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

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1. - E1A05

What is the maximum power output permitted on the 60 meter band?

Select	Answer
A	100 watts PEP effective radiated power relative to an isotropic radiator
B	50 watts PEP effective radiated power relative to an isotropic radiator
C	50 watts PEP effective radiated power relative to a dipole
D	100 watts PEP effective radiated power relative to the gain of a half-wave dipole

2. - E1B08

What limitations may the FCC place on an amateur station if its signal causes interference to domestic broadcast reception, assuming that the receivers involved are of good engineering design?

Select	Answer
A	The amateur station must cease operation on all frequencies above 30 MHz
B	The amateur station must avoid transmitting during certain hours on frequencies that cause the interference
C	The amateur station must cease operation on all frequencies below 30 MHz
D	The amateur station must cease operation

3. - E1C03

How do the control operator responsibilities of a station under automatic control differ from one under local control?

Select	Answer
A	Under local control there is no control operator
B	Under automatic control the control operator is not required to be present at the control point
C	Under local control a control operator is not required to be present at a control point
D	Under automatic control there is no control operator

4. - E1D10

Which amateur stations are eligible to be telecommand stations?

Select	Answer
A	Any amateur station designated by NASA
B	Any amateur station so designated by the ITU
C	All of these choices are correct
D	Any amateur station so designated by the space station licensee, subject to the privileges of the class of operator license held by the control operator

5. - E1E09

What may be the penalty for a VE who fraudulently administers or certifies an examination?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	A fine of up to $1000 per occurrence
C	A sentence of up to one year in prison
D	Revocation of the VE's amateur station license grant and the suspension of the VE's amateur operator license grant

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 east of the U.S. Pacific 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 west of the U.S. Atlantic coastline

7. - E2A14

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

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

8. - E2B19

What special operating frequency restrictions are imposed on slow scan TV transmissions?

Select	Answer
A	None; they are allowed on all amateur frequencies
B	They are restricted to 7.245 MHz, 14.245 MHz, 21.345 MHz, and 28.945 MHz
C	They are restricted to phone band segments and their bandwidth can be no greater than that of a voice signal of the same modulation type
D	They are not permitted above 54 MHz

9. - E2C02

Which of the following best describes the term self-spotting in regards to HF contest operating?

Select	Answer
A	A manual technique for rapidly zero beating or tuning to a station's frequency before calling that station
B	An automatic method for rapidly zero beating or tuning to a station's frequency before calling that station
C	The acceptable practice of manually posting the call signs of stations on a spotting network
D	The generally prohibited practice of posting one's own call sign and frequency on a spotting network

10. - E2D12

How does JT65 improve EME communications?

Select	Answer
A	It supplies signals to guide the antenna to track the Moon
B	All of these choices are correct
C	It controls the receiver to track Doppler shift
D	It can decode signals many dB below the noise floor using FEC

11. - E2E13

Which of the following is a possible reason that attempts to initiate contact with a digital station on a clear frequency are unsuccessful?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	Another station you are unable to hear is using the frequency
C	The protocol version you are using is not the supported by the digital station
D	Your transmit frequency is incorrect

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 full
C	When the MUF is above 30 MHz
D	When the Moon is at apogee

13. - E3B07

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

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

14. - E3C13

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

Select	Answer
A	Circular
B	Vertical
C	Horizontal
D	Elliptical

15. - E4A09

When using a computer's soundcard input to digitize signals, what is the highest frequency signal that can be digitized without aliasing?

Select	Answer
A	It depends on how the data is stored internally
B	One-half the sample rate
C	The same as the sample rate
D	One-tenth the sample rate

16. - E4B04

If a frequency counter with a specified accuracy of +/- 0.1 ppm reads 146,520,000 Hz, what is the most the actual frequency being measured could differ from the reading?

Select	Answer
A	0.1 MHz
B	14.652 Hz
C	1.4652 kHz
D	1.4652 Hz

17. - E4C13

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

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

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

19. - E4E09

What undesirable effect can occur when using an IF noise blanker?

Select	Answer
A	The audio frequency bandwidth of the received signal might be compressed
B	Received audio in the speech range might have an echo effect
C	Nearby signals may appear to be excessively wide even if they meet emission standards
D	FM signals can no longer be demodulated

20. - E5A11

What is the half-power bandwidth of a parallel resonant circuit that has a resonant frequency of 7.1 MHz and a Q of 150?

Select	Answer
A	47.3 kHz
B	23.67 kHz
C	315.6 Hz
D	157.8 Hz

21. - E5B13

What letter is commonly used to represent susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	Y
B	B
C	X
D	G

22. - E5C15

Which point in Figure E5-2 best represents the impedance of a series circuit consisting of a 300 ohm resistor and an 18 microhenry inductor at 3.505 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	Point 8
B	Point 7
C	Point 1
D	Point 3

23. - E5D06

In what direction is the magnetic field oriented about a conductor in relation to the direction of electron flow?

Select	Answer
A	In a direction determined by the left-hand rule
B	In a direction opposite to the current
C	In the same direction as the current
D	In all directions; omni-directional

24. - E6A05

What is the alpha of a bipolar junction transistor?

Select	Answer
A	The change of collector current with respect to base current
B	The change of collector current with respect to emitter current
C	The change of base current with respect to collector current
D	The change of collector current with respect to gate current

25. - E6B06

Which of the following is a common use of a hot-carrier diode?

