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

2. - E1B01

Which of the following constitutes a spurious emission?

Select	Answer
A	Any transmitted signal that unintentionally interferes with another licensed radio station
B	An amateur station transmission made at random without the proper call sign identification
C	A signal transmitted to prevent its detection by any station other than the intended recipient
D	An emission outside its necessary bandwidth that can be reduced or eliminated without affecting the information transmitted

3. - E1C04

What is meant by IARP?

Select	Answer
A	A forecast of intermittent aurora radio propagation
B	An indication of increased antenna reflected power
C	The internal amateur radio practices policy of the FCC
D	An international amateur radio permit that allows U.S. amateurs to operate in certain countries of the Americas

4. - E1D09

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

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

5. - E1E09

What may be the penalty for a VE who fraudulently administers or certifies an examination?

Select	Answer
A	Revocation of the VE's amateur station license grant and the suspension of the VE's amateur operator license grant
B	A fine of up to $1000 per occurrence
C	All of these choices are correct
D	A sentence of up to one year in prison

6. - E1F05

Amateur stations may not transmit in which of the following frequency segments if they are located in the contiguous 48 states and north of Line A?

Select	Answer
A	53 MHz - 54 MHz
B	420 MHz - 430 MHz
C	440 MHz - 450 MHz
D	222 MHz - 223 MHz

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. - E2B15

What signals SSTV receiving equipment to begin a new picture line?

Select	Answer
A	Specific tone frequencies
B	Elapsed time
C	A two-tone signal
D	Specific tone amplitudes

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

10. - E2D09

Which of these digital modes has the fastest data throughput under clear communication conditions?

Select	Answer
A	170 Hz shift, 45 baud RTTY
B	300 baud packet
C	PSK31
D	AMTOR

11. - E2E05

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

Select	Answer
A	RTTY
B	Winlink
C	PSK31
D	MFSK

12. - E3A04

What do Hepburn maps predict?

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

13. - E3B04

What is meant by the terms extraordinary and ordinary waves?

Select	Answer
A	Long path and short path waves
B	Extraordinary waves describe rare long skip propagation compared to ordinary waves which travel shorter distances
C	Independent waves created in the ionosphere that are elliptically polarized
D	Refracted rays and reflected waves

14. - E3C13

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

Select	Answer
A	Circular
B	Horizontal
C	Elliptical
D	Vertical

15. - E4A13

How is the compensation of an oscilloscope probe typically adjusted?

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

16. - E4B01

Which of the following factors most affects the accuracy of a frequency counter?

Select	Answer
A	Input attenuator accuracy
B	Time base accuracy
C	Temperature coefficient of the logic
D	Decade divider accuracy

17. - E4C01

What is an effect of excessive phase noise in the local oscillator section of a receiver?

Select	Answer
A	It limits the receiver's ability to receive strong signals
B	It decreases receiver third-order intermodulation distortion dynamic range
C	It can cause strong signals on nearby frequencies to interfere with reception of weak signals
D	It reduces receiver sensitivity

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 difference in dB between the noise floor and the level of an incoming signal which will cause 1 dB of gain compression
D	The minimum difference in dB between two signals which produce third order intermodulation products greater than the noise floor

19. - E4E15

Which of the following can cause shielded cables to radiate or receive interference?

Select	Answer
A	Use of braided shielding material
B	Common mode currents on the shield and conductors
C	Tying all ground connections to a common point resulting in differential mode currents in the shield
D	Low inductance ground connections at both ends of the shield

20. - E5A01

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

Select	Answer
A	Conductance
B	Resistance
C	Capacitance
D	Resonance

21. - E5B08

What is the phase angle between the voltage across and the current through a series RLC circuit if XC is 100 ohms, R is 100 ohms, and XL is 75 ohms?

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

22. - E5C04

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

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

23. - E5D11

What is the power factor of an R-L circuit having a 60 degree phase angle between the voltage and the current?

Select	Answer
A	1.414
B	0.866
C	1.73
D	0.5

24. - E6A04

What is the name given to an impurity atom that adds holes to a semiconductor crystal structure?

Select	Answer
A	Insulator impurity
B	Acceptor impurity
C	N-type impurity
D	Donor impurity

25. - E6B05

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

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

26. - E6C10

In Figure E6-5, what is the schematic symbol for a NOR gate?

Select	Answer
A	3
B	4
C	2
D	1

27. - E6D17

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

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

28. - E6E10

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

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

29. - E6F14

Which of the following is true of LCD displays?

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

30. - E7A12

What type of logic defines "0" as a high voltage?

Select	Answer
A	Assertive Logic
B	Reverse Logic
C	Positive Logic
D	Negative logic

31. - E7B10

In Figure E7-1, what is the purpose of R1 and R2?

