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

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

3. - E1C07

What is meant by local control?

Select	Answer
A	Automatically manipulating local station controls
B	Controlling a repeater using a portable handheld transceiver
C	Direct manipulation of the transmitter by a control operator
D	Controlling a station through a local auxiliary link

4. - E1D08

Which VHF amateur service bands have frequencies available for space stations?

Select	Answer
A	6 meters and 2 meters
B	2 meters
C	2 meters and 1.25 meters
D	6 meters, 2 meters, and 1.25 meters

5. - E1E01

What is the minimum number of qualified VEs required to administer an Element 4 amateur operator license examination?

Select	Answer
A	5
B	2
C	4
D	3

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

7. - E2A04

What is meant by the term mode as applied to an amateur radio satellite?

Select	Answer
A	Whether the satellite is in a polar or equatorial orbit
B	The satellite's orientation with respect to the Earth
C	The satellite's uplink and downlink frequency bands
D	The type of signals that can be relayed through the satellite

8. - E2B19

What special operating frequency restrictions are imposed on slow scan TV transmissions?

Select	Answer
A	They are restricted to phone band segments and their bandwidth can be no greater than that of a voice signal of the same modulation type
B	They are not permitted above 54 MHz
C	None; they are allowed on all amateur frequencies
D	They are restricted to 7.245 MHz, 14.245 MHz, 21.345 MHz, and 28.945 MHz

9. - E2C12

What might help to restore contact when DX signals become too weak to copy across an entire HF band a few hours after sunset?

Select	Answer
A	Wait 90 minutes or so for the signal degradation to pass
B	Switch to a higher frequency HF band
C	Switch to a lower frequency HF band
D	Wait 24 hours before attempting another communication on the band

10. - E2D07

What digital protocol is used by APRS?

Select	Answer
A	PACTOR
B	802.11
C	AX.25
D	AMTOR

11. - E2E02

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

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

12. - E3A12

What is the cause of auroral activity?

Select	Answer
A	Meteor showers concentrated in the extreme northern and southern latitudes
B	The interaction in the F2 layer between the solar wind and the Van Allen belt
C	A low sunspot level combined with tropospheric ducting
D	The interaction in the E layer of charged particles from the Sun with the Earth's magnetic field

13. - E3B03

What is the best time of day for transequatorial propagation?

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

14. - E3C02

What is indicated by a rising A or K index?

Select	Answer
A	An increase in the critical frequency
B	Increasing disruption of the geomagnetic field
C	Higher levels of solar UV radiation
D	Decreasing disruption of the geomagnetic field

15. - E4A04

What determines the upper frequency limit for a computer soundcard-based oscilloscope program?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	Q of the interface of the interface circuit
C	Amount of memory on the soundcard
D	Analog-to-digital conversion speed of the soundcard

16. - E4B14

What happens if a dip meter is too tightly coupled to a tuned circuit being checked?

Select	Answer
A	Harmonics are generated
B	Cross modulation occurs
C	Intermodulation distortion occurs
D	A less accurate reading results

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	Receiver front-end noise
C	Detector noise
D	Atmospheric noise

18. - E4D03

How can intermodulation interference between two repeaters occur?

Select	Answer
A	When the signals from the transmitters are reflected in phase from airplanes passing overhead
B	When the signals from the transmitters are reflected out of phase from airplanes passing overhead
C	When the repeaters are in close proximity and the signals mix in the final amplifier of one or both transmitters
D	When the repeaters are in close proximity and the signals cause feedback in the final amplifier of one or both transmitters

19. - E4E05

How can noise from an electric motor be suppressed?

Select	Answer
A	By installing a bypass capacitor in series with the motor leads
B	By using a ground-fault current interrupter in the circuit used to power the motor
C	By installing a brute-force AC-line filter in series with the motor leads
D	By installing a high pass filter in series with the motor's power leads

20. - E5A09

How is the Q of an RLC parallel resonant circuit calculated?

Select	Answer
A	Reactance of either the inductance or capacitance divided by the resistance
B	Resistance divided by the reactance of either the inductance or capacitance
C	Reactance of either the inductance or capacitance multiplied by the resistance
D	Reactance of the inductance multiplied by the reactance of the capacitance

21. - E5B11

What is the phase angle between the voltage across and the current through a series RLC circuit if XC is 25 ohms, R is 100 ohms, and XL is 50 ohms?

Select	Answer
A	76 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
B	14 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
C	76 degrees with the voltage leading the current
D	14 degrees with the voltage leading the current

22. - E5C14

Which point on Figure E5-2 best represents the impedance of a series circuit consisting of a 400 ohm resistor and a 38 picofarad capacitor at 14 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	Point 5
B	Point 6
C	Point 4
D	Point 2

23. - E5D17

How many watts are consumed in a circuit having a power factor of 0.6 if the input is 200VAC at 5 amperes?

Select	Answer
A	1000 watts
B	600 watts
C	200 watts
D	1600 watts

24. - E6A17

What are the names of the three terminals of a field-effect transistor?

Select	Answer
A	Emitter, base 1, base 2
B	Emitter, base, collector
C	Gate, drain, source
D	Gate 1, gate 2, drain

25. - E6B05

What characteristic of a PIN diode makes it useful as an RF switch or attenuator?

