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

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 avoid transmitting during certain hours on frequencies that cause the interference
B	The amateur station must cease operation
C	The amateur station must cease operation on all frequencies below 30 MHz
D	The amateur station must cease operation on all frequencies above 30 MHz

3. - E1C05

When may an automatically controlled station originate third party communications?

Select	Answer
A	Never
B	When agreed upon by the sending or receiving station
C	Only when transmitting RTTY or data emissions
D	When approved by the National Telecommunication and Information Administration

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, subject to the privileges of the class of operator license held by the control operator
D	Any amateur station whose licensee has filed a pre-space notification with the FCC's International Bureau

5. - E1E06

Who is responsible for the proper conduct and necessary supervision during an amateur operator license examination session?

Select	Answer
A	The FCC
B	Each administering VE
C	The VE session manager
D	The VEC coordinating the session

6. - E1F04

Which of the following geographic descriptions approximately describes "Line A"?

Select	Answer
A	A line roughly parallel to and north of the U.S.-Mexican border and Gulf coastline
B	A line roughly parallel to and west of the U.S. Atlantic coastline
C	A line roughly parallel to and east of the U.S. Pacific coastline
D	A line roughly parallel to and south of the U.S.-Canadian border

7. - E2A14

What technology is used to track, in real time, balloons carrying amateur radio transmitters?

Select	Answer
A	Bandwidth compressed LORAN
B	Radar
C	APRS
D	Doppler shift of beacon signals

8. - E2B17

What is the approximate bandwidth of a slow-scan TV signal?

Select	Answer
A	6 MHz
B	3 kHz
C	600 Hz
D	2 MHz

9. - E2C04

What type of transmission is most often used for a ham radio mesh network?

Select	Answer
A	Store and forward on the 440 MHz band
B	Spread spectrum in the 2.4 GHz band
C	Multiple Frequency Shift Keying in the 10 GHz band
D	Frequency division multiplex in the 24 GHz band

10. - E2D08

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

Select	Answer
A	Connect
B	Unnumbered Information
C	Acknowledgement
D	Disconnect

11. - E2E03

How is the timing of JT65 contacts organized?

Select	Answer
A	By exchanging ACK/NAK packets
B	It depends on the lunar phase
C	Stations take turns on alternate days
D	Alternating transmissions at 1 minute intervals

12. - E3A13

Which emission mode is best for aurora propagation?

Select	Answer
A	FM
B	CW
C	RTTY
D	SSB

13. - E3B07

Which of the following could account for hearing an echo on the received signal of a distant station?

Select	Answer
A	Receipt of a signal by more than one path
B	Meteor scatter
C	Transmit frequency is higher than the MUF
D	High D layer absorption

14. - E3C10

What does the 304A solar parameter measure?

Select	Answer
A	UV emissions at 304 angstroms, correlated to solar flux index
B	The ratio of X-Ray flux to radio flux, correlated to sunspot number
C	The solar wind velocity at 304 degrees from the solar equator, correlated to solar activity
D	The solar emission at 304 GHz, correlated to X-Ray flare levels

15. - E4A01

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

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

16. - E4B01

Which of the following factors most affects the accuracy of a frequency counter?

Select	Answer
A	Decade divider accuracy
B	Input attenuator accuracy
C	Temperature coefficient of the logic
D	Time base accuracy

17. - E4C07

What does the MDS of a receiver represent?

Select	Answer
A	The minimum discernible signal
B	The meter display sensitivity
C	The multiplex distortion stability
D	The maximum detectable spectrum

18. - E4D07

Which describes the most significant effect of an off-frequency signal when it is causing cross-modulation interference to a desired signal?

Select	Answer
A	The off-frequency unwanted signal is heard in addition to the desired signal
B	A large increase in background noise
C	The desired signal can no longer be heard
D	A reduction in apparent signal strength

19. - E4E07

How can you determine if line noise interference is being generated within your home?

Select	Answer
A	By checking the power line voltage with a time domain reflectometer
B	By turning off the AC power line main circuit breaker and listening on a battery operated radio
C	By observing the AC power line waveform with an oscilloscope
D	By observing the AC power line voltage with a spectrum analyzer

20. - E5A01

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

Select	Answer
A	Capacitance
B	Resonance
C	Resistance
D	Conductance

21. - E5B06

What is susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	The inverse of reactance
B	The magnetic impedance of a circuit
C	The ratio of magnetic field to electric field
D	A measure of the efficiency of a transformer

22. - E5C13

What coordinate system is often used to display the resistive, inductive, and/or capacitive reactance components of impedance?

Select	Answer
A	Faraday grid
B	Rectangular coordinates
C	Elliptical coordinates
D	Maidenhead grid

23. - E5D05

Which parasitic characteristic increases with conductor length?

Select	Answer
A	Permittivity
B	Malleability
C	Inductance
D	Permeability

24. - E6A09

What is a depletion-mode FET?

Select	Answer
A	Any FET for which holes are the majority carriers
B	Any FET without a channel
C	An FET that has no current flow between source and drain when no gate voltage is applied
D	An FET that exhibits a current flow between source and drain when no gate voltage is applied

25. - E6B07

What is the failure mechanism when a junction diode fails due to excessive current?

