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

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1. - E1A13

Who must be in physical control of the station apparatus of an amateur station aboard any vessel or craft that is documented or registered in the United States?

Select	Answer
A	Only a person named in an amateur station license grant
B	Only a person with an FCC Marine Radio
C	Any person holding an FCC issued amateur license or who is authorized for alien reciprocal operation
D	Any person named in an amateur station license grant or a person holding an unrestricted Radiotelephone Operator Permit

2. - E1B10

What frequencies are authorized to an amateur station operating under RACES rules?

Select	Answer
A	All amateur service frequencies authorized to the control operator
B	Specific local government channels
C	Specific segments in the amateur service MF, HF, VHF and UHF bands
D	Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) channels

3. - E1C02

What is meant by automatic control of a station?

Select	Answer
A	Remotely controlling a station's antenna pattern through a directional control link
B	The use of a control link between a control point and a locally controlled station
C	The use of devices and procedures for control so that the control operator does not have to be present at a control point
D	A station operating with its output power controlled automatically

4. - E1D11

Which amateur stations are eligible to operate as Earth stations?

Select	Answer
A	Only those of General, Advanced or Amateur Extra Class operators
B	Only those of Amateur Extra Class operators
C	Any amateur station whose licensee has filed a pre-space notification with the FCC's International Bureau
D	Any amateur station, subject to the privileges of the class of operator license held by the control operator

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

6. - E1F06

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

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

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. - E2B15

What signals SSTV receiving equipment to begin a new picture line?

Select	Answer
A	Specific tone frequencies
B	Specific tone amplitudes
C	Elapsed time
D	A two-tone signal

9. - E2C02

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

Select	Answer
A	An automatic method for rapidly zero beating or tuning to a station's frequency before calling that station
B	The acceptable practice of manually posting the call signs of stations on a spotting network
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. - E2D02

Which of the following is a good technique for making meteor scatter contacts?

Select	Answer
A	15 second timed transmission sequences with stations alternating based on location
B	Short transmission with rapidly repeated call signs and signal reports
C	All of these choices are correct
D	Use of high speed CW or digital modes

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. - E3A04

What do Hepburn maps predict?

Select	Answer
A	Sporadic E propagation
B	Probability of tropospheric propagation
C	Likelihood of rain-scatter along cold or warm fronts
D	Locations of auroral reflecting zones

13. - E3B09

At what time of year is Sporadic E propagation most likely to occur?

Select	Answer
A	Around the equinoxes, especially the spring equinox
B	Around the solstices, especially the winter solstice
C	Around the equinoxes, especially the fall equinox
D	Around the solstices, especially the summer solstice

14. - E3C12

How does the maximum distance of ground-wave propagation change when the signal frequency is increased?

Select	Answer
A	It decreases
B	It peaks at roughly 14 MHz
C	It stays the same
D	It increases

15. - E4A03

Which of the following test instrument is used to display spurious signals and/or intermodulation distortion products in an SSB transmitter?

Select	Answer
A	A logic analyzer
B	A time-domain reflectometer
C	A spectrum analyzer
D	A wattmeter

16. - E4B13

Which S parameter is equivalent to forward gain?

Select	Answer
A	S22
B	S11
C	S21
D	S12

17. - E4C01

What is an effect of excessive phase noise in the local oscillator section of a receiver?

Select	Answer
A	It decreases receiver third-order intermodulation distortion dynamic range
B	It can cause strong signals on nearby frequencies to interfere with reception of weak signals
C	It limits the receiver's ability to receive strong signals
D	It reduces receiver sensitivity

18. - E4D14

Which of the following is a way to reduce the likelihood of receiver desensitization?

Select	Answer
A	Raise the receiver IF frequency
B	Switch from fast AGC to slow AGC
C	Decrease the RF bandwidth of the receiver
D	Increase the receiver front end gain

19. - E4E11

Which is the most likely cause if you are hearing combinations of local AM broadcast signals within one or more of the MF or HF ham bands?

Select	Answer
A	Your station receiver IF amplifier stage is defective
B	The broadcast station is transmitting an over-modulated signal
C	Nearby corroded metal joints are mixing and re-radiating the broadcast signals
D	You are receiving sky wave signals from a distant station

20. - E5A01

What can cause the voltage across reactances in series to be larger than the voltage applied to them?

Select	Answer
A	Resistance
B	Resonance
C	Capacitance
D	Conductance

21. - E5B12

What is admittance?

