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

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1. - E1A06

Where must the carrier frequency of a CW signal be set to comply with FCC rules for 60 meter operation?

Select	Answer
A	At the center frequency of the channel
B	On any frequency where the signal's sidebands are within the channel
C	At the highest frequency of the channel
D	At the lowest frequency of the channel

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

3. - E1C03

How do the control operator responsibilities of a station under automatic control differ from one under local control?

Select	Answer
A	Under local control there is no control operator
B	Under automatic control there is no control operator
C	Under local control a control operator is not required to be present at a control point
D	Under automatic control the control operator is not required to be present at the control point

4. - E1D09

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

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

5. - E1E08

To which of the following examinees may a VE not administer an examination?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	Relatives of the VE as listed in the FCC rules
C	Friends of the VE
D	Employees of the VE

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

7. - E2A08

Why should effective radiated power to a satellite which uses a linear transponder be limited?

Select	Answer
A	To avoid interfering with terrestrial QSOs
B	To avoid reducing the downlink power to all other users
C	To prevent creating errors in the satellite telemetry
D	To prevent the satellite from emitting out-of-band signals

8. - E2B16

Which is a video standard used by North American Fast Scan ATV stations?

Select	Answer
A	DRM
B	NTSC
C	PAL
D	Scottie

9. - E2C08

Which of the following contacts may be confirmed through the U.S. QSL bureau system?

Select	Answer
A	Contacts using tactical call signs
B	Contacts between a U.S. station and a non-U.S. station
C	Repeater contacts between U.S. club members
D	Special event contacts between stations in the U.S.

10. - E2D05

Which of the following techniques is normally used by low Earth orbiting digital satellites to relay messages around the world?

Select	Answer
A	Node hopping
B	Multi-satellite relaying
C	Store-and-forward
D	Digipeating

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	Automatic
C	Remote
D	Local

12. - E3A04

What do Hepburn maps predict?

Select	Answer
A	Likelihood of rain-scatter along cold or warm fronts
B	Locations of auroral reflecting zones
C	Sporadic E propagation
D	Probability of tropospheric propagation

13. - E3B06

Which of the following amateur bands most frequently provides long-path propagation?

Select	Answer
A	10 meters
B	80 meters
C	20 meters
D	6 meters

14. - E3C13

What type of polarization is best for ground-wave propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Elliptical
B	Horizontal
C	Vertical
D	Circular

15. - E4A09

When using a computer's soundcard input to digitize signals, what is the highest frequency signal that can be digitized without aliasing?

Select	Answer
A	One-half the sample rate
B	One-tenth the sample rate
C	The same as the sample rate
D	It depends on how the data is stored internally

16. - E4B16

Which S parameter represents return loss or SWR?

Select	Answer
A	S21
B	S12
C	S11
D	S22

17. - E4C02

Which of the following portions of a receiver can be effective in eliminating image signal interference?

Select	Answer
A	A properly adjusted product detector
B	A narrow IF filter
C	A notch filter
D	A front-end filter or pre-selector

18. - E4D01

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

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

19. - E4E12

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

Select	Answer
A	Received CW signals will appear to be modulated at the DSP clock frequency
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	Any nearby signal passing through the DSP system will overwhelm the desired signal

20. - E5A01

What can cause the voltage across reactances in series to be larger than the voltage applied to them?

Select	Answer
A	Resonance
B	Conductance
C	Resistance
D	Capacitance

21. - E5B13

What letter is commonly used to represent susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	X
B	Y
C	B
D	G

22. - E5C16

Which point on Figure E5-2 best represents the impedance of a series circuit consisting of a 300 ohm resistor and a 19 picofarad capacitor at 21.200 MHz?

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

23. - E5D01

What is the result of skin effect?

Select	Answer
A	As frequency decreases, RF current flows in a thinner layer of the conductor, closer to the surface
B	Thermal effects on the surface of the conductor increase the impedance
C	As frequency increases, RF current flows in a thinner layer of the conductor, closer to the surface
D	Thermal effects on the surface of the conductor decrease the impedance

24. - E6A15

Which semiconductor material contains excess holes in the outer shell of electrons?

Select	Answer
A	N-type
B	Superconductor-type
C	Bipolar-type
D	P-type

25. - E6B04

What type of semiconductor device is designed for use as a voltage-controlled capacitor?

Select	Answer
A	Silicon-controlled rectifier
B	Zener diode
C	Varactor diode
D	Tunnel diode

26. - E6C01

What is the function of hysteresis in a comparator?

