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

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1. - E1A09

What is the first action you should take if your digital message forwarding station inadvertently forwards a communication that violates FCC rules?

Select	Answer
A	Notify the nearest FCC Field Engineer's office
B	Discontinue forwarding the communication as soon as you become aware of it
C	Notify the originating station that the communication does not comply with FCC rules
D	Discontinue forwarding all messages

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 proposal must be submitted to the National Park Service
C	A form FSD-15 must be submitted to the Department of the Interior
D	A letter of intent must be filed with the National Audubon Society

3. - E1C05

When may an automatically controlled station originate third party communications?

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

4. - E1D07

Which amateur service HF bands have frequencies authorized for space stations?

Select	Answer
A	All HF bands
B	Only the 40 m, 20 m, 17 m, 15 m and 10 m bands
C	Only the 40 m, 30 m, 20 m, 15 m, 12 m and 10 m bands
D	Only the 40 m, 20 m, 17 m, 15 m, 12 m and 10 m bands

5. - E1E06

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

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

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. - E2A11

What type of antenna can be used to minimize the effects of spin modulation and Faraday rotation?

Select	Answer
A	A linearly polarized antenna
B	A log-periodic dipole array
C	An isotropic antenna
D	A circularly polarized antenna

8. - E2B16

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

Select	Answer
A	NTSC
B	DRM
C	Scottie
D	PAL

9. - E2C08

Which of the following contacts may be confirmed through the U.S. QSL bureau system?

Select	Answer
A	Special event contacts between stations in the U.S.
B	Repeater contacts between U.S. club members
C	Contacts using tactical call signs
D	Contacts between a U.S. station and a non-U.S. station

10. - E2D02

Which of the following is a good technique for making meteor scatter contacts?

Select	Answer
A	All of these choices are correct
B	Use of high speed CW or digital modes
C	Short transmission with rapidly repeated call signs and signal reports
D	15 second timed transmission sequences with stations alternating based on location

11. - E2E07

What is the typical bandwidth of a properly modulated MFSK16 signal?

Select	Answer
A	31 Hz
B	2.16 kHz
C	316 Hz
D	550 Hz

12. - E3A14

From the contiguous 48 states, in which approximate direction should an antenna be pointed to take maximum advantage of aurora propagation?

Select	Answer
A	North
B	South
C	West
D	East

13. - E3B12

What is the primary characteristic of chordal hop propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Successive ionospheric reflections without an intermediate reflection from the ground
B	Signals reflected back toward the transmitting station
C	Propagation across the geomagnetic equator
D	Propagation away from the great circle bearing between stations

14. - E3C10

What does the 304A solar parameter measure?

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

15. - E4A02

Which of the following parameters would a spectrum analyzer display on the vertical and horizontal axes?

Select	Answer
A	RF amplitude and frequency
B	SWR and frequency
C	SWR and time
D	RF amplitude and time

16. - E4B03

If a frequency counter with a specified accuracy of +/- 1.0 ppm reads 146,520,000 Hz, what is the most the actual frequency being measured could differ from the reading?

Select	Answer
A	165.2 Hz
B	146.52 Hz
C	1.4652 MHz
D	14.652 kHz

17. - E4C01

What is an effect of excessive phase noise in the local oscillator section of a receiver?

Select	Answer
A	It can cause strong signals on nearby frequencies to interfere with reception of weak signals
B	It reduces receiver sensitivity
C	It limits the receiver's ability to receive strong signals
D	It decreases receiver third-order intermodulation distortion dynamic range

18. - E4D08

What causes intermodulation in an electronic circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Too little gain
B	Positive feedback
C	Nonlinear circuits or devices
D	Lack of neutralization

19. - E4E12

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

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

20. - E5A16

What is the resonant frequency of a parallel RLC circuit if R is 33 ohms, L is 50 microhenrys and C is 10 picofarads?

Select	Answer
A	23.5 MHz
B	7.12 kHz
C	23.5 kHz
D	7.12 MHz

21. - E5B12

What is admittance?

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

22. - E5C04

Which of the following represents a capacitive reactance in polar coordinates?

Select	Answer
A	A negative phase angle
B	A positive phase angle
C	A negative real part
D	A positive real part

23. - E5D08

What type of energy is stored in an electromagnetic or electrostatic field?

Select	Answer
A	Kinetic energy
B	Electromechanical energy
C	Thermodynamic energy
D	Potential energy

24. - E6A04

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

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

25. - E6B05

What characteristic of a PIN diode makes it useful as an RF switch or attenuator?

Select	Answer
A	Reverse bias controls its forward voltage drop
B	Extremely high reverse breakdown voltage
C	Ability to dissipate large amounts of power
D	A large region of intrinsic material

26. - E6C04

What is the primary advantage of tri-state logic?

Select	Answer
A	High speed operation
B	Low power consumption
C	More efficient arithmetic operations
D	Ability to connect many device outputs to a common bus

27. - E6D17

Why should core saturation of a conventional impedance matching transformer be avoided?

