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

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1. - E1A05

What is the maximum power output permitted on the 60 meter band?

Select	Answer
A	50 watts PEP effective radiated power relative to a dipole
B	50 watts PEP effective radiated power relative to an isotropic radiator
C	100 watts PEP effective radiated power relative to an isotropic radiator
D	100 watts PEP effective radiated power relative to the gain of a half-wave dipole

2. - E1B04

What must be done before placing an amateur station within an officially designated wilderness area or wildlife preserve, or an area listed in the National Register of Historical Places?

Select	Answer
A	An Environmental Assessment must be submitted to the FCC
B	A letter of intent must be filed with the National Audubon Society
C	A form FSD-15 must be submitted to the Department of the Interior
D	A proposal must be submitted to the National Park Service

3. - E1C07

What is meant by local control?

Select	Answer
A	Controlling a station through a local auxiliary link
B	Controlling a repeater using a portable handheld transceiver
C	Direct manipulation of the transmitter by a control operator
D	Automatically manipulating local station controls

4. - E1D04

What is an Earth station in the amateur satellite service?

Select	Answer
A	An amateur station within 50 km of the Earth's surface intended for communications with amateur stations by means of objects in space
B	An amateur station that transmits telemetry consisting of measurement of upper atmosphere
C	An amateur station that is not able to communicate using amateur satellites
D	Any amateur station on the surface of the Earth

5. - E1E13

Which of these choices is an acceptable method for monitoring the applicants if a VEC opts to conduct an exam session remotely?

Select	Answer
A	Record the exam session on video tape for later review by the VE team
B	Use a real-time video link and the Internet to connect the exam session to the observing VEs
C	Have each applicant sign an affidavit stating that all session rules were followed
D	The exam proctor observes the applicants and reports any violations

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 temporary operation while awaiting normal licensing
C	To provide additional spectrum for personal use
D	To provide for experimental amateur communications

7. - E2A06

On what band would a satellite receive signals if it were operating in mode U/V?

Select	Answer
A	29.5 MHz - 29.7 MHz
B	435 MHz - 438 MHz
C	144 MHz - 146 MHz
D	50.0 MHz - 50.2 MHz

8. - E2B09

What hardware, other than a receiver with SSB capability and a suitable computer, is needed to decode SSTV using Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM)?

Select	Answer
A	A special notch filter to remove synchronization pulses
B	A special front end limiter
C	No other hardware is needed
D	A special IF converter

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

10. - E2D03

Which of the following digital modes is especially useful for EME communications?

Select	Answer
A	Olivia
B	JT65
C	FSK441
D	PACTOR III

11. - E2E03

How is the timing of JT65 contacts organized?

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

12. - E3A10

Which type of atmospheric structure can create a path for microwave propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Wind shear
B	The jet stream
C	Dust devil
D	Temperature inversion

13. - E3B11

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

Select	Answer
A	Any time
B	Early evening
C	Around sunset
D	Around sunrise

14. - E3C15

What might a sudden rise in radio background noise indicate?

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

15. - E4A10

Which of the following displays multiple digital signal states simultaneously?

Select	Answer
A	Modulation monitor
B	Logic analyzer
C	Network analyzer
D	Bit error rate tester

16. - E4B13

Which S parameter is equivalent to forward gain?

Select	Answer
A	S21
B	S11
C	S12
D	S22

17. - E4C13

How does a narrow-band roofing filter affect receiver performance?

Select	Answer
A	It improves intelligibility by using low Q circuitry to reduce ringing
B	All of these choices are correct
C	It improves dynamic range by attenuating strong signals near the receive frequency
D	It improves sensitivity by reducing front end noise

18. - E4D12

What is the term for the reduction in receiver sensitivity caused by a strong signal near the received frequency?

Select	Answer
A	Desensitization
B	Squelch gain rollback
C	Quieting
D	Cross-modulation interference

19. - E4E12

What is one disadvantage of using some types of automatic DSP notch-filters when attempting to copy CW signals?

Select	Answer
A	Received CW signals will appear to be modulated at the DSP clock frequency
B	A DSP filter can remove the desired signal at the same time as it removes interfering signals
C	Ringing in the DSP filter will completely remove the spaces between the CW characters
D	Any nearby signal passing through the DSP system will overwhelm the desired signal

20. - E5A09

How is the Q of an RLC parallel resonant circuit calculated?

Select	Answer
A	Resistance divided by the reactance of either the inductance or capacitance
B	Reactance of either the inductance or capacitance multiplied by the resistance
C	Reactance of the inductance multiplied by the reactance of the capacitance
D	Reactance of either the inductance or capacitance divided by the resistance

21. - E5B12

What is admittance?

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

22. - E5C09

When using rectangular coordinates to graph the impedance of a circuit, what does the horizontal axis represent?

Select	Answer
A	The difference between the resistive and reactive components
B	Reactive component
C	Resistive component
D	The sum of the reactive and resistive components

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	200 Watts
C	70.7 Watts
D	100 Watts

24. - E6A11

In Figure E6-2, what is the schematic symbol for a P-channel junction FET?