Select	Answer
A	To prevent input noise from causing unstable output signals
B	To cause the output to change states continually
C	To increase the sensitivity
D	To allow the comparator to be used with AC input signal

27. - E6D02

What is the equivalent circuit of a quartz crystal?

Select	Answer
A	Motional capacitance, motional inductance, loss resistance, and a capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance all in series
B	Motional inductance and loss resistance in series, paralleled with motional capacitance and a capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance
C	Motional capacitance, motional inductance, loss resistance, and a capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance all in parallel
D	Motional capacitance, motional inductance, and loss resistance in series, all in parallel with a shunt capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance

28. - E6E05

Which of the following noise figure values is typical of a low-noise UHF preamplifier?

Select	Answer
A	-10 dB
B	44 dBm
C	2 dB
D	-20 dBm

29. - E6F01

What is photoconductivity?

Select	Answer
A	The conversion of electromotive energy to photon energy
B	The conversion of photon energy to electromotive energy
C	The decreased conductivity of an illuminated semiconductor
D	The increased conductivity of an illuminated semiconductor

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 ten output pulses for every input pulse
C	It adds two decimal numbers together
D	It produces one output pulse for every ten input pulses

31. - E7B18

What is a characteristic of a grounded-grid amplifier?

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

32. - E7C06

What are the distinguishing features of an elliptical filter?

Select	Answer
A	Gradual passband rolloff with extreme stop band ripple
B	Extremely flat response over its pass band with gradually rounded stop band corners
C	Extremely sharp cutoff with one or more notches in the stop band
D	Gradual passband rolloff with minimal stop band ripple

33. - E7D08

What type of circuit is shown in Figure E7-3?

Select	Answer
A	Linear voltage regulator
B	Switching voltage regulator
C	Emitter follower
D	Grounded emitter amplifier

34. - E7E09

What occurs when an excessive amount of signal energy reaches a mixer circuit?

Select	Answer
A	A beat frequency is generated
B	Automatic limiting occurs
C	Mixer blanking occurs
D	Spurious mixer products are generated

35. - E7F06

What is the minimum number of bits required for an analog-to-digital converter to sample a signal with a range of 1 volt at a resolution of 1 millivolt?

Select	Answer
A	4 bits
B	8 bits
C	10 bits
D	6 bits

36. - E7G01

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

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

37. - E7H06

Which of the following oscillator circuits are commonly used in VFOs?

Select	Answer
A	Armstrong and deForest
B	Pierce and Zener
C	Negative feedback and balanced feedback
D	Colpitts and Hartley

38. - E8A05

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

Select	Answer
A	By measuring the heating effect in a known resistor
B	By using an absorption wave meter
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	60
B	0.167
C	1.67
D	0.6

40. - E8C10

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

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

41. - E8D09

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

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

42. - E9A11

Which of the following factors determines ground losses for a ground-mounted vertical antenna operating in the 3 MHz to 30 MHz range?

Select	Answer
A	Soil conductivity
B	The standing wave ratio
C	Distance from the transmitter
D	Take-off angle

43. - E9B12

What is the far field of an antenna?

Select	Answer
A	The region of the ionosphere where radiated power is not refracted
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 where radiated field strengths are obstructed by objects of reflection

44. - E9C10

Which of the following describes a Zepp antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A vertical array capable of quickly changing the direction of maximum radiation by changing phasing lines
B	An omni-directional antenna commonly used for satellite communications
C	An end fed dipole antenna
D	A dipole constructed from zip cord

45. - E9D09

What is the function of a loading coil used as part of an HF mobile antenna?

Select	Answer
A	To cancel capacitive reactance
B	To lower the losses
C	To increase the SWR bandwidth
D	To lower the Q

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 stub matching system
B	The omega matching system
C	The delta matching system
D	The gamma matching system

47. - E9F03

Why is the physical length of a coaxial cable transmission line shorter than its electrical length?

Select	Answer
A	The surge impedance is higher in a parallel feed line
B	Electrical signals move more slowly in a coaxial cable than in air
C	Skin effect is less pronounced in the coaxial cable
D	The characteristic impedance is higher in a parallel feed line

48. - E9G11

How are the wavelength scales on a Smith chart calibrated?

Select	Answer
A	In fractions of antenna electrical frequency
B	In fractions of antenna electrical wavelength
C	In fractions of transmission line electrical frequency
D	In fractions of transmission line electrical wavelength

49. - E9H07

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

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

50. - E0A10

What toxic material may be present in some electronic components such as high voltage capacitors and transformers?

Select	Answer
A	Polymorphic silicon
B	Polyethylene
C	Polychlorinated Biphenyls
D	Polytetrafluroethylene

Figure E5-2

Figure E7-3