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

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	You must file an Environmental Impact Statement with the EPA before construction begins
B	You must obtain a construction permit from the airport zoning authority
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	No special rules apply if your antenna structure will be less than 300 feet in height

3. - E1C09

Which of these ranges of frequencies is available for an automatically controlled repeater operating below 30 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	10.100 MHz - 10.150 MHz
B	24.940 MHz - 24.990 MHz
C	29.500 MHz - 29.700 MHz
D	18.110 MHz - 18.168 MHz

4. - E1D03

What is a telecommand station in the amateur satellite service?

Select	Answer
A	An amateur station that transmits communications to initiate, modify or terminate functions of a space station
B	An amateur station that transmits telemetry consisting of measurements of upper atmosphere
C	An amateur station located on the Earth's surface for communication with other Earth stations by means of Earth satellites
D	An amateur station located more than 50 km above the Earth's surface

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. - E1F05

Amateur stations may not transmit in which of the following frequency segments if they are located in the contiguous 48 states and north of Line A?

Select	Answer
A	222 MHz - 223 MHz
B	420 MHz - 430 MHz
C	53 MHz - 54 MHz
D	440 MHz - 450 MHz

7. - E2A01

What is the direction of an ascending pass for an amateur satellite?

Select	Answer
A	From south to north
B	From north to south
C	From west to east
D	From east to west

8. - E2B14

What aspect of an amateur slow-scan television signal encodes the brightness of the picture?

Select	Answer
A	Sync amplitude
B	Sync frequency
C	Tone amplitude
D	Tone frequency

9. - E2C01

Which of the following is true about contest operating?

Select	Answer
A	Operators are permitted to make contacts even if they do not submit a log
B	It is mandatory to transmit the call sign of the station being worked as part of every transmission to that station
C	Interference to other amateurs is unavoidable and therefore acceptable
D	Every contest requires a signal report in the exchange

10. - E2D03

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

Select	Answer
A	FSK441
B	PACTOR III
C	Olivia
D	JT65

11. - E2E08

Which of the following HF digital modes can be used to transfer binary files?

Select	Answer
A	PACTOR
B	AMTOR
C	RTTY
D	Hellschreiber

12. - E3A04

What do Hepburn maps predict?

Select	Answer
A	Sporadic E propagation
B	Probability of tropospheric propagation
C	Likelihood of rain-scatter along cold or warm fronts
D	Locations of auroral reflecting zones

13. - E3B07

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

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

14. - E3C11

What does VOACAP software model?

Select	Answer
A	HF propagation
B	AC current and impedance
C	VHF radio propagation
D	AC voltage and impedance

15. - E4A04

What determines the upper frequency limit for a computer soundcard-based oscilloscope program?

Select	Answer
A	Analog-to-digital conversion speed of the soundcard
B	Q of the interface of the interface circuit
C	All of these choices are correct
D	Amount of memory on the soundcard

16. - E4B06

How much power is being absorbed by the load when a directional power meter connected between a transmitter and a terminating load reads 100 watts forward power and 25 watts reflected power?

Select	Answer
A	25 watts
B	100 watts
C	125 watts
D	75 watts

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

18. - E4D05

What transmitter frequencies would cause an intermodulation-product signal in a receiver tuned to 146.70 MHz when a nearby station transmits on 146.52 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	146.88 MHz and 146.34 MHz
B	146.10 MHz and 147.30 MHz
C	146.34 MHz and 146.61 MHz
D	173.35 MHz and 139.40 MHz

19. - E4E04

How can conducted and radiated noise caused by an automobile alternator be suppressed?

Select	Answer
A	By installing filter capacitors in series with the DC power lead and a blocking capacitor in the field lead
B	By installing a noise suppression resistor and a blocking capacitor in both leads
C	By installing a high-pass filter in series with the radio's power lead and a low-pass filter in parallel with the field lead
D	By connecting the radio's power leads directly to the battery and by installing coaxial capacitors in line with the alternator leads

20. - E5A13

What is an effect of increasing Q in a resonant circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Phase shift can become uncontrolled
B	Fewer components are needed for the same performance
C	Parasitic effects are minimized
D	Internal voltages and circulating currents increase

21. - E5B08

What is the phase angle between the voltage across and the current through a series RLC circuit if XC is 100 ohms, R is 100 ohms, and XL is 75 ohms?

Select	Answer
A	76 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
B	14 degrees with the voltage leading the current
C	76 degrees with the voltage leading the current
D	14 degrees with the voltage lagging the current

22. - E5C10

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

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

23. - E5D04

Why are short connections necessary at microwave frequencies?

