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

Logging in (or registering) will help the system to select questions that you need to focus on.

1. - E1A02

When using a transceiver that displays the carrier frequency of phone signals, which of the following displayed frequencies represents the lowest frequency at which a properly adjusted LSB emission will be totally within the band?

Select	Answer
A	The exact lower band edge
B	3 kHz above the lower band edge
C	1 kHz above the lower band edge
D	300 Hz above the lower band edge

2. - E1B02

Which of the following factors might cause the physical location of an amateur station apparatus or antenna structure to be restricted?

Select	Answer
A	The location is of geographical or horticultural importance
B	The location is of environmental importance or significant in American history, architecture, or culture
C	The location is near an area of political conflict
D	The location is in an ITU Zone designated for coordination with one or more foreign governments

3. - E1C03

How do the control operator responsibilities of a station under automatic control differ from one under local control?

Select	Answer
A	Under automatic control there is no control operator
B	Under automatic control the control operator is not required to be present at the control point
C	Under local control there is no control operator
D	Under local control a control operator is not required to be present at a control point

4. - E1D10

Which amateur stations are eligible to be telecommand stations?

Select	Answer
A	Any amateur station designated by NASA
B	Any amateur station so designated by the ITU
C	All of these choices are correct
D	Any amateur station so designated by the space station licensee, subject to the privileges of the class of operator license held by the control operator

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	A sentence of up to one year in prison
D	All of these choices are correct

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

7. - E2A08

Why should effective radiated power to a satellite which uses a linear transponder be limited?

Select	Answer
A	To avoid interfering with terrestrial QSOs
B	To prevent the satellite from emitting out-of-band signals
C	To avoid reducing the downlink power to all other users
D	To prevent creating errors in the satellite telemetry

8. - E2B04

What is blanking in a video signal?

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

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	FSK441
C	PACTOR III
D	JT65

11. - E2E10

Which of these digital modes has the narrowest bandwidth?

Select	Answer
A	MFSK16
B	300-baud packet
C	170 Hz shift, 45 baud RTTY
D	PSK31

12. - E3A14

From the contiguous 48 states, in which approximate direction should an antenna be pointed to take maximum advantage of aurora propagation?

Select	Answer
A	East
B	South
C	West
D	North

13. - E3B04

What is meant by the terms extraordinary and ordinary waves?

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

14. - E3C03

Which of the following signal paths is most likely to experience high levels of absorption when the A index or K index is elevated?

Select	Answer
A	Polar paths
B	NVIS
C	Transequatorial propagation
D	Sporadic-E

15. - E4A12

Which of the following procedures is an important precaution to follow when connecting a spectrum analyzer to a transmitter output?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	Use high quality double shielded coaxial cables to reduce signal losses
C	Attenuate the transmitter output going to the spectrum analyzer
D	Match the antenna to the load

16. - E4B03

If a frequency counter with a specified accuracy of +/- 1.0 ppm reads 146,520,000 Hz, what is the most the actual frequency being measured could differ from the reading?

Select	Answer
A	146.52 Hz
B	14.652 kHz
C	165.2 Hz
D	1.4652 MHz

17. - E4C10

Which of the following is a desirable amount of selectivity for an amateur RTTY HF receiver?

Select	Answer
A	300 Hz
B	100 Hz
C	6000 Hz
D	2400 Hz

18. - E4D02

Which of the following describes two problems caused by poor dynamic range in a communications receiver?

Select	Answer
A	Cross-modulation of the desired signal and desensitization from strong adjacent signals
B	Oscillator instability requiring frequent retuning and loss of ability to recover the opposite sideband
C	Cross-modulation of the desired signal and insufficient audio power to operate the speaker
D	Oscillator instability and severe audio distortion of all but the strongest received signals

19. - E4E05

How can noise from an electric motor be suppressed?

Select	Answer
A	By installing a bypass capacitor in series with the motor leads
B	By installing a high pass filter in series with the motor's power leads
C	By using a ground-fault current interrupter in the circuit used to power the motor
D	By installing a brute-force AC-line filter in series with the motor leads

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

21. - E5B05

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

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

22. - E5C04

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

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

23. - E5D16

What is the power factor of an R-L circuit having a 30 degree phase angle between the voltage and the current?

Select	Answer
A	1.73
B	0.866
C	0.577
D	0.5

24. - E6A03

Why does a PN-junction diode not conduct current when reverse biased?

Select	Answer
A	Holes in P-type material and electrons in the N-type material are separated by the applied voltage, widening the depletion region
B	Excess holes in P-type material combine with the electrons in N-type material, converting the entire diode into an insulator
C	Only P-type semiconductor material can conduct current
D	Only N-type semiconductor material can conduct current

25. - E6B02

What is an important characteristic of a Schottky diode as compared to an ordinary silicon diode when used as a power supply rectifier?

Select	Answer
A	Less forward voltage drop
B	Controlled reverse avalanche voltage
C	Much higher reverse voltage breakdown
D	Enhanced carrier retention time

26. - E6C08

In Figure E6-5, what is the schematic symbol for a NAND gate?

