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

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1. - E1A09

What is the first action you should take if your digital message forwarding station inadvertently forwards a communication that violates FCC rules?

Select	Answer
A	Discontinue forwarding the communication as soon as you become aware of it
B	Notify the nearest FCC Field Engineer's office
C	Notify the originating station that the communication does not comply with FCC rules
D	Discontinue forwarding all messages

2. - E1B09

Which amateur stations may be operated under RACES rules?

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

3. - E1C05

When may an automatically controlled station originate third party communications?

Select	Answer
A	Only when transmitting RTTY or data emissions
B	When agreed upon by the sending or receiving station
C	Never
D	When approved by the National Telecommunication and Information Administration

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

5. - E1E01

What is the minimum number of qualified VEs required to administer an Element 4 amateur operator license examination?

Select	Answer
A	2
B	5
C	3
D	4

6. - E1F12

Who may be the control operator of an auxiliary station?

Select	Answer
A	Any licensed amateur operator
B	Only Amateur Extra Class operators
C	Only General, Advanced or Amateur Extra Class operators
D	Only Technician, General, Advanced or Amateur Extra Class operators

7. - E2A08

Why should effective radiated power to a satellite which uses a linear transponder be limited?

Select	Answer
A	To avoid interfering with terrestrial QSOs
B	To avoid reducing the downlink power to all other users
C	To prevent the satellite from emitting out-of-band signals
D	To prevent creating errors in the satellite telemetry

8. - E2B12

How are analog SSTV images typically transmitted on the HF bands?

Select	Answer
A	Video is converted to equivalent Baudot representation
B	Varying tone frequencies representing the video are transmitted using PSK
C	Video is converted to equivalent ASCII representation
D	Varying tone frequencies representing the video are transmitted using single sideband

9. - E2C12

What might help to restore contact when DX signals become too weak to copy across an entire HF band a few hours after sunset?

Select	Answer
A	Wait 24 hours before attempting another communication on the band
B	Switch to a higher frequency HF band
C	Wait 90 minutes or so for the signal degradation to pass
D	Switch to a lower frequency HF band

10. - E2D06

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

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

11. - E2E12

Which type of control is used by stations using the Automatic Link Enable (ALE) protocol?

Select	Answer
A	Local
B	Remote
C	ALE can use any type of control
D	Automatic

12. - E3A08

When a meteor strikes the Earth's atmosphere, a cylindrical region of free electrons is formed at what layer of the ionosphere?

Select	Answer
A	The F2 layer
B	The F1 layer
C	The D layer
D	The E layer

13. - E3B07

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

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

14. - E3C01

What does the term ray tracing describe in regard to radio communications?

Select	Answer
A	The process in which an electronic display presents a pattern
B	Modeling a radio wave's path through the ionosphere
C	Determining the radiation pattern from an array of antennas
D	Evaluating high voltage sources for X-Rays

15. - E4A05

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

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

16. - E4B02

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

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

17. - E4C11

Which of the following is a desirable amount of selectivity for an amateur SSB phone receiver?

Select	Answer
A	1 kHz
B	4.2 kHz
C	2.4 kHz
D	4.8 kHz

18. - E4D07

Which describes the most significant effect of an off-frequency signal when it is causing cross-modulation interference to a desired signal?

Select	Answer
A	A reduction in apparent signal strength
B	The desired signal can no longer be heard
C	A large increase in background noise
D	The off-frequency unwanted signal is heard in addition to the desired signal

19. - E4E08

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

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

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	Low, 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. - E5B08

What is the phase angle between the voltage across and the current through a series RLC circuit if XC is 100 ohms, R is 100 ohms, and XL is 75 ohms?

Select	Answer
A	14 degrees with the voltage leading the current
B	76 degrees with the voltage leading the current
C	76 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
D	14 degrees with the voltage lagging the current

22. - E5C04

Which of the following represents a capacitive reactance in polar coordinates?

Select	Answer
A	A positive phase angle
B	A positive real part
C	A negative phase angle
D	A negative real part

23. - E5D13

How much power is consumed in a circuit consisting of a 100 ohm resistor in series with a 100 ohm inductive reactance drawing 1 ampere?

Select	Answer
A	141.4 Watts
B	200 Watts
C	100 Watts
D	70.7 Watts

24. - E6A13

What do the initials CMOS stand for?

Select	Answer
A	Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor
B	Common Mode Organic Silicon
C	Common Mode Oscillating System
D	Complementary Mica-Oxide Silicon

25. - E6B05

What characteristic of a PIN diode makes it useful as an RF switch or attenuator?

Select	Answer
A	A large region of intrinsic material
B	Extremely high reverse breakdown voltage
C	Reverse bias controls its forward voltage drop
D	Ability to dissipate large amounts of power

26. - E6C08

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

Select	Answer
A	2
B	4
C	1
D	3

27. - E6D05

What is one reason for using ferrite cores rather than powdered-iron in an inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Ferrite toroids generally have lower initial permeability
B	Ferrite toroids generally require fewer turns to produce a given inductance value
C	Ferrite toroids are easier to use with surface mount technology
D	Ferrite toroids generally have better temperature stability

28. - E6E12

Why are high-power RF amplifier ICs and transistors sometimes mounted in ceramic packages?

