What is the main drawback of a wire-loop antenna for direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	It receives equally well in all directions
B	It is practical for use only on VHF bands
C	It has a bidirectional pattern
D	It is non-rotatable

50. - E0A08

What does SAR measure?

Select	Answer
A	Synthetic Aperture Ratio of the human body
B	The rate of RF energy reflected from stationary terrain
C	Signal Amplification Rating
D	The rate at which RF energy is absorbed by the body

Figure E9-3