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

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1. - E1A03

With your transceiver displaying the carrier frequency of phone signals, you hear a station calling CQ on 14.349 MHz USB. Is it legal to return the call using upper sideband on the same frequency?

Select	Answer
A	Yes, because you were not the station calling CQ
B	No, the sideband will extend beyond the band edge
C	Yes, because the displayed frequency is within the 20 meter band
D	No, U.S. stations are not permitted to use phone emissions above 14.340 MHz

2. - E1B05

What is the National Radio Quiet Zone?

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

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

4. - E1D04

What is an Earth station in the amateur satellite service?

Select	Answer
A	An amateur station that transmits telemetry consisting of measurement of upper atmosphere
B	An amateur station that is not able to communicate using amateur satellites
C	Any amateur station on the surface of the Earth
D	An amateur station within 50 km of the Earth's surface intended for communications with amateur stations by means of objects in space

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

6. - E1F06

Under what circumstances might the FCC issue a Special Temporary Authority (STA) to an amateur station?

Select	Answer
A	To provide for experimental amateur communications
B	To provide additional spectrum for personal use
C	To allow regular operation on Land Mobile channels
D	To provide temporary operation while awaiting normal licensing

7. - E2A04

What is meant by the term mode as applied to an amateur radio satellite?

Select	Answer
A	Whether the satellite is in a polar or equatorial orbit
B	The type of signals that can be relayed through the satellite
C	The satellite's orientation with respect to the Earth
D	The satellite's uplink and downlink frequency bands

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 phone band segments and their bandwidth can be no greater than that of a voice signal of the same modulation type
C	They are not permitted above 54 MHz
D	They are restricted to 7.245 MHz, 14.245 MHz, 21.345 MHz, and 28.945 MHz

9. - E2C02

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

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

10. - E2D11

Which of the following data are used by the APRS network to communicate your location?

Select	Answer
A	Latitude and longitude
B	Polar coordinates
C	Time and frequency
D	Radio direction finding spectrum analysis

11. - E2E12

Which type of control is used by stations using the Automatic Link Enable (ALE) protocol?

Select	Answer
A	ALE can use any type of control
B	Automatic
C	Remote
D	Local

12. - E3A12

What is the cause of auroral activity?

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

13. - E3B05

Which amateur bands typically support long-path propagation?

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

14. - E3C01

What does the term ray tracing describe in regard to radio communications?

Select	Answer
A	Determining the radiation pattern from an array of antennas
B	Modeling a radio wave's path through the ionosphere
C	The process in which an electronic display presents a pattern
D	Evaluating high voltage sources for X-Rays

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 capacitance
D	Input impedance

16. - E4B03

If a frequency counter with a specified accuracy of +/- 1.0 ppm reads 146,520,000 Hz, what is the most the actual frequency being measured could differ from the reading?

Select	Answer
A	1.4652 MHz
B	165.2 Hz
C	146.52 Hz
D	14.652 kHz

17. - E4C02

Which of the following portions of a receiver can be effective in eliminating image signal interference?

Select	Answer
A	A properly adjusted product detector
B	A front-end filter or pre-selector
C	A notch filter
D	A narrow IF filter

18. - E4D12

What is the term for the reduction in receiver sensitivity caused by a strong signal near the received frequency?

Select	Answer
A	Quieting
B	Squelch gain rollback
C	Desensitization
D	Cross-modulation interference

19. - E4E15

Which of the following can cause shielded cables to radiate or receive interference?

Select	Answer
A	Use of braided shielding material
B	Low inductance ground connections at both ends of the shield
C	Common mode currents on the shield and conductors
D	Tying all ground connections to a common point resulting in differential mode currents in the shield

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 inductive reactance
C	High, as compared to the circuit resistance
D	Approximately equal to capacitive reactance

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	220 seconds
B	110 seconds
C	440 seconds
D	55 seconds

22. - E5C17

Which point on Figure E5-2 best represents the impedance of a series circuit consisting of a 300 ohm resistor, a 0.64-microhenry inductor and an 85-picofarad capacitor at 24.900 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	Point 5
B	Point 8
C	Point 1
D	Point 3

23. - E5D04

Why are short connections necessary at microwave frequencies?

Select	Answer
A	To increase neutralizing resistance
B	Because of ground reflections
C	To reduce noise figure
D	To reduce phase shift along the connection

24. - E6A11

In Figure E6-2, what is the schematic symbol for a P-channel junction FET?

Select	Answer
A	1
B	2
C	3
D	6

25. - E6B06

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

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

26. - E6C03

What is tri-state logic?

Select	Answer
A	Logic devices that utilize ternary math
B	Proprietary logic devices manufactured by Tri-State Devices
C	Low power logic devices designed to operate at 3 volts
D	Logic devices with 0, 1, and high impedance output states

27. - E6D02

What is the equivalent circuit of a quartz crystal?

