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, 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 displayed frequency is within the 80 meter CW band segment

2. - E1B07

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

Select	Answer
A	0.5
B	3.0
C	2.0
D	1.0

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	The U.S. embassy must approve of your operation
B	You must identify in the official language of the country in which you are operating
C	You must append "/CEPT" to your call sign
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, subject to the privileges of the class of operator license held by the control operator
B	Only those of Amateur Extra Class operators
C	Only those of General, Advanced or Amateur Extra Class operators
D	Any amateur station whose licensee has filed a pre-space notification with the FCC's International Bureau

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

6. - E1F01

On what frequencies are spread spectrum transmissions permitted?

Select	Answer
A	Only on amateur frequencies above 420 MHz
B	Only on amateur frequencies above 50 MHz
C	Only on amateur frequencies above 222 MHz
D	Only on amateur frequencies above 144 MHz

7. - E2A05

What do the letters in a satellite's mode designator specify?

Select	Answer
A	The uplink and downlink frequency ranges
B	The polarization of uplink and downlink signals
C	Power limits for uplink and downlink transmissions
D	The location of the ground control station

8. - E2B04

What is blanking in a video signal?

Select	Answer
A	Turning off the scanning beam at the conclusion of a transmission
B	Transmitting a black and white test pattern
C	Turning off the scanning beam while it is traveling from right to left or from bottom to top
D	Synchronization of the horizontal and vertical sync pulses

9. - E2C08

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

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

10. - E2D04

What is the purpose of digital store-and-forward functions on an Amateur Radio satellite?

Select	Answer
A	To relay messages between satellites
B	To upload operational software for the transponder
C	To store digital messages in the satellite for later download by other stations
D	To delay download of telemetry between satellites

11. - E2E11

What is the difference between direct FSK and audio FSK?

Select	Answer
A	Audio FSK has a superior frequency response
B	Direct FSK applies the data signal to the transmitter VFO
C	Direct FSK uses a DC-coupled data connection
D	Audio FSK can be performed anywhere in the transmit chain

12. - E3A12

What is the cause of auroral activity?

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

13. - E3B06

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

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

14. - E3C12

How does the maximum distance of ground-wave propagation change when the signal frequency is increased?

Select	Answer
A	It increases
B	It stays the same
C	It decreases
D	It peaks at roughly 14 MHz

15. - E4A11

Which of the following is good practice when using an oscilloscope probe?

Select	Answer
A	Never use a high impedance probe to measure a low impedance circuit
B	Never use a DC-coupled probe to measure an AC circuit
C	Keep the signal ground connection of the probe as short as possible
D	All of these choices are correct

16. - E4B10

Which of the following describes a method to measure intermodulation distortion in an SSB transmitter?

Select	Answer
A	Modulate the transmitter with two non-harmonically related audio frequencies and observe the RF output with a spectrum analyzer
B	Modulate the transmitter with two harmonically related audio frequencies and observe the RF output with a logic analyzer
C	Modulate the transmitter with two non-harmonically related radio frequencies and observe the RF output with a spectrum analyzer
D	Modulate the transmitter with two harmonically related audio frequencies and observe the RF output with a peak reading wattmeter

17. - E4C11

Which of the following is a desirable amount of selectivity for an amateur SSB phone receiver?

Select	Answer
A	4.2 kHz
B	4.8 kHz
C	2.4 kHz
D	1 kHz

18. - E4D10

What does a third-order intercept level of 40 dBm mean with respect to receiver performance?

Select	Answer
A	A pair of 1 mW input signals will produce a third-order intermodulation product which is 40 dB stronger than the input signal
B	A pair of 40 dBm signals will theoretically generate a third-order intermodulation product with the same level as the input signals
C	The receiver can tolerate signals up to 40 dB above the noise floor without producing third-order intermodulation products
D	Signals less than 40 dBm will not generate audible third-order intermodulation products

19. - E4E09

What undesirable effect can occur when using an IF noise blanker?

Select	Answer
A	FM signals can no longer be demodulated
B	Nearby signals may appear to be excessively wide even if they meet emission standards
C	Received audio in the speech range might have an echo effect
D	The audio frequency bandwidth of the received signal might be compressed

20. - E5A09

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

Select	Answer
A	Reactance of the inductance multiplied by the reactance of the capacitance
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 either the inductance or capacitance divided by the resistance

21. - E5B01

What is the term for the time required for the capacitor in an RC circuit to be charged to 63.2% of the applied voltage?

Select	Answer
A	An exponential rate of one
B	One time constant
C	A time factor of one
D	One exponential period

22. - E5C04

Which of the following represents a capacitive reactance in polar coordinates?

Select	Answer
A	A negative real part
B	A positive real part
C	A negative phase angle
D	A positive phase angle

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	1600 watts
C	600 watts
D	200 watts

24. - E6A13

What do the initials CMOS stand for?

