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

Logging in (or registering) will help the system to select questions that you need to focus on.

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	Notify the nearest FCC Field Engineer's office
C	Discontinue forwarding all messages
D	Discontinue forwarding the communication as soon as you become aware of it

2. - E1B05

What is the National Radio Quiet Zone?

Select	Answer
A	An area in Florida surrounding Cape Canaveral
B	An area in Puerto Rico surrounding the Arecibo Radio Telescope
C	An area in New Mexico surrounding the White Sands Test Area
D	An area surrounding the National Radio Astronomy Observatory

3. - E1C04

What is meant by IARP?

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

4. - E1D06

Which of the following is a requirement of a space station?

Select	Answer
A	The space station must be capable of terminating transmissions by telecommand when directed by the FCC
B	All of these choices are correct
C	The space station must cease all transmissions after 5 years
D	The space station must be capable of changing its orbit whenever such a change is ordered by NASA

5. - E1E10

What must the administering VEs do after the administration of a successful examination for an amateur operator license?

Select	Answer
A	They must submit the application document to the coordinating VEC according to the coordinating VEC instructions
B	They must collect and send the documents to the FCC according to instructions
C	They must collect and submit the documents to the coordinating VEC for grading
D	They must collect and send the documents to the NCVEC for grading

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 be capable of external RF switching between its input and output networks
D	It must produce full legal output when driven by not more than 5 watts of mean RF input power

7. - E2A03

What is the orbital period of an Earth satellite?

Select	Answer
A	The time it takes for a satellite to complete one revolution around the Earth
B	The point of maximum height of a satellite's orbit
C	The point of minimum height of a satellite's orbit
D	The time it takes for a satellite to travel from perigee to apogee

8. - E2B06

What is vestigial sideband modulation?

Select	Answer
A	Amplitude modulation in which one complete sideband and a portion of the other are transmitted
B	Spread spectrum modulation achieved by applying FM modulation following single sideband amplitude modulation
C	Narrow-band FM modulation achieved by filtering one sideband from the audio before frequency modulating the carrier
D	A type of modulation in which one sideband is inverted

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

10. - E2D09

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

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

11. - E2E02

What do the letters FEC mean as they relate to digital operation?

Select	Answer
A	Fatal Error Correction
B	Final Error Correction
C	First Error Correction
D	Forward Error Correction

12. - E3A10

Which type of atmospheric structure can create a path for microwave propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Temperature inversion
B	Wind shear
C	Dust devil
D	The jet stream

13. - E3B14

What happens to linearly polarized radio waves that split into ordinary and extraordinary waves in the ionosphere?

Select	Answer
A	They become phase-locked
B	They are bent toward the magnetic poles
C	They become elliptically polarized
D	Their polarization is randomly modified

14. - E3C11

What does VOACAP software model?

Select	Answer
A	VHF radio propagation
B	AC voltage and impedance
C	AC current and impedance
D	HF propagation

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 prevents oscillation in a low-frequency counter circuit
C	It divides a higher frequency signal so a low-frequency counter can display the input frequency
D	It multiplies a higher frequency signal so a low-frequency counter can display the operating frequency

16. - E4B13

Which S parameter is equivalent to forward gain?

Select	Answer
A	S22
B	S12
C	S11
D	S21

17. - E4C12

What is an undesirable effect of using too wide a filter bandwidth in the IF section of a receiver?

Select	Answer
A	Thermal-noise distortion
B	Output-offset overshoot
C	Filter ringing
D	Undesired signals may be heard

18. - E4D06

What is the term for unwanted signals generated by the mixing of two or more signals?

Select	Answer
A	Neutralization
B	Intermodulation interference
C	Adjacent channel interference
D	Amplifier desensitization

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	All of these choices are correct
B	A malfunctioning illuminated advertising display
C	A defective doorbell or doorbell transformer inside a nearby residence
D	Arcing contacts in a thermostatically controlled device

20. - E5A02

What is resonance in an electrical circuit?

Select	Answer
A	The frequency at which the capacitive reactance equals the inductive reactance
B	The highest frequency that will pass current
C	The lowest frequency that will pass current
D	The frequency at which the reactive impedance equals the resistive impedance

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

22. - E5C10

When using rectangular coordinates to graph the impedance of a circuit, what does the vertical axis represent?

Select	Answer
A	The difference between the resistive and reactive components
B	Reactive component
C	Resistive component
D	The sum of the reactive and resistive components

23. - E5D14

What is reactive power?

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

24. - E6A09

What is a depletion-mode FET?

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

25. - E6B12

What is one common use for PIN diodes?

Select	Answer
A	As a high voltage rectifier
B	As an RF switch
C	As a constant current source
D	As a constant voltage source

26. - E6C07

What best describes a pull-up or pull-down resistor?

Select	Answer
A	A resistor connected to an op-amp output that only functions when the logic output is false
B	A resistor connected to the positive or negative supply line used to establish a voltage when an input or output is an open circuit
C	A resistor that insures that an oscillator frequency does not drive lower over time
D	A resistor in a keying circuit used to reduce key clicks

27. - E6D13

What is the primary cause of inductor self-resonance?

