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

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1. - E1A01

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

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

2. - E1B01

Which of the following constitutes a spurious emission?

Select	Answer
A	A signal transmitted to prevent its detection by any station other than the intended recipient
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	Any transmitted signal that unintentionally interferes with another licensed radio station

3. - E1C13

Which of the following is required in order to operate in accordance with CEPT rules in foreign countries where permitted?

Select	Answer
A	You must identify in the official language of the country in which you are operating
B	You must bring a copy of FCC Public Notice DA 11-221
C	You must append "/CEPT" to your call sign
D	The U.S. embassy must approve of your operation

4. - E1D10

Which amateur stations are eligible to be telecommand stations?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	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
C	Any amateur station designated by NASA
D	Any amateur station so designated by the ITU

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	Photocopy all examination documents and forward them to the FCC for processing
C	All these choices are correct
D	Issue the examinee the new or upgrade license

6. - E1F06

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

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

7. - E2A07

Which of the following types of signals can be relayed through a linear transponder?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	FM and CW
C	PSK and Packet
D	SSB and SSTV

8. - E2B07

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

Select	Answer
A	Hue
B	Chroma
C	Luminance
D	Spectral Intensity

9. - E2C05

What is the function of a DX QSL Manager?

Select	Answer
A	To relay calls to and from a DX station
B	To allocate frequencies for DXpeditions
C	To handle the receiving and sending of confirmation cards for a DX station
D	To run a net to allow many stations to contact a rare DX station

10. - E2D11

Which of the following data are used by the APRS network to communicate your location?

Select	Answer
A	Time and frequency
B	Radio direction finding spectrum analysis
C	Polar coordinates
D	Latitude and longitude

11. - E2E10

Which of these digital modes has the narrowest bandwidth?

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

12. - E3A07

Atmospheric ducts capable of propagating microwave signals often form over what geographic feature?

Select	Answer
A	Urban areas
B	Bodies of water
C	Forests
D	Mountain ranges

13. - E3B10

What is the cause of gray-line propagation?

Select	Answer
A	In darkness, solar absorption drops greatly while atmospheric ionization remains steady
B	At midday, the Sun super heats the ionosphere causing increased refraction of radio waves
C	At mid-afternoon, the Sun heats the ionosphere decreasing radio wave refraction and the MUF
D	At twilight and sunrise, D-layer absorption is low while E-layer and F-layer propagation remains high

14. - E3C14

Why does the radio-path horizon distance exceed the geometric horizon?

Select	Answer
A	D-region skip
B	Downward bending due to density variations in the atmosphere
C	Downward bending due to aurora refraction
D	E-region skip

15. - E4A03

Which of the following test instrument is used to display spurious signals and/or intermodulation distortion products in an SSB transmitter?

Select	Answer
A	A time-domain reflectometer
B	A logic analyzer
C	A spectrum analyzer
D	A wattmeter

16. - E4B09

What is indicated if the current reading on an RF ammeter placed in series with the antenna feed line of a transmitter increases as the transmitter is tuned to resonance?

Select	Answer
A	There is possibly a short to ground in the feed line
B	There is an impedance mismatch between the antenna and feed line
C	The transmitter is not properly neutralized
D	There is more power going into the antenna

17. - E4C03

What is the term for the blocking of one FM phone signal by another, stronger FM phone signal?

Select	Answer
A	Cross-modulation interference
B	Desensitization
C	Frequency discrimination
D	Capture effect

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

19. - E4E12

What is one disadvantage of using some types of automatic DSP notch-filters when attempting to copy CW signals?

Select	Answer
A	A DSP filter can remove the desired signal at the same time as it removes interfering signals
B	Received CW signals will appear to be modulated at the DSP clock frequency
C	Ringing in the DSP filter will completely remove the spaces between the CW characters
D	Any nearby signal passing through the DSP system will overwhelm the desired signal

20. - E5A07

What is the magnitude of the current at the input of a parallel RLC circuit at resonance?

Select	Answer
A	L/R
B	Minimum
C	R/L
D	Maximum

21. - E5B13

What letter is commonly used to represent susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	Y
B	G
C	X
D	B

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 tangent and cotangent values
C	The sine and cosine values
D	The magnitude and phase of the point

23. - E5D06

In what direction is the magnetic field oriented about a conductor in relation to the direction of electron flow?

Select	Answer
A	In all directions; omni-directional
B	In a direction determined by the left-hand rule
C	In a direction opposite to the current
D	In the same direction as the current

24. - E6A10

In Figure E6-2, what is the schematic symbol for an N-channel dual-gate MOSFET?

Select	Answer
A	4
B	5
C	2
D	6

25. - E6B06

Which of the following is a common use of a hot-carrier diode?

Select	Answer
A	As a VHF/UHF mixer or detector
B	As a variable capacitance in an automatic frequency control circuit
C	As balanced mixers in FM generation
D	As a constant voltage reference in a power supply

26. - E6C08

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

Select	Answer
A	3
B	1
C	4
D	2

27. - E6D03

Which of the following is an aspect of the piezoelectric effect?

Select	Answer
A	Mechanical deformation of material by the application of a voltage
B	Generation of electrical energy in the presence of light
C	Mechanical deformation of material by the application of a magnetic field
D	Increased conductivity in the presence of light

28. - E6E03

Which of the following materials is likely to provide the highest frequency of operation when used in MMICs?

