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	Yes, because the displayed frequency is within the 75 meter phone band segment
C	No, U.S. stations are not permitted to use phone emissions below 3.610 MHz
D	Yes, because the DX station initiated the contact

2. - E1B06

Which of the following additional rules apply if you are installing an amateur station antenna at a site at or near a public use airport?

Select	Answer
A	No special rules apply if your antenna structure will be less than 300 feet in height
B	You must file an Environmental Impact Statement with the EPA before construction begins
C	You may have to notify the Federal Aviation Administration and register it with the FCC as required by Part 17 of FCC rules
D	You must obtain a construction permit from the airport zoning authority

3. - E1C12

What types of communications may be transmitted to amateur stations in foreign countries?

Select	Answer
A	Business-related messages for non-profit organizations
B	All of these choices are correct
C	Messages intended for connection to users of the maritime satellite service
D	Communications incidental to the purpose of the amateur service and remarks of a personal nature

4. - E1D01

What is the definition of the term telemetry?

Select	Answer
A	Two-way radiotelephone transmissions in excess of 1000 feet
B	One-way transmission that initiates, modifies, or terminates the functions of a device at a distance
C	Two-way single channel transmissions of data
D	One-way transmission of measurements at a distance from the measuring instrument

5. - E1E08

To which of the following examinees may a VE not administer an examination?

Select	Answer
A	Employees of the VE
B	Relatives of the VE as listed in the FCC rules
C	All of these choices are correct
D	Friends of the VE

6. - E1F11

Which of the following best describes one of the standards that must be met by an external RF power amplifier if it is to qualify for a grant of FCC certification?

Select	Answer
A	It must produce full legal output when driven by not more than 5 watts of mean RF input power
B	It must satisfy the FCC's spurious emission standards when operated at the lesser of 1500 watts or its full output power
C	It must exhibit a gain of 0 dB or less over its full output range
D	It must be capable of external RF switching between its input and output networks

7. - E2A09

What do the terms L band and S band specify with regard to satellite communications?

Select	Answer
A	The 23 centimeter and 13 centimeter bands
B	FM and Digital Store-and-Forward systems
C	Which sideband to use
D	The 2 meter and 70 centimeter bands

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. - E2C05

What is the function of a DX QSL Manager?

Select	Answer
A	To handle the receiving and sending of confirmation cards for a DX station
B	To run a net to allow many stations to contact a rare DX station
C	To relay calls to and from a DX station
D	To allocate frequencies for DXpeditions

10. - E2D14

What is one advantage of using JT65 coding?

Select	Answer
A	Permits fast-scan TV transmissions over narrow bandwidth
B	Uses only a 65 Hz bandwidth
C	The ability to decode signals which have a very low signal to noise ratio
D	Easily copied by ear if necessary

11. - E2E02

What do the letters FEC mean as they relate to digital operation?

Select	Answer
A	Forward Error Correction
B	Final Error Correction
C	First Error Correction
D	Fatal Error Correction

12. - E3A11

What is a typical range for tropospheric propagation of microwave signals?

Select	Answer
A	10 miles to 50 miles
B	100 miles to 300 miles
C	2500 miles
D	1200 miles

13. - E3B10

What is the cause of gray-line propagation?

Select	Answer
A	At midday, the Sun super heats the ionosphere causing increased refraction of radio waves
B	In darkness, solar absorption drops greatly while atmospheric ionization remains steady
C	At twilight and sunrise, D-layer absorption is low while E-layer and F-layer propagation remains high
D	At mid-afternoon, the Sun heats the ionosphere decreasing radio wave refraction and the MUF

14. - E3C15

What might a sudden rise in radio background noise indicate?

Select	Answer
A	A solar flare has occurred
B	A meteor ping
C	Increased transequatorial propagation likely
D	Long-path propagation is occurring

15. - E4A06

What is the effect of aliasing in a digital or computer-based oscilloscope?