Select	Answer
A	As a variable capacitance in an automatic frequency control circuit
B	As a constant voltage reference in a power supply
C	As balanced mixers in FM generation
D	As a VHF/UHF mixer or detector

26. - E6C09

What is a Programmable Logic Device (PLD)?

Select	Answer
A	A programmable collection of logic gates and circuits in a single integrated circuit
B	Programmable equipment used for testing digital logic integrated circuits
C	An algorithm for simulating logic functions during circuit design
D	A device to control industrial equipment

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. - E6E04

Which is the most common input and output impedance of circuits that use MMICs?

Select	Answer
A	10 ohms
B	300 ohms
C	50 ohms
D	450 ohms

29. - E6F12

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

Select	Answer
A	Photons
B	Electrons
C	Protons
D	Holes

30. - E7A03

Which of the following can divide the frequency of a pulse train by 2?

Select	Answer
A	A flip-flop
B	An OR gate
C	An XOR gate
D	A multiplexer

31. - E7B01

For what portion of a signal cycle does a Class AB amplifier operate?

Select	Answer
A	Exactly 180 degrees
B	The entire cycle
C	More than 180 degrees but less than 360 degrees
D	Less than 180 degrees

32. - E7C13

What is one advantage of a Pi-matching network over an L-matching network consisting of a single inductor and a single capacitor?

Select	Answer
A	The Q of Pi-networks can be varied depending on the component values chosen
B	Pi-networks have fewer components
C	Pi-networks are designed for balanced input and output
D	L-networks cannot perform impedance transformation

33. - E7D15

What is the purpose of a "step-start" circuit in a high voltage power supply?

Select	Answer
A	To allow for remote control of the power supply
B	To provide a dual-voltage output for reduced power applications
C	To compensate for variations of the incoming line voltage
D	To allow the filter capacitors to charge gradually

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 PM signals by using an electrically variable inductance or capacitance
D	To produce AM signals by using an electrically variable resistance

35. - E7F02

What kind of digital signal processing audio filter is used to remove unwanted noise from a received SSB signal?

Select	Answer
A	A phase-inverting filter
B	An adaptive filter
C	A crystal-lattice filter
D	A Hilbert-transform filter

36. - E7G01

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

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

37. - E7H10

What information is contained in the lookup table of a direct digital frequency synthesizer?

Select	Answer
A	The phase relationship between a voltage-controlled oscillator and the output waveform
B	The phase relationship between a reference oscillator and the output waveform
C	The synthesizer frequency limits and frequency values stored in the radio memories
D	The amplitude values that represent a sine-wave output

38. - E8A08

Why would a direct or flash conversion analog-to-digital converter be useful for a software defined radio?

Select	Answer
A	Immunity to out of sequence coding reduces spurious responses
B	All of these choices are correct
C	Very high speed allows digitizing high frequencies
D	Very low power consumption decreases frequency drift

39. - E8B07

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing is a technique used for which type of amateur communication?

Select	Answer
A	Extremely low-power contacts
B	High speed digital modes
C	OFDM signals are not allowed on amateur bands
D	EME

40. - E8C11

What is the relationship between symbol rate and baud?

Select	Answer
A	Baud is only used for RTTY
B	They are the same
C	Baud is twice the symbol rate
D	Symbol rate is only used for packet-based modes

41. - E8D11

What is one advantage of using ASCII code for data communications?

Select	Answer
A	It contains fewer information bits per character than any other code
B	It includes built in error correction features
C	It uses one character as a shift code to send numeric and special characters
D	It is possible to transmit both upper and lower case text

42. - E9A06

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

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

43. - E9B14

What type of information can be obtained by submitting the details of a proposed new antenna to a modeling program?

Select	Answer
A	SWR vs frequency charts
B	Polar plots of the far field elevation and azimuth patterns
C	Antenna gain
D	All of these choices are correct

44. - E9C10

Which of the following describes a Zepp antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A vertical array capable of quickly changing the direction of maximum radiation by changing phasing lines
B	An end fed dipole antenna
C	A dipole constructed from zip cord
D	An omni-directional antenna commonly used for satellite communications

45. - E9D02

How can linearly polarized Yagi antennas be used to produce circular polarization?

Select	Answer
A	Arrange two Yagis perpendicular to each other with the driven elements at the same point on the boom fed 90 degrees out of phase
B	Arrange two Yagis collinear to each other with the driven elements fed 180 degrees out of phase
C	Stack two Yagis fed in phase to form an array with the respective elements in parallel planes
D	Stack two Yagis fed 90 degrees out of phase to form an array with the respective elements in parallel planes

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

47. - E9F15

What impedance does a 1/2 wavelength transmission line present to a generator when the line is open at the far end?

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

48. - E9G02

What type of coordinate system is used in a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Voltage circles and current arcs
B	Resistance circles and reactance arcs
C	Voltage lines and current chords
D	Resistance lines and reactance chords

49. - E9H05

What is the main drawback of a wire-loop antenna for direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	It receives equally well in all directions
B	It has a bidirectional pattern
C	It is non-rotatable
D	It is practical for use only on VHF bands

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 RFI to telephones and home entertainment systems
D	Reduce received noise

Figure E5-2