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 operator of the originating station
D	The control operators of all the stations in the system not authenticating the source from which they accept communications

2. - E1B09

Which amateur stations may be operated under RACES rules?

Select	Answer
A	Any FCC-licensed amateur station except a Technician class
B	Only those club stations licensed to Amateur Extra class operators
C	Any FCC-licensed amateur station certified by the responsible civil defense organization for the area served
D	Any FCC-licensed amateur station participating in the Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS)

3. - E1C09

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

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

4. - E1D02

What is the amateur satellite service?

Select	Answer
A	A radio communications service using amateur radio stations on satellites
B	A radio communications service using stations on Earth satellites for public service broadcast
C	A spacecraft launching service for amateur-built satellites
D	A radio navigation service using satellites for the purpose of self training, intercommunication and technical studies carried out by amateurs

5. - E1E07

What should a VE do if a candidate fails to comply with the examiner's instructions during an amateur operator license examination?

Select	Answer
A	Allow the candidate to complete the examination, but invalidate the results
B	Warn the candidate that continued failure to comply will result in termination of the examination
C	Immediately terminate the candidate's examination
D	Immediately terminate everyone's examination and close the session

6. - E1F04

Which of the following geographic descriptions approximately describes "Line A"?

Select	Answer
A	A line roughly parallel to and south of the U.S.-Canadian border
B	A line roughly parallel to and west of the U.S. Atlantic coastline
C	A line roughly parallel to and north of the U.S.-Mexican border and Gulf coastline
D	A line roughly parallel to and east of the U.S. Pacific coastline

7. - E2A06

On what band would a satellite receive signals if it were operating in mode U/V?

Select	Answer
A	144 MHz - 146 MHz
B	29.5 MHz - 29.7 MHz
C	435 MHz - 438 MHz
D	50.0 MHz - 50.2 MHz

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	Amplitude modulation in which one complete sideband and a portion of the other are transmitted
C	Spread spectrum modulation achieved by applying FM modulation following single sideband amplitude modulation
D	A type of modulation in which one sideband is inverted

9. - E2C05

What is the function of a DX QSL Manager?

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

10. - E2D02

Which of the following is a good technique for making meteor scatter contacts?

Select	Answer
A	Short transmission with rapidly repeated call signs and signal reports
B	All of these choices are correct
C	Use of high speed CW or digital modes
D	15 second timed transmission sequences with stations alternating based on location

11. - E2E04

What is indicated when one of the ellipses in an FSK crossed-ellipse display suddenly disappears?

Select	Answer
A	One of the signal filters is saturated
B	Selective fading has occurred
C	The receiver has drifted 5 kHz from the desired receive frequency
D	The mark and space signal have been inverted

12. - E3A03

When scheduling EME contacts, which of these conditions will generally result in the least path loss?

Select	Answer
A	When the Moon is at perigee
B	When the Moon is at apogee
C	When the MUF is above 30 MHz
D	When the Moon is full

13. - E3B09

At what time of year is Sporadic E propagation most likely to occur?

Select	Answer
A	Around the equinoxes, especially the spring equinox
B	Around the equinoxes, especially the fall equinox
C	Around the solstices, especially the summer solstice
D	Around the solstices, especially the winter solstice

14. - E3C13

What type of polarization is best for ground-wave propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Horizontal
B	Circular
C	Elliptical
D	Vertical

15. - E4A02

Which of the following parameters would a spectrum analyzer display on the vertical and horizontal axes?

Select	Answer
A	RF amplitude and frequency
B	RF amplitude and time
C	SWR and time
D	SWR and frequency

16. - E4B12

What is the significance of voltmeter sensitivity expressed in ohms per volt?

Select	Answer
A	The full scale reading of the voltmeter multiplied by its ohms per volt rating will indicate the input impedance of the voltmeter
B	When used as an ammeter, the full scale reading in amps divided by ohms per volt rating will determine the size of shunt needed
C	When used as a galvanometer, the reading in volts multiplied by the ohms per volt rating will determine the power drawn by the device under test
D	When used as an ohmmeter, the reading in ohms divided by the ohms per volt rating will determine the voltage applied to the circuit

17. - E4C06

A CW receiver with the AGC off has an equivalent input noise power density of -174 dBm/Hz. What would be the level of an unmodulated carrier input to this receiver that would yield an audio output SNR of 0 dB in a 400 Hz noise bandwidth?

Select	Answer
A	-155 dBm
B	-148 dBm
C	-164 dBm
D	-174 dBm

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

19. - E4E03

Which of the following signals might a receiver noise blanker be able to remove from desired signals?

Select	Answer
A	Signals which appear across a wide bandwidth
B	Signals which are constant at all IF levels
C	Signals which appear at one IF but not another
D	Signals which have a sharply peaked frequency distribution

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

21. - E5B01

What is the term for the time required for the capacitor in an RC circuit to be charged to 63.2% of the applied voltage?

Select	Answer
A	One time constant
B	A time factor of one
C	An exponential rate of one
D	One exponential period

22. - E5C12

If you plot the impedance of a circuit using the rectangular coordinate system and find the impedance point falls on the right side of the graph on the horizontal axis, what do you know about the circuit?

