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 DX station initiated the contact
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	No, one of the sidebands of the CW signal will be out of the band

2. - E1B07

What is the highest modulation index permitted at the highest modulation frequency for angle modulation below 29.0 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	2.0
B	0.5
C	3.0
D	1.0

3. - E1C05

When may an automatically controlled station originate third party communications?

Select	Answer
A	When approved by the National Telecommunication and Information Administration
B	Only when transmitting RTTY or data emissions
C	When agreed upon by the sending or receiving station
D	Never

4. - E1D08

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

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

5. - E1E01

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

Select	Answer
A	4
B	3
C	2
D	5

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

7. - E2A03

What is the orbital period of an Earth satellite?

Select	Answer
A	The time it takes for a satellite to complete one revolution around the Earth
B	The time it takes for a satellite to travel from perigee to apogee
C	The point of maximum height of a satellite's orbit
D	The point of minimum height of a satellite's orbit

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. - E2C13

What indicator is required to be used by U.S.-licensed operators when operating a station via remote control where the transmitter is located in the U.S.?

Select	Answer
A	The ARRL section of the remote station
B	/R# where # is the district of the remote station
C	No additional indicator is required
D	/ followed by the USPS two letter abbreviation for the state in which the remote station is located

10. - E2D02

Which of the following is a good technique for making meteor scatter contacts?

Select	Answer
A	15 second timed transmission sequences with stations alternating based on location
B	Use of high speed CW or digital modes
C	Short transmission with rapidly repeated call signs and signal reports
D	All of these choices are correct

11. - E2E08

Which of the following HF digital modes can be used to transfer binary files?

Select	Answer
A	AMTOR
B	RTTY
C	PACTOR
D	Hellschreiber

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	The interaction in the E layer of charged particles from the Sun with the Earth's magnetic field
D	A low sunspot level combined with tropospheric ducting

13. - E3B13

Why is chordal hop propagation desirable?

Select	Answer
A	The signal experiences less loss along the path compared to normal skip propagation
B	The MUF for chordal hop propagation is much lower than for normal skip propagation
C	Signals travel faster along ionospheric chords
D	Atmospheric noise is lower in the direction of chordal hop propagation

14. - E3C14

Why does the radio-path horizon distance exceed the geometric horizon?

Select	Answer
A	Downward bending due to aurora refraction
B	E-region skip
C	Downward bending due to density variations in the atmosphere
D	D-region skip

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	An ohmmeter
C	A Q meter
D	A spectrum analyzer

16. - E4B04

If a frequency counter with a specified accuracy of +/- 0.1 ppm reads 146,520,000 Hz, what is the most the actual frequency being measured could differ from the reading?

Select	Answer
A	1.4652 kHz
B	0.1 MHz
C	14.652 Hz
D	1.4652 Hz

17. - E4C17

Which of the following has the largest effect on an SDR receiver's linearity?

Select	Answer
A	RAM speed used for data storage
B	Analog-to-digital converter sample width in bits
C	CPU register width in bits
D	Anti-aliasing input filter bandwidth

18. - E4D12

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

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

19. - E4E06

What is a major cause of atmospheric static?

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

20. - E5A04

What is the magnitude of the impedance of a circuit with a resistor, an inductor and a capacitor all in parallel, at resonance?

Select	Answer
A	Approximately equal to inductive reactance
B	Approximately equal to circuit resistance
C	Low, as compared to the circuit resistance
D	Approximately equal to capacitive reactance

21. - E5B06

What is susceptance?

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

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 6
B	Point 4
C	Point 5
D	Point 2

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

24. - E6A17

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

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

25. - E6B03

What special type of diode is capable of both amplification and oscillation?

Select	Answer
A	Tunnel
B	Junction
C	Zener
D	Point contact

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	Many similar gates are less expensive than a mixture of gate types
C	All of these choices are correct
D	Complex logic functions can be created in a single integrated circuit

27. - E6D04

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

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

28. - E6E10

What is the packaging technique in which leadless components are soldered directly to circuit boards?

Select	Answer
A	Virtual lead mounting
B	Surface mount
C	Direct soldering
D	Stripped lead

29. - E6F04

What is the photovoltaic effect?

Select	Answer
A	The tendency of a battery to discharge when used outside
B	The conversion of voltage to current when exposed to light
C	The conversion of light to electrical energy
D	The conversion of electrical energy to mechanical energy

30. - E7A05

Which of the following is a circuit that continuously alternates between two states without an external clock?

