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

2. - E1B02

Which of the following factors might cause the physical location of an amateur station apparatus or antenna structure to be restricted?

Select	Answer
A	The location is of geographical or horticultural importance
B	The location is near an area of political conflict
C	The location is of environmental importance or significant in American history, architecture, or culture
D	The location is in an ITU Zone designated for coordination with one or more foreign governments

3. - E1C04

What is meant by IARP?

Select	Answer
A	A forecast of intermittent aurora radio propagation
B	The internal amateur radio practices policy of the FCC
C	An international amateur radio permit that allows U.S. amateurs to operate in certain countries of the Americas
D	An indication of increased antenna reflected power

4. - E1D02

What is the amateur satellite service?

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

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	Photocopy all examination documents and forward them to the FCC for processing
B	Issue the examinee the new or upgrade license
C	Three VEs must certify that the examinee is qualified for the license grant and that they have complied with the administering VE requirements
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. - E2A14

What technology is used to track, in real time, balloons carrying amateur radio transmitters?

Select	Answer
A	Bandwidth compressed LORAN
B	Doppler shift of beacon signals
C	APRS
D	Radar

8. - E2B01

How many times per second is a new frame transmitted in a fast-scan (NTSC) television system?

Select	Answer
A	90
B	30
C	120
D	60

9. - E2C11

How should you generally identify your station when attempting to contact a DX station during a contest or in a pileup?

Select	Answer
A	Send the call sign of the DX station three times, the words "this is", then your call sign three times
B	Send your full call sign and grid square
C	Send only the last two letters of your call sign until you make contact
D	Send your full call sign once or twice

10. - E2D01

Which of the following digital modes is especially designed for use for meteor scatter signals?

Select	Answer
A	Hellschreiber
B	APRS
C	FSK441
D	WSPR

11. - E2E10

Which of these digital modes has the narrowest bandwidth?

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

12. - E3A09

Which of the following frequency range is most suited for meteor scatter communications?

Select	Answer
A	220 MHz - 450 MHz
B	28 MHz - 148 MHz
C	10 MHz - 14 MHz
D	1.8 MHz - 1.9 MHz

13. - E3B05

Which amateur bands typically support long-path propagation?

Select	Answer
A	30 meters to 10 meters
B	160 meters to 40 meters
C	160 meters to 10 meters
D	6 meters to 2 meters

14. - E3C09

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

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

15. - E4A01

Which of the following parameter determines the bandwidth of a digital or computer-based oscilloscope?

Select	Answer
A	Sample resolution
B	Sampling rate
C	Input impedance
D	Input capacitance

16. - E4B08

Which of the following is a characteristic of a good DC voltmeter?

Select	Answer
A	High reluctance input
B	Low impedance input
C	High impedance input
D	Low reluctance input

17. - E4C13

How does a narrow-band roofing filter affect receiver performance?

Select	Answer
A	It improves sensitivity by reducing front end noise
B	It improves intelligibility by using low Q circuitry to reduce ringing
C	All of these choices are correct
D	It improves dynamic range by attenuating strong signals near the receive frequency

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

19. - E4E13

What might be the cause of a loud roaring or buzzing AC line interference that comes and goes at intervals?

Select	Answer
A	A malfunctioning illuminated advertising display
B	A defective doorbell or doorbell transformer inside a nearby residence
C	Arcing contacts in a thermostatically controlled device
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	Approximately equal to circuit resistance
B	Approximately equal to capacitive reactance
C	Approximately equal to inductive reactance
D	High, as compared to the circuit resistance

21. - E5B04

What is the time constant of a circuit having two 220 microfarad capacitors and two 1 megohm resistors, all in parallel?

Select	Answer
A	110 seconds
B	440 seconds
C	55 seconds
D	220 seconds

22. - E5C14

Which point on Figure E5-2 best represents the impedance of a series circuit consisting of a 400 ohm resistor and a 38 picofarad capacitor at 14 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	Point 2
B	Point 5
C	Point 6
D	Point 4

23. - E5D18

How many watts are consumed in a circuit having a power factor of 0.71 if the apparent power is 500VA?

Select	Answer
A	1.42 mW
B	704 W
C	252 W
D	355 W

24. - E6A09

What is a depletion-mode FET?

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

25. - E6B01

What is the most useful characteristic of a Zener diode?

Select	Answer
A	A constant voltage drop under conditions of varying current
B	A negative resistance region
C	A constant current drop under conditions of varying voltage
D	An internal capacitance that varies with the applied voltage

26. - E6C10

In Figure E6-5, what is the schematic symbol for a NOR gate?

Select	Answer
A	2
B	4
C	1
D	3

27. - E6D07

What is the usable frequency range of inductors that use toroidal cores, assuming a correct selection of core material for the frequency being used?

