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

2. - E1B05

What is the National Radio Quiet Zone?

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

3. - E1C08

What is the maximum permissible duration of a remotely controlled station's transmissions if its control link malfunctions?

Select	Answer
A	3 minutes
B	5 minutes
C	10 minutes
D	30 seconds

4. - E1D09

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

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

5. - E1E03

What is a Volunteer Examiner Coordinator?

Select	Answer
A	A person who has volunteered to prepare amateur operator license examinations
B	A person who has volunteered to administer amateur operator license examinations
C	An organization that has entered into an agreement with the FCC to coordinate amateur operator license examinations
D	The person who has entered into an agreement with the FCC to be the VE session manager

6. - E1F03

Under what circumstances may a dealer sell an external RF power amplifier capable of operation below 144 MHz if it has not been granted FCC certification?

Select	Answer
A	The equipment dealer assembled it from a kit
B	It was imported from a manufacturer in another country and was certificated by that country's government
C	It was purchased in used condition from an amateur operator and is sold to another amateur operator for use at that operator's station
D	It was imported from a manufacturer in a country that does not require certification of RF power amplifiers

7. - E2A03

What is the orbital period of an Earth satellite?

Select	Answer
A	The time it takes for a satellite to complete one revolution around the Earth
B	The point of maximum height of a satellite's orbit
C	The time it takes for a satellite to travel from perigee to apogee
D	The point of minimum height of a satellite's orbit

8. - E2B12

How are analog SSTV images typically transmitted on the HF bands?

Select	Answer
A	Video is converted to equivalent Baudot representation
B	Varying tone frequencies representing the video are transmitted using PSK
C	Varying tone frequencies representing the video are transmitted using single sideband
D	Video is converted to equivalent ASCII representation

9. - E2C03

From which of the following bands is amateur radio contesting generally excluded?

Select	Answer
A	6 m
B	33 cm
C	2 m
D	30 m

10. - E2D05

Which of the following techniques is normally used by low Earth orbiting digital satellites to relay messages around the world?

Select	Answer
A	Store-and-forward
B	Multi-satellite relaying
C	Digipeating
D	Node hopping

11. - E2E04

What is indicated when one of the ellipses in an FSK crossed-ellipse display suddenly disappears?

Select	Answer
A	Selective fading has occurred
B	One of the signal filters is saturated
C	The receiver has drifted 5 kHz from the desired receive frequency
D	The mark and space signal have been inverted

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

13. - E3B06

Which of the following amateur bands most frequently provides long-path propagation?

Select	Answer
A	6 meters
B	10 meters
C	80 meters
D	20 meters

14. - E3C11

What does VOACAP software model?

Select	Answer
A	AC current and impedance
B	VHF radio propagation
C	HF propagation
D	AC voltage and impedance

15. - E4A05

What might be an advantage of a digital vs an analog oscilloscope?

Select	Answer
A	Manipulation of time base after trace capture
B	Storage of traces for future reference
C	All of these choices are correct
D	Automatic amplitude and frequency numerical readout

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	1.4652 kHz
B	1.4652 Hz
C	0.1 MHz
D	14.652 Hz

17. - E4C04

How is the noise figure of a receiver defined?

Select	Answer
A	The ratio of atmospheric noise to phase noise
B	The ratio of thermal noise to atmospheric noise
C	The ratio of the noise bandwidth in Hertz to the theoretical bandwidth of a resistive network
D	The ratio in dB of the noise generated by the receiver to the theoretical minimum noise

18. - E4D13

Which of the following can cause receiver desensitization?

Select	Answer
A	Strong adjacent channel signals
B	Audio bias adjusted too high
C	Audio gain adjusted too low
D	Squelch gain misadjusted

19. - E4E13

What might be the cause of a loud roaring or buzzing AC line interference that comes and goes at intervals?

Select	Answer
A	Arcing contacts in a thermostatically controlled device
B	A malfunctioning illuminated advertising display
C	All of these choices are correct
D	A defective doorbell or doorbell transformer inside a nearby residence

20. - E5A04

What is the magnitude of the impedance of a circuit with a resistor, an inductor and a capacitor all in parallel, at resonance?

Select	Answer
A	Approximately equal to inductive reactance
B	Approximately equal to circuit resistance
C	Approximately equal to capacitive reactance
D	Low, as compared to the circuit resistance

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	110 seconds
B	55 seconds
C	440 seconds
D	220 seconds

22. - E5C11

What do the two numbers that are used to define a point on a graph using rectangular coordinates represent?

Select	Answer
A	The magnitude and phase of the point
B	The tangent and cotangent values
C	The coordinate values along the horizontal and vertical axes
D	The sine and cosine values

23. - E5D16

What is the power factor of an R-L circuit having a 30 degree phase angle between the voltage and the current?

Select	Answer
A	0.866
B	1.73
C	0.577
D	0.5

24. - E6A04

What is the name given to an impurity atom that adds holes to a semiconductor crystal structure?

