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

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1. - E1A10

If an amateur station is installed aboard a ship or aircraft, what condition must be met before the station is operated?

Select	Answer
A	The amateur station must have a power supply that is completely independent of the main ship or aircraft power supply
B	The amateur station operator must agree not to transmit when the main radio of the ship or aircraft is in use
C	Its operation must be approved by the master of the ship or the pilot in command of the aircraft
D	The amateur operator must have an FCC Marine or Aircraft endorsement on his or her amateur license

2. - E1B03

Within what distance must an amateur station protect an FCC monitoring facility from harmful interference?

Select	Answer
A	3 miles
B	1 mile
C	10 miles
D	30 miles

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

4. - E1D09

Which UHF amateur service bands have frequencies available for a space station?

Select	Answer
A	70 cm only
B	70 cm and 33 cm
C	33 cm and 13 cm
D	70 cm and 13 cm

5. - E1E12

What must the VE team do with the application form if the examinee does not pass the exam?

Select	Answer
A	Destroy the application form
B	Return the application document to the examinee
C	Send the application form to the FCC and inform the FCC of the grade
D	Maintain the application form with the VEC's records

6. - E1F12

Who may be the control operator of an auxiliary station?

Select	Answer
A	Only Amateur Extra Class operators
B	Any licensed amateur operator
C	Only Technician, General, Advanced or Amateur Extra Class operators
D	Only 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 prevent creating errors in the satellite telemetry
B	To avoid interfering with terrestrial QSOs
C	To avoid reducing the downlink power to all other users
D	To prevent the satellite from emitting out-of-band signals

8. - E2B04

What is blanking in a video signal?

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

9. - E2C01

Which of the following is true about contest operating?

Select	Answer
A	Operators are permitted to make contacts even if they do not submit a log
B	Interference to other amateurs is unavoidable and therefore acceptable
C	Every contest requires a signal report in the exchange
D	It is mandatory to transmit the call sign of the station being worked as part of every transmission to that station

10. - E2D08

What type of packet frame is used to transmit APRS beacon data?

Select	Answer
A	Acknowledgement
B	Disconnect
C	Unnumbered Information
D	Connect

11. - E2E01

Which type of modulation is common for data emissions below 30 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	Spread spectrum
B	Pulse modulation
C	FSK
D	DTMF tones modulating an FM signal

12. - E3A12

What is the cause of auroral activity?

Select	Answer
A	The interaction in the F2 layer between the solar wind and the Van Allen belt
B	Meteor showers concentrated in the extreme northern and southern latitudes
C	A low sunspot level combined with tropospheric ducting
D	The interaction in the E layer of charged particles from the Sun with the Earth's magnetic field

13. - E3B01

What is transequatorial propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Propagation between two continents by way of ducts along the magnetic equator
B	Propagation between any two points located on the magnetic equator
C	Propagation between two mid-latitude points at approximately the same distance north and south of the magnetic equator
D	Propagation between two stations at the same latitude

14. - E3C08

What does the space weather term G5 mean?

Select	Answer
A	An extreme geomagnetic storm
B	Moderate solar wind
C	Very low solar activity
D	Waning sunspot numbers

15. - E4A11

Which of the following is good practice when using an oscilloscope probe?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	Never use a high impedance probe to measure a low impedance circuit
C	Never use a DC-coupled probe to measure an AC circuit
D	Keep the signal ground connection of the probe as short as possible

16. - E4B06

How much power is being absorbed by the load when a directional power meter connected between a transmitter and a terminating load reads 100 watts forward power and 25 watts reflected power?

Select	Answer
A	100 watts
B	75 watts
C	125 watts
D	25 watts

17. - E4C10

Which of the following is a desirable amount of selectivity for an amateur RTTY HF receiver?

Select	Answer
A	100 Hz
B	300 Hz
C	2400 Hz
D	6000 Hz

18. - E4D10

What does a third-order intercept level of 40 dBm mean with respect to receiver performance?

Select	Answer
A	The receiver can tolerate signals up to 40 dB above the noise floor without producing third-order intermodulation products
B	A pair of 40 dBm signals will theoretically generate a third-order intermodulation product with the same level as the input signals
C	A pair of 1 mW input signals will produce a third-order intermodulation product which is 40 dB stronger than the input signal
D	Signals less than 40 dBm will not generate audible third-order intermodulation products

19. - E4E06

What is a major cause of atmospheric static?

Select	Answer
A	Solar radio frequency emissions
B	Geomagnetic storms
C	Meteor showers
D	Thunderstorms

20. - E5A15

Which of the following can increase Q for inductors and capacitors?

Select	Answer
A	Lower reactance
B	Higher self-resonant frequency
C	Lower self-resonant frequency
D	Lower losses

21. - E5B03

What happens to the phase angle of a reactance when it is converted to a susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	The sign is reversed
B	It is shifted by 90 degrees
C	It is unchanged
D	The susceptance phase angle is the inverse of the reactance phase angle

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 7
B	Point 1
C	Point 8
D	Point 3

23. - E5D07

What determines the strength of the magnetic field around a conductor?

Select	Answer
A	The amount of current flowing through the conductor
B	The resistance divided by the current
C	The diameter of the conductor
D	The ratio of the current to the resistance

24. - E6A16

What are the majority charge carriers in N-type semiconductor material?

