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 displayed frequency is within the 80 meter CW band segment
B	No, U.S. stations are not permitted to use CW emissions below 3.525 MHz
C	No, one of the sidebands of the CW signal will be out of the band
D	Yes, the DX station initiated the contact

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

3. - E1C08

What is the maximum permissible duration of a remotely controlled station's transmissions if its control link malfunctions?

Select	Answer
A	3 minutes
B	5 minutes
C	30 seconds
D	10 minutes

4. - E1D04

What is an Earth station in the amateur satellite service?

Select	Answer
A	An amateur station that transmits telemetry consisting of measurement of upper atmosphere
B	Any amateur station on the surface of the Earth
C	An amateur station within 50 km of the Earth's surface intended for communications with amateur stations by means of objects in space
D	An amateur station that is not able to communicate using amateur satellites

5. - E1E09

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

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

6. - E1F07

When may an amateur station send a message to a business?

Select	Answer
A	When the control operator is employed by the FCC or another government agency
B	When neither the amateur nor his or her employer has a pecuniary interest in the communications
C	When the total money involved does not exceed $25
D	When transmitting international third-party communications

7. - E2A09

What do the terms L band and S band specify with regard to satellite communications?

Select	Answer
A	The 23 centimeter and 13 centimeter bands
B	Which sideband to use
C	FM and Digital Store-and-Forward systems
D	The 2 meter and 70 centimeter bands

8. - E2B16

Which is a video standard used by North American Fast Scan ATV stations?

Select	Answer
A	PAL
B	NTSC
C	Scottie
D	DRM

9. - E2C09

What type of equipment is commonly used to implement a ham radio mesh network?

Select	Answer
A	A 2 meter VHF transceiver with a 1200 baud modem
B	A standard wireless router running custom software
C	An optical cable connection between the USB ports of 2 separate computers
D	A 440 MHz transceiver with a 9600 baud modem

10. - E2D03

Which of the following digital modes is especially useful for EME communications?

Select	Answer
A	Olivia
B	PACTOR III
C	JT65
D	FSK441

11. - E2E09

Which of the following HF digital modes uses variable-length coding for bandwidth efficiency?

Select	Answer
A	MT63
B	RTTY
C	PSK31
D	PACTOR

12. - E3A09

Which of the following frequency range is most suited for meteor scatter communications?

Select	Answer
A	28 MHz - 148 MHz
B	10 MHz - 14 MHz
C	220 MHz - 450 MHz
D	1.8 MHz - 1.9 MHz

13. - E3B08

What type of HF propagation is probably occurring if radio signals travel along the terminator between daylight and darkness?

Select	Answer
A	Long-path
B	Transequatorial
C	Sporadic-E
D	Gray-line

14. - E3C04

What does the value of Bz (B sub Z) represent?

Select	Answer
A	Critical frequency for vertical transmissions
B	Duration of long-delayed echoes
C	Direction and strength of the interplanetary magnetic field
D	Geomagnetic field stability

15. - E4A11

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

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
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	Never use a high impedance probe to measure a low impedance circuit

16. - E4B15

Which of the following can be used as a relative measurement of the Q for a series-tuned circuit?

Select	Answer
A	The resonant frequency of the circuit
B	The bandwidth of the circuit's frequency response
C	The frequency shift
D	The inductance to capacitance ratio

17. - E4C02

Which of the following portions of a receiver can be effective in eliminating image signal interference?

Select	Answer
A	A properly adjusted product detector
B	A notch filter
C	A narrow IF filter
D	A front-end filter or pre-selector

18. - E4D09

What is the purpose of the preselector in a communications receiver?

Select	Answer
A	To allow selection of the optimum RF amplifier device
B	To provide a range of AGC time constants
C	To store often-used frequencies
D	To increase rejection of unwanted signals

19. - E4E08

What type of signal is picked up by electrical wiring near a radio antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A differential-mode signal at the AC power line frequency
B	An electrical-sparking signal
C	A common-mode signal at the frequency of the radio transmitter
D	Harmonics of the AC power line frequency

20. - E5A17

What is the result of increasing the Q of an impedance-matching circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Matching range is increased
B	Matching bandwidth is decreased
C	Matching bandwidth is increased
D	It has no effect on impedance matching

21. - E5B03

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

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

22. - E5C01

Which of the following represents a capacitive reactance in rectangular notation?

Select	Answer
A	+jX
B	-jX
C	X
D	Omega

23. - E5D18

How many watts are consumed in a circuit having a power factor of 0.71 if the apparent power is 500VA?

Select	Answer
A	1.42 mW
B	252 W
C	704 W
D	355 W

24. - E6A05

What is the alpha of a bipolar junction transistor?