Select	Answer
A	Harmonics and distortion could result
B	Magnetic flux would increase with frequency
C	Temporary changes of the core permeability could result
D	RF susceptance would increase

28. - E6E03

Which of the following materials is likely to provide the highest frequency of operation when used in MMICs?

Select	Answer
A	Silicon
B	Silicon nitride
C	Silicon dioxide
D	Gallium nitride

29. - E6F09

What is the efficiency of a photovoltaic cell?

Select	Answer
A	The open-circuit voltage divided by the short-circuit current under full illumination
B	The relative fraction of light that is converted to current
C	The effective payback period
D	The output RF power divided by the input DC power

30. - E7A07

What logical operation does a NAND gate perform?

Select	Answer
A	It produces logic "0" at its output only when all inputs are logic "1"
B	It produces logic "0" at its output only when all inputs are logic "0"
C	It produces logic "1" at its output only when all inputs are logic "1"
D	It produces logic "0" at its output if some but not all inputs are logic "1"

31. - E7B06

Which of the following amplifier types reduces or eliminates even order harmonics?

Select	Answer
A	Class C
B	Push-push
C	Class AB
D	Push-pull

32. - E7C08

Which of the following factors has the greatest effect in helping determine the bandwidth and response shape of a crystal ladder filter?

Select	Answer
A	The amplitude of the signals passing through the filter
B	The relative frequencies of the individual crystals
C	The DC voltage applied to the quartz crystal
D	The gain of the RF stage preceding the filter

33. - E7D10

What is the primary reason that a high-frequency switching type high voltage power supply can be both less expensive and lighter in weight than a conventional power supply?

Select	Answer
A	It uses a diode bridge rectifier for increased output
B	The inverter design does not require any output filtering
C	It uses a large power factor compensation capacitor to create free power from the unused portion of the AC cycle
D	The high frequency inverter design uses much smaller transformers and filter components for an equivalent power output

34. - E7E08

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

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

35. - E7F02

What kind of digital signal processing audio filter is used to remove unwanted noise from a received SSB signal?

Select	Answer
A	A Hilbert-transform filter
B	A phase-inverting filter
C	A crystal-lattice filter
D	An adaptive filter

36. - E7G05

How can unwanted ringing and audio instability be prevented in a multi-section op-amp RC audio filter circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Restrict Q but increase gain
B	Restrict both gain and Q
C	Increase both gain and Q
D	Restrict gain but increase Q

37. - E7H15

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

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

38. - E8A05

What would be the most accurate way of measuring the RMS voltage of a complex waveform?

Select	Answer
A	By using an absorption wave meter
B	By measuring the heating effect in a known resistor
C	By using a grid dip meter
D	By measuring the voltage with a D'Arsonval meter

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	3
C	0.3
D	3000

40. - E8C08

How does ARQ accomplish error correction?

Select	Answer
A	If errors are detected, a retransmission is requested
B	Special polynomial codes provide automatic correction
C	If errors are detected, redundant data is substituted
D	Special binary codes provide automatic correction

41. - E8D03

How does the spread spectrum technique of frequency hopping work?

Select	Answer
A	The frequency of the transmitted signal is changed very rapidly according to a particular sequence also used by the receiving station
B	If interference is detected by the receiver it will signal the transmitter to wait until the frequency is clear
C	A pseudo-random binary bit stream is used to shift the phase of an RF carrier very rapidly in a particular sequence
D	If interference is detected by the receiver it will signal the transmitter to change frequencies

42. - E9A03

Why would one need to know the feed point impedance of an antenna?

Select	Answer
A	To calculate the front-to-back ratio of the antenna
B	To measure the near-field radiation density from a transmitting antenna
C	To calculate the front-to-side ratio of the antenna
D	To match impedances in order to minimize standing wave ratio on the transmission line

43. - E9B01

In the antenna radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-1, what is the 3 dB beam-width?

Select	Answer
A	25 degrees
B	75 degrees
C	30 degrees
D	50 degrees

44. - E9C05

What is an OCFD antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A dipole feed approximately 1/3 the way from one end with a 4:1 balun to provide multiband operation
B	An eight band dipole antenna using octophase filters
C	A multiband dipole antenna using one-way circular polarization for frequency diversity
D	A remotely tunable dipole antenna using orthogonally controlled frequency diversity

45. - E9D06

What happens to the bandwidth of an antenna as it is shortened through the use of loading coils?

Select	Answer
A	It becomes flat
B	It is increased
C	No change occurs
D	It is decreased

46. - E9E06

What is the equivalent lumped-constant network for a hairpin matching system of a 3-element Yagi?

Select	Answer
A	Pi-network
B	A series capacitor
C	A shunt inductor
D	Pi-L-network

47. - E9F14

What impedance does a 1/2 wavelength transmission line present to a generator when the line is shorted at the far end?

Select	Answer
A	Very high impedance
B	The same as the output impedance of the generator
C	The same as the characteristic impedance of the line
D	Very low impedance

48. - E9G10

What do the arcs on a Smith chart represent?

Select	Answer
A	SWR
B	Frequency
C	Points with constant reactance
D	Points with constant resistance

49. - E9H07

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

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

50. - E0A01

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

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

Figure E9-1