Select	Answer
A	Calibration of the vertical scale is no longer valid
B	All signals will have a DC offset
C	False triggering occurs
D	False signals are displayed

16. - E4B16

Which S parameter represents return loss or SWR?

Select	Answer
A	S21
B	S22
C	S12
D	S11

17. - E4C12

What is an undesirable effect of using too wide a filter bandwidth in the IF section of a receiver?

Select	Answer
A	Filter ringing
B	Undesired signals may be heard
C	Output-offset overshoot
D	Thermal-noise distortion

18. - E4D10

What does a third-order intercept level of 40 dBm mean with respect to receiver performance?

Select	Answer
A	Signals less than 40 dBm will not generate audible third-order intermodulation products
B	A pair of 40 dBm signals will theoretically generate a third-order intermodulation product with the same level as the input signals
C	A pair of 1 mW input signals will produce a third-order intermodulation product which is 40 dB stronger than the input signal
D	The receiver can tolerate signals up to 40 dB above the noise floor without producing third-order intermodulation products

19. - E4E09

What undesirable effect can occur when using an IF noise blanker?

Select	Answer
A	The audio frequency bandwidth of the received signal might be compressed
B	FM signals can no longer be demodulated
C	Received audio in the speech range might have an echo effect
D	Nearby signals may appear to be excessively wide even if they meet emission standards

20. - E5A03

What is the magnitude of the impedance of a series RLC circuit at resonance?

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

21. - E5B03

What happens to the phase angle of a reactance when it is converted to a susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	It is shifted by 90 degrees
B	The susceptance phase angle is the inverse of the reactance phase angle
C	The sign is reversed
D	It is unchanged

22. - E5C02

How are impedances described in polar coordinates?

Select	Answer
A	By Y and G values
B	By phase angle and amplitude
C	By real and imaginary parts
D	By X and R values

23. - E5D04

Why are short connections necessary at microwave frequencies?

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

24. - E6A01

In what application is gallium arsenide used as a semiconductor material in preference to germanium or silicon?

Select	Answer
A	In very low frequency RF circuits
B	In high-power audio circuits
C	In high-current rectifier circuits
D	In microwave circuits

25. - E6B07

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

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

26. - E6C06

Why do CMOS digital integrated circuits have high immunity to noise on the input signal or power supply?

Select	Answer
A	The input switching threshold is about one-half the power supply voltage
B	Larger bypass capacitors are used in CMOS circuit design
C	Input signals are stronger
D	The input switching threshold is about two times the power supply voltage

27. - E6D13

What is the primary cause of inductor self-resonance?

Select	Answer
A	The skin effect
B	Inter-turn capacitance
C	Inductive kickback
D	Non-linear core hysteresis

28. - E6E08

How is voltage from a power supply normally furnished to the most common type of monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC)?

Select	Answer
A	Through a resistor and/or RF choke connected to the amplifier output lead
B	Through a capacitor and RF choke connected to the amplifier input lead
C	Directly to the bias voltage (VCC IN) lead
D	MMICs require no operating bias

29. - E6F02

What happens to the conductivity of a photoconductive material when light shines on it?

Select	Answer
A	It decreases
B	It stays the same
C	It increases
D	It becomes unstable

30. - E7A05

Which of the following is a circuit that continuously alternates between two states without an external clock?

Select	Answer
A	Astable multivibrator
B	T flip-flop
C	J-K flip-flop
D	Monostable multivibrator

31. - E7B11

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

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

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
B	Pi-L
C	Cascode
D	Omega

33. - E7D12

What is the drop-out voltage of an analog voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	Maximum amount that the output voltage may decrease at rated load
B	Maximum amount that the output voltage drops when the input voltage is varied over its specified range
C	Minimum input-to-output voltage required to maintain regulation
D	Minimum input voltage for rated power dissipation

34. - E7E08

What are the principal frequencies that appear at the output of a mixer circuit?

