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

2. - E1B04

What must be done before placing an amateur station within an officially designated wilderness area or wildlife preserve, or an area listed in the National Register of Historical Places?

Select	Answer
A	An Environmental Assessment must be submitted to the FCC
B	A form FSD-15 must be submitted to the Department of the Interior
C	A proposal must be submitted to the National Park Service
D	A letter of intent must be filed with the National Audubon Society

3. - E1C06

Which of the following statements concerning remotely controlled amateur stations is true?

Select	Answer
A	Repeater and auxiliary stations may not be remotely controlled
B	A control operator must be present at the control point
C	Only Extra Class operators may be the control operator of a remote station
D	A control operator need not be present at the control point

4. - E1D07

Which amateur service HF bands have frequencies authorized for space stations?

Select	Answer
A	Only the 40 m, 20 m, 17 m, 15 m and 10 m bands
B	All HF bands
C	Only the 40 m, 20 m, 17 m, 15 m, 12 m and 10 m bands
D	Only the 40 m, 30 m, 20 m, 15 m, 12 m and 10 m bands

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

6. - E1F11

Which of the following best describes one of the standards that must be met by an external RF power amplifier if it is to qualify for a grant of FCC certification?

Select	Answer
A	It must exhibit a gain of 0 dB or less over its full output range
B	It must satisfy the FCC's spurious emission standards when operated at the lesser of 1500 watts or its full output power
C	It must produce full legal output when driven by not more than 5 watts of mean RF input power
D	It must be capable of external RF switching between its input and output networks

7. - E2A13

What type of satellite appears to stay in one position in the sky?

Select	Answer
A	Geostationary
B	Geomagnetic
C	LEO
D	HEO

8. - E2B06

What is vestigial sideband modulation?

Select	Answer
A	Narrow-band FM modulation achieved by filtering one sideband from the audio before frequency modulating the carrier
B	Spread spectrum modulation achieved by applying FM modulation following single sideband amplitude modulation
C	Amplitude modulation in which one complete sideband and a portion of the other are transmitted
D	A type of modulation in which one sideband is inverted

9. - E2C04

What type of transmission is most often used for a ham radio mesh network?

Select	Answer
A	Multiple Frequency Shift Keying in the 10 GHz band
B	Frequency division multiplex in the 24 GHz band
C	Spread spectrum in the 2.4 GHz band
D	Store and forward on the 440 MHz band

10. - E2D06

Which of the following describes a method of establishing EME contacts?

Select	Answer
A	High speed CW identification to avoid fading
B	Time synchronous transmissions alternately from each station
C	Storing and forwarding digital messages
D	Judging optimum transmission times by monitoring beacons reflected from the Moon

11. - E2E08

Which of the following HF digital modes can be used to transfer binary files?

Select	Answer
A	AMTOR
B	RTTY
C	Hellschreiber
D	PACTOR

12. - E3A11

What is a typical range for tropospheric propagation of microwave signals?

Select	Answer
A	2500 miles
B	10 miles to 50 miles
C	1200 miles
D	100 miles to 300 miles

13. - E3B12

What is the primary characteristic of chordal hop propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Successive ionospheric reflections without an intermediate reflection from the ground
B	Propagation away from the great circle bearing between stations
C	Propagation across the geomagnetic equator
D	Signals reflected back toward the transmitting station

14. - E3C09

How does the intensity of an X3 flare compare to that of an X2 flare?

Select	Answer
A	Twice as great
B	10 percent greater
C	Four times as great
D	50 percent greater

15. - E4A05

What might be an advantage of a digital vs an analog oscilloscope?

Select	Answer
A	Manipulation of time base after trace capture
B	Storage of traces for future reference
C	Automatic amplitude and frequency numerical readout
D	All of these choices are correct

16. - E4B02

What is an advantage of using a bridge circuit to measure impedance?

Select	Answer
A	It is relatively immune to drift in the signal generator source
B	It can display results directly in Smith chart format
C	It provides an excellent match under all conditions
D	It is very precise in obtaining a signal null

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 narrow IF filter
C	A front-end filter or pre-selector
D	A notch filter

18. - E4D14

Which of the following is a way to reduce the likelihood of receiver desensitization?

Select	Answer
A	Increase the receiver front end gain
B	Decrease the RF bandwidth of the receiver
C	Raise the receiver IF frequency
D	Switch from fast AGC to slow AGC

19. - E4E02

Which of the following types of receiver noise can often be reduced with a DSP noise filter?

Select	Answer
A	Power line noise
B	Ignition noise
C	Broadband white noise
D	All of these choices are correct

20. - E5A03

What is the magnitude of the impedance of a series RLC circuit at resonance?

Select	Answer
A	High, as compared to the circuit resistance
B	Approximately equal to circuit resistance
C	Approximately equal to inductive reactance
D	Approximately equal to capacitive reactance

21. - E5B05

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

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

22. - E5C11

What do the two numbers that are used to define a point on a graph using rectangular coordinates represent?

Select	Answer
A	The coordinate values along the horizontal and vertical axes
B	The magnitude and phase of the point
C	The sine and cosine values
D	The tangent and cotangent values

23. - E5D10

How can the true power be determined in an AC circuit where the voltage and current are out of phase?

Select	Answer
A	By multiplying the apparent power times the power factor
B	By dividing the apparent power by the power factor
C	By multiplying the reactive power times the power factor
D	By dividing the reactive power by the power factor

24. - E6A09

What is a depletion-mode FET?

Select	Answer
A	An FET that has no current flow between source and drain when no gate voltage is applied
B	Any FET without a channel
C	An FET that exhibits a current flow between source and drain when no gate voltage is applied
D	Any FET for which holes are the majority carriers

25. - E6B10

In Figure E6-3, what is the schematic symbol for a light-emitting diode?