Select	Answer
A	It contains resistance and capacitive reactance
B	It is equivalent to a pure resistance
C	It contains resistance and inductive reactance
D	It has to be a direct current circuit

23. - E5D14

What is reactive power?

Select	Answer
A	Power consumed in circuit Q
B	Wattless, nonproductive power
C	Power lost because of capacitor leakage
D	Power consumed in wire resistance in an inductor

24. - E6A15

Which semiconductor material contains excess holes in the outer shell of electrons?

Select	Answer
A	P-type
B	Bipolar-type
C	N-type
D	Superconductor-type

25. - E6B11

What is used to control the attenuation of RF signals by a PIN diode?

Select	Answer
A	Reverse voltage larger than the RF signal
B	A sub-harmonic pump signal
C	Capacitance of an RF coupling capacitor
D	Forward DC bias current

26. - E6C05

What is an advantage of CMOS logic devices over TTL devices?

Select	Answer
A	Immune to damage from static discharge
B	Differential output capability
C	Lower distortion
D	Lower power consumption

27. - E6D03

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

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

28. - E6E02

Which of the following device packages is a through-hole type?

Select	Answer
A	Ball grid array
B	PLCC
C	DIP
D	SOT

29. - E6F09

What is the efficiency of a photovoltaic cell?

Select	Answer
A	The relative fraction of light that is converted to current
B	The output RF power divided by the input DC power
C	The open-circuit voltage divided by the short-circuit current under full illumination
D	The effective payback period

30. - E7A04

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

Select	Answer
A	2
B	1
C	4
D	8

31. - E7B04

Where on the load line of a Class A common emitter amplifier would bias normally be set?

Select	Answer
A	Where the load line intersects the voltage axis
B	Approximately half-way between saturation and cutoff
C	At a point where the load line intersects the zero bias current curve
D	At a point where the bias resistor equals the load resistor

32. - E7C02

Which of the following is a property of a T-network with series capacitors and a parallel shunt inductor?

Select	Answer
A	It is a notch filter
B	It is a band-pass filter
C	It is a high-pass filter
D	It is a low-pass filter

33. - E7D07

What is the purpose of C2 in the circuit shown in Figure E7-3?

Select	Answer
A	To provide fixed DC bias for Q1
B	It is a brute force filter for the output
C	To self-resonate at the hum frequency
D	It bypasses hum around D1

34. - E7E02

What is the function of a reactance modulator?

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

35. - E7F04

What is a common method of generating an SSB signal using digital signal processing?

Select	Answer
A	A frequency synthesizer removes the unwanted sidebands
B	Emulation of quartz crystal filter characteristics
C	Mixing products are converted to voltages and subtracted by adder circuits
D	Combine signals with a quadrature phase relationship

36. - E7G03

What is the typical input impedance of an integrated circuit op-amp?

Select	Answer
A	Very low
B	Very high
C	1000 ohms
D	100 ohms

37. - E7H13

Which of the following is a technique for providing highly accurate and stable oscillators needed for microwave transmission and reception?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	Use a temperature-controlled high Q dielectric resonator
C	Use a rubidium stabilized reference oscillator
D	Use a GPS signal reference

38. - E8A09

How many levels can an analog-to-digital converter with 8 bit resolution encode?

Select	Answer
A	8 multiplied by the gain of the input amplifier
B	8
C	256
D	256 divided by the gain of the input amplifier

39. - E8B09

What is meant by deviation ratio?

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

40. - E8C02

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

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

41. - E8D08

What parameter might indicate that excessively high input levels are causing distortion in an AFSK signal?

Select	Answer
A	Baud rate
B	Signal to noise ratio
C	Intermodulation Distortion (IMD)
D	Repeat Request Rate (RRR)

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

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	Ground conductivity will not be accurately modeled
B	The resulting design will favor radiation of harmonic energy
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	Both the high-angle and low-angle radiation decrease
B	The high-angle radiation increases
C	The low-angle radiation decreases
D	The low-angle radiation increases

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

46. - E9E03

What is the name of the matching system that uses a section of transmission line connected in parallel with the feed line at or near the feed point?

Select	Answer
A	The gamma match
B	The omega match
C	The delta match
D	The stub match

47. - E9F10

What impedance does a 1/8 wavelength transmission line present to a generator when the line is shorted at the far end?

Select	Answer
A	The same as the input impedance to the final generator stage
B	The same as the characteristic impedance of the line
C	An inductive reactance
D	A capacitive reactance

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 voltage axis
C	The resistance axis
D	The reactance axis

49. - E9H01

When constructing a Beverage antenna, which of the following factors should be included in the design to achieve good performance at the desired frequency?

Select	Answer
A	Its overall length must not exceed 1/4 wavelength
B	It should be configured as a four-sided loop
C	It should be one or more wavelengths long
D	It must be mounted more than 1 wavelength above ground

50. - E0A01

What is the primary function of an external earth connection or ground rod?

Select	Answer
A	Lightning protection
B	Reduce received noise
C	Reduce RF current flow between pieces of equipment
D	Reduce RFI to telephones and home entertainment systems

Figure E7-3

Figure E9-3