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

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1. - E1A12

With your transceiver displaying the carrier frequency of CW signals, you hear a DX station's CQ on 3.500 MHz. Is it legal to return the call using CW on the same frequency?

Select	Answer
A	Yes, the displayed frequency is within the 80 meter CW band segment
B	No, one of the sidebands of the CW signal will be out of the band
C	No, U.S. stations are not permitted to use CW emissions below 3.525 MHz
D	Yes, the DX station initiated the contact

2. - E1B09

Which amateur stations may be operated under RACES rules?

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

3. - E1C13

Which of the following is required in order to operate in accordance with CEPT rules in foreign countries where permitted?

Select	Answer
A	You must append "/CEPT" to your call sign
B	You must identify in the official language of the country in which you are operating
C	The U.S. embassy must approve of your operation
D	You must bring a copy of FCC Public Notice DA 11-221

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 General, Advanced or Amateur Extra Class operators
D	Only those of Amateur Extra Class operators

5. - E1E10

What must the administering VEs do after the administration of a successful examination for an amateur operator license?

Select	Answer
A	They must submit the application document to the coordinating VEC according to the coordinating VEC instructions
B	They must collect and submit the documents to the coordinating VEC for grading
C	They must collect and send the documents to the FCC according to instructions
D	They must collect and send the documents to the NCVEC for grading

6. - E1F07

When may an amateur station send a message to a business?

Select	Answer
A	When transmitting international third-party communications
B	When the total money involved does not exceed $25
C	When the control operator is employed by the FCC or another government agency
D	When neither the amateur nor his or her employer has a pecuniary interest in the communications

7. - E2A07

Which of the following types of signals can be relayed through a linear transponder?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	PSK and Packet
C	FM and CW
D	SSB and SSTV

8. - E2B09

What hardware, other than a receiver with SSB capability and a suitable computer, is needed to decode SSTV using Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM)?

Select	Answer
A	A special front end limiter
B	No other hardware is needed
C	A special IF converter
D	A special notch filter to remove synchronization pulses

9. - E2C09

What type of equipment is commonly used to implement a ham radio mesh network?

Select	Answer
A	A 2 meter VHF transceiver with a 1200 baud modem
B	An optical cable connection between the USB ports of 2 separate computers
C	A 440 MHz transceiver with a 9600 baud modem
D	A standard wireless router running custom software

10. - E2D13

What type of modulation is used for JT65 contacts?

Select	Answer
A	Multi-tone AFSK
B	PSK
C	RTTY
D	IEEE 802.11

11. - E2E02

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

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

12. - E3A16

Which of the following best describes electromagnetic waves traveling in free space?

Select	Answer
A	The waves are reflected by the ionosphere and return to their source
B	Electric and magnetic fields become aligned as they travel
C	The energy propagates through a medium with a high refractive index
D	Changing electric and magnetic fields propagate the energy

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 equinoxes, especially the spring equinox
C	Around the solstices, especially the summer solstice
D	Around the equinoxes, especially the fall equinox

14. - E3C15

What might a sudden rise in radio background noise indicate?

Select	Answer
A	A meteor ping
B	Long-path propagation is occurring
C	A solar flare has occurred
D	Increased transequatorial propagation likely

15. - E4A08

Which of the following instrument would be best for measuring the SWR of a beam antenna?

Select	Answer
A	An antenna analyzer
B	A Q meter
C	A spectrum analyzer
D	An ohmmeter

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	75 watts
B	25 watts
C	100 watts
D	125 watts

17. - E4C12

What is an undesirable effect of using too wide a filter bandwidth in the IF section of a receiver?

Select	Answer
A	Output-offset overshoot
B	Undesired signals may be heard
C	Thermal-noise distortion
D	Filter ringing

18. - E4D01

What is meant by the blocking dynamic range of a receiver?

Select	Answer
A	The minimum difference in dB between two signals which produce third order intermodulation products greater than the noise floor
B	The minimum difference in dB between the levels of two FM signals which will cause one signal to block the other
C	The difference in dB between the noise floor and the level of an incoming signal which will cause 1 dB of gain compression
D	The difference in dB between the noise floor and the third order intercept point

19. - E4E06

What is a major cause of atmospheric static?

Select	Answer
A	Solar radio frequency emissions
B	Geomagnetic storms
C	Thunderstorms
D	Meteor showers

20. - E5A02

What is resonance in an electrical circuit?

Select	Answer
A	The highest frequency that will pass current
B	The frequency at which the capacitive reactance equals the inductive reactance
C	The lowest frequency that will pass current
D	The frequency at which the reactive impedance equals the resistive impedance

21. - E5B06

What is susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	A measure of the efficiency of a transformer
B	The ratio of magnetic field to electric field
C	The magnetic impedance of a circuit
D	The inverse of reactance

22. - E5C09

When using rectangular coordinates to graph the impedance of a circuit, what does the horizontal axis represent?

Select	Answer
A	Reactive component
B	The sum of the reactive and resistive components
C	Resistive component
D	The difference between the resistive and reactive components

23. - E5D04

Why are short connections necessary at microwave frequencies?

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

24. - E6A07

Which of the following indicates that a silicon NPN junction transistor is biased on?