Select	Answer
A	1
B	5
C	7
D	6

26. - E6C11

In Figure E6-5, what is the schematic symbol for the NOT operation (inverter)?

Select	Answer
A	5
B	2
C	6
D	4

27. - E6D16

What is the common name for a capacitor connected across a transformer secondary that is used to absorb transient voltage spikes?

Select	Answer
A	Feedback capacitor
B	Trimmer capacitor
C	Snubber capacitor
D	Clipper capacitor

28. - E6E04

Which is the most common input and output impedance of circuits that use MMICs?

Select	Answer
A	450 ohms
B	50 ohms
C	10 ohms
D	300 ohms

29. - E6F08

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

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

30. - E7A05

Which of the following is a circuit that continuously alternates between two states without an external clock?

Select	Answer
A	Monostable multivibrator
B	J-K flip-flop
C	Astable multivibrator
D	T flip-flop

31. - E7B14

Why are switching amplifiers more efficient than linear amplifiers?

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

32. - E7C13

What is one advantage of a Pi-matching network over an L-matching network consisting of a single inductor and a single capacitor?

Select	Answer
A	The Q of Pi-networks can be varied depending on the component values chosen
B	Pi-networks have fewer components
C	Pi-networks are designed for balanced input and output
D	L-networks cannot perform impedance transformation

33. - E7D01

What is one characteristic of a linear electronic voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	It has a ramp voltage as its output
B	The conduction of a control element is varied to maintain a constant output voltage
C	It eliminates the need for a pass transistor
D	The control element duty cycle is proportional to the line or load conditions

34. - E7E04

What is one way a single-sideband phone signal can be generated?

Select	Answer
A	By using a balanced modulator followed by a filter
B	By using a loop modulator followed by a mixer
C	By using a reactance modulator followed by a mixer
D	By driving a product detector with a DSB signal

35. - E7F07

What function can a Fast Fourier Transform perform?

Select	Answer
A	Converting 8-bit data to 16 bit data
B	Converting analog signals to digital form
C	Converting digital signals to analog form
D	Converting digital signals from the time domain to the frequency domain

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	1
B	38
C	76
D	0.03

37. - E7H09

What type of frequency synthesizer circuit uses a phase accumulator, lookup table, digital to analog converter, and a low-pass anti-alias filter?

Select	Answer
A	A direct digital synthesizer
B	A hybrid synthesizer
C	A diode-switching matrix synthesizer
D	A phase locked loop synthesizer

38. - E8A06

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

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

39. - E8B03

What is the modulation index of an FM-phone signal having a maximum frequency deviation of 3000 Hz either side of the carrier frequency when the modulating frequency is 1000 Hz?

Select	Answer
A	3000
B	3
C	1000
D	0.3

40. - E8C11

What is the relationship between symbol rate and baud?

Select	Answer
A	Baud is twice the symbol rate
B	Symbol rate is only used for packet-based modes
C	Baud is only used for RTTY
D	They are the same

41. - E8D10

What are some of the differences between the Baudot digital code and ASCII?

Select	Answer
A	Baudot uses 5 data bits per character, ASCII uses 7 or 8; Baudot uses 2 characters as letters/figures shift codes, ASCII has no letters/figures shift code
B	Baudot uses 7 data bits per character, ASCII uses 8; Baudot has no letters/figures shift code, ASCII uses 2 letters/figures shift codes
C	Baudot uses 4 data bits per character, ASCII uses 7 or 8; Baudot uses 1 character as a letters/figures shift code, ASCII has no letters/figures code
D	Baudot uses 6 data bits per character, ASCII uses 7 or 8; Baudot has no letters/figures shift code, ASCII uses 2 letters/figures shift codes

42. - E9A04

Which of the following factors may affect the feed point impedance of an antenna?

Select	Answer
A	The settings of an antenna tuner at the transmitter
B	Sunspot activity and time of day
C	Transmission-line length
D	Antenna height, conductor length/diameter ratio and location of nearby conductive objects

43. - E9B14

What type of information can be obtained by submitting the details of a proposed new antenna to a modeling program?

Select	Answer
A	Antenna gain
B	All of these choices are correct
C	SWR vs frequency charts
D	Polar plots of the far field elevation and azimuth patterns

44. - E9C08

What is a folded dipole antenna?

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

45. - E9D02

How can linearly polarized Yagi antennas be used to produce circular polarization?

Select	Answer
A	Arrange two Yagis perpendicular to each other with the driven elements at the same point on the boom fed 90 degrees out of phase
B	Stack two Yagis fed in phase to form an array with the respective elements in parallel planes
C	Stack two Yagis fed 90 degrees out of phase to form an array with the respective elements in parallel planes
D	Arrange two Yagis collinear to each other with the driven elements fed 180 degrees out of phase

46. - E9E04

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

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

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

48. - E9G05

What type of chart is shown in Figure E9-3?

Select	Answer
A	Free space radiation directivity chart
B	Azimuth angle radiation pattern chart
C	Smith chart
D	Elevation angle radiation pattern chart

49. - E9H06

What is the triangulation method of direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	The geometric angles of sky waves from the source are used to determine its position
B	A fixed receiving station plots three headings to the signal source
C	A fixed receiving station uses three different antennas to plot the location of the signal source
D	Antenna headings from several different receiving locations are used to locate the signal source

50. - E0A08

What does SAR measure?

Select	Answer
A	Synthetic Aperture Ratio of the human body
B	The rate of RF energy reflected from stationary terrain
C	Signal Amplification Rating
D	The rate at which RF energy is absorbed by the body

Figure E6-3

Figure E6-5

Figure E7-4

Figure E9-3