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

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1. - E1A08

If a station in a message forwarding system inadvertently forwards a message that is in violation of FCC rules, who is primarily accountable for the rules violation?

Select	Answer
A	The control operators of all the stations in the system
B	The control operator of the packet bulletin board station
C	The control operators of all the stations in the system not authenticating the source from which they accept communications
D	The control operator of the originating station

2. - E1B11

What is the permitted mean power of any spurious emission relative to the mean power of the fundamental emission from a station transmitter or external RF amplifier installed after January 1, 2003 and transmitting on a frequency below 30 MHZ?

Select	Answer
A	At least 43 dB below
B	At least 63 dB below
C	At least 53 dB below
D	At least 73 dB below

3. - E1C09

Which of these ranges of frequencies is available for an automatically controlled repeater operating below 30 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	18.110 MHz - 18.168 MHz
B	29.500 MHz - 29.700 MHz
C	10.100 MHz - 10.150 MHz
D	24.940 MHz - 24.990 MHz

4. - E1D01

What is the definition of the term telemetry?

Select	Answer
A	Two-way radiotelephone transmissions in excess of 1000 feet
B	One-way transmission that initiates, modifies, or terminates the functions of a device at a distance
C	One-way transmission of measurements at a distance from the measuring instrument
D	Two-way single channel transmissions of data

5. - E1E05

What is the minimum passing score on amateur operator license examinations?

Select	Answer
A	Minimum passing score of 77%
B	Minimum passing score of 70%
C	Minimum passing score of 80%
D	Minimum passing score of 74%

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	222 MHz - 223 MHz
C	420 MHz - 430 MHz
D	440 MHz - 450 MHz

7. - E2A01

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

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

8. - E2B07

What is the name of the signal component that carries color information in NTSC video?

Select	Answer
A	Hue
B	Chroma
C	Spectral Intensity
D	Luminance

9. - E2C02

Which of the following best describes the term self-spotting in regards to HF contest operating?

Select	Answer
A	A manual technique for rapidly zero beating or tuning to a station's frequency before calling that station
B	An automatic method for rapidly zero beating or tuning to a station's frequency before calling that station
C	The acceptable practice of manually posting the call signs of stations on a spotting network
D	The generally prohibited practice of posting one's own call sign and frequency on a spotting network

10. - E2D07

What digital protocol is used by APRS?

Select	Answer
A	802.11
B	PACTOR
C	AX.25
D	AMTOR

11. - E2E13

Which of the following is a possible reason that attempts to initiate contact with a digital station on a clear frequency are unsuccessful?

Select	Answer
A	The protocol version you are using is not the supported by the digital station
B	All of these choices are correct
C	Your transmit frequency is incorrect
D	Another station you are unable to hear is using the frequency

12. - E3A05

Tropospheric propagation of microwave signals often occurs along what weather related structure?

Select	Answer
A	Warm and cold fronts
B	Sprites and jets
C	Gray-line
D	Lightning discharges

13. - E3B07

Which of the following could account for hearing an echo on the received signal of a distant station?

Select	Answer
A	Transmit frequency is higher than the MUF
B	High D layer absorption
C	Meteor scatter
D	Receipt of a signal by more than one path

14. - E3C08

What does the space weather term G5 mean?

Select	Answer
A	Waning sunspot numbers
B	Moderate solar wind
C	An extreme geomagnetic storm
D	Very low solar activity

15. - E4A06

What is the effect of aliasing in a digital or computer-based oscilloscope?

Select	Answer
A	All signals will have a DC offset
B	False signals are displayed
C	False triggering occurs
D	Calibration of the vertical scale is no longer valid

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

17. - E4C14

What transmit frequency might generate an image response signal in a receiver tuned to 14.300 MHz and which uses a 455 kHz IF frequency?

Select	Answer
A	13.845 MHz
B	14.755 MHz
C	14.445 MHz
D	15.210 MHz

18. - E4D01

What is meant by the blocking dynamic range of a receiver?

Select	Answer
A	The minimum difference in dB between the levels of two FM signals which will cause one signal to block the other
B	The difference in dB between the noise floor and the third order intercept point
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. - E4E13

What might be the cause of a loud roaring or buzzing AC line interference that comes and goes at intervals?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	Arcing contacts in a thermostatically controlled device
C	A defective doorbell or doorbell transformer inside a nearby residence
D	A malfunctioning illuminated advertising display

20. - E5A09

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

Select	Answer
A	Resistance divided by the reactance of either the inductance or capacitance
B	Reactance of either the inductance or capacitance divided by the resistance
C	Reactance of the inductance multiplied by the reactance of the capacitance
D	Reactance of either the inductance or capacitance multiplied by the resistance

21. - E5B09

What is the relationship between the current through a capacitor and the voltage across a capacitor?