Select	Answer
A	Load resistors
B	Self bias
C	Feedback
D	Fixed bias

32. - E7C03

What advantage does a Pi-L-network have over a regular Pi-network for impedance matching between the final amplifier of a vacuum-tube transmitter and an antenna?

Select	Answer
A	Higher efficiency
B	Greater transformation range
C	Greater harmonic suppression
D	Lower losses

33. - E7D07

What is the purpose of C2 in the circuit shown in Figure E7-3?

Select	Answer
A	To self-resonate at the hum frequency
B	It is a brute force filter for the output
C	To provide fixed DC bias for Q1
D	It bypasses hum around D1

34. - E7E03

How does an analog phase modulator function?

Select	Answer
A	By varying the tuning of a microphone preamplifier to produce PM signals
B	By varying the tuning of an amplifier tank circuit to produce PM signals
C	By varying the tuning of an amplifier tank circuit to produce AM signals
D	By varying the tuning of a microphone preamplifier to produce AM signals

35. - E7F17

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

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

36. - E7G12

What is an integrated circuit operational amplifier?

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

37. - E7H12

Which of the following must be done to insure that a crystal oscillator provides the frequency specified by the crystal manufacturer?

Select	Answer
A	Bias the crystal at a specified current
B	Provide the crystal with a specified parallel inductance
C	Bias the crystal at a specified voltage
D	Provide the crystal with a specified parallel capacitance

38. - E8A10

What is the purpose of a low pass filter used in conjunction with a digital-to-analog converter?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	Remove harmonics from the output caused by the discrete analog levels generated
C	Improve accuracy by removing out of sequence codes from the input
D	Lower the input bandwidth to increase the effective resolution

39. - E8B06

What is the deviation ratio of an FM-phone signal having a maximum frequency swing of plus or minus 7.5 kHz when the maximum modulation frequency is 3.5 kHz?

Select	Answer
A	0.47
B	2.14
C	47
D	0.214

40. - E8C07

What is the necessary bandwidth of a 4800-Hz frequency shift, 9600-baud ASCII FM transmission?

Select	Answer
A	15.36 kHz
B	9.6 kHz
C	4.8 kHz
D	5.76 kHz

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	Harmonics on higher bands
C	Rapid signal fading
D	High reflected power

42. - E9A16

What is the effective radiated power relative to a dipole of a repeater station with 200 watts transmitter power output, 4 dB feed line loss, 3.2 dB duplexer loss, 0.8 dB circulator loss, and 10 dBd antenna gain?

Select	Answer
A	300 watts
B	317 watts
C	2000 watts
D	126 watts

43. - E9B10

What is the principle of a Method of Moments analysis?

Select	Answer
A	A wire is modeled as a single sine-wave current generator
B	A wire is modeled as a series of segments, each having a uniform value of current
C	A wire is modeled as a series of points, each having a distinct location in space
D	A wire is modeled as a series of segments, each having a distinct value of voltage across it

44. - E9C08

What is a folded dipole antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A dipole consisting of one wavelength of wire forming a very thin loop
B	A dipole one-quarter wavelength long
C	A type of ground-plane antenna
D	A dipole configured to provide forward gain

45. - E9D03

Where should a high Q loading coil be placed to minimize losses in a shortened vertical antenna?

Select	Answer
A	At a voltage node
B	Near the center of the vertical radiator
C	As close to the transmitter as possible
D	As low as possible on the vertical radiator

46. - E9E11

What is an effective way of matching a feed line to a VHF or UHF antenna when the impedances of both the antenna and feed line are unknown?

Select	Answer
A	Use the universal stub matching technique
B	Use a 50 ohm 1:1 balun between the antenna and feed line
C	Connect a series-resonant LC network across the antenna feed terminals
D	Connect a parallel-resonant LC network across the antenna feed terminals

47. - E9F12

What impedance does a 1/4 wavelength transmission line present to a generator when the line is open at the far end?

Select	Answer
A	The same as the input impedance to the generator
B	The same as the characteristic impedance of the line
C	Very high impedance
D	Very low impedance

48. - E9G09

What third family of circles is often added to a Smith chart during the process of solving problems?

Select	Answer
A	Standing wave ratio circles
B	Antenna-length circles
C	Radiation-pattern circles
D	Coaxial-length circles

49. - E9H09

Which of the following describes the construction of a receiving loop antenna?

Select	Answer
A	One or more turns of wire wound in the shape of a large open coil
B	A vertical antenna coupled to a feed line through an inductive loop of wire
C	A small coil of wire tightly wound around a toroidal ferrite core
D	A large circularly polarized antenna

50. - E0A10

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

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

Figure E6-5

Figure E7-1

Figure E7-3