Select	Answer
A	To provide a low-pass frequency response
B	Better dissipation of heat
C	Enhanced sensitivity to light
D	High-voltage insulating ability

29. - E6F09

What is the efficiency of a photovoltaic cell?

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

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	T flip-flop
D	Astable multivibrator

31. - E7B04

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

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

32. - E7C04

How does an impedance-matching circuit transform a complex impedance to a resistive impedance?

Select	Answer
A	It cancels the reactive part of the impedance and changes the resistive part to a desired value
B	It introduces transconductance to cancel the reactive part of impedance
C	Network resistances are substituted for load resistances and reactances are matched to the resistances
D	It introduces negative resistance to cancel the resistive part of impedance

33. - E7D05

Which of the following types of linear voltage regulator places a constant load on the unregulated voltage source?

Select	Answer
A	A shunt current source
B	A series regulator
C	A constant current source
D	A shunt regulator

34. - E7E07

What is meant by the term baseband in radio communications?

Select	Answer
A	The basic oscillator frequency in an FM transmitter that is multiplied to increase the deviation and carrier frequency
B	The unmodulated bandwidth of the transmitted signal
C	The lowest frequency band that the transmitter or receiver covers
D	The frequency components present in the modulating signal

35. - E7F10

What aspect of receiver analog-to-digital conversion determines the maximum receive bandwidth of a Direct Digital Conversion SDR?

Select	Answer
A	Sample rate
B	Processor latency
C	Sample clock phase noise
D	Sample width in bits

36. - E7G02

What is the effect of ringing in a filter?

Select	Answer
A	A reduction in high frequency response
B	Undesired oscillations added to the desired signal
C	Partial cancellation of the signal over a range of frequencies
D	An echo caused by a long time delay

37. - E7H03

How is positive feedback supplied in a Hartley oscillator?

Select	Answer
A	Through link coupling
B	Through a capacitive divider
C	Through a tapped coil
D	Through a neutralizing capacitor

38. - E8A13

Which of these methods is commonly used to convert analog signals to digital signals?

Select	Answer
A	Phase reversal
B	Harmonic regeneration
C	Level shifting
D	Sequential sampling

39. - E8B11

What is digital time division multiplexing?

Select	Answer
A	Two or more data streams share the same channel by transmitting time of transmission as the sub-carrier
B	Two or more signals are quadrature modulated to increase bandwidth efficiency
C	Two or more signals are arranged to share discrete time slots of a data transmission
D	Two or more data streams are assigned to discrete sub-carriers on an FM transmitter

40. - E8C03

When performing phase shift keying, why is it advantageous to shift phase precisely at the zero crossing of the RF carrier?

Select	Answer
A	It improves carrier suppression
B	All of these choices are correct
C	It is easier to demodulate with a conventional, non-synchronous detector
D	This results in the least possible transmitted bandwidth for the particular mode

41. - E8D03

How does the spread spectrum technique of frequency hopping work?

Select	Answer
A	A pseudo-random binary bit stream is used to shift the phase of an RF carrier very rapidly in a particular sequence
B	If interference is detected by the receiver it will signal the transmitter to change frequencies
C	The frequency of the transmitted signal is changed very rapidly according to a particular sequence also used by the receiving station
D	If interference is detected by the receiver it will signal the transmitter to wait until the frequency is clear

42. - E9A03

Why would one need to know the feed point impedance of an antenna?

Select	Answer
A	To match impedances in order to minimize standing wave ratio on the transmission line
B	To measure the near-field radiation density from a transmitting antenna
C	To calculate the front-to-back ratio of the antenna
D	To calculate the front-to-side ratio of the antenna

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 side of the antenna
C	Draw two imaginary lines through the ends of the elements and measure the angle between the lines
D	Measure the ratio of the signal strengths of the radiated power lobes from the front and rear of the antenna

44. - E9C01

What is the radiation pattern of two 1/4-wavelength vertical antennas spaced 1/2-wavelength apart and fed 180 degrees out of phase?

Select	Answer
A	A figure-8 oriented along the axis of the array
B	Cardioid
C	A figure-8 broadside to the axis of the array
D	Omni-directional

45. - E9D01

How does the gain of an ideal parabolic dish antenna change when the operating frequency is doubled?

Select	Answer
A	Gain increases by 6 dB
B	Gain does not change
C	Gain is multiplied by 0.707
D	Gain increases by 3 dB

46. - E9E02

What is the name of an antenna matching system that matches an unbalanced feed line to an antenna by feeding the driven element both at the center of the element and at a fraction of a wavelength to one side of center?

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

47. - E9F13

What impedance does a 1/4 wavelength transmission line present to a generator when the line is shorted at the far end?

Select	Answer
A	Very low impedance
B	The same as the characteristic impedance of the transmission line
C	The same as the generator output impedance
D	Very high impedance

48. - E9G03

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

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

49. - E9H11

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

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

50. - E0A01

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

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

Figure E6-5