Select	Answer
A	6
B	1
C	2
D	3

25. - E6B12

What is one common use for PIN diodes?

Select	Answer
A	As a constant current source
B	As an RF switch
C	As a constant voltage source
D	As a high voltage rectifier

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. - E6D06

What core material property determines the inductance of a toroidal inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Thermal impedance
B	Permeability
C	Resistance
D	Reactivity

28. - E6E06

What characteristics of the MMIC make it a popular choice for VHF through microwave circuits?

Select	Answer
A	Controlled gain, low noise figure, and constant input and output impedance over the specified frequency range
B	Plate current that is controlled by a control grid
C	Nearly infinite gain, very high input impedance, and very low output impedance
D	The ability to retrieve information from a single signal even in the presence of other strong signals

29. - E6F12

What absorbs the energy from light falling on a photovoltaic cell?

Select	Answer
A	Protons
B	Electrons
C	Holes
D	Photons

30. - E7A01

Which is a bi-stable circuit?

Select	Answer
A	An "AND" gate
B	An "OR" gate
C	A clock
D	A flip-flop

31. - E7B03

Which of the following components form the output of a class D amplifier circuit?

Select	Answer
A	A temperature compensating load resistor to improve linearity
B	A matched load resistor to prevent damage by switching transients
C	A high-pass filter to compensate for low gain at low frequencies
D	A low-pass filter to remove switching signal components

32. - E7C15

What is a crystal lattice filter?

Select	Answer
A	A power supply filter made with interlaced quartz crystals
B	A filter with narrow bandwidth and steep skirts made using quartz crystals
C	A filter with wide bandwidth and shallow skirts made using quartz crystals
D	An audio filter made with four quartz crystals that resonate at 1kHz intervals

33. - E7D06

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

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

34. - E7E04

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

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

35. - E7F12

What digital process is applied to I and Q signals in order to recover the baseband modulation information?

Select	Answer
A	Quadrature mixing
B	Fast Fourier Transform
C	Signal conditioning
D	Decimation

36. - E7G03

What is the typical input impedance of an integrated circuit op-amp?

Select	Answer
A	Very low
B	Very high
C	1000 ohms
D	100 ohms

37. - E7H15

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

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

38. - E8A08

Why would a direct or flash conversion analog-to-digital converter be useful for a software defined radio?

Select	Answer
A	Very low power consumption decreases frequency drift
B	Immunity to out of sequence coding reduces spurious responses
C	Very high speed allows digitizing high frequencies
D	All of these choices are correct

39. - E8B02

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

Select	Answer
A	It increases 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 decreases as the RF carrier frequency increases

40. - E8C04

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

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

41. - E8D01

Why are received spread spectrum signals resistant to interference?

Select	Answer
A	If interference is detected by the receiver it will signal the transmitter to change frequencies
B	Signals not using the spread spectrum algorithm are suppressed in the receiver
C	The high power used by a spread spectrum transmitter keeps its signal from being easily overpowered
D	The receiver is always equipped with a digital blanker

42. - E9A02

What antenna has no gain in any direction?

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

43. - E9B09

What type of computer program technique is commonly used for modeling antennas?

Select	Answer
A	Mutual impedance analysis
B	Calculus differentiation with respect to physical properties
C	Graphical analysis
D	Method of Moments

44. - E9C09

What is a G5RV antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A phased array antenna consisting of multiple loops
B	A multi-band trap antenna
C	A wide band dipole using shorted coaxial cable for the radiating elements and fed with a 4:1 balun
D	A multi-band dipole antenna fed with coax and a balun through a selected length of open wire transmission line

45. - E9D07

What is an advantage of using top loading in a shortened HF vertical antenna?

Select	Answer
A	Lower Q
B	Greater structural strength
C	Higher losses
D	Improved radiation efficiency

46. - E9E13

What is a use for a Wilkinson divider?

Select	Answer
A	It is used to divide power equally between two 50 ohm loads while maintaining 50 ohm input impedance
B	It divides the operating frequency of a transmitter signal so it can be used on a lower frequency band
C	It is used to feed low-impedance loads from a high-impedance source
D	It is used to feed high-impedance antennas from a low-impedance source

47. - E9F10

What impedance does a 1/8 wavelength transmission line present to a generator when the line is shorted at the far end?

Select	Answer
A	The same as the input impedance to the final generator stage
B	The same as the characteristic impedance of the line
C	An inductive reactance
D	A capacitive reactance

48. - E9G04

What are the two families of circles and arcs that make up a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Resistance and reactance
B	Voltage and impedance
C	Reactance and voltage
D	Resistance and voltage

49. - E9H07

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

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

50. - E0A11

Which of the following injuries can result from using high-power UHF or microwave transmitters?

Select	Answer
A	Hearing loss caused by high voltage corona discharge
B	Ingestion of ozone gas from the cooling system
C	Blood clotting from the intense magnetic field
D	Localized heating of the body from RF exposure in excess of the MPE limits

Figure E6-2

Figure E6-5

Figure E7-3