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

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1. - E1A11

Which of the following describes authorization or licensing required when operating an amateur station aboard a U.S.-registered vessel in international waters?

Select	Answer
A	Any amateur license with an FCC Marine or Aircraft endorsement
B	An unrestricted Radiotelephone Operator Permit
C	Only General class or higher amateur licenses
D	Any FCC-issued amateur license

2. - E1B05

What is the National Radio Quiet Zone?

Select	Answer
A	An area in New Mexico surrounding the White Sands Test Area
B	An area in Florida surrounding Cape Canaveral
C	An area in Puerto Rico surrounding the Arecibo Radio Telescope
D	An area surrounding the National Radio Astronomy Observatory

3. - E1C07

What is meant by local control?

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

4. - E1D05

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

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

5. - E1E13

Which of these choices is an acceptable method for monitoring the applicants if a VEC opts to conduct an exam session remotely?

Select	Answer
A	The exam proctor observes the applicants and reports any violations
B	Use a real-time video link and the Internet to connect the exam session to the observing VEs
C	Have each applicant sign an affidavit stating that all session rules were followed
D	Record the exam session on video tape for later review by the VE team

6. - E1F07

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

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

7. - E2A13

What type of satellite appears to stay in one position in the sky?

Select	Answer
A	Geomagnetic
B	Geostationary
C	LEO
D	HEO

8. - E2B12

How are analog SSTV images typically transmitted on the HF bands?

Select	Answer
A	Varying tone frequencies representing the video are transmitted using PSK
B	Varying tone frequencies representing the video are transmitted using single sideband
C	Video is converted to equivalent ASCII representation
D	Video is converted to equivalent Baudot representation

9. - E2C11

How should you generally identify your station when attempting to contact a DX station during a contest or in a pileup?

Select	Answer
A	Send your full call sign and grid square
B	Send only the last two letters of your call sign until you make contact
C	Send your full call sign once or twice
D	Send the call sign of the DX station three times, the words "this is", then your call sign three times

10. - E2D03

Which of the following digital modes is especially useful for EME communications?

Select	Answer
A	Olivia
B	JT65
C	FSK441
D	PACTOR III

11. - E2E05

Which type of digital mode does not support keyboard-to-keyboard operation?

Select	Answer
A	Winlink
B	MFSK
C	RTTY
D	PSK31

12. - E3A17

What is meant by circularly polarized electromagnetic waves?

Select	Answer
A	Waves with a rotating electric field
B	Waves produced by a loop antenna
C	Waves with an electric field bent into a circular shape
D	Waves that circle the Earth

13. - E3B01

What is transequatorial propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Propagation between two continents by way of ducts along the magnetic equator
B	Propagation between two stations at the same latitude
C	Propagation between two mid-latitude points at approximately the same distance north and south of the magnetic equator
D	Propagation between any two points located on the magnetic equator

14. - E3C11

What does VOACAP software model?

Select	Answer
A	HF propagation
B	AC current and impedance
C	VHF radio propagation
D	AC voltage and impedance

15. - E4A13

How is the compensation of an oscilloscope probe typically adjusted?

Select	Answer
A	A DC voltage standard is displayed and the probe is adjusted until the displayed voltage is accurate
B	A frequency standard is displayed and the probe is adjusted until the deflection time is accurate
C	A square wave is displayed and the probe is adjusted until the horizontal portions of the displayed wave are as nearly flat as possible
D	A high frequency sine wave is displayed and the probe is adjusted for maximum amplitude

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	100 watts
B	25 watts
C	75 watts
D	125 watts

17. - E4C02

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

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

18. - E4D12

What is the term for the reduction in receiver sensitivity caused by a strong signal near the received frequency?

Select	Answer
A	Quieting
B	Desensitization
C	Squelch gain rollback
D	Cross-modulation interference

19. - E4E08

What type of signal is picked up by electrical wiring near a radio antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A common-mode signal at the frequency of the radio transmitter
B	A differential-mode signal at the AC power line frequency
C	Harmonics of the AC power line frequency
D	An electrical-sparking signal

20. - E5A02

What is resonance in an electrical circuit?

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

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

22. - E5C13

What coordinate system is often used to display the resistive, inductive, and/or capacitive reactance components of impedance?

Select	Answer
A	Rectangular coordinates
B	Maidenhead grid
C	Faraday grid
D	Elliptical coordinates

23. - E5D03

What is microstrip?

Select	Answer
A	Miniature coax used for low power applications
B	Short lengths of coax mounted on printed circuit boards to minimize time delay between microwave circuits
C	Lightweight transmission line made of common zip cord
D	Precision printed circuit conductors above a ground plane that provide constant impedance interconnects at microwave frequencies

24. - E6A15

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

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

25. - E6B07

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

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

26. - E6C09

What is a Programmable Logic Device (PLD)?

