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

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1. - E1A04

With your transceiver displaying the carrier frequency of phone signals, you hear a DX station calling CQ on 3.601 MHz LSB. Is it legal to return the call using lower sideband on the same frequency?

Select	Answer
A	No, the sideband will extend beyond the edge of the phone band segment
B	No, U.S. stations are not permitted to use phone emissions below 3.610 MHz
C	Yes, because the DX station initiated the contact
D	Yes, because the displayed frequency is within the 75 meter phone band segment

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
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 above 30 MHz
D	The amateur station must cease operation on all frequencies below 30 MHz

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

4. - E1D03

What is a telecommand station in the amateur satellite service?

Select	Answer
A	An amateur station located on the Earth's surface for communication with other Earth stations by means of Earth satellites
B	An amateur station that transmits communications to initiate, modify or terminate functions of a space station
C	An amateur station that transmits telemetry consisting of measurements of upper atmosphere
D	An amateur station located more than 50 km above the Earth's surface

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	Revocation of the VE's amateur station license grant and the suspension of the VE's amateur operator license grant
D	A sentence of up to one year in prison

6. - E1F02

What privileges are authorized in the U.S. to persons holding an amateur service license granted by the Government of Canada?

Select	Answer
A	None, they must obtain a U.S. license
B	Full privileges, up to and including those of the Extra Class License, on the 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meter bands
C	All privileges of the Extra Class license
D	The operating terms and conditions of the Canadian amateur service license, not to exceed U.S. Extra Class privileges

7. - E2A08

Why should effective radiated power to a satellite which uses a linear transponder be limited?

Select	Answer
A	To avoid interfering with terrestrial QSOs
B	To prevent creating errors in the satellite telemetry
C	To prevent the satellite from emitting out-of-band signals
D	To avoid reducing the downlink power to all other users

8. - E2B16

Which is a video standard used by North American Fast Scan ATV stations?

Select	Answer
A	NTSC
B	Scottie
C	PAL
D	DRM

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

10. - E2D04

What is the purpose of digital store-and-forward functions on an Amateur Radio satellite?

Select	Answer
A	To store digital messages in the satellite for later download by other stations
B	To delay download of telemetry between satellites
C	To upload operational software for the transponder
D	To relay messages between satellites

11. - E2E05

Which type of digital mode does not support keyboard-to-keyboard operation?

Select	Answer
A	Winlink
B	MFSK
C	PSK31
D	RTTY

12. - E3A01

What is the approximate maximum separation measured along the surface of the Earth between two stations communicating by Moon bounce?

Select	Answer
A	12,000 miles, if the Moon is visible by both stations
B	5000 miles, if the Moon is at perigee
C	2000 miles, if the Moon is at apogee
D	500 miles, if the Moon is at perigee

13. - E3B02

What is the approximate maximum range for signals using transequatorial propagation?

Select	Answer
A	2500 miles
B	5000 miles
C	1000 miles
D	7500 miles

14. - E3C07

Which of the following descriptors indicates the greatest solar flare intensity?

Select	Answer
A	Class M
B	Class B
C	Class X
D	Class A

15. - E4A01

Which of the following parameter determines the bandwidth of a digital or computer-based oscilloscope?

Select	Answer
A	Input capacitance
B	Input impedance
C	Sample resolution
D	Sampling rate

16. - E4B15

Which of the following can be used as a relative measurement of the Q for a series-tuned circuit?

Select	Answer
A	The resonant frequency of the circuit
B	The inductance to capacitance ratio
C	The frequency shift
D	The bandwidth of the circuit's frequency response

17. - E4C08

An SDR receiver is overloaded when input signals exceed what level?

Select	Answer
A	One-half the maximum sampling buffer size
B	The reference voltage of the analog-to-digital converter
C	One-half the maximum sample rate
D	The maximum count value of the analog-to-digital converter

18. - E4D11

Why are third-order intermodulation products created within a receiver of particular interest compared to other products?

Select	Answer
A	Third-order intermodulation produces three products for every input signal within the band of interest
B	The third-order intercept is much higher than other orders
C	The third-order product of two signals which are in the band of interest is also likely to be within the band
D	Third-order products are an indication of poor image rejection

19. - E4E03

Which of the following signals might a receiver noise blanker be able to remove from desired signals?

Select	Answer
A	Signals which appear at one IF but not another
B	Signals which appear across a wide bandwidth
C	Signals which are constant at all IF levels
D	Signals which have a sharply peaked frequency distribution

20. - E5A07

What is the magnitude of the current at the input of a parallel RLC circuit at resonance?

Select	Answer
A	R/L
B	Maximum
C	Minimum
D	L/R

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

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 3
B	Point 1
C	Point 8
D	Point 7

23. - E5D13

How much power is consumed in a circuit consisting of a 100 ohm resistor in series with a 100 ohm inductive reactance drawing 1 ampere?

Select	Answer
A	141.4 Watts
B	70.7 Watts
C	200 Watts
D	100 Watts

24. - E6A05

What is the alpha of a bipolar junction transistor?