Select	Answer
A	The skin effect
B	Non-linear core hysteresis
C	Inter-turn capacitance
D	Inductive kickback

28. - E6E07

Which of the following is typically used to construct a MMIC-based microwave amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	Point-to-point construction
B	Wave-soldering construction
C	Ground-plane construction
D	Microstrip construction

29. - E6F01

What is photoconductivity?

Select	Answer
A	The conversion of electromotive energy to photon energy
B	The decreased conductivity of an illuminated semiconductor
C	The increased conductivity of an illuminated semiconductor
D	The conversion of photon energy to electromotive energy

30. - E7A11

What type of logic defines "1" as a high voltage?

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

31. - E7B08

How can an RF power amplifier be neutralized?

Select	Answer
A	By reducing the driving power
B	By feeding a 180-degree out-of-phase portion of the output back to the input
C	By increasing the driving power
D	By feeding an in-phase component of the output back to the input

32. - E7C08

Which of the following factors has the greatest effect in helping determine the bandwidth and response shape of a crystal ladder filter?

Select	Answer
A	The DC voltage applied to the quartz crystal
B	The gain of the RF stage preceding the filter
C	The relative frequencies of the individual crystals
D	The amplitude of the signals passing through the filter

33. - E7D02

What is one characteristic of a switching electronic voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	The controlled device's duty cycle is changed to produce a constant average output voltage
B	It is generally less efficient than a linear regulator
C	It gives a ramp voltage at its output
D	The resistance of a control element is varied in direct proportion to the line voltage or load current

34. - E7E04

What is one way a single-sideband phone signal can be generated?

Select	Answer
A	By driving a product detector with a DSB signal
B	By using a balanced modulator followed by a filter
C	By using a reactance modulator followed by a mixer
D	By using a loop modulator followed by a mixer

35. - E7F17

What do the letters I and Q in I/Q Modulation represent?

Select	Answer
A	Inactive and Quiescent
B	Instantaneous and Quasi-stable
C	In-phase and Quadrature
D	Instantaneous and Quenched

36. - E7G11

What absolute voltage gain can be expected from the circuit in Figure E7-4 when R1 is 3300 ohms and RF is 47 kilohms?

Select	Answer
A	28
B	7
C	14
D	0.07

37. - E7H07

How can an oscillator's microphonic responses be reduced?

Select	Answer
A	Use of NP0 capacitors
B	Using the oscillator only for CW and digital signals
C	Mechanically isolating the oscillator circuitry from its enclosure
D	Eliminating noise on the oscillator's power supply

38. - E8A03

What type of wave does a Fourier analysis show to be made up of sine waves of a given fundamental frequency plus all of its harmonics?

Select	Answer
A	A sine wave
B	A square wave
C	A sawtooth wave
D	A cosine wave

39. - E8B04

What is the modulation index of an FM-phone signal having a maximum carrier deviation of plus or minus 6 kHz when modulated with a 2 kHz modulating frequency?

Select	Answer
A	1/3
B	6000
C	3
D	2000

40. - E8C04

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

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

41. - E8D09

What is considered a good minimum IMD level for an idling PSK signal?

Select	Answer
A	-20 dB
B	+10 dB
C	+15 dB
D	-30 dB

42. - E9A08

What is meant by antenna bandwidth?

Select	Answer
A	The angle between the half-power radiation points
B	Antenna length divided by the number of elements
C	The frequency range over which an antenna satisfies a performance requirement
D	The angle formed between two imaginary lines drawn through the element ends

43. - E9B12

What is the far field of an antenna?

Select	Answer
A	The region of the ionosphere where radiated power is not refracted
B	The region where the shape of the antenna pattern is independent of distance
C	The region where radiated power dissipates over a specified time period
D	The region where radiated field strengths are obstructed by objects of reflection

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. - E9D10

What happens to feed point impedance at the base of a fixed length HF mobile antenna as the frequency of operation is lowered?

Select	Answer
A	The radiation resistance increases and the capacitive reactance decreases
B	The radiation resistance decreases and the capacitive reactance decreases
C	The radiation resistance decreases and the capacitive reactance increases
D	The radiation resistance increases and the capacitive reactance increases

46. - E9E05

How must the driven element in a 3-element Yagi be tuned to use a hairpin matching system?

Select	Answer
A	The driven element radiation resistance must be higher than the characteristic impedance of the transmission line
B	The driven element resonance must be lower than the operating frequency
C	The driven element reactance must be capacitive
D	The driven element reactance must be inductive

47. - E9F02

Which of the following determines the velocity factor of a transmission line?

Select	Answer
A	The line length
B	The termination impedance
C	Dielectric materials used in the line
D	The center conductor resistivity

48. - E9G04

What are the two families of circles and arcs that make up a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Resistance and voltage
B	Reactance and voltage
C	Voltage and impedance
D	Resistance and reactance

49. - E9H08

What is the function of a sense antenna?

Select	Answer
A	It allows DF antennas to receive signals at different vertical angles
B	It increases the sensitivity of a DF antenna array
C	It modifies the pattern of a DF antenna array to provide a null in one direction
D	It provides diversity reception that cancels multipath signals

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	The high gain antennas commonly used can result in high exposure levels
D	Microwaves often travel long distances by ionospheric reflection

Figure E7-4