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

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1. - E1A01

When using a transceiver that displays the carrier frequency of phone signals, which of the following displayed frequencies represents the highest frequency at which a properly adjusted USB emission will be totally within the band?

Select	Answer
A	3 kHz below the upper band edge
B	1 kHz below the upper band edge
C	300 Hz below the upper band edge
D	The exact upper band edge

2. - E1B02

Which of the following factors might cause the physical location of an amateur station apparatus or antenna structure to be restricted?

Select	Answer
A	The location is near an area of political conflict
B	The location is in an ITU Zone designated for coordination with one or more foreign governments
C	The location is of environmental importance or significant in American history, architecture, or culture
D	The location is of geographical or horticultural importance

3. - E1C01

What is a remotely controlled station?

Select	Answer
A	A station controlled indirectly through a control link
B	A station controlled by someone other than the licensee
C	A station operating under automatic control
D	A station operated away from its regular home location

4. - E1D09

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

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

5. - E1E07

What should a VE do if a candidate fails to comply with the examiner's instructions during an amateur operator license examination?

Select	Answer
A	Warn the candidate that continued failure to comply will result in termination of the examination
B	Allow the candidate to complete the examination, but invalidate the results
C	Immediately terminate everyone's examination and close the session
D	Immediately terminate the candidate's examination

6. - E1F06

Under what circumstances might the FCC issue a Special Temporary Authority (STA) to an amateur station?

Select	Answer
A	To provide temporary operation while awaiting normal licensing
B	To allow regular operation on Land Mobile channels
C	To provide for experimental amateur communications
D	To provide additional spectrum for personal use

7. - E2A09

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

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

8. - E2B10

Which of the following is an acceptable bandwidth for Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) based voice or SSTV digital transmissions made on the HF amateur bands?

Select	Answer
A	15 KHz
B	20 KHz
C	10 KHz
D	3 KHz

9. - E2C02

Which of the following best describes the term self-spotting in regards to HF contest operating?

Select	Answer
A	The acceptable practice of manually posting the call signs of stations on a spotting network
B	The generally prohibited practice of posting one's own call sign and frequency on a spotting network
C	A manual technique for rapidly zero beating or tuning to a station's frequency before calling that station
D	An automatic method for rapidly zero beating or tuning to a station's frequency before calling that station

10. - E2D07

What digital protocol is used by APRS?

Select	Answer
A	AX.25
B	PACTOR
C	AMTOR
D	802.11

11. - E2E03

How is the timing of JT65 contacts organized?

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

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

13. - E3B14

What happens to linearly polarized radio waves that split into ordinary and extraordinary waves in the ionosphere?

Select	Answer
A	They become elliptically polarized
B	They are bent toward the magnetic poles
C	They become phase-locked
D	Their polarization is randomly modified

14. - E3C06

By how much does the VHF/UHF radio horizon distance exceed the geometric horizon?

Select	Answer
A	By approximately 15 percent of the distance
B	By approximately 50 percent of the distance
C	By approximately four times the distance
D	By approximately twice the distance

15. - E4A13

How is the compensation of an oscilloscope probe typically adjusted?

Select	Answer
A	A DC voltage standard is displayed and the probe is adjusted until the displayed voltage is accurate
B	A high frequency sine wave is displayed and the probe is adjusted for maximum amplitude
C	A square wave is displayed and the probe is adjusted until the horizontal portions of the displayed wave are as nearly flat as possible
D	A frequency standard is displayed and the probe is adjusted until the deflection time is accurate

16. - E4B07

What do the subscripts of S parameters represent?

Select	Answer
A	Relative quality of the data
B	Frequency order of the measurements
C	The port or ports at which measurements are made
D	The relative time between measurements

17. - E4C09

Which of the following choices is a good reason for selecting a high frequency for the design of the IF in a conventional HF or VHF communications receiver?

Select	Answer
A	Easier for front-end circuitry to eliminate image responses
B	Improved receiver noise figure
C	Fewer components in the receiver
D	Reduced drift

18. - E4D08

What causes intermodulation in an electronic circuit?

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

19. - E4E02

Which of the following types of receiver noise can often be reduced with a DSP noise filter?

Select	Answer
A	Power line noise
B	Ignition noise
C	All of these choices are correct
D	Broadband white noise

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

21. - E5B03

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

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

22. - E5C04

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

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

23. - E5D10

How can the true power be determined in an AC circuit where the voltage and current are out of phase?

Select	Answer
A	By multiplying the reactive power times the power factor
B	By dividing the reactive power by the power factor
C	By multiplying the apparent power times the power factor
D	By dividing the apparent power by the power factor

24. - E6A16

What are the majority charge carriers in N-type semiconductor material?

Select	Answer
A	Free neutrons
B	Holes
C	Free protons
D	Free electrons

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	Controlled reverse avalanche voltage
C	Enhanced carrier retention time
D	Less forward voltage drop

26. - E6C14

What is the primary advantage of using a Programmable Gate Array (PGA) in a logic circuit?