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

25. - E6B03

What special type of diode is capable of both amplification and oscillation?

Select	Answer
A	Point contact
B	Tunnel
C	Zener
D	Junction

26. - E6C02

What happens when the level of a comparator's input signal crosses the threshold?

Select	Answer
A	The IC input can be damaged
B	The comparator enters latch-up
C	The comparator changes its output state
D	The feedback loop becomes unstable

27. - E6D08

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

Select	Answer
A	Powdered-iron cores generally require fewer turns to produce a given inductance
B	Powdered-iron cores use smaller diameter wire for the same inductance
C	Powdered-iron cores generally have greater initial permeability
D	Powdered-iron cores generally maintain their characteristics at higher currents

28. - E6E02

Which of the following device packages is a through-hole type?

Select	Answer
A	Ball grid array
B	PLCC
C	DIP
D	SOT

29. - E6F04

What is the photovoltaic effect?

Select	Answer
A	The conversion of voltage to current when exposed to light
B	The tendency of a battery to discharge when used outside
C	The conversion of light to electrical energy
D	The conversion of electrical energy to mechanical energy

30. - E7A12

What type of logic defines "0" as a high voltage?

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

31. - E7B17

Why are odd-order rather than even-order intermodulation distortion products of concern in linear power amplifiers?

Select	Answer
A	Because they maintain the sidebands, thus causing multiple duplicate signals
B	Because they invert the sidebands causing distortion
C	Because they are relatively far in frequency from the desired signal
D	Because they are relatively close in frequency to the desired signal

32. - E7C11

Which of the following is the common name for a filter network which is equivalent to two L-networks connected back-to-back with the two inductors in series and the capacitors in shunt at the input and output?

Select	Answer
A	Omega
B	Cascode
C	Pi
D	Pi-L

33. - E7D07

What is the purpose of C2 in the circuit shown in Figure E7-3?

Select	Answer
A	To provide fixed DC bias for Q1
B	It bypasses hum around D1
C	To self-resonate at the hum frequency
D	It is a brute force filter for the output

34. - E7E04

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

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

35. - E7F04

What is a common method of generating an SSB signal using digital signal processing?

Select	Answer
A	Emulation of quartz crystal filter characteristics
B	Mixing products are converted to voltages and subtracted by adder circuits
C	A frequency synthesizer removes the unwanted sidebands
D	Combine signals with a quadrature phase relationship

36. - E7G12

What is an integrated circuit operational amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	An amplifier used to increase the average output of frequency modulated amateur signals to the legal limit
B	A high-gain, direct-coupled differential amplifier with very high input impedance and very low output impedance
C	A digital audio amplifier whose characteristics are determined by components external to the amplifier
D	A RF amplifier used in the UHF and microwave regions

37. - E7H01

What are three oscillator circuits used in Amateur Radio equipment?

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

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. - E8B03

What is the modulation index of an FM-phone signal having a maximum frequency deviation of 3000 Hz either side of the carrier frequency when the modulating frequency is 1000 Hz?

Select	Answer
A	1000
B	0.3
C	3
D	3000

40. - E8C10

What is an advantage of Gray code in digital communications where symbols are transmitted as multiple bits

Select	Answer
A	It has more resolution than simple binary
B	It facilitates error detection
C	It increases security
D	It has more possible states than simple binary

41. - E8D07

What is a common cause of overmodulation of AFSK signals?

Select	Answer
A	Ground loops
B	Excessive numbers of retries
C	Excessive transmit audio levels
D	Bit errors in the modem

42. - E9A04

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

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

43. - E9B03

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

Select	Answer
A	24 dB
B	18 dB
C	12 dB
D	14 dB

44. - E9C03

What is the radiation pattern of two 1/4 wavelength vertical antennas spaced a 1/2 wavelength apart and fed in phase?

Select	Answer
A	A Figure-8 end-fire along the axis of the array
B	Cardioid
C	Omni-directional
D	A Figure-8 broadside to the axis of the array

45. - E9D03

Where should a high Q loading coil be placed to minimize losses in a shortened vertical antenna?

Select	Answer
A	As close to the transmitter as possible
B	As low as possible on the vertical radiator
C	Near the center of the vertical radiator
D	At a voltage node

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

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	Very low impedance
C	Very high impedance
D	The same as the output impedance of the generator

48. - E9G07

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

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

49. - E9H09

Which of the following describes the construction of a receiving loop antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A large circularly polarized antenna
B	A vertical antenna coupled to a feed line through an inductive loop of wire
C	A small coil of wire tightly wound around a toroidal ferrite core
D	One or more turns of wire wound in the shape of a large open coil

50. - E0A01

What is the primary function of an external earth connection or ground rod?

Select	Answer
A	Reduce received noise
B	Lightning protection
C	Reduce RF current flow between pieces of equipment
D	Reduce RFI to telephones and home entertainment systems

Figure E5-2

Figure E7-3

Figure E9-1

Figure E9-3