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

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1. - E1A14

What is the maximum bandwidth for a data emission on 60 meters?

Select	Answer
A	2.8 kHz
B	1.5 kHz
C	60 Hz
D	170 Hz

2. - E1B09

Which amateur stations may be operated under RACES rules?

Select	Answer
A	Any FCC-licensed amateur station except a Technician class
B	Any FCC-licensed amateur station participating in the Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS)
C	Only those club stations licensed to Amateur Extra class operators
D	Any FCC-licensed amateur station certified by the responsible civil defense organization for the area served

3. - E1C01

What is a remotely controlled station?

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

4. - E1D08

Which VHF amateur service bands have frequencies available for space stations?

Select	Answer
A	2 meters and 1.25 meters
B	6 meters, 2 meters, and 1.25 meters
C	2 meters
D	6 meters and 2 meters

5. - E1E04

Which of the following best describes the Volunteer Examiner accreditation process?

Select	Answer
A	The prospective VE obtains accreditation from the FCC
B	Each General, Advanced and Amateur Extra Class operator is automatically accredited as a VE when the license is granted
C	The amateur operator applying must pass a VE examination administered by the FCC Enforcement Bureau
D	The procedure by which a VEC confirms that the VE applicant meets FCC requirements to serve as an examiner

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	53 MHz - 54 MHz
C	440 MHz - 450 MHz
D	420 MHz - 430 MHz

7. - E2A14

What technology is used to track, in real time, balloons carrying amateur radio transmitters?

Select	Answer
A	APRS
B	Radar
C	Doppler shift of beacon signals
D	Bandwidth compressed LORAN

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	3 KHz
B	10 KHz
C	20 KHz
D	15 KHz

9. - E2C05

What is the function of a DX QSL Manager?

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

10. - E2D11

Which of the following data are used by the APRS network to communicate your location?

Select	Answer
A	Latitude and longitude
B	Polar coordinates
C	Radio direction finding spectrum analysis
D	Time and frequency

11. - E2E13

Which of the following is a possible reason that attempts to initiate contact with a digital station on a clear frequency are unsuccessful?

Select	Answer
A	Your transmit frequency is incorrect
B	The protocol version you are using is not the supported by the digital station
C	All of these choices are correct
D	Another station you are unable to hear is using the frequency

12. - E3A05

Tropospheric propagation of microwave signals often occurs along what weather related structure?

Select	Answer
A	Lightning discharges
B	Gray-line
C	Warm and cold fronts
D	Sprites and jets

13. - E3B08

What type of HF propagation is probably occurring if radio signals travel along the terminator between daylight and darkness?

Select	Answer
A	Sporadic-E
B	Long-path
C	Transequatorial
D	Gray-line

14. - E3C03

Which of the following signal paths is most likely to experience high levels of absorption when the A index or K index is elevated?

Select	Answer
A	Polar paths
B	NVIS
C	Transequatorial propagation
D	Sporadic-E

15. - E4A12

Which of the following procedures is an important precaution to follow when connecting a spectrum analyzer to a transmitter output?

Select	Answer
A	Match the antenna to the load
B	All of these choices are correct
C	Attenuate the transmitter output going to the spectrum analyzer
D	Use high quality double shielded coaxial cables to reduce signal losses

16. - E4B04

If a frequency counter with a specified accuracy of +/- 0.1 ppm reads 146,520,000 Hz, what is the most the actual frequency being measured could differ from the reading?

Select	Answer
A	0.1 MHz
B	1.4652 Hz
C	14.652 Hz
D	1.4652 kHz

17. - E4C04

How is the noise figure of a receiver defined?

Select	Answer
A	The ratio of the noise bandwidth in Hertz to the theoretical bandwidth of a resistive network
B	The ratio of thermal noise to atmospheric noise
C	The ratio of atmospheric noise to phase noise
D	The ratio in dB of the noise generated by the receiver to the theoretical minimum noise

18. - E4D01

What is meant by the blocking dynamic range of a receiver?

Select	Answer
A	The minimum difference in dB between the levels of two FM signals which will cause one signal to block the other
B	The difference in dB between the noise floor and the level of an incoming signal which will cause 1 dB of gain compression
C	The minimum difference in dB between two signals which produce third order intermodulation products greater than the noise floor
D	The difference in dB between the noise floor and the third order intercept point

19. - E4E03

Which of the following signals might a receiver noise blanker be able to remove from desired signals?

Select	Answer
A	Signals which have a sharply peaked frequency distribution
B	Signals which are constant at all IF levels
C	Signals which appear across a wide bandwidth
D	Signals which appear at one IF but not another

20. - E5A09

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

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

21. - E5B02

What is the term for the time it takes for a charged capacitor in an RC circuit to discharge to 36.8% of its initial voltage?

Select	Answer
A	One discharge period
B	A discharge factor of one
C	One time constant
D	An exponential discharge rate of one

22. - E5C15

Which point in Figure E5-2 best represents the impedance of a series circuit consisting of a 300 ohm resistor and an 18 microhenry inductor at 3.505 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	Point 7
B	Point 3
C	Point 8
D	Point 1

23. - E5D17

How many watts are consumed in a circuit having a power factor of 0.6 if the input is 200VAC at 5 amperes?