Select	Answer
A	Excessive inverse voltage
B	Excessive junction temperature
C	Insufficient forward voltage
D	Charge carrier depletion

26. - E6C12

What is BiCMOS logic?

Select	Answer
A	A logic family based on bismuth CMOS devices
B	A FET logic family based on bimetallic semiconductors
C	A logic device with two CMOS circuits per package
D	An integrated circuit logic family using both bipolar and CMOS transistors

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 generally require fewer turns to produce a given inductance value
C	Ferrite toroids generally have better temperature stability
D	Ferrite toroids are easier to use with surface mount technology

28. - E6E02

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

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

29. - E6F06

Which of these materials is affected the most by photoconductivity?

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

30. - E7A09

What logical operation is performed by an exclusive NOR gate?

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

31. - E7B12

What type of amplifier circuit is shown in Figure E7-1?

Select	Answer
A	Common emitter
B	Common base
C	Common collector
D	Emitter follower

32. - E7C05

Which filter type is described as having ripple in the passband and a sharp cutoff?

Select	Answer
A	A Butterworth filter
B	An active LC filter
C	A passive op-amp filter
D	A Chebyshev filter

33. - E7D16

When several electrolytic filter capacitors are connected in series to increase the operating voltage of a power supply filter circuit, why should resistors be connected across each capacitor?

Select	Answer
A	To equalize, as much as possible, the voltage drop across each capacitor
B	To provide a minimum load current to reduce voltage excursions at light loads
C	All of these choices are correct
D	To provide a safety bleeder to discharge the capacitors when the supply is off

34. - E7E04

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

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

35. - E7F03

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

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

36. - E7G09

What will be the output voltage of the circuit shown in Figure E7-4 if R1 is 1000 ohms, RF is 10,000 ohms, and 0.23 volts DC is applied to the input?

Select	Answer
A	0.23 volts
B	-0.23 volts
C	-2.3 volts
D	2.3 volts

37. - E7H13

Which of the following is a technique for providing highly accurate and stable oscillators needed for microwave transmission and reception?

Select	Answer
A	Use a rubidium stabilized reference oscillator
B	Use a GPS signal reference
C	All of these choices are correct
D	Use a temperature-controlled high Q dielectric resonator

38. - E8A11

What type of information can be conveyed using digital waveforms?

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

39. - E8B07

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing is a technique used for which type of amateur communication?

Select	Answer
A	OFDM signals are not allowed on amateur bands
B	Extremely low-power contacts
C	High speed digital modes
D	EME

40. - E8C11

What is the relationship between symbol rate and baud?

Select	Answer
A	Symbol rate is only used for packet-based modes
B	Baud is only used for RTTY
C	Baud is twice the symbol rate
D	They are the same

41. - E8D05

What is the most common method of reducing key clicks?

Select	Answer
A	High-pass filters at the transmitter output
B	Reduce keying waveform rise and fall times
C	Increase keying waveform rise and fall times
D	Low-pass filters at the transmitter output

42. - E9A08

What is meant by antenna bandwidth?

Select	Answer
A	The angle between the half-power radiation points
B	Antenna length divided by the number of elements
C	The frequency range over which an antenna satisfies a performance requirement
D	The angle formed between two imaginary lines drawn through the element ends

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

44. - E9C14

How does the performance of a horizontally polarized antenna mounted on the side of a hill compare with the same antenna mounted on flat ground?

Select	Answer
A	The main lobe takeoff angle decreases in the downhill direction
B	The main lobe takeoff angle increases in the downhill direction
C	The horizontal beam width increases in the uphill direction
D	The horizontal beam width decreases in the downhill direction

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 maximize losses
C	To minimize losses
D	To minimize the Q

46. - E9E10

Which of these choices is an effective way to match an antenna with a 100 ohm feed point impedance to a 50 ohm coaxial cable feed line?

Select	Answer
A	Connect a 1/4-wavelength open stub of 300 ohm twin-lead in parallel with the coaxial feed line where it connects to the antenna
B	Insert a 1/2 wavelength piece of 300 ohm twin-lead in series between the antenna terminals and the 50 ohm feed cable
C	Insert a 1/4-wavelength piece of 75 ohm coaxial cable transmission line in series between the antenna terminals and the 50 ohm feed cable
D	Connect 1/2 wavelength shorted stub of 75 ohm cable in parallel with the 50 ohm cable where it attaches to the antenna

47. - E9F05

What is the approximate physical length of a solid polyethylene dielectric coaxial transmission line that is electrically one-quarter wavelength long at 14.1 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	2.3 meters
B	3.5 meters
C	20 meters
D	0.2 meters

48. - E9G05

What type of chart is shown in Figure E9-3?

Select	Answer
A	Free space radiation directivity chart
B	Smith chart
C	Azimuth angle radiation pattern chart
D	Elevation angle radiation pattern chart

49. - E9H02

Which is generally true for low band (160 meter and 80 meter) receiving antennas?

Select	Answer
A	They must be erected at least 1/2 wavelength above the ground to attain good directivity
B	All of these choices are correct
C	Low loss coax transmission line is essential for good performance
D	Atmospheric noise is so high that gain over a dipole is not important

50. - E0A10

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

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

Figure E7-1

Figure E7-4

Figure E9-3