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

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 certified by the responsible civil defense organization for the area served
C	Only those club stations licensed to Amateur Extra class operators
D	Any FCC-licensed amateur station except a Technician class

3. - E1C11

Which of the following operating arrangements allows an FCC-licensed U.S. citizen to operate in many European countries, and alien amateurs from many European countries to operate in the U.S.?

Select	Answer
A	IARP agreement
B	ITU reciprocal license
C	CEPT agreement
D	All of these choices are correct

4. - E1D03

What is a telecommand station in the amateur satellite service?

Select	Answer
A	An amateur station that transmits communications to initiate, modify or terminate functions of a space station
B	An amateur station located more than 50 km above the Earth's surface
C	An amateur station located on the Earth's surface for communication with other Earth stations by means of Earth satellites
D	An amateur station that transmits telemetry consisting of measurements of upper atmosphere

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

6. - E1F02

What privileges are authorized in the U.S. to persons holding an amateur service license granted by the Government of Canada?

Select	Answer
A	The operating terms and conditions of the Canadian amateur service license, not to exceed U.S. Extra Class privileges
B	None, they must obtain a U.S. license
C	All privileges of the Extra Class license
D	Full privileges, up to and including those of the Extra Class License, on the 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meter bands

7. - E2A10

Why may the received signal from an amateur satellite exhibit a rapidly repeating fading effect?

Select	Answer
A	Because the satellite is spinning
B	Because of the Doppler Effect
C	Because of ionospheric absorption
D	Because of the satellite's low orbital altitude

8. - E2B04

What is blanking in a video signal?

Select	Answer
A	Transmitting a black and white test pattern
B	Turning off the scanning beam while it is traveling from right to left or from bottom to top
C	Turning off the scanning beam at the conclusion of a transmission
D	Synchronization of the horizontal and vertical sync pulses

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	Spread spectrum in the 2.4 GHz band
C	Frequency division multiplex in the 24 GHz band
D	Store and forward on the 440 MHz band

10. - E2D09

Which of these digital modes has the fastest data throughput under clear communication conditions?

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

11. - E2E11

What is the difference between direct FSK and audio FSK?

Select	Answer
A	Audio FSK can be performed anywhere in the transmit chain
B	Direct FSK applies the data signal to the transmitter VFO
C	Audio FSK has a superior frequency response
D	Direct FSK uses a DC-coupled data connection

12. - E3A17

What is meant by circularly polarized electromagnetic waves?

Select	Answer
A	Waves with an electric field bent into a circular shape
B	Waves produced by a loop antenna
C	Waves with a rotating electric field
D	Waves that circle the Earth

13. - E3B06

Which of the following amateur bands most frequently provides long-path propagation?

Select	Answer
A	6 meters
B	10 meters
C	80 meters
D	20 meters

14. - E3C04

What does the value of Bz (B sub Z) represent?

Select	Answer
A	Duration of long-delayed echoes
B	Geomagnetic field stability
C	Critical frequency for vertical transmissions
D	Direction and strength of the interplanetary magnetic field

15. - E4A14

What is the purpose of the prescaler function on a frequency counter?

Select	Answer
A	It amplifies low level signals for more accurate counting
B	It divides a higher frequency signal so a low-frequency counter can display the input frequency
C	It multiplies a higher frequency signal so a low-frequency counter can display the operating frequency
D	It prevents oscillation in a low-frequency counter circuit

16. - E4B05

If a frequency counter with a specified accuracy of +/- 10 ppm reads 146,520,000 Hz, what is the most the actual frequency being measured could differ from the reading?

Select	Answer
A	146.52 kHz
B	1465.20 Hz
C	10 Hz
D	146.52 Hz

17. - E4C01

What is an effect of excessive phase noise in the local oscillator section of a receiver?

Select	Answer
A	It can cause strong signals on nearby frequencies to interfere with reception of weak signals
B	It limits the receiver's ability to receive strong signals
C	It decreases receiver third-order intermodulation distortion dynamic range
D	It reduces receiver sensitivity

18. - E4D14

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

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

19. - E4E02

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

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

20. - E5A08

What is the phase relationship between the current through and the voltage across a series resonant circuit at resonance?

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

21. - E5B02

What is the term for the time it takes for a charged capacitor in an RC circuit to discharge to 36.8% of its initial voltage?

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

22. - E5C01

Which of the following represents a capacitive reactance in rectangular notation?

Select	Answer
A	+jX
B	-jX
C	X
D	Omega

23. - E5D14

What is reactive power?

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

24. - E6A14

How does DC input impedance at the gate of a field-effect transistor compare with the DC input impedance of a bipolar transistor?

Select	Answer
A	They are both high impedance
B	An FET has low input impedance; a bipolar transistor has high input impedance
C	They are both low impedance
D	An FET has high input impedance; a bipolar transistor has low input impedance

25. - E6B10

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

Select	Answer
A	5
B	7
C	6
D	1

26. - E6C01

What is the function of hysteresis in a comparator?

Select	Answer
A	To prevent input noise from causing unstable output signals
B	To allow the comparator to be used with AC input signal
C	To cause the output to change states continually
D	To increase the sensitivity

27. - E6D12

What is the definition of saturation in a ferrite core inductor?

