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

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1. - E1A05

What is the maximum power output permitted on the 60 meter band?

Select	Answer
A	50 watts PEP effective radiated power relative to an isotropic radiator
B	100 watts PEP effective radiated power relative to the gain of a half-wave dipole
C	100 watts PEP effective radiated power relative to an isotropic radiator
D	50 watts PEP effective radiated power relative to a dipole

2. - E1B07

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

Select	Answer
A	3.0
B	0.5
C	1.0
D	2.0

3. - E1C10

What types of amateur stations may automatically retransmit the radio signals of other amateur stations?

Select	Answer
A	Only auxiliary, repeater or space stations
B	Only beacon, repeater or space stations
C	Only earth stations, repeater stations or model craft
D	Only auxiliary, beacon or space stations

4. - E1D09

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

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

5. - E1E11

What must the VE team do if an examinee scores a passing grade on all examination elements needed for an upgrade or new license?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	Issue the examinee the new or upgrade license
C	Three VEs must certify that the examinee is qualified for the license grant and that they have complied with the administering VE requirements
D	Photocopy all examination documents and forward them to the FCC for processing

6. - E1F06

Under what circumstances might the FCC issue a Special Temporary Authority (STA) to an amateur station?

Select	Answer
A	To provide additional spectrum for personal use
B	To provide temporary operation while awaiting normal licensing
C	To provide for experimental amateur communications
D	To allow regular operation on Land Mobile channels

7. - E2A01

What is the direction of an ascending pass for an amateur satellite?

Select	Answer
A	From south to north
B	From west to east
C	From north to south
D	From east to west

8. - E2B19

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

Select	Answer
A	None; they are allowed on all amateur frequencies
B	They are restricted to 7.245 MHz, 14.245 MHz, 21.345 MHz, and 28.945 MHz
C	They are not permitted above 54 MHz
D	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

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 once or twice
B	Send your full call sign and grid square
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. - E2D08

What type of packet frame is used to transmit APRS beacon data?

Select	Answer
A	Unnumbered Information
B	Disconnect
C	Acknowledgement
D	Connect

11. - E2E07

What is the typical bandwidth of a properly modulated MFSK16 signal?

Select	Answer
A	316 Hz
B	31 Hz
C	550 Hz
D	2.16 kHz

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 E layer of charged particles from the Sun with the Earth's magnetic field
C	Meteor showers concentrated in the extreme northern and southern latitudes
D	The interaction in the F2 layer between the solar wind and the Van Allen belt

13. - E3B09

At what time of year is Sporadic E propagation most likely to occur?

Select	Answer
A	Around the solstices, especially the winter solstice
B	Around the solstices, especially the summer solstice
C	Around the equinoxes, especially the spring equinox
D	Around the equinoxes, especially the fall equinox

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	Decreasing disruption of the geomagnetic field
D	Higher levels of solar UV radiation

15. - E4A07

Which of the following is an advantage of using an antenna analyzer compared to an SWR bridge to measure antenna SWR?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	Antenna analyzers automatically tune your antenna for resonance
C	Antenna analyzers do not need an external RF source
D	Antenna analyzers display a time-varying representation of the modulation envelope

16. - E4B12

What is the significance of voltmeter sensitivity expressed in ohms per volt?

Select	Answer
A	When used as an ammeter, the full scale reading in amps divided by ohms per volt rating will determine the size of shunt needed
B	When used as an ohmmeter, the reading in ohms divided by the ohms per volt rating will determine the voltage applied to the circuit
C	The full scale reading of the voltmeter multiplied by its ohms per volt rating will indicate the input impedance of the voltmeter
D	When used as a galvanometer, the reading in volts multiplied by the ohms per volt rating will determine the power drawn by the device under test

17. - E4C11

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

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

18. - E4D04

Which of the following may reduce or eliminate intermodulation interference in a repeater caused by another transmitter operating in close proximity?

Select	Answer
A	A properly terminated circulator at the output of the transmitter
B	A Class C final amplifier
C	A band-pass filter in the feed line between the transmitter and receiver
D	A Class D final amplifier

19. - E4E16

What current flows equally on all conductors of an unshielded multi-conductor cable?

Select	Answer
A	Differential-mode current
B	Reactive current only
C	Common-mode current
D	Return current

20. - E5A11

What is the half-power bandwidth of a parallel resonant circuit that has a resonant frequency of 7.1 MHz and a Q of 150?

Select	Answer
A	47.3 kHz
B	315.6 Hz
C	157.8 Hz
D	23.67 kHz

21. - E5B03

What happens to the phase angle of a reactance when it is converted to a susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	The sign is reversed
B	It is shifted by 90 degrees
C	It is unchanged
D	The susceptance phase angle is the inverse of the reactance phase angle

22. - E5C15

Which point in Figure E5-2 best represents the impedance of a series circuit consisting of a 300 ohm resistor and an 18 microhenry inductor at 3.505 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	Point 7
B	Point 1
C	Point 8
D	Point 3

23. - E5D14

What is reactive power?

Select	Answer
A	Wattless, nonproductive power
B	Power lost because of capacitor leakage
C	Power consumed in circuit Q
D	Power consumed in wire resistance in an inductor

24. - E6A15

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

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

25. - E6B09

What is a common use for point contact diodes?