Select	Answer
A	Base-to-emitter resistance of approximately 6 to 7 ohms
B	Base-to-emitter resistance of approximately 0.6 to 0.7 ohms
C	Base-to-emitter voltage of approximately 6 to 7 volts
D	Base-to-emitter voltage of approximately 0.6 to 0.7 volts

25. - E6B09

What is a common use for point contact diodes?

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

26. - E6C06

Why do CMOS digital integrated circuits have high immunity to noise on the input signal or power supply?

Select	Answer
A	Input signals are stronger
B	The input switching threshold is about one-half the power supply voltage
C	Larger bypass capacitors are used in CMOS circuit design
D	The input switching threshold is about two times the power supply voltage

27. - E6D04

Which materials are commonly used as a slug core in a variable inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Ferrite and brass
B	Teflon and Delrin
C	Cobalt and aluminum
D	Polystyrene and polyethylene

28. - E6E07

Which of the following is typically used to construct a MMIC-based microwave amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	Point-to-point construction
B	Wave-soldering construction
C	Ground-plane construction
D	Microstrip construction

29. - E6F03

What is the most common configuration of an optoisolator or optocoupler?

Select	Answer
A	A lens and a photomultiplier
B	An amplitude modulated helium-neon laser
C	An LED and a phototransistor
D	A frequency modulated helium-neon laser

30. - E7A06

What is a characteristic of a monostable multivibrator?

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

31. - E7B18

What is a characteristic of a grounded-grid amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	High filament voltage
B	Low bandwidth
C	Low input impedance
D	High power gain

32. - E7C07

What kind of filter would you use to attenuate an interfering carrier signal while receiving an SSB transmission?

Select	Answer
A	A notch filter
B	A Pi-network filter
C	A band-pass filter
D	An all-pass filter

33. - E7D01

What is one characteristic of a linear electronic voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	The control element duty cycle is proportional to the line or load conditions
B	The conduction of a control element is varied to maintain a constant output voltage
C	It eliminates the need for a pass transistor
D	It has a ramp voltage as its output

34. - E7E10

How does a diode detector function?

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

35. - E7F16

How might the sampling rate of an existing digital signal be adjusted by a factor of 3/4?

Select	Answer
A	Change the gain by a factor of 3/4
B	Add 3 to each input value and subtract 4 from each output value
C	Multiply each sample value by a factor of 3/4
D	Interpolate by a factor of three, then decimate by a factor of four

36. - E7G01

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

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

37. - E7H02

Which describes a microphonic?

Select	Answer
A	Excess loading of the microphone by an oscillator
B	An IC used for amplifying microphone signals
C	Distortion caused by RF pickup on the microphone cable
D	Changes in oscillator frequency due to mechanical vibration

38. - E8A05

What would be the most accurate way of measuring the RMS voltage of a complex waveform?

Select	Answer
A	By using an absorption wave meter
B	By measuring the heating effect in a known resistor
C	By using a grid dip meter
D	By measuring the voltage with a D'Arsonval meter

39. - E8B05

What is the deviation ratio of an FM-phone signal having a maximum frequency swing of plus-or-minus 5 kHz when the maximum modulation frequency is 3 kHz?

Select	Answer
A	0.167
B	1.67
C	0.6
D	60

40. - E8C05

What is the necessary bandwidth of a 13-WPM international Morse code transmission?

Select	Answer
A	Approximately 104 Hz
B	Approximately 52 Hz
C	Approximately 26 Hz
D	Approximately 13 Hz

41. - E8D09

What is considered a good minimum IMD level for an idling PSK signal?

Select	Answer
A	+10 dB
B	-20 dB
C	-30 dB
D	+15 dB

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	126 watts
B	2000 watts
C	317 watts
D	300 watts

43. - E9B12

What is the far field of an antenna?

Select	Answer
A	The region where radiated field strengths are obstructed by objects of reflection
B	The region where the shape of the antenna pattern is independent of distance
C	The region where radiated power dissipates over a specified time period
D	The region of the ionosphere where radiated power is not refracted

44. - E9C08

What is a folded dipole antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A dipole consisting of one wavelength of wire forming a very thin loop
B	A dipole one-quarter wavelength long
C	A dipole configured to provide forward gain
D	A type of ground-plane antenna

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	No change occurs
C	It is increased
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 provide DC isolation between the feed line and the antenna
B	To provide a rejection notch that prevents the radiation of harmonics
C	To cancel the inductive reactance of the matching network
D	To transform the antenna impedance to a higher value

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

48. - E9G08

What is the process of normalization with regard to a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Reassigning prime center with regard to the reactance axis
B	Reassigning resistance values with regard to the reactance axis
C	Reassigning reactance values with regard to the resistance axis
D	Reassigning impedance values with regard to the prime center

49. - E9H04

What is an advantage of using a shielded loop antenna for direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	It allows stations to communicate without giving away their position
B	It is electro statically balanced against ground, giving better nulls
C	It eliminates tracking errors caused by strong out-of-band signals
D	It automatically cancels ignition noise in mobile installations

50. - E0A11

Which of the following injuries can result from using high-power UHF or microwave transmitters?

Select	Answer
A	Ingestion of ozone gas from the cooling system
B	Localized heating of the body from RF exposure in excess of the MPE limits
C	Blood clotting from the intense magnetic field
D	Hearing loss caused by high voltage corona discharge