Select	Answer
A	Free protons
B	Free neutrons
C	Holes
D	Free electrons

25. - E6B06

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

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

26. - E6C04

What is the primary advantage of tri-state logic?

Select	Answer
A	Ability to connect many device outputs to a common bus
B	High speed operation
C	More efficient arithmetic operations
D	Low power consumption

27. - E6D10

What is a primary advantage of using a toroidal core instead of a solenoidal core in an inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Toroidal cores have lower Q characteristics
B	Toroidal cores make it easier to couple the magnetic energy into other components
C	Toroidal cores exhibit greater hysteresis
D	Toroidal cores confine most of the magnetic field within the core material

28. - E6E08

How is voltage from a power supply normally furnished to the most common type of monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC)?

Select	Answer
A	MMICs require no operating bias
B	Through a capacitor and RF choke connected to the amplifier input lead
C	Directly to the bias voltage (VCC IN) lead
D	Through a resistor and/or RF choke connected to the amplifier output lead

29. - E6F06

Which of these materials is affected the most by photoconductivity?

Select	Answer
A	A liquid semiconductor
B	An ordinary metal
C	A crystalline semiconductor
D	A heavy metal

30. - E7A09

What logical operation is performed by an exclusive NOR gate?

Select	Answer
A	It produces logic "1" at its output if any single input is logic "1"
B	It produces logic "1" at its output only if all inputs are logic "1"
C	It produces logic "0" at its output only if all inputs are logic "0"
D	It produces logic "0" at its output if any single input is logic "1"

31. - E7B13

In Figure E7-2, what is the purpose of R?

Select	Answer
A	Fixed bias
B	Emitter load
C	Voltage regulation
D	Collector load

32. - E7C01

How are the capacitors and inductors of a low-pass filter Pi-network arranged between the network's input and output?

Select	Answer
A	Two capacitors are in series between the input and output, and an inductor is connected between the two capacitors and ground
B	An inductor is connected between the input and ground, another inductor is connected between the output and ground, and a capacitor is connected between the input and output
C	Two inductors are in series between the input and output, and a capacitor is connected between the two inductors and ground
D	A capacitor is connected between the input and ground, another capacitor is connected between the output and ground, and an inductor is connected between input and output

33. - E7D06

What is the purpose of Q1 in the circuit shown in Figure E7-3?

Select	Answer
A	It provides a constant load for the voltage source
B	It provides negative feedback to improve regulation
C	It provides D1 with current
D	It increases the current-handling capability of the regulator

34. - E7E09

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

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

35. - E7F08

What is the function of decimation with regard to digital filters?

Select	Answer
A	Reducing the effective sample rate by removing samples
B	Attenuating the signal
C	Removing unnecessary significant digits
D	Converting data to binary code decimal form

36. - E7G01

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

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

37. - E7H10

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

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

38. - E8A05

What would be the most accurate way of measuring the RMS voltage of a complex waveform?

Select	Answer
A	By using a grid dip meter
B	By measuring the voltage with a D'Arsonval meter
C	By using an absorption wave meter
D	By measuring the heating effect in a known resistor

39. - E8B11

What is digital time division multiplexing?

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

40. - E8C04

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

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

41. - E8D09

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

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

42. - E9A14

What is meant by the radiation resistance of an antenna?

Select	Answer
A	The value of a resistance that would dissipate the same amount of power as that radiated from an antenna
B	The combined losses of the antenna elements and feed line
C	The specific impedance of the antenna
D	The resistance in the atmosphere that an antenna must overcome to be able to radiate a signal

43. - E9B02

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

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

44. - E9C09

What is a G5RV antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A phased array antenna consisting of multiple loops
B	A wide band dipole using shorted coaxial cable for the radiating elements and fed with a 4:1 balun
C	A multi-band dipole antenna fed with coax and a balun through a selected length of open wire transmission line
D	A multi-band trap antenna

45. - E9D04

Why should an HF mobile antenna loading coil have a high ratio of reactance to resistance?

Select	Answer
A	To swamp out harmonics
B	To minimize losses
C	To minimize the Q
D	To maximize losses

46. - E9E12

What is the primary purpose of a phasing line when used with an antenna having multiple driven elements?

Select	Answer
A	It allows single-band antennas to operate on other bands
B	It ensures that each driven element operates in concert with the others to create the desired antenna pattern
C	It makes sure the antenna has a low-angle radiation pattern
D	It prevents reflected power from traveling back down the feed line and causing harmonic radiation from the transmitter

47. - E9F16

Which of the following is a significant difference between foam dielectric coaxial cable and solid dielectric cable, assuming all other parameters are the same?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	Foam dielectric has lower loss per unit of length
C	Foam dielectric has lower safe operating voltage limits
D	Foam dielectric has higher velocity factor

48. - E9G06

On the Smith chart shown in Figure E9-3, what is the name for the large outer circle on which the reactance arcs terminate?

Select	Answer
A	Impedance axis
B	Prime axis
C	Reactance axis
D	Polar axis

49. - E9H11

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

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

50. - E0A07

How may dangerous levels of carbon monoxide from an emergency generator be detected?

Select	Answer
A	Only with a carbon monoxide detector
B	Any ordinary smoke detector can be used
C	By the odor
D	By the yellowish appearance of the gas

Figure E5-2

Figure E7-2

Figure E7-3

Figure E9-1

Figure E9-3