Select	Answer
A	As a high voltage rectifier
B	As a constant voltage source
C	As an RF detector
D	As a constant current source

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

27. - E6D15

What is current in the primary winding of a transformer called if no load is attached to the secondary?

Select	Answer
A	Magnetizing current
B	Excitation current
C	Direct current
D	Stabilizing current

28. - E6E10

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

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

29. - E6F09

What is the efficiency of a photovoltaic cell?

Select	Answer
A	The output RF power divided by the input DC power
B	The relative fraction of light that is converted to current
C	The open-circuit voltage divided by the short-circuit current under full illumination
D	The effective payback period

30. - E7A02

What is the function of a decade counter digital IC?

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

31. - E7B03

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

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

32. - E7C12

Which describes a Pi-L-network used for matching a vacuum tube final amplifier to a 50 ohm unbalanced output?

Select	Answer
A	A matching network in which all components are isolated from ground
B	A Pi-network with an additional series inductor on the output
C	A Phase Inverter Load network
D	A network with only three discrete parts

33. - E7D02

What is one characteristic of a switching electronic voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	The controlled device's duty cycle is changed to produce a constant average output voltage
B	It gives a ramp voltage at its output
C	It is generally less efficient than a linear regulator
D	The resistance of a control element is varied in direct proportion to the line voltage or load current

34. - E7E02

What is the function of a reactance modulator?

Select	Answer
A	To produce AM signals by using an electrically variable inductance or capacitance
B	To produce AM signals by using an electrically variable resistance
C	To produce PM signals by using an electrically variable resistance
D	To produce PM signals by using an electrically variable inductance or capacitance

35. - E7F05

How frequently must an analog signal be sampled by an analog-to-digital converter so that the signal can be accurately reproduced?

Select	Answer
A	At the same rate as the highest frequency component of the signal
B	At four times the rate of the highest frequency component of the signal
C	At half the rate of the highest frequency component of the signal
D	At twice the rate of the highest frequency component of the signal

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 RF amplifier used in the UHF and microwave regions
C	A high-gain, direct-coupled differential amplifier with very high input impedance and very low output impedance
D	A digital audio amplifier whose characteristics are determined by components external to the amplifier

37. - E7H06

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

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

38. - E8A07

What determines the PEP-to-average power ratio of a single-sideband phone signal?

Select	Answer
A	The degree of carrier suppression
B	The frequency of the modulating signal
C	The amplifier gain
D	The characteristics of the modulating signal

39. - E8B01

What is the term for the ratio between the frequency deviation of an RF carrier wave and the modulating frequency of its corresponding FM-phone signal?

Select	Answer
A	Quieting index
B	Modulation index
C	FM compressibility
D	Percentage of modulation

40. - E8C07

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

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

41. - E8D07

What is a common cause of overmodulation of AFSK signals?

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

42. - E9A09

How is antenna efficiency calculated?

Select	Answer
A	(effective radiated power / transmitter output) x 100 percent
B	(total resistance / radiation resistance) x 100 per cent
C	(radiation resistance / transmission resistance) x 100 per cent
D	(radiation resistance / total resistance) x 100 per cent

43. - E9B07

How does the total amount of radiation emitted by a directional gain antenna compare with the total amount of radiation emitted from an isotropic antenna, assuming each is driven by the same amount of power?

Select	Answer
A	The total amount of radiation from the directional antenna is stronger by its front-to-back ratio
B	The total amount of radiation from the directional antenna is increased by the gain of the antenna
C	The radiation from the isotropic antenna is 2.15 dB stronger than that from the directional antenna
D	They are the same

44. - E9C06

What is the effect of a terminating resistor on a rhombic antenna?

Select	Answer
A	It changes the radiation pattern from horizontal to vertical polarization
B	It changes the radiation pattern from bidirectional to unidirectional
C	It decreases the ground loss
D	It reflects the standing waves on the antenna elements back to the transmitter

45. - E9D07

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

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

46. - E9E10

Which of these choices is an effective way to match an antenna with a 100 ohm feed point impedance to a 50 ohm coaxial cable feed line?

Select	Answer
A	Connect a 1/4-wavelength open stub of 300 ohm twin-lead in parallel with the coaxial feed line where it connects to the antenna
B	Connect 1/2 wavelength shorted stub of 75 ohm cable in parallel with the 50 ohm cable where it attaches to the antenna
C	Insert a 1/4-wavelength piece of 75 ohm coaxial cable transmission line in series between the antenna terminals and the 50 ohm feed cable
D	Insert a 1/2 wavelength piece of 300 ohm twin-lead in series between the antenna terminals and the 50 ohm feed cable

47. - E9F04

What is the typical velocity factor for a coaxial cable with solid polyethylene dielectric?

Select	Answer
A	0.66
B	0.10
C	0.30
D	2.70

48. - E9G06

On the Smith chart shown in Figure E9-3, what is the name for the large outer circle on which the reactance arcs terminate?

Select	Answer
A	Polar axis
B	Reactance axis
C	Prime axis
D	Impedance axis

49. - E9H01

When constructing a Beverage antenna, which of the following factors should be included in the design to achieve good performance at the desired frequency?

Select	Answer
A	It must be mounted more than 1 wavelength above ground
B	It should be one or more wavelengths long
C	Its overall length must not exceed 1/4 wavelength
D	It should be configured as a four-sided loop

50. - E0A10

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

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

Figure E5-2

Figure E9-3