Select	Answer
A	The inductor windings are over coupled
B	The ability of the inductor's core to store magnetic energy has been exceeded
C	Adjacent inductors become over-coupled
D	The inductor's voltage rating is exceeded causing a flashover

28. - E6E01

Which of the following is true of a charge-coupled device (CCD)?

Select	Answer
A	It is a CMOS analog-to-digital converter
B	It samples an analog signal and passes it in stages from the input to the output
C	Its phase shift changes rapidly with frequency
D	It is used in a battery charger circuit

29. - E6F12

What absorbs the energy from light falling on a photovoltaic cell?

Select	Answer
A	Holes
B	Electrons
C	Protons
D	Photons

30. - E7A07

What logical operation does a NAND gate perform?

Select	Answer
A	It produces logic "0" at its output if some but not all inputs are logic "1"
B	It produces logic "0" at its output only when all inputs are logic "1"
C	It produces logic "1" at its output only when all inputs are logic "1"
D	It produces logic "0" at its output only when all inputs are logic "0"

31. - E7B07

Which of the following is a likely result when a Class C amplifier is used to amplify a single-sideband phone signal?

Select	Answer
A	Increased overall intelligibility
B	Signal distortion and excessive bandwidth
C	Reduced intermodulation products
D	Signal inversion

32. - E7C04

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

Select	Answer
A	It introduces negative resistance to cancel the resistive part of impedance
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 cancels the reactive part of the impedance and changes the resistive part to a desired value

33. - E7D09

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

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

34. - E7E09

What occurs when an excessive amount of signal energy reaches a mixer circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Spurious mixer products are generated
B	A beat frequency is generated
C	Automatic limiting occurs
D	Mixer blanking occurs

35. - E7F04

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

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

36. - E7G12

What is an integrated circuit operational amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	A high-gain, direct-coupled differential amplifier with very high input impedance and very low output impedance
B	A digital audio amplifier whose characteristics are determined by components external to the amplifier
C	A RF amplifier used in the UHF and microwave regions
D	An amplifier used to increase the average output of frequency modulated amateur signals to the legal limit

37. - E7H03

How is positive feedback supplied in a Hartley oscillator?

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

38. - E8A12

What is an advantage of using digital signals instead of analog signals to convey the same information?

Select	Answer
A	Digital signals can be regenerated multiple times without error
B	Less complex circuitry is required for digital signal generation and detection
C	Digital signals always occupy a narrower bandwidth
D	All of these choices are correct

39. - E8B08

What describes Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing?

Select	Answer
A	A digital modulation technique using subcarriers at frequencies chosen to avoid intersymbol interference
B	A frequency modulation technique which uses non-harmonically related frequencies
C	A bandwidth compression technique using Fourier transforms
D	A digital mode for narrow band, slow speed transmissions

40. - E8C01

How is Forward Error Correction implemented?

Select	Answer
A	By the receiving station repeating each block of three data characters
B	By transmitting extra data that may be used to detect and correct transmission errors
C	By transmitting a special algorithm to the receiving station along with the data characters
D	By varying the frequency shift of the transmitted signal according to a predefined algorithm

41. - E8D07

What is a common cause of overmodulation of AFSK signals?

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

42. - E9A06

How does the beamwidth of an antenna vary as the gain is increased?

Select	Answer
A	It increases arithmetically
B	It decreases
C	It is essentially unaffected
D	It increases geometrically

43. - E9B02

In the antenna radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-1, what is the front-to-back ratio?

Select	Answer
A	36 dB
B	14 dB
C	24 dB
D	18 dB

44. - E9C04

What happens to the radiation pattern of an unterminated long wire antenna as the wire length is increased?

Select	Answer
A	The front-to-back ratio decreases
B	The lobes become more perpendicular to the wire
C	The vertical angle increases
D	The lobes align more in the direction of the wire

45. - E9D09

What is the function of a loading coil used as part of an HF mobile antenna?

Select	Answer
A	To cancel capacitive reactance
B	To lower the Q
C	To increase the SWR bandwidth
D	To lower the losses

46. - E9E06

What is the equivalent lumped-constant network for a hairpin matching system of a 3-element Yagi?

Select	Answer
A	A series capacitor
B	Pi-L-network
C	A shunt inductor
D	Pi-network

47. - E9F01

What is the velocity factor of a transmission line?

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

48. - E9G09

What third family of circles is often added to a Smith chart during the process of solving problems?

Select	Answer
A	Coaxial-length circles
B	Antenna-length circles
C	Standing wave ratio circles
D	Radiation-pattern circles

49. - E9H10

How can the output voltage of a multiple turn receiving loop antenna be increased?

Select	Answer
A	By increasing the number of wire turns in the loop and reducing the area of the loop structure
B	By reducing the permeability of the loop shield
C	By increasing either the number of wire turns in the loop or the area of the loop structure or both
D	By winding adjacent turns in opposing directions

50. - E0A05

What is one of the potential hazards of using microwaves in the amateur radio bands?

Select	Answer
A	The extremely high frequency energy can damage the joints of antenna structures
B	Microwaves are ionizing radiation
C	Microwaves often travel long distances by ionospheric reflection
D	The high gain antennas commonly used can result in high exposure levels

Figure E6-3

Figure E9-1