Select	Answer
A	The change of collector current with respect to emitter current
B	The change of collector current with respect to gate current
C	The change of base current with respect to collector current
D	The change of collector current with respect to base current

25. - E6B07

What is the failure mechanism when a junction diode fails due to excessive current?

Select	Answer
A	Excessive junction temperature
B	Charge carrier depletion
C	Excessive inverse voltage
D	Insufficient forward voltage

26. - E6C03

What is tri-state logic?

Select	Answer
A	Logic devices that utilize ternary math
B	Logic devices with 0, 1, and high impedance output states
C	Proprietary logic devices manufactured by Tri-State Devices
D	Low power logic devices designed to operate at 3 volts

27. - E6D02

What is the equivalent circuit of a quartz crystal?

Select	Answer
A	Motional inductance and loss resistance in series, paralleled with motional capacitance and a capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance
B	Motional capacitance, motional inductance, and loss resistance in series, all in parallel with a shunt capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance
C	Motional capacitance, motional inductance, loss resistance, and a capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance all in series
D	Motional capacitance, motional inductance, loss resistance, and a capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance all in parallel

28. - E6E11

What is a characteristic of DIP packaging used for integrated circuits?

Select	Answer
A	Package mounts in a direct inverted position
B	Two chips in each package (Dual In Package)
C	A total of two rows of connecting pins placed on opposite sides of the package (Dual In-line Package)
D	Low leakage doubly insulated package

29. - E6F06

Which of these materials is affected the most by photoconductivity?

Select	Answer
A	An ordinary metal
B	A crystalline semiconductor
C	A liquid semiconductor
D	A heavy metal

30. - E7A04

How many flip-flops are required to divide a signal frequency by 4?

Select	Answer
A	2
B	1
C	8
D	4

31. - E7B17

Why are odd-order rather than even-order intermodulation distortion products of concern in linear power amplifiers?

Select	Answer
A	Because they are relatively far in frequency from the desired signal
B	Because they are relatively close in frequency to the desired signal
C	Because they invert the sidebands causing distortion
D	Because they maintain the sidebands, thus causing multiple duplicate signals

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	Lower losses
C	Greater transformation range
D	Greater harmonic suppression

33. - E7D13

What is the equation for calculating power dissipation by a series connected linear voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	Output voltage multiplied by output current
B	Input voltage multiplied by input current
C	Input voltage divided by output current
D	Voltage difference from input to output multiplied by output current

34. - E7E06

Why is de-emphasis commonly used in FM communications receivers?

Select	Answer
A	For compatibility with transmitters using phase modulation
B	To reduce impulse noise reception
C	To remove third-order distortion products
D	For higher efficiency

35. - E7F02

What kind of digital signal processing audio filter is used to remove unwanted noise from a received SSB signal?

Select	Answer
A	A crystal-lattice filter
B	A phase-inverting filter
C	A Hilbert-transform filter
D	An adaptive filter

36. - E7G10

What absolute voltage gain can be expected from the circuit in Figure E7-4 when R1 is 1800 ohms and RF is 68 kilohms?

Select	Answer
A	76
B	38
C	1
D	0.03

37. - E7H02

Which describes a microphonic?

Select	Answer
A	Changes in oscillator frequency due to mechanical vibration
B	Distortion caused by RF pickup on the microphone cable
C	An IC used for amplifying microphone signals
D	Excess loading of the microphone by an oscillator

38. - E8A07

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

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

39. - E8B04

What is the modulation index of an FM-phone signal having a maximum carrier deviation of plus or minus 6 kHz when modulated with a 2 kHz modulating frequency?

Select	Answer
A	6000
B	3
C	1/3
D	2000

40. - E8C04

What technique is used to minimize the bandwidth requirements of a PSK31 signal?

Select	Answer
A	Zero-sum character encoding
B	Use of trapezoidal data pulses
C	Reed-Solomon character encoding
D	Use of sinusoidal data pulses

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. - E9A18

What term describes station output, taking into account all gains and losses?

Select	Answer
A	Power factor
B	Half-power bandwidth
C	Apparent power
D	Effective radiated power

43. - E9B03

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

Select	Answer
A	14 dB
B	18 dB
C	24 dB
D	12 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 decreases the ground loss
C	It changes the radiation pattern from horizontal to vertical polarization
D	It changes the radiation pattern from bidirectional to unidirectional

45. - E9D08

What happens as the Q of an antenna increases?

Select	Answer
A	Gain is reduced
B	SWR bandwidth decreases
C	SWR bandwidth increases
D	More common-mode current is present on the feed line

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

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

48. - E9G03

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

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

49. - E9H11

What characteristic of a cardioid pattern antenna is useful for direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	A very sharp single null
B	High-radiation angle
C	A very sharp peak
D	Broad band response

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

Figure E7-4

Figure E9-1