Select	Answer
A	From about 100 kHz to at least 1000 GHz
B	From less than 20 Hz to approximately 300 MHz
C	From approximately 10 Hz to no more than 3000 kHz
D	From a few kHz to no more than 30 MHz

28. - E6E03

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

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

29. - E6F10

What is the most common type of photovoltaic cell used for electrical power generation?

Select	Answer
A	Cadmium Sulfide
B	Silicon
C	Selenium
D	Copper oxide

30. - E7A12

What type of logic defines "0" as a high voltage?

Select	Answer
A	Reverse Logic
B	Positive Logic
C	Assertive Logic
D	Negative logic

31. - E7B16

What is the effect of intermodulation products in a linear power amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	Low efficiency
B	Transmission of spurious signals
C	All of these choices are correct
D	Creation of parasitic oscillations

32. - E7C07

What kind of filter would you use to attenuate an interfering carrier signal while receiving an SSB transmission?

Select	Answer
A	A notch filter
B	A Pi-network filter
C	A band-pass filter
D	An all-pass filter

33. - E7D07

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

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

34. - E7E05

What circuit is added to an FM transmitter to boost the higher audio frequencies?

Select	Answer
A	A pre-emphasis network
B	A de-emphasis network
C	A heterodyne suppressor
D	An audio prescaler

35. - E7F13

What is the function of taps in a digital signal processing filter?

Select	Answer
A	Provide access for debugging software
B	Select the point at which baseband signals are generated
C	Provide incremental signal delays for filter algorithms
D	To reduce excess signal pressure levels

36. - E7G02

What is the effect of ringing in a filter?

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

37. - E7H01

What are three oscillator circuits used in Amateur Radio equipment?

Select	Answer
A	Taft, Hartley and Pierce
B	Taft, Pierce and negative feedback
C	Pierce, Fenner and Beane
D	Colpitts, Hartley and Pierce

38. - E8A04

What is "dither" with respect to analog to digital converters?

Select	Answer
A	A small amount of noise added to the input signal to allow more precise representation of a signal over time
B	An error caused by irregular quantization step size
C	A method of decimation by randomly skipping samples
D	An abnormal condition where the converter cannot settle on a value to represent the signal

39. - E8B02

How does the modulation index of a phase-modulated emission vary with RF carrier frequency (the modulated frequency)?

Select	Answer
A	It does not depend on the RF carrier frequency
B	It varies with the square root of the RF carrier frequency
C	It decreases as the RF carrier frequency increases
D	It increases as the RF carrier frequency increases

40. - E8C04

What technique is used to minimize the bandwidth requirements of a PSK31 signal?

Select	Answer
A	Use of sinusoidal data pulses
B	Zero-sum character encoding
C	Use of trapezoidal data pulses
D	Reed-Solomon character encoding

41. - E8D01

Why are received spread spectrum signals resistant to interference?

Select	Answer
A	If interference is detected by the receiver it will signal the transmitter to change frequencies
B	The receiver is always equipped with a digital blanker
C	Signals not using the spread spectrum algorithm are suppressed in the receiver
D	The high power used by a spread spectrum transmitter keeps its signal from being easily overpowered

42. - E9A09

How is antenna efficiency calculated?

Select	Answer
A	(radiation resistance / transmission resistance) x 100 per cent
B	(radiation resistance / total resistance) x 100 per cent
C	(total resistance / radiation resistance) x 100 per cent
D	(effective radiated power / transmitter output) x 100 percent

43. - E9B15

What is the front-to-back ratio of the radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-2?

Select	Answer
A	28 dB
B	15 dB
C	3 dB
D	24 dB

44. - E9C06

What is the effect of a terminating resistor on a rhombic antenna?

Select	Answer
A	It changes the radiation pattern from horizontal to vertical polarization
B	It reflects the standing waves on the antenna elements back to the transmitter
C	It changes the radiation pattern from bidirectional to unidirectional
D	It decreases the ground loss

45. - E9D13

What usually occurs if a Yagi antenna is designed solely for maximum forward gain?

Select	Answer
A	The SWR is reduced
B	The front-to-back ratio increases
C	The front-to-back ratio decreases
D	The frequency response is widened over the whole frequency band

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

47. - E9F09

What is the approximate physical length of a solid polyethylene dielectric coaxial transmission line that is electrically one-quarter wavelength long at 7.2 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	6.9 meters
B	50 meters
C	24 meters
D	10 meters

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	Trigonometric functions
D	Impedance and SWR values in transmission lines

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 one or more wavelengths long
C	It must be mounted more than 1 wavelength above ground
D	It should be configured as a four-sided loop

50. - E0A02

When evaluating RF exposure levels from your station at a neighbor's home, what must you do?

Select	Answer
A	Make sure signals from your station are less than the controlled MPE limits
B	You need only evaluate exposure levels on your own property
C	Make sure signals from your station are less than the uncontrolled MPE limits
D	Advise your neighbors of the results of your tests

Figure E5-2

Figure E6-5

Figure E7-3

Figure E9-2