Select	Answer
A	The term for the gain of a field effect transistor
B	The inverse of impedance
C	The unit used for Q factor
D	The turns ratio of a transformer

22. - E5C16

Which point on Figure E5-2 best represents the impedance of a series circuit consisting of a 300 ohm resistor and a 19 picofarad capacitor at 21.200 MHz?

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

23. - E5D10

How can the true power be determined in an AC circuit where the voltage and current are out of phase?

Select	Answer
A	By dividing the apparent power by the power factor
B	By multiplying the reactive power times the power factor
C	By dividing the reactive power by the power factor
D	By multiplying the apparent power times the power factor

24. - E6A10

In Figure E6-2, what is the schematic symbol for an N-channel dual-gate MOSFET?

Select	Answer
A	5
B	6
C	2
D	4

25. - E6B06

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

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

26. - E6C13

Which of the following is an advantage of BiCMOS logic?

Select	Answer
A	It is totally immune to electrostatic damage
B	All of these choices are correct
C	It has the high input impedance of CMOS and the low output impedance of bipolar transistors
D	Its simplicity results in much less expensive devices than standard CMOS

27. - E6D05

What is one reason for using ferrite cores rather than powdered-iron in an inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Ferrite toroids generally have lower initial permeability
B	Ferrite toroids are easier to use with surface mount technology
C	Ferrite toroids generally require fewer turns to produce a given inductance value
D	Ferrite toroids generally have better temperature stability

28. - E6E04

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

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

29. - E6F14

Which of the following is true of LCD displays?

Select	Answer
A	They may be hard view through polarized lenses
B	All of these choices are correct
C	They are hard to view in high ambient light conditions
D	They only display alphanumeric symbols

30. - E7A11

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

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

31. - E7B15

What is one way to prevent thermal runaway in a bipolar transistor amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	Neutralization
B	Select transistors with high beta
C	Use a resistor in series with the emitter
D	All of these choices are correct

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

33. - E7D05

Which of the following types of linear voltage regulator places a constant load on the unregulated voltage source?

Select	Answer
A	A shunt regulator
B	A constant current source
C	A series regulator
D	A shunt current source

34. - E7E07

What is meant by the term baseband in radio communications?

Select	Answer
A	The unmodulated bandwidth of the transmitted signal
B	The basic oscillator frequency in an FM transmitter that is multiplied to increase the deviation and carrier frequency
C	The lowest frequency band that the transmitter or receiver covers
D	The frequency components present in the modulating signal

35. - E7F08

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

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

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	0.07
B	28
C	7
D	14

37. - E7H01

What are three oscillator circuits used in Amateur Radio equipment?

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

38. - E8A02

What type of wave has a rise time significantly faster than its fall time (or vice versa)?

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

39. - E8B02

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

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

40. - E8C06

What is the necessary bandwidth of a 170-hertz shift, 300-baud ASCII transmission?

Select	Answer
A	1.0 kHz
B	0.1 Hz
C	0.3 kHz
D	0.5 kHz

41. - E8D09

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

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

42. - E9A02

What antenna has no gain in any direction?

Select	Answer
A	Half-wave dipole
B	Isotropic antenna
C	Yagi
D	Quarter-wave vertical

43. - E9B06

What is the elevation angle of peak response in the antenna radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-2?

Select	Answer
A	45 degrees
B	7.5 degrees
C	75 degrees
D	25 degrees

44. - E9C07

What is the approximate feed point impedance at the center of a two-wire folded dipole antenna?

Select	Answer
A	50 ohms
B	72 ohms
C	450 ohms
D	300 ohms

45. - E9D02

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

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

46. - E9E08

Which of the following measurements is characteristic of a mismatched transmission line?

Select	Answer
A	A reflection coefficient greater than 1
B	A dielectric constant greater than 1
C	An SWR less than 1:1
D	An SWR greater than 1:1

47. - E9F08

What is the term for the ratio of the actual speed at which a signal travels through a transmission line to the speed of light in a vacuum?

Select	Answer
A	Velocity factor
B	Standing wave ratio
C	Characteristic impedance
D	Surge 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	Resistance lines and reactance chords
D	Voltage lines and current chords

49. - E9H11

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

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

50. - E0A10

What toxic material may be present in some electronic components such as high voltage capacitors and transformers?

Select	Answer
A	Polymorphic silicon
B	Polytetrafluroethylene
C	Polychlorinated Biphenyls
D	Polyethylene

Figure E5-2

Figure E6-2

Figure E7-4

Figure E9-2