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

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1. - E1A03

With your transceiver displaying the carrier frequency of phone signals, you hear a station calling CQ on 14.349 MHz USB. Is it legal to return the call using upper sideband on the same frequency?

Select	Answer
A	No, U.S. stations are not permitted to use phone emissions above 14.340 MHz
B	Yes, because you were not the station calling CQ
C	No, the sideband will extend beyond the band edge
D	Yes, because the displayed frequency is within the 20 meter band

2. - E1B08

What limitations may the FCC place on an amateur station if its signal causes interference to domestic broadcast reception, assuming that the receivers involved are of good engineering design?

Select	Answer
A	The amateur station must cease operation on all frequencies below 30 MHz
B	The amateur station must cease operation
C	The amateur station must cease operation on all frequencies above 30 MHz
D	The amateur station must avoid transmitting during certain hours on frequencies that cause the interference

3. - E1C09

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

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

4. - E1D09

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

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

5. - E1E01

What is the minimum number of qualified VEs required to administer an Element 4 amateur operator license examination?

Select	Answer
A	4
B	3
C	5
D	2

6. - E1F01

On what frequencies are spread spectrum transmissions permitted?

Select	Answer
A	Only on amateur frequencies above 144 MHz
B	Only on amateur frequencies above 420 MHz
C	Only on amateur frequencies above 222 MHz
D	Only on amateur frequencies above 50 MHz

7. - E2A08

Why should effective radiated power to a satellite which uses a linear transponder be limited?

Select	Answer
A	To avoid interfering with terrestrial QSOs
B	To avoid reducing the downlink power to all other users
C	To prevent the satellite from emitting out-of-band signals
D	To prevent creating errors in the satellite telemetry

8. - E2B12

How are analog SSTV images typically transmitted on the HF bands?

Select	Answer
A	Video is converted to equivalent Baudot representation
B	Video is converted to equivalent ASCII representation
C	Varying tone frequencies representing the video are transmitted using PSK
D	Varying tone frequencies representing the video are transmitted using single sideband

9. - E2C05

What is the function of a DX QSL Manager?

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

10. - E2D09

Which of these digital modes has the fastest data throughput under clear communication conditions?

Select	Answer
A	170 Hz shift, 45 baud RTTY
B	AMTOR
C	PSK31
D	300 baud packet

11. - E2E09

Which of the following HF digital modes uses variable-length coding for bandwidth efficiency?

Select	Answer
A	RTTY
B	PACTOR
C	MT63
D	PSK31

12. - E3A07

Atmospheric ducts capable of propagating microwave signals often form over what geographic feature?

Select	Answer
A	Forests
B	Bodies of water
C	Mountain ranges
D	Urban areas

13. - E3B03

What is the best time of day for transequatorial propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Noon
B	Morning
C	Afternoon or early evening
D	Late at night

14. - E3C10

What does the 304A solar parameter measure?

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

15. - E4A15

What is an advantage of a period-measuring frequency counter over a direct-count type?

Select	Answer
A	It does not require an expensive high-precision time base
B	It can directly measure the modulation index of an FM transmitter
C	It can run on battery power for remote measurements
D	It provides improved resolution of low-frequency signals within a comparable time period

16. - E4B12

What is the significance of voltmeter sensitivity expressed in ohms per volt?

Select	Answer
A	When used as a galvanometer, the reading in volts multiplied by the ohms per volt rating will determine the power drawn by the device under test
B	When used as an ohmmeter, the reading in ohms divided by the ohms per volt rating will determine the voltage applied to the circuit
C	The full scale reading of the voltmeter multiplied by its ohms per volt rating will indicate the input impedance of the voltmeter
D	When used as an ammeter, the full scale reading in amps divided by ohms per volt rating will determine the size of shunt needed

17. - E4C12

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

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

18. - E4D06

What is the term for unwanted signals generated by the mixing of two or more signals?

Select	Answer
A	Amplifier desensitization
B	Adjacent channel interference
C	Intermodulation interference
D	Neutralization

19. - E4E16

What current flows equally on all conductors of an unshielded multi-conductor cable?

Select	Answer
A	Return current
B	Differential-mode current
C	Reactive current only
D	Common-mode current

20. - E5A17

What is the result of increasing the Q of an impedance-matching circuit?

Select	Answer
A	It has no effect on impedance matching
B	Matching bandwidth is decreased
C	Matching range is increased
D	Matching bandwidth is increased

21. - E5B04

What is the time constant of a circuit having two 220 microfarad capacitors and two 1 megohm resistors, all in parallel?

Select	Answer
A	110 seconds
B	440 seconds
C	55 seconds
D	220 seconds

22. - E5C10

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

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

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

24. - E6A11

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

Select	Answer
A	6
B	3
C	2
D	1

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	Excessive junction temperature
D	Charge carrier depletion

26. - E6C02

What happens when the level of a comparator's input signal crosses the threshold?

Select	Answer
A	The feedback loop becomes unstable
B	The comparator enters latch-up
C	The comparator changes its output state
D	The IC input can be damaged

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

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. - E6F06

Which of these materials is affected the most by photoconductivity?

Select	Answer
A	A liquid semiconductor
B	A crystalline semiconductor
C	An ordinary metal
D	A heavy metal

30. - E7A09

What logical operation is performed by an exclusive NOR gate?