Select	Answer
A	Ability to dissipate large amounts of power
B	A large region of intrinsic material
C	Reverse bias controls its forward voltage drop
D	Extremely high reverse breakdown voltage

26. - E6C03

What is tri-state logic?

Select	Answer
A	Low power logic devices designed to operate at 3 volts
B	Logic devices with 0, 1, and high impedance output states
C	Logic devices that utilize ternary math
D	Proprietary logic devices manufactured by Tri-State Devices

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

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	-20 dBm
D	2 dB

29. - E6F11

What is the approximate open-circuit voltage produced by a fully-illuminated silicon photovoltaic cell?

Select	Answer
A	0.1 V
B	1.5 V
C	12 V
D	0.5 V

30. - E7A03

Which of the following can divide the frequency of a pulse train by 2?

Select	Answer
A	A flip-flop
B	A multiplexer
C	An OR gate
D	An XOR gate

31. - E7B03

Which of the following components form the output of a class D amplifier circuit?

Select	Answer
A	A temperature compensating load resistor to improve linearity
B	A matched load resistor to prevent damage by switching transients
C	A low-pass filter to remove switching signal components
D	A high-pass filter to compensate for low gain at low frequencies

32. - E7C01

How are the capacitors and inductors of a low-pass filter Pi-network arranged between the network's input and output?

Select	Answer
A	An inductor is connected between the input and ground, another inductor is connected between the output and ground, and a capacitor is connected between the input and output
B	Two inductors are in series between the input and output, and a capacitor is connected between the two inductors and ground
C	A capacitor is connected between the input and ground, another capacitor is connected between the output and ground, and an inductor is connected between input and output
D	Two capacitors are in series between the input and output, and an inductor is connected between the two capacitors and ground

33. - E7D14

What is one purpose of a "bleeder" resistor in a conventional unregulated power supply?

Select	Answer
A	To improve output voltage regulation
B	To cut down on waste heat generated by the power supply
C	To boost the amount of output current
D	To balance the low-voltage filament windings

34. - E7E11

Which type of detector is used for demodulating SSB signals?

Select	Answer
A	Phase detector
B	Product detector
C	Phase comparator
D	Discriminator

35. - E7F16

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

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

36. - E7G08

How does the gain of an ideal operational amplifier vary with frequency?

Select	Answer
A	It does not vary with frequency
B	It decreases logarithmically with increasing frequency
C	It increases linearly with increasing frequency
D	It decreases linearly with increasing frequency

37. - E7H05

How is positive feedback supplied in a Pierce oscillator?

Select	Answer
A	Through a tapped coil
B	Through a neutralizing capacitor
C	Through a quartz crystal
D	Through link coupling

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. - 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	6000
B	1/3
C	3
D	2000

40. - E8C11

What is the relationship between symbol rate and baud?

Select	Answer
A	Baud is only used for RTTY
B	Baud is twice the symbol rate
C	Symbol rate is only used for packet-based modes
D	They are the same

41. - E8D04

What is the primary effect of extremely short rise or fall time on a CW signal?

Select	Answer
A	The generation of key clicks
B	More difficult to copy
C	Limits data speed
D	The generation of RF harmonics

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	6.0 dB
C	8.15 dB
D	3.85 dB

43. - E9B13

What does the abbreviation NEC stand for when applied to antenna modeling programs?

Select	Answer
A	Numeric Electrical Computation
B	National Electrical Code
C	Numerical Electromagnetic Code
D	Next Element Comparison

44. - E9C02

What is the radiation pattern of two 1/4 wavelength vertical antennas spaced 1/4 wavelength apart and fed 90 degrees out of phase?

Select	Answer
A	Omni-directional
B	Cardioid
C	A figure-8 end-fire along the axis of the array
D	A figure-8 broadside to the axis of the array

45. - E9D07

What is an advantage of using top loading in a shortened HF vertical antenna?

Select	Answer
A	Lower Q
B	Higher losses
C	Greater structural strength
D	Improved radiation efficiency

46. - E9E06

What is the equivalent lumped-constant network for a hairpin matching system of a 3-element Yagi?

Select	Answer
A	Pi-network
B	A shunt inductor
C	A series capacitor
D	Pi-L-network

47. - E9F10

What impedance does a 1/8 wavelength transmission line present to a generator when the line is shorted at the far end?

Select	Answer
A	A capacitive reactance
B	The same as the input impedance to the final generator stage
C	An inductive reactance
D	The same as the characteristic impedance of the line

48. - E9G04

What are the two families of circles and arcs that make up a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Voltage and impedance
B	Resistance and voltage
C	Reactance and voltage
D	Resistance and reactance

49. - E9H06

What is the triangulation method of direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	The geometric angles of sky waves from the source are used to determine its position
B	A fixed receiving station uses three different antennas to plot the location of the signal source
C	Antenna headings from several different receiving locations are used to locate the signal source
D	A fixed receiving station plots three headings to the signal source

50. - E0A09

Which insulating material commonly used as a thermal conductor for some types of electronic devices is extremely toxic if broken or crushed and the particles are accidentally inhaled?

Select	Answer
A	Beryllium Oxide
B	Mica
C	Uranium Hexafluoride
D	Zinc oxide

Figure E5-2