Select	Answer
A	Motional capacitance, motional inductance, and loss resistance in series, all in parallel with a shunt capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance
B	Motional capacitance, motional inductance, loss resistance, and a capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance all in parallel
C	Motional capacitance, motional inductance, loss resistance, and a capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance all in series
D	Motional inductance and loss resistance in series, paralleled with motional capacitance and a capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance

28. - E6E10

What is the packaging technique in which leadless components are soldered directly to circuit boards?

Select	Answer
A	Direct soldering
B	Stripped lead
C	Surface mount
D	Virtual lead mounting

29. - E6F07

What is a solid state relay?

Select	Answer
A	A mechanical relay that latches in the on or off state each time it is pulsed
B	A relay using transistors to drive the relay coil
C	A passive delay line
D	A device that uses semiconductors to implement the functions of an electromechanical relay

30. - E7A03

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

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

31. - E7B11

In Figure E7-1, what is the purpose of R3?

Select	Answer
A	Output load resistor
B	Fixed bias
C	Self bias
D	Emitter bypass

32. - E7C07

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

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

33. - E7D03

What device is typically used as a stable reference voltage in a linear voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	A tunnel diode
B	A varactor diode
C	An SCR
D	A Zener diode

34. - E7E01

Which of the following can be used to generate FM phone emissions?

Select	Answer
A	A balanced modulator on the audio amplifier
B	A balanced modulator on the oscillator
C	A reactance modulator on the oscillator
D	A reactance modulator on the final amplifier

35. - E7F03

What type of digital signal processing filter is used to generate an SSB signal?

Select	Answer
A	An elliptical filter
B	A notch filter
C	An adaptive filter
D	A Hilbert-transform filter

36. - E7G02

What is the effect of ringing in a filter?

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

37. - E7H08

Which of the following components can be used to reduce thermal drift in crystal oscillators?

Select	Answer
A	Wirewound resistors
B	Non-inductive resistors
C	NP0 capacitors
D	Toroidal inductors

38. - E8A11

What type of information can be conveyed using digital waveforms?

Select	Answer
A	Data
B	All of these choices are correct
C	Human speech
D	Video signals

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 bandwidth compression technique using Fourier transforms
C	A frequency modulation technique which uses non-harmonically related frequencies
D	A digital mode for narrow band, slow speed transmissions

40. - E8C08

How does ARQ accomplish error correction?

Select	Answer
A	If errors are detected, redundant data is substituted
B	Special polynomial codes provide automatic correction
C	Special binary codes provide automatic correction
D	If errors are detected, a retransmission is requested

41. - E8D08

What parameter might indicate that excessively high input levels are causing distortion in an AFSK signal?

Select	Answer
A	Signal to noise ratio
B	Baud rate
C	Repeat Request Rate (RRR)
D	Intermodulation Distortion (IMD)

42. - E9A04

Which of the following factors may affect the feed point impedance of an antenna?

Select	Answer
A	Transmission-line length
B	Sunspot activity and time of day
C	Antenna height, conductor length/diameter ratio and location of nearby conductive objects
D	The settings of an antenna tuner at the transmitter

43. - E9B11

What is a disadvantage of decreasing the number of wire segments in an antenna model below the guideline of 10 segments per half-wavelength?

Select	Answer
A	Ground conductivity will not be accurately modeled
B	The resulting design will favor radiation of harmonic energy
C	The antenna will become mechanically unstable
D	The computed feed point impedance may be incorrect

44. - E9C08

What is a folded dipole antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A dipole configured to provide forward gain
B	A type of ground-plane antenna
C	A dipole one-quarter wavelength long
D	A dipole consisting of one wavelength of wire forming a very thin loop

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 increases and the capacitive reactance increases
C	The radiation resistance decreases and the capacitive reactance increases
D	The radiation resistance decreases and the capacitive reactance decreases

46. - E9E06

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

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

47. - E9F12

What impedance does a 1/4 wavelength transmission line present to a generator when the line is open at the far end?

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

48. - E9G07

On the Smith chart shown in Figure E9-3, what is the only straight line shown?

Select	Answer
A	The resistance axis
B	The voltage axis
C	The reactance axis
D	The current axis

49. - E9H07

Why is it advisable to use an RF attenuator on a receiver being used for direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	It compensates for the effects of an isotropic antenna, thereby improving directivity
B	It prevents receiver overload which could make it difficult to determine peaks or nulls
C	It narrows the bandwidth of the received signal to improve signal to noise ratio
D	It reduces loss of received signals caused by antenna pattern nulls, thereby increasing sensitivity

50. - E0A04

When evaluating a site with multiple transmitters operating at the same time, the operators and licensees of which transmitters are responsible for mitigating over-exposure situations?

Select	Answer
A	Each transmitter that produces 5 percent or more of its MPE limit at accessible locations
B	Each transmitter operating with a duty-cycle greater than 50 percent
C	Only the most powerful transmitter
D	Only commercial transmitters

Figure E5-2

Figure E6-2

Figure E7-1

Figure E9-3