Select	Answer
A	Current leads voltage by 90 degrees
B	Voltage and current are in phase
C	Voltage leads current by 90 degrees
D	Voltage and current are 180 degrees out of phase

22. - E5C14

Which point on Figure E5-2 best represents the impedance of a series circuit consisting of a 400 ohm resistor and a 38 picofarad capacitor at 14 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	Point 4
B	Point 2
C	Point 6
D	Point 5

23. - E5D08

What type of energy is stored in an electromagnetic or electrostatic field?

Select	Answer
A	Kinetic energy
B	Potential energy
C	Electromechanical energy
D	Thermodynamic energy

24. - E6A04

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

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

25. - E6B04

What type of semiconductor device is designed for use as a voltage-controlled capacitor?

Select	Answer
A	Silicon-controlled rectifier
B	Zener diode
C	Varactor diode
D	Tunnel diode

26. - E6C08

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

Select	Answer
A	2
B	4
C	3
D	1

27. - E6D01

How many turns will be required to produce a 5-microhenry inductor using a powdered-iron toroidal core that has an inductance index (A L) value of 40 microhenrys/100 turns?

Select	Answer
A	13 turns
B	35 turns
C	141 turns
D	79 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	-20 dBm
D	-10 dB

29. - E6F08

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

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

30. - E7A03

Which of the following can divide the frequency of a pulse train by 2?

Select	Answer
A	An OR gate
B	An XOR gate
C	A multiplexer
D	A flip-flop

31. - E7B14

Why are switching amplifiers more efficient than linear amplifiers?

Select	Answer
A	Switching amplifiers operate at higher voltages
B	Switching amplifiers use push-pull circuits
C	Linear amplifiers have high gain resulting in higher harmonic content
D	The power transistor is at saturation or cut off most of the time, resulting in low power dissipation

32. - E7C05

Which filter type is described as having ripple in the passband and a sharp cutoff?

Select	Answer
A	A Chebyshev filter
B	A Butterworth filter
C	An active LC filter
D	A passive op-amp filter

33. - E7D03

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

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

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. - E7F08

What is the function of decimation with regard to digital filters?

Select	Answer
A	Attenuating the signal
B	Converting data to binary code decimal form
C	Removing unnecessary significant digits
D	Reducing the effective sample rate by removing samples

36. - E7G11

What absolute voltage gain can be expected from the circuit in Figure E7-4 when R1 is 3300 ohms and RF is 47 kilohms?

Select	Answer
A	7
B	28
C	0.07
D	14

37. - E7H15

Which of these functions can be performed by a phase-locked loop?

Select	Answer
A	Comparison of two digital input signals, digital pulse counter
B	Wide-band AF and RF power amplification
C	Frequency synthesis, FM demodulation
D	Photovoltaic conversion, optical coupling

38. - E8A04

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

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

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	2000
B	1/3
C	3
D	6000

40. - E8C02

What is the definition of symbol rate in a digital transmission?

Select	Answer
A	The rate at which the waveform of a transmitted signal changes to convey information
B	The number of characters carried per second by the station-to-station link
C	The duration of each bit in a message sent over the air
D	The number of control characters in a message packet

41. - E8D07

What is a common cause of overmodulation of AFSK signals?

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

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	Isolate the coax shield from ground
C	Reduce the diameter of the radiating element
D	Install a good radial system

43. - E9B11

What is a disadvantage of decreasing the number of wire segments in an antenna model below the guideline of 10 segments per half-wavelength?

Select	Answer
A	The resulting design will favor radiation of harmonic energy
B	Ground conductivity will not be accurately modeled
C	The computed feed point impedance may be incorrect
D	The antenna will become mechanically unstable

44. - E9C11

How is the far-field elevation pattern of a vertically polarized antenna affected by being mounted over seawater versus rocky ground?

Select	Answer
A	The low-angle radiation increases
B	The high-angle radiation increases
C	Both the high-angle and low-angle radiation decrease
D	The low-angle radiation decreases

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	Greater structural strength
D	Improved radiation efficiency

46. - E9E04

What is the purpose of the series capacitor in a gamma-type antenna matching network?

Select	Answer
A	To transform the antenna impedance to a higher value
B	To provide a rejection notch that prevents the radiation of harmonics
C	To provide DC isolation between the feed line and the antenna
D	To cancel the inductive reactance of the matching network

47. - E9F15

What impedance does a 1/2 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	Very low impedance
C	The same as the output impedance of the generator
D	Very high impedance

48. - E9G07

On the Smith chart shown in Figure E9-3, what is the only straight line shown?

Select	Answer
A	The current axis
B	The resistance axis
C	The voltage axis
D	The reactance axis

49. - E9H09

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

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

50. - E0A02

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

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

Figure E5-2

Figure E6-5

Figure E7-4

Figure E9-3