Select	Answer
A	Acceptor impurity
B	Insulator impurity
C	Donor impurity
D	N-type impurity

25. - E6B02

What is an important characteristic of a Schottky diode as compared to an ordinary silicon diode when used as a power supply rectifier?

Select	Answer
A	Much higher reverse voltage breakdown
B	Enhanced carrier retention time
C	Less forward voltage drop
D	Controlled reverse avalanche voltage

26. - E6C11

In Figure E6-5, what is the schematic symbol for the NOT operation (inverter)?

Select	Answer
A	4
B	5
C	2
D	6

27. - E6D04

Which materials are commonly used as a slug core in a variable inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Cobalt and aluminum
B	Teflon and Delrin
C	Polystyrene and polyethylene
D	Ferrite and brass

28. - E6E09

Which of the following component package types would be most suitable for use at frequencies above the HF range?

Select	Answer
A	Radial lead
B	TO-220
C	Axial lead
D	Surface mount

29. - E6F03

What is the most common configuration of an optoisolator or optocoupler?

Select	Answer
A	A lens and a photomultiplier
B	A frequency modulated helium-neon laser
C	An LED and a phototransistor
D	An amplitude modulated helium-neon laser

30. - E7A10

What is a truth table?

Select	Answer
A	A list of inputs and corresponding outputs for a digital device
B	A table of logic symbols that indicate the logic states of an op-amp
C	A table of logic symbols that indicate the high logic states of an op-amp
D	A diagram showing logic states when the digital device output is true

31. - E7B13

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

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

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	Pi-L
B	Omega
C	Cascode
D	Pi

33. - E7D06

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

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

34. - E7E12

What is a frequency discriminator stage in a FM receiver?

Select	Answer
A	A circuit for detecting FM signals
B	An automatic band-switching circuit
C	An FM generator circuit
D	A circuit for filtering two closely adjacent signals

35. - E7F13

What is the function of taps in a digital signal processing filter?

Select	Answer
A	Select the point at which baseband signals are generated
B	Provide access for debugging software
C	To reduce excess signal pressure levels
D	Provide incremental signal delays for filter algorithms

36. - E7G08

How does the gain of an ideal operational amplifier vary with frequency?

Select	Answer
A	It does not vary with frequency
B	It decreases logarithmically with increasing frequency
C	It increases linearly with increasing frequency
D	It decreases linearly with increasing frequency

37. - E7H02

Which describes a microphonic?

Select	Answer
A	Excess loading of the microphone by an oscillator
B	Changes in oscillator frequency due to mechanical vibration
C	An IC used for amplifying microphone signals
D	Distortion caused by RF pickup on the microphone cable

38. - E8A01

What is the name of the process that shows that a square wave is made up of a sine wave plus all of its odd harmonics?

Select	Answer
A	Vector analysis
B	Fourier analysis
C	Numerical analysis
D	Differential analysis

39. - E8B10

What describes frequency division multiplexing?

Select	Answer
A	Two or more information streams are merged into a baseband, which then modulates the transmitter
B	Two or more information streams are merged into a digital combiner, which then pulse position modulates the transmitter
C	The transmitted signal is divided into packets of information
D	The transmitted signal jumps from band to band at a predetermined rate

40. - E8C04

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

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

41. - E8D07

What is a common cause of overmodulation of AFSK signals?

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

42. - E9A15

What is the effective radiated power relative to a dipole of a repeater station with 150 watts transmitter power output, 2 dB feed line loss, 2.2 dB duplexer loss, and 7 dBd antenna gain?

Select	Answer
A	78.7 watts
B	420 watts
C	1977 watts
D	286 watts

43. - E9B04

What may occur when a directional antenna is operated at different frequencies within the band for which it was designed?

Select	Answer
A	Feed point impedance may become negative
B	The E-field and H-field patterns may reverse
C	Element spacing limits could be exceeded
D	The gain may change depending on frequency

44. - E9C12

Which of the following describes an extended double Zepp antenna?

Select	Answer
A	An end fed folded dipole antenna
B	A portable antenna erected using two push support poles
C	A wideband vertical antenna constructed from precisely tapered aluminum tubing
D	A center fed 1.25 wavelength antenna (two 5/8 wave elements in phase)

45. - E9D11

Which of the following types of conductors would be best for minimizing losses in a station's RF ground system?

Select	Answer
A	A resistive wire, such as spark plug wire
B	A wide flat copper strap
C	A cable with six or seven 18 gauge conductors in parallel
D	A single 12 gauge or 10 gauge stainless steel wire

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

48. - E9G02

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

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

49. - E9H07

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

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

50. - E0A09

Which insulating material commonly used as a thermal conductor for some types of electronic devices is extremely toxic if broken or crushed and the particles are accidentally inhaled?

Select	Answer
A	Mica
B	Zinc oxide
C	Beryllium Oxide
D	Uranium Hexafluoride

Figure E6-5

Figure E7-2

Figure E7-3