Select	Answer
A	Gallium nitride
B	Silicon dioxide
C	Silicon
D	Silicon nitride

29. - E6F05

Which describes an optical shaft encoder?

Select	Answer
A	A digital encryption device often used to encrypt spacecraft control signals
B	A device for generating RTTY signals by means of a rotating light source
C	A device which measures the strength of a beam of light using analog to digital conversion
D	A device which detects rotation of a control by interrupting a light source with a patterned wheel

30. - E7A04

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

Select	Answer
A	1
B	8
C	2
D	4

31. - E7B09

Which of the following describes how the loading and tuning capacitors are to be adjusted when tuning a vacuum tube RF power amplifier that employs a Pi-network output circuit?

Select	Answer
A	The tuning capacitor is adjusted for minimum plate current, and the loading capacitor is adjusted for maximum permissible plate current
B	The loading capacitor is adjusted to minimum plate current while alternately adjusting the tuning capacitor for maximum allowable plate current
C	The tuning capacitor is set to maximum capacitance and the loading capacitor is adjusted for minimum plate permissible current
D	The loading capacitor is set to maximum capacitance and the tuning capacitor is adjusted for minimum allowable plate current

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 Phase Inverter Load network
C	A network with only three discrete parts
D	A Pi-network with an additional series inductor on the output

33. - E7D09

What is the main reason to use a charge controller with a solar power system?

Select	Answer
A	Matching of day and night charge rates
B	Prevention of battery damage due to overcharge
C	Control of electrolyte levels during battery discharge
D	Prevention of battery undercharge

34. - E7E03

How does an analog phase modulator function?

Select	Answer
A	By varying the tuning of a microphone preamplifier to produce AM signals
B	By varying the tuning of an amplifier tank circuit to produce AM signals
C	By varying the tuning of a microphone preamplifier to produce PM signals
D	By varying the tuning of an amplifier tank circuit to produce PM signals

35. - E7F07

What function can a Fast Fourier Transform perform?

Select	Answer
A	Converting 8-bit data to 16 bit data
B	Converting digital signals to analog form
C	Converting analog signals to digital 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. - E7H11

What are the major spectral impurity components of direct digital synthesizers?

Select	Answer
A	Spurious signals at discrete frequencies
B	Digital conversion noise
C	Broadband noise
D	Nyquist limit noise

38. - E8A07

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

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

39. - E8B09

What is meant by deviation ratio?

Select	Answer
A	The ratio of the maximum carrier frequency deviation to the highest audio modulating frequency
B	The ratio of the audio modulating frequency to the center carrier frequency
C	The ratio of the highest audio modulating frequency to the average audio modulating frequency
D	The ratio of the carrier center frequency to the audio modulating frequency

40. - E8C09

Which is the name of a digital code where each preceding or following character changes by only one bit?

Select	Answer
A	Gray code
B	Binary Coded Decimal Code
C	Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code
D	Excess 3 code

41. - E8D02

What spread spectrum communications technique uses a high speed binary bit stream to shift the phase of an RF carrier?

Select	Answer
A	Binary phase-shift keying
B	Frequency hopping
C	Phase compandored spread spectrum
D	Direct 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	Reduce the diameter of the radiating element
B	Install a good radial system
C	Isolate the coax shield from ground
D	Shorten the radiating element

43. - E9B08

How can the approximate beam-width in a given plane of a directional antenna be determined?

Select	Answer
A	Note the two points where the signal strength of the antenna is 3 dB less than maximum and compute the angular difference
B	Measure the ratio of the signal strengths of the radiated power lobes from the front and rear of the antenna
C	Measure the ratio of the signal strengths of the radiated power lobes from the front and side of the antenna
D	Draw two imaginary lines through the ends of the elements and measure the angle between the lines

44. - E9C07

What is the approximate feed point impedance at the center of a two-wire folded dipole antenna?

Select	Answer
A	50 ohms
B	72 ohms
C	450 ohms
D	300 ohms

45. - E9D11

Which of the following types of conductors would be best for minimizing losses in a station's RF ground system?

Select	Answer
A	A cable with six or seven 18 gauge conductors in parallel
B	A single 12 gauge or 10 gauge stainless steel wire
C	A resistive wire, such as spark plug wire
D	A wide flat copper strap

46. - E9E09

Which of these matching systems is an effective method of connecting a 50 ohm coaxial cable feed line to a grounded tower so it can be used as a vertical antenna?

Select	Answer
A	Hairpin match
B	Double-bazooka match
C	All of these choices are correct
D	Gamma match

47. - E9F01

What is the velocity factor of a transmission line?

Select	Answer
A	The index of shielding for coaxial cable
B	The velocity of the wave in the transmission line divided by the velocity of light in a vacuum
C	The ratio of the characteristic impedance of the line to the terminating impedance
D	The velocity of the wave in the transmission line multiplied by the velocity of light in a vacuum

48. - E9G05

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

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

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. - 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	Use a calibrated antenna analyzer
C	All of the choices are correct
D	Use an antenna modeling program to calculate field strength at accessible locations

Figure E6-2

Figure E6-5

Figure E7-4

Figure E9-3