Select	Answer
A	An algorithm for simulating logic functions during circuit design
B	A device to control industrial equipment
C	A programmable collection of logic gates and circuits in a single integrated circuit
D	Programmable equipment used for testing digital logic integrated circuits

27. - E6D11

How many turns will be required to produce a 1-mH inductor using a core that has an inductance index (A L) value of 523 millihenrys/1000 turns?

Select	Answer
A	43 turns
B	229 turns
C	4 turns
D	2 turns

28. - E6E07

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

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

29. - E6F05

Which describes an optical shaft encoder?

Select	Answer
A	A device which detects rotation of a control by interrupting a light source with a patterned wheel
B	A digital encryption device often used to encrypt spacecraft control signals
C	A device for generating RTTY signals by means of a rotating light source
D	A device which measures the strength of a beam of light using analog to digital conversion

30. - E7A09

What logical operation is performed by an exclusive NOR gate?

Select	Answer
A	It produces logic "0" at its output only if all inputs are logic "0"
B	It produces logic "0" at its output if any single input is logic "1"
C	It produces logic "1" at its output only if all inputs are logic "1"
D	It produces logic "1" at its output if any single input is logic "1"

31. - E7B02

What is a Class D amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	A low power amplifier that uses a differential amplifier for improved linearity
B	A type of amplifier that uses switching technology to achieve high efficiency
C	An amplifier that uses drift-mode FETs for high efficiency
D	A frequency doubling amplifier

32. - E7C13

What is one advantage of a Pi-matching network over an L-matching network consisting of a single inductor and a single capacitor?

Select	Answer
A	L-networks cannot perform impedance transformation
B	Pi-networks are designed for balanced input and output
C	Pi-networks have fewer components
D	The Q of Pi-networks can be varied depending on the component values chosen

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

34. - E7E05

What circuit is added to an FM transmitter to boost the higher audio frequencies?

Select	Answer
A	A heterodyne suppressor
B	A pre-emphasis network
C	An audio prescaler
D	A de-emphasis network

35. - E7F11

What sets the minimum detectable signal level for an SDR in the absence of atmospheric or thermal noise?

Select	Answer
A	Data storage transfer rate
B	Missing codes and jitter
C	Sample clock phase noise
D	Reference voltage level and sample width in bits

36. - E7G11

What absolute voltage gain can be expected from the circuit in Figure E7-4 when R1 is 3300 ohms and RF is 47 kilohms?

Select	Answer
A	28
B	0.07
C	14
D	7

37. - E7H15

Which of these functions can be performed by a phase-locked loop?

Select	Answer
A	Photovoltaic conversion, optical coupling
B	Wide-band AF and RF power amplification
C	Frequency synthesis, FM demodulation
D	Comparison of two digital input signals, digital pulse counter

38. - E8A08

Why would a direct or flash conversion analog-to-digital converter be useful for a software defined radio?

Select	Answer
A	Very high speed allows digitizing high frequencies
B	Immunity to out of sequence coding reduces spurious responses
C	Very low power consumption decreases frequency drift
D	All of these choices are correct

39. - E8B08

What describes Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing?

Select	Answer
A	A frequency modulation technique which uses non-harmonically related frequencies
B	A bandwidth compression technique using Fourier transforms
C	A digital mode for narrow band, slow speed transmissions
D	A digital modulation technique using subcarriers at frequencies chosen to avoid intersymbol interference

40. - E8C04

What technique is used to minimize the bandwidth requirements of a PSK31 signal?

Select	Answer
A	Zero-sum character encoding
B	Use of sinusoidal data pulses
C	Reed-Solomon character encoding
D	Use of trapezoidal data pulses

41. - E8D01

Why are received spread spectrum signals resistant to interference?

Select	Answer
A	Signals not using the spread spectrum algorithm are suppressed in the receiver
B	The high power used by a spread spectrum transmitter keeps its signal from being easily overpowered
C	The receiver is always equipped with a digital blanker
D	If interference is detected by the receiver it will signal the transmitter to change frequencies

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. - E9B09

What type of computer program technique is commonly used for modeling antennas?

Select	Answer
A	Graphical analysis
B	Calculus differentiation with respect to physical properties
C	Mutual impedance analysis
D	Method of Moments

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 changes the radiation pattern from bidirectional to unidirectional
D	It decreases the ground loss

45. - E9D09

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

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

46. - E9E09

Which of these matching systems is an effective method of connecting a 50 ohm coaxial cable feed line to a grounded tower so it can be used as a vertical antenna?

Select	Answer
A	Double-bazooka match
B	Hairpin match
C	Gamma match
D	All of these choices are correct

47. - E9F08

What is the term for the ratio of the actual speed at which a signal travels through a transmission line to the speed of light in a vacuum?

Select	Answer
A	Velocity factor
B	Characteristic impedance
C	Standing wave ratio
D	Surge impedance

48. - E9G05

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

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

49. - E9H07

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

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

50. - E0A08

What does SAR measure?

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

Figure E7-4

Figure E9-3