Select	Answer
A	The two input frequencies along with their sum and difference frequencies
B	1.414 and 0.707 times the input frequency
C	The sum, difference and square root of the input frequencies
D	Two and four times the original frequency

35. - E7F04

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

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

36. - E7G04

What is meant by the term op-amp input offset voltage?

Select	Answer
A	The potential between the amplifier input terminals of the op-amp in an open loop condition
B	The output voltage of the op-amp minus its input voltage
C	The difference between the output voltage of the op-amp and the input voltage required in the immediately following stage
D	The differential input voltage needed to bring the open loop output voltage to zero

37. - E7H15

Which of these functions can be performed by a phase-locked loop?

Select	Answer
A	Photovoltaic conversion, optical coupling
B	Wide-band AF and RF power amplification
C	Frequency synthesis, FM demodulation
D	Comparison of two digital input signals, digital pulse counter

38. - E8A12

What is an advantage of using digital signals instead of analog signals to convey the same information?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	Digital signals can be regenerated multiple times without error
C	Digital signals always occupy a narrower bandwidth
D	Less complex circuitry is required for digital signal generation and detection

39. - E8B09

What is meant by deviation ratio?

Select	Answer
A	The ratio of the audio modulating frequency to the center carrier frequency
B	The ratio of the highest audio modulating frequency to the average audio modulating frequency
C	The ratio of the carrier center frequency to the audio modulating frequency
D	The ratio of the maximum carrier frequency deviation to the highest audio modulating frequency

40. - E8C03

When performing phase shift keying, why is it advantageous to shift phase precisely at the zero crossing of the RF carrier?

Select	Answer
A	It improves carrier suppression
B	It is easier to demodulate with a conventional, non-synchronous detector
C	This results in the least possible transmitted bandwidth for the particular mode
D	All of these choices are correct

41. - E8D06

Which of the following indicates likely overmodulation of an AFSK signal such as PSK or MFSK?

Select	Answer
A	High reflected power
B	Harmonics on higher bands
C	Rapid signal fading
D	Strong ALC action

42. - E9A04

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

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

43. - E9B13

What does the abbreviation NEC stand for when applied to antenna modeling programs?

Select	Answer
A	Numerical Electromagnetic Code
B	Next Element Comparison
C	National Electrical Code
D	Numeric Electrical Computation

44. - E9C06

What is the effect of a terminating resistor on a rhombic antenna?

Select	Answer
A	It changes the radiation pattern from horizontal to vertical polarization
B	It reflects the standing waves on the antenna elements back to the transmitter
C	It changes the radiation pattern from bidirectional to unidirectional
D	It decreases the ground loss

45. - E9D12

Which of the following would provide the best RF ground for your station?

Select	Answer
A	An electrically short connection to 3 or 4 interconnected ground rods driven into the Earth
B	An electrically short connection to 3 or 4 interconnected ground rods via a series RF choke
C	An electrically short connection to a metal water pipe
D	A 50 ohm resistor connected to ground

46. - E9E11

What is an effective way of matching a feed line to a VHF or UHF antenna when the impedances of both the antenna and feed line are unknown?

Select	Answer
A	Use a 50 ohm 1:1 balun between the antenna and feed line
B	Use the universal stub matching technique
C	Connect a series-resonant LC network across the antenna feed terminals
D	Connect a parallel-resonant LC network across the antenna feed terminals

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. - E9G06

On the Smith chart shown in Figure E9-3, what is the name for the large outer circle on which the reactance arcs terminate?

Select	Answer
A	Impedance axis
B	Reactance axis
C	Prime axis
D	Polar axis

49. - E9H01

When constructing a Beverage antenna, which of the following factors should be included in the design to achieve good performance at the desired frequency?

Select	Answer
A	It should be one or more wavelengths long
B	Its overall length must not exceed 1/4 wavelength
C	It should be configured as a four-sided loop
D	It must be mounted more than 1 wavelength above ground

50. - E0A10

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

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

Figure E7-1

Figure E9-3