Select	Answer
A	Monostable multivibrator
B	T flip-flop
C	Astable multivibrator
D	J-K flip-flop

31. - E7B06

Which of the following amplifier types reduces or eliminates even order harmonics?

Select	Answer
A	Class C
B	Push-pull
C	Push-push
D	Class AB

32. - E7C02

Which of the following is a property of a T-network with series capacitors and a parallel shunt inductor?

Select	Answer
A	It is a high-pass filter
B	It is a low-pass filter
C	It is a band-pass filter
D	It is a notch filter

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 provide a safety bleeder to discharge the capacitors when the supply is off
B	All of these choices are correct
C	To equalize, as much as possible, the voltage drop across each capacitor
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	For higher efficiency
B	For compatibility with transmitters using phase modulation
C	To reduce impulse noise reception
D	To remove third-order distortion products

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

36. - E7G12

What is an integrated circuit operational amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	A high-gain, direct-coupled differential amplifier with very high input impedance and very low output impedance
B	An amplifier used to increase the average output of frequency modulated amateur signals to the legal limit
C	A RF amplifier used in the UHF and microwave regions
D	A digital audio amplifier whose characteristics are determined by components external to the amplifier

37. - E7H07

How can an oscillator's microphonic responses be reduced?

Select	Answer
A	Using the oscillator only for CW and digital signals
B	Use of NP0 capacitors
C	Mechanically isolating the oscillator circuitry from its enclosure
D	Eliminating noise on the oscillator's power supply

38. - E8A13

Which of these methods is commonly used to convert analog signals to digital signals?

Select	Answer
A	Phase reversal
B	Harmonic regeneration
C	Level shifting
D	Sequential sampling

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	0.6
D	1.67

40. - E8C09

Which is the name of a digital code where each preceding or following character changes by only one bit?

Select	Answer
A	Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code
B	Excess 3 code
C	Gray code
D	Binary Coded Decimal Code

41. - E8D07

What is a common cause of overmodulation of AFSK signals?

Select	Answer
A	Bit errors in the modem
B	Excessive transmit audio levels
C	Excessive numbers of retries
D	Ground loops

42. - E9A15

What is the effective radiated power relative to a dipole of a repeater station with 150 watts transmitter power output, 2 dB feed line loss, 2.2 dB duplexer loss, and 7 dBd antenna gain?

Select	Answer
A	420 watts
B	286 watts
C	78.7 watts
D	1977 watts

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	Feed point impedance may become negative
C	Element spacing limits could be exceeded
D	The E-field and H-field patterns may reverse

44. - E9C15

How does the radiation pattern of a horizontally polarized 3-element beam antenna vary with its height above ground?

Select	Answer
A	The main lobe takeoff angle decreases with increasing height
B	The main lobe takeoff angle increases with increasing height
C	The horizontal beam width decreases with height
D	The horizontal beam width increases with height

45. - E9D11

Which of the following types of conductors would be best for minimizing losses in a station's RF ground system?

Select	Answer
A	A single 12 gauge or 10 gauge stainless steel wire
B	A cable with six or seven 18 gauge conductors in parallel
C	A resistive wire, such as spark plug wire
D	A wide flat copper strap

46. - E9E04

What is the purpose of the series capacitor in a gamma-type antenna matching network?

Select	Answer
A	To provide a rejection notch that prevents the radiation of harmonics
B	To cancel the inductive reactance of the matching network
C	To transform the antenna impedance to a higher value
D	To provide DC isolation between the feed line and the antenna

47. - E9F14

What impedance does a 1/2 wavelength transmission line present to a generator when the line is shorted 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. - E9G01

Which of the following can be calculated using a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Radiation resistance
B	Radio propagation
C	Impedance along transmission lines
D	Antenna radiation pattern

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 plots three headings to the signal source
C	Antenna headings from several different receiving locations are used to locate the signal source
D	A fixed receiving station uses three different antennas to plot the location of the signal source

50. - E0A06

Why are there separate electric (E) and magnetic (H) field MPE limits?

Select	Answer
A	Ground reflections and scattering make the field impedance vary with location
B	The body reacts to electromagnetic radiation from both the E and H fields
C	All of these choices are correct
D	E field and H field radiation intensity peaks can occur at different locations

Figure E5-2