Select	Answer
A	1
B	2
C	3
D	4

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	2 turns
C	229 turns
D	4 turns

28. - E6E05

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

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

29. - E6F08

Why are optoisolators often used in conjunction with solid state circuits when switching 120VAC?

Select	Answer
A	Optoisolators provide impedance matching between the control circuit and power circuit
B	Optoisolators provide a very high degree of electrical isolation between a control circuit and the circuit being switched
C	Optoisolators eliminate the effects of reflected light in the control circuit
D	Optoisolators provide a low impedance link between a control circuit and a power circuit

30. - E7A01

Which is a bi-stable circuit?

Select	Answer
A	A clock
B	A flip-flop
C	An "AND" gate
D	An "OR" gate

31. - E7B11

In Figure E7-1, what is the purpose of R3?

Select	Answer
A	Emitter bypass
B	Self bias
C	Fixed bias
D	Output load resistor

32. - E7C14

Which mode is most affected by non-linear phase response in a receiver IF filter?

Select	Answer
A	Digital
B	Video
C	Meteor scatter
D	Single-Sideband voice

33. - E7D05

Which of the following types of linear voltage regulator places a constant load on the unregulated voltage source?

Select	Answer
A	A series regulator
B	A constant current source
C	A shunt current source
D	A shunt regulator

34. - E7E02

What is the function of a reactance modulator?

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

35. - E7F09

Why is an anti-aliasing digital filter required in a digital decimator?

Select	Answer
A	It notches out the sampling frequency to avoid sampling errors
B	It removes high-frequency signal components which would otherwise be reproduced as lower frequency components
C	It peaks the response of the decimator, improving bandwidth
D	It removes low frequency signal components to eliminate the need for DC restoration

36. - E7G04

What is meant by the term op-amp input offset voltage?

Select	Answer
A	The potential between the amplifier input terminals of the op-amp in an open loop condition
B	The difference between the output voltage of the op-amp and the input voltage required in the immediately following stage
C	The differential input voltage needed to bring the open loop output voltage to zero
D	The output voltage of the op-amp minus its input voltage

37. - E7H14

What is a phase-locked loop circuit?

Select	Answer
A	An electronic circuit consisting of a precision push-pull amplifier with a differential input
B	An electronic servo loop consisting of a phase detector, a low-pass filter, a voltage-controlled oscillator, and a stable reference oscillator
C	An electronic servo loop consisting of a ratio detector, reactance modulator, and voltage-controlled oscillator
D	An electronic circuit also known as a monostable multivibrator

38. - E8A06

What is the approximate ratio of PEP-to-average power in a typical single-sideband phone signal?

Select	Answer
A	100 to 1
B	25 to 1
C	1 to 1
D	2.5 to 1

39. - E8B08

What describes Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing?

Select	Answer
A	A bandwidth compression technique using Fourier transforms
B	A frequency modulation technique which uses non-harmonically related frequencies
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. - E8C07

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

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

41. - E8D03

How does the spread spectrum technique of frequency hopping work?

Select	Answer
A	The frequency of the transmitted signal is changed very rapidly according to a particular sequence also used by the receiving station
B	If interference is detected by the receiver it will signal the transmitter to wait until the frequency is clear
C	If interference is detected by the receiver it will signal the transmitter to change frequencies
D	A pseudo-random binary bit stream is used to shift the phase of an RF carrier very rapidly in a particular sequence

42. - E9A10

Which of the following choices is a way to improve the efficiency of a ground-mounted quarter-wave vertical antenna?

Select	Answer
A	Shorten the radiating element
B	Reduce the diameter of the radiating element
C	Install a good radial system
D	Isolate the coax shield from ground

43. - E9B02

In the antenna radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-1, what is the front-to-back ratio?

Select	Answer
A	14 dB
B	36 dB
C	24 dB
D	18 dB

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 bidirectional to unidirectional
C	It decreases the ground loss
D	It changes the radiation pattern from horizontal to vertical polarization

45. - E9D06

What happens to the bandwidth of an antenna as it is shortened through the use of loading coils?

Select	Answer
A	It is increased
B	It is decreased
C	It becomes flat
D	No change occurs

46. - E9E13

What is a use for a Wilkinson divider?

Select	Answer
A	It is used to feed high-impedance antennas from a low-impedance source
B	It is used to divide power equally between two 50 ohm loads while maintaining 50 ohm input impedance
C	It divides the operating frequency of a transmitter signal so it can be used on a lower frequency band
D	It is used to feed low-impedance loads from a high-impedance source

47. - E9F05

What is the approximate physical length of a solid polyethylene dielectric coaxial transmission line that is electrically one-quarter wavelength long at 14.1 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	20 meters
B	3.5 meters
C	2.3 meters
D	0.2 meters

48. - E9G09

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

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

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. - E0A02

When evaluating RF exposure levels from your station at a neighbor's home, what must you do?

Select	Answer
A	Advise your neighbors of the results of your tests
B	Make sure signals from your station are less than the controlled MPE limits
C	You need only evaluate exposure levels on your own property
D	Make sure signals from your station are less than the uncontrolled MPE limits

Figure E6-5

Figure E7-1

Figure E9-1