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

24. - E6A07

Which of the following indicates that a silicon NPN junction transistor is biased on?

Select	Answer
A	Base-to-emitter voltage of approximately 6 to 7 volts
B	Base-to-emitter voltage of approximately 0.6 to 0.7 volts
C	Base-to-emitter resistance of approximately 6 to 7 ohms
D	Base-to-emitter resistance of approximately 0.6 to 0.7 ohms

25. - E6B04

What type of semiconductor device is designed for use as a voltage-controlled capacitor?

Select	Answer
A	Zener diode
B	Varactor diode
C	Tunnel diode
D	Silicon-controlled rectifier

26. - E6C04

What is the primary advantage of tri-state logic?

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

27. - E6D07

What is the usable frequency range of inductors that use toroidal cores, assuming a correct selection of core material for the frequency being used?

Select	Answer
A	From approximately 10 Hz to no more than 3000 kHz
B	From less than 20 Hz to approximately 300 MHz
C	From a few kHz to no more than 30 MHz
D	From about 100 kHz to at least 1000 GHz

28. - E6E02

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

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

29. - E6F07

What is a solid state relay?

Select	Answer
A	A mechanical relay that latches in the on or off state each time it is pulsed
B	A relay using transistors to drive the relay coil
C	A device that uses semiconductors to implement the functions of an electromechanical relay
D	A passive delay line

30. - E7A08

What logical operation does an OR gate perform?

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

31. - E7B18

What is a characteristic of a grounded-grid amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	Low bandwidth
B	Low input impedance
C	High filament voltage
D	High power gain

32. - E7C14

Which mode is most affected by non-linear phase response in a receiver IF filter?

Select	Answer
A	Meteor scatter
B	Video
C	Digital
D	Single-Sideband voice

33. - E7D06

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

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

34. - E7E04

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

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

35. - E7F13

What is the function of taps in a digital signal processing filter?

Select	Answer
A	Select the point at which baseband signals are generated
B	Provide access for debugging software
C	Provide incremental signal delays for filter algorithms
D	To reduce excess signal pressure levels

36. - E7G12

What is an integrated circuit operational amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	A digital audio amplifier whose characteristics are determined by components external to the amplifier
B	A high-gain, direct-coupled differential amplifier with very high input impedance and very low output impedance
C	A RF amplifier used in the UHF and microwave regions
D	An amplifier used to increase the average output of frequency modulated amateur signals to the legal limit

37. - E7H10

What information is contained in the lookup table of a direct digital frequency synthesizer?

Select	Answer
A	The phase relationship between a reference oscillator and the output waveform
B	The synthesizer frequency limits and frequency values stored in the radio memories
C	The amplitude values that represent a sine-wave output
D	The phase relationship between a voltage-controlled oscillator and the output waveform

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. - 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	3000
D	0.3

40. - E8C01

How is Forward Error Correction implemented?

Select	Answer
A	By transmitting a special algorithm to the receiving station along with the data characters
B	By transmitting extra data that may be used to detect and correct transmission errors
C	By the receiving station repeating each block of three data characters
D	By varying the frequency shift of the transmitted signal according to a predefined algorithm

41. - E8D05

What is the most common method of reducing key clicks?

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

42. - E9A13

How much gain does an antenna have compared to a 1/2-wavelength dipole when it has 12 dB gain over an isotropic antenna?

Select	Answer
A	14.15 dB
B	12.5 dB
C	6.17 dB
D	9.85 dB

43. - E9B12

What is the far field of an antenna?

Select	Answer
A	The region where the shape of the antenna pattern is independent of distance
B	The region of the ionosphere where radiated power is not refracted
C	The region where radiated field strengths are obstructed by objects of reflection
D	The region where radiated power dissipates over a specified time period

44. - E9C13

What is the main effect of placing a vertical antenna over an imperfect ground?

Select	Answer
A	It changes the impedance angle of the matching network
B	It reduces low-angle radiation
C	It causes increased SWR
D	It reduces losses in the radiating portion of the antenna

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	As low as possible on the vertical radiator
C	Near the center of the vertical radiator
D	At a voltage node

46. - E9E07

What term best describes the interactions at the load end of a mismatched transmission line?

Select	Answer
A	Dielectric constant
B	Reflection coefficient
C	Characteristic impedance
D	Velocity factor

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	20 meters
B	2.3 meters
C	3.5 meters
D	0.2 meters

48. - E9G09

What third family of circles is often added to a Smith chart during the process of solving problems?

Select	Answer
A	Standing wave ratio circles
B	Antenna-length circles
C	Coaxial-length circles
D	Radiation-pattern circles

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

50. - E0A10

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

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

Figure E7-3