Select	Answer
A	A PGA contains its own internal power supply
B	Complex logic functions can be created in a single integrated circuit
C	All of these choices are correct
D	Many similar gates are less expensive than a mixture of gate types

27. - E6D09

What devices are commonly used as VHF and UHF parasitic suppressors at the input and output terminals of a transistor HF amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	Steel-core toroids
B	Ferrite beads
C	Butterworth filters
D	Electrolytic capacitors

28. - E6E07

Which of the following is typically used to construct a MMIC-based microwave amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	Wave-soldering construction
B	Microstrip construction
C	Ground-plane construction
D	Point-to-point construction

29. - E6F09

What is the efficiency of a photovoltaic cell?

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

30. - E7A11

What type of logic defines "1" as a high voltage?

Select	Answer
A	Positive Logic
B	Negative logic
C	Assertive Logic
D	Reverse Logic

31. - E7B04

Where on the load line of a Class A common emitter amplifier would bias normally be set?

Select	Answer
A	Approximately half-way between saturation and cutoff
B	At a point where the load line intersects the zero bias current curve
C	Where the load line intersects the voltage axis
D	At a point where the bias resistor equals the load resistor

32. - E7C01

How are the capacitors and inductors of a low-pass filter Pi-network arranged between the network's input and output?

Select	Answer
A	An inductor is connected between the input and ground, another inductor is connected between the output and ground, and a capacitor is connected between the input and output
B	Two capacitors are in series between the input and output, and an inductor is connected between the two capacitors and ground
C	Two inductors are in series between the input and output, and a capacitor is connected between the two inductors and ground
D	A capacitor is connected between the input and ground, another capacitor is connected between the output and ground, and an inductor is connected between input and output

33. - E7D01

What is one characteristic of a linear electronic voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	It has a ramp voltage as its output
B	The control element duty cycle is proportional to the line or load conditions
C	The conduction of a control element is varied to maintain a constant output voltage
D	It eliminates the need for a pass transistor

34. - E7E08

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

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

35. - E7F17

What do the letters I and Q in I/Q Modulation represent?

Select	Answer
A	Inactive and Quiescent
B	Instantaneous and Quenched
C	Instantaneous and Quasi-stable
D	In-phase and Quadrature

36. - E7G06

Which of the following is the most appropriate use of an op-amp active filter?

Select	Answer
A	As a high-pass filter used to block RFI at the input to receivers
B	As an audio filter in a receiver
C	As a low-pass filter used between a transmitter and a transmission line
D	For smoothing power supply output

37. - E7H09

What type of frequency synthesizer circuit uses a phase accumulator, lookup table, digital to analog converter, and a low-pass anti-alias filter?

Select	Answer
A	A direct digital synthesizer
B	A diode-switching matrix synthesizer
C	A phase locked loop synthesizer
D	A hybrid synthesizer

38. - E8A13

Which of these methods is commonly used to convert analog signals to digital signals?

Select	Answer
A	Level shifting
B	Phase reversal
C	Sequential sampling
D	Harmonic regeneration

39. - E8B08

What describes Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing?

Select	Answer
A	A frequency modulation technique which uses non-harmonically related frequencies
B	A digital mode for narrow band, slow speed transmissions
C	A digital modulation technique using subcarriers at frequencies chosen to avoid intersymbol interference
D	A bandwidth compression technique using Fourier transforms

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

41. - E8D06

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

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

42. - E9A11

Which of the following factors determines ground losses for a ground-mounted vertical antenna operating in the 3 MHz to 30 MHz range?

Select	Answer
A	Distance from the transmitter
B	The standing wave ratio
C	Take-off angle
D	Soil conductivity

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	50 degrees
C	75 degrees
D	30 degrees

44. - E9C11

How is the far-field elevation pattern of a vertically polarized antenna affected by being mounted over seawater versus rocky ground?

Select	Answer
A	The low-angle radiation increases
B	The low-angle radiation decreases
C	Both the high-angle and low-angle radiation decrease
D	The high-angle radiation increases

45. - E9D03

Where should a high Q loading coil be placed to minimize losses in a shortened vertical antenna?

Select	Answer
A	As close to the transmitter as possible
B	Near the center of the vertical radiator
C	As low as possible on the vertical radiator
D	At a voltage node

46. - E9E05

How must the driven element in a 3-element Yagi be tuned to use a hairpin matching system?

Select	Answer
A	The driven element radiation resistance must be higher than the characteristic impedance of the transmission line
B	The driven element reactance must be inductive
C	The driven element resonance must be lower than the operating frequency
D	The driven element reactance must be capacitive

47. - E9F08

What is the term for the ratio of the actual speed at which a signal travels through a transmission line to the speed of light in a vacuum?

Select	Answer
A	Characteristic impedance
B	Surge impedance
C	Velocity factor
D	Standing wave ratio

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	Polar axis
D	Prime axis

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. - E0A02

When evaluating RF exposure levels from your station at a neighbor's home, what must you do?

Select	Answer
A	Make sure signals from your station are less than the controlled MPE limits
B	You need only evaluate exposure levels on your own property
C	Advise your neighbors of the results of your tests
D	Make sure signals from your station are less than the uncontrolled MPE limits

Figure E9-1

Figure E9-3