Select	Answer
A	200 watts
B	1000 watts
C	1600 watts
D	600 watts

24. - E6A04

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

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

25. - E6B05

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

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

26. - E6C07

What best describes a pull-up or pull-down resistor?

Select	Answer
A	A resistor connected to an op-amp output that only functions when the logic output is false
B	A resistor in a keying circuit used to reduce key clicks
C	A resistor that insures that an oscillator frequency does not drive lower over time
D	A resistor connected to the positive or negative supply line used to establish a voltage when an input or output is an open circuit

27. - E6D14

Which type of slug material decreases inductance when inserted into a coil?

Select	Answer
A	Brass
B	Powdered-iron
C	Ceramic
D	Ferrite

28. - E6E10

What is the packaging technique in which leadless components are soldered directly to circuit boards?

Select	Answer
A	Stripped lead
B	Virtual lead mounting
C	Surface mount
D	Direct soldering

29. - E6F07

What is a solid state relay?

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

30. - E7A06

What is a characteristic of a monostable multivibrator?

Select	Answer
A	It produces a continuous square wave oscillating between 1 and 0
B	It stores one bit of data in either a 0 or 1 state
C	It switches momentarily to the opposite binary state and then returns to its original state after a set time
D	It maintains a constant output voltage, regardless of variations in the input voltage

31. - E7B15

What is one way to prevent thermal runaway in a bipolar transistor amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	Neutralization
B	All of these choices are correct
C	Use a resistor in series with the emitter
D	Select transistors with high beta

32. - E7C13

What is one advantage of a Pi-matching network over an L-matching network consisting of a single inductor and a single capacitor?

Select	Answer
A	Pi-networks have fewer components
B	Pi-networks are designed for balanced input and output
C	The Q of Pi-networks can be varied depending on the component values chosen
D	L-networks cannot perform impedance transformation

33. - E7D08

What type of circuit is shown in Figure E7-3?

Select	Answer
A	Grounded emitter amplifier
B	Emitter follower
C	Linear voltage regulator
D	Switching voltage regulator

34. - E7E04

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

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

35. - E7F05

How frequently must an analog signal be sampled by an analog-to-digital converter so that the signal can be accurately reproduced?

Select	Answer
A	At half the rate of the highest frequency component of the signal
B	At twice the rate of the highest frequency component of the signal
C	At four times the rate of the highest frequency component of the signal
D	At the same rate as the highest frequency component of the signal

36. - E7G04

What is meant by the term op-amp input offset voltage?

Select	Answer
A	The difference between the output voltage of the op-amp and the input voltage required in the immediately following stage
B	The differential input voltage needed to bring the open loop output voltage to zero
C	The output voltage of the op-amp minus its input voltage
D	The potential between the amplifier input terminals of the op-amp in an open loop condition

37. - E7H07

How can an oscillator's microphonic responses be reduced?

Select	Answer
A	Using the oscillator only for CW and digital signals
B	Eliminating noise on the oscillator's power supply
C	Mechanically isolating the oscillator circuitry from its enclosure
D	Use of NP0 capacitors

38. - E8A03

What type of wave does a Fourier analysis show to be made up of sine waves of a given fundamental frequency plus all of its harmonics?

Select	Answer
A	A cosine wave
B	A sawtooth wave
C	A sine wave
D	A square wave

39. - E8B01

What is the term for the ratio between the frequency deviation of an RF carrier wave and the modulating frequency of its corresponding FM-phone signal?

Select	Answer
A	Quieting index
B	Modulation index
C	Percentage of modulation
D	FM compressibility

40. - E8C10

What is an advantage of Gray code in digital communications where symbols are transmitted as multiple bits

Select	Answer
A	It has more resolution than simple binary
B	It facilitates error detection
C	It increases security
D	It has more possible states than simple binary

41. - E8D06

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

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

42. - E9A04

Which of the following factors may affect the feed point impedance of an antenna?

Select	Answer
A	Antenna height, conductor length/diameter ratio and location of nearby conductive objects
B	Sunspot activity and time of day
C	Transmission-line length
D	The settings of an antenna tuner at the transmitter

43. - E9B04

What may occur when a directional antenna is operated at different frequencies within the band for which it was designed?

Select	Answer
A	Feed point impedance may become negative
B	The E-field and H-field patterns may reverse
C	Element spacing limits could be exceeded
D	The gain may change depending on frequency

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

45. - E9D08

What happens as the Q of an antenna increases?

Select	Answer
A	SWR bandwidth decreases
B	SWR bandwidth increases
C	More common-mode current is present on the feed line
D	Gain is reduced

46. - E9E07

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

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

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

48. - E9G08

What is the process of normalization with regard to a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Reassigning impedance values with regard to the prime center
B	Reassigning reactance values with regard to the resistance axis
C	Reassigning resistance values with regard to the reactance axis
D	Reassigning prime center with regard to the reactance axis

49. - E9H05

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

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

50. - E0A02

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

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

Figure E5-2

Figure E7-3