Select	Answer
A	Complementary Mica-Oxide Silicon
B	Common Mode Oscillating System
C	Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor
D	Common Mode Organic Silicon

25. - E6B10

In Figure E6-3, what is the schematic symbol for a light-emitting diode?

Select	Answer
A	6
B	7
C	1
D	5

26. - E6C13

Which of the following is an advantage of BiCMOS logic?

Select	Answer
A	Its simplicity results in much less expensive devices than standard CMOS
B	It is totally immune to electrostatic damage
C	All of these choices are correct
D	It has the high input impedance of CMOS and the low output impedance of bipolar transistors

27. - E6D17

Why should core saturation of a conventional impedance matching transformer be avoided?

Select	Answer
A	Harmonics and distortion could result
B	Magnetic flux would increase with frequency
C	RF susceptance would increase
D	Temporary changes of the core permeability could result

28. - E6E05

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

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

29. - E6F14

Which of the following is true of LCD displays?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	They may be hard view through polarized lenses
C	They are hard to view in high ambient light conditions
D	They only display alphanumeric symbols

30. - E7A02

What is the function of a decade counter digital IC?

Select	Answer
A	It produces ten output pulses for every input pulse
B	It decodes a decimal number for display on a seven segment LED display
C	It produces one output pulse for every ten input pulses
D	It adds two decimal numbers together

31. - E7B08

How can an RF power amplifier be neutralized?

Select	Answer
A	By reducing the driving power
B	By increasing the driving power
C	By feeding a 180-degree out-of-phase portion of the output back to the input
D	By feeding an in-phase component of the output back to the input

32. - E7C06

What are the distinguishing features of an elliptical filter?

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

33. - E7D03

What device is typically used as a stable reference voltage in a linear voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	A tunnel diode
B	An SCR
C	A varactor diode
D	A Zener diode

34. - E7E04

What is one way a single-sideband phone signal can be generated?

Select	Answer
A	By driving a product detector with a DSB signal
B	By using a reactance modulator followed by a mixer
C	By using a balanced modulator followed by a filter
D	By using a loop modulator followed by a mixer

35. - E7F17

What do the letters I and Q in I/Q Modulation represent?

Select	Answer
A	Instantaneous and Quasi-stable
B	Inactive and Quiescent
C	In-phase and Quadrature
D	Instantaneous and Quenched

36. - E7G12

What is an integrated circuit operational amplifier?

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

37. - E7H06

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

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

38. - E8A04

What is "dither" with respect to analog to digital converters?

Select	Answer
A	An error caused by irregular quantization step size
B	An abnormal condition where the converter cannot settle on a value to represent the signal
C	A small amount of noise added to the input signal to allow more precise representation of a signal over time
D	A method of decimation by randomly skipping samples

39. - E8B03

What is the modulation index of an FM-phone signal having a maximum frequency deviation of 3000 Hz either side of the carrier frequency when the modulating frequency is 1000 Hz?

Select	Answer
A	1000
B	3
C	0.3
D	3000

40. - E8C08

How does ARQ accomplish error correction?

Select	Answer
A	If errors are detected, redundant data is substituted
B	If errors are detected, a retransmission is requested
C	Special binary codes provide automatic correction
D	Special polynomial codes provide automatic correction

41. - E8D06

Which of the following indicates likely overmodulation of an AFSK signal such as PSK or MFSK?

Select	Answer
A	Strong ALC action
B	High reflected power
C	Harmonics on higher bands
D	Rapid signal fading

42. - E9A04

Which of the following factors may affect the feed point impedance of an antenna?

Select	Answer
A	Sunspot activity and time of day
B	Antenna height, conductor length/diameter ratio and location of nearby conductive objects
C	Transmission-line length
D	The settings of an antenna tuner at the transmitter

43. - E9B01

In the antenna radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-1, what is the 3 dB beam-width?

Select	Answer
A	50 degrees
B	30 degrees
C	75 degrees
D	25 degrees

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

45. - E9D05

What is a disadvantage of using a multiband trapped antenna?

Select	Answer
A	It might radiate harmonics
B	It must be neutralized
C	It is too sharply directional at lower frequencies
D	It radiates the harmonics and fundamental equally well

46. - E9E06

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

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

47. - E9F02

Which of the following determines the velocity factor of a transmission line?

Select	Answer
A	The center conductor resistivity
B	The termination impedance
C	Dielectric materials used in the line
D	The line length

48. - E9G03

Which of the following is often determined using a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Beam headings and radiation patterns
B	Satellite azimuth and elevation bearings
C	Trigonometric functions
D	Impedance and SWR values in transmission lines

49. - E9H06

What is the triangulation method of direction finding?

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

50. - E0A03

Which of the following would be a practical way to estimate whether the RF fields produced by an amateur radio station are within permissible MPE limits?

Select	Answer
A	Use an antenna modeling program to calculate field strength at accessible locations
B	All of the choices are correct
C	Use a calibrated antenna analyzer
D	Use a hand calculator plus Smith-chart equations to calculate the fields

Figure E6-3

Figure E9-1