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

31. - E7B18

What is a characteristic of a grounded-grid amplifier?

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

32. - E7C02

Which of the following is a property of a T-network with series capacitors and a parallel shunt inductor?

Select	Answer
A	It is a low-pass filter
B	It is a high-pass filter
C	It is a band-pass filter
D	It is a notch filter

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 voltage for rated power dissipation
D	Minimum input-to-output voltage required to maintain regulation

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 reactance modulator followed by a mixer
C	By driving a product detector with a DSB signal
D	By using a balanced modulator followed by a filter

35. - E7F15

Which of the following is an advantage of a Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filter vs an Infinite Impulse Response (IIR) digital filter?

Select	Answer
A	FIR filters are easier to implement for a given set of passband rolloff requirements
B	FIR filters delay all frequency components of the signal by the same amount
C	FIR filters can respond faster to impulses
D	All of these choices are correct

36. - E7G09

What will be the output voltage of the circuit shown in Figure E7-4 if R1 is 1000 ohms, RF is 10,000 ohms, and 0.23 volts DC is applied to the input?

Select	Answer
A	0.23 volts
B	2.3 volts
C	-0.23 volts
D	-2.3 volts

37. - E7H12

Which of the following must be done to insure that a crystal oscillator provides the frequency specified by the crystal manufacturer?

Select	Answer
A	Bias the crystal at a specified voltage
B	Bias the crystal at a specified current
C	Provide the crystal with a specified parallel capacitance
D	Provide the crystal with a specified parallel inductance

38. - E8A06

What is the approximate ratio of PEP-to-average power in a typical single-sideband phone signal?

Select	Answer
A	25 to 1
B	1 to 1
C	100 to 1
D	2.5 to 1

39. - E8B11

What is digital time division multiplexing?

Select	Answer
A	Two or more signals are arranged to share discrete time slots of a data transmission
B	Two or more signals are quadrature modulated to increase bandwidth efficiency
C	Two or more data streams share the same channel by transmitting time of transmission as the sub-carrier
D	Two or more data streams are assigned to discrete sub-carriers on an FM transmitter

40. - E8C06

What is the necessary bandwidth of a 170-hertz shift, 300-baud ASCII transmission?

Select	Answer
A	1.0 kHz
B	0.5 kHz
C	0.1 Hz
D	0.3 kHz

41. - E8D11

What is one advantage of using ASCII code for data communications?

Select	Answer
A	It contains fewer information bits per character than any other code
B	It includes built in error correction features
C	It uses one character as a shift code to send numeric and special characters
D	It is possible to transmit both upper and lower case text

42. - E9A14

What is meant by the radiation resistance of an antenna?

Select	Answer
A	The resistance in the atmosphere that an antenna must overcome to be able to radiate a signal
B	The value of a resistance that would dissipate the same amount of power as that radiated from an antenna
C	The combined losses of the antenna elements and feed line
D	The specific impedance of the antenna

43. - E9B15

What is the front-to-back ratio of the radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-2?

Select	Answer
A	28 dB
B	15 dB
C	3 dB
D	24 dB

44. - E9C10

Which of the following describes a Zepp antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A dipole constructed from zip cord
B	An end fed dipole antenna
C	A vertical array capable of quickly changing the direction of maximum radiation by changing phasing lines
D	An omni-directional antenna commonly used for satellite communications

45. - E9D01

How does the gain of an ideal parabolic dish antenna change when the operating frequency is doubled?

Select	Answer
A	Gain is multiplied by 0.707
B	Gain increases by 6 dB
C	Gain increases by 3 dB
D	Gain does not change

46. - E9E12

What is the primary purpose of a phasing line when used with an antenna having multiple driven elements?

Select	Answer
A	It makes sure the antenna has a low-angle radiation pattern
B	It prevents reflected power from traveling back down the feed line and causing harmonic radiation from the transmitter
C	It allows single-band antennas to operate on other bands
D	It ensures that each driven element operates in concert with the others to create the desired antenna pattern

47. - E9F16

Which of the following is a significant difference between foam dielectric coaxial cable and solid dielectric cable, assuming all other parameters are the same?

Select	Answer
A	Foam dielectric has lower safe operating voltage limits
B	All of these choices are correct
C	Foam dielectric has higher velocity factor
D	Foam dielectric has lower loss per unit of length

48. - E9G11

How are the wavelength scales on a Smith chart calibrated?

Select	Answer
A	In fractions of antenna electrical frequency
B	In fractions of antenna electrical wavelength
C	In fractions of transmission line electrical wavelength
D	In fractions of transmission line electrical frequency

49. - E9H05

What is the main drawback of a wire-loop antenna for direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	It is practical for use only on VHF bands
B	It is non-rotatable
C	It has a bidirectional pattern
D	It receives equally well in all directions

50. - E0A04

When evaluating a site with multiple transmitters operating at the same time, the operators and licensees of which transmitters are responsible for mitigating over-exposure situations?

Select	Answer
A	Only the most powerful transmitter
B	Each transmitter that produces 5 percent or more of its MPE limit at accessible locations
C	Each transmitter operating with a duty-cycle greater than 50 percent
D	Only commercial transmitters

Figure E6-2

Figure E7-4

Figure E9-2