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. - 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 obtain a construction permit from the airport zoning authority
B	You must file an Environmental Impact Statement with the EPA before construction begins
C	No special rules apply if your antenna structure will be less than 300 feet in height
D	You may have to notify the Federal Aviation Administration and register it with the FCC as required by Part 17 of FCC rules

3. - E1C05

When may an automatically controlled station originate third party communications?

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

4. - E1D03

What is a telecommand station in the amateur satellite service?

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

5. - E1E10

What must the administering VEs do after the administration of a successful examination for an amateur operator license?

Select	Answer
A	They must collect and send the documents to the FCC according to instructions
B	They must collect and send the documents to the NCVEC for grading
C	They must submit the application document to the coordinating VEC according to the coordinating VEC instructions
D	They must collect and submit the documents to the coordinating VEC for grading

6. - E1F04

Which of the following geographic descriptions approximately describes "Line A"?

Select	Answer
A	A line roughly parallel to and east of the U.S. Pacific coastline
B	A line roughly parallel to and north of the U.S.-Mexican border and Gulf coastline
C	A line roughly parallel to and south of the U.S.-Canadian border
D	A line roughly parallel to and west of the U.S. Atlantic coastline

7. - E2A10

Why may the received signal from an amateur satellite exhibit a rapidly repeating fading effect?

Select	Answer
A	Because of the Doppler Effect
B	Because of ionospheric absorption
C	Because the satellite is spinning
D	Because of the satellite's low orbital altitude

8. - E2B06

What is vestigial sideband modulation?

Select	Answer
A	Narrow-band FM modulation achieved by filtering one sideband from the audio before frequency modulating the carrier
B	Amplitude modulation in which one complete sideband and a portion of the other are transmitted
C	Spread spectrum modulation achieved by applying FM modulation following single sideband amplitude modulation
D	A type of modulation in which one sideband is inverted

9. - E2C09

What type of equipment is commonly used to implement a ham radio mesh network?

Select	Answer
A	A 440 MHz transceiver with a 9600 baud modem
B	A 2 meter VHF transceiver with a 1200 baud modem
C	An optical cable connection between the USB ports of 2 separate computers
D	A standard wireless router running custom software

10. - E2D13

What type of modulation is used for JT65 contacts?

Select	Answer
A	PSK
B	IEEE 802.11
C	RTTY
D	Multi-tone AFSK

11. - E2E02

What do the letters FEC mean as they relate to digital operation?

Select	Answer
A	Forward Error Correction
B	Final Error Correction
C	Fatal Error Correction
D	First Error Correction

12. - E3A05

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

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

13. - E3B05

Which amateur bands typically support long-path propagation?

Select	Answer
A	6 meters to 2 meters
B	160 meters to 40 meters
C	160 meters to 10 meters
D	30 meters to 10 meters

14. - E3C12

How does the maximum distance of ground-wave propagation change when the signal frequency is increased?

Select	Answer
A	It increases
B	It decreases
C	It peaks at roughly 14 MHz
D	It stays the same

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	Attenuate the transmitter output going to the spectrum analyzer
C	Use high quality double shielded coaxial cables to reduce signal losses
D	All of these choices are correct

16. - E4B09

What is indicated if the current reading on an RF ammeter placed in series with the antenna feed line of a transmitter increases as the transmitter is tuned to resonance?

Select	Answer
A	There is more power going into the antenna
B	The transmitter is not properly neutralized
C	There is an impedance mismatch between the antenna and feed line
D	There is possibly a short to ground in the feed line

17. - E4C08

An SDR receiver is overloaded when input signals exceed what level?

Select	Answer
A	One-half the maximum sample rate
B	One-half the maximum sampling buffer size
C	The reference voltage of the analog-to-digital converter
D	The maximum count value of the analog-to-digital converter

18. - E4D14

Which of the following is a way to reduce the likelihood of receiver desensitization?

Select	Answer
A	Decrease the RF bandwidth of the receiver
B	Increase the receiver front end gain
C	Switch from fast AGC to slow AGC
D	Raise the receiver IF frequency

19. - E4E07

How can you determine if line noise interference is being generated within your home?

Select	Answer
A	By observing the AC power line waveform with an oscilloscope
B	By observing the AC power line voltage with a spectrum analyzer
C	By turning off the AC power line main circuit breaker and listening on a battery operated radio
D	By checking the power line voltage with a time domain reflectometer

20. - E5A14

What is the resonant frequency of a series RLC circuit if R is 22 ohms, L is 50 microhenrys and C is 40 picofarads?

Select	Answer
A	3.56 MHz
B	22.36 MHz
C	1.78 MHz
D	44.72 MHz

21. - E5B06

What is susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	The magnetic impedance of a circuit
B	The ratio of magnetic field to electric field
C	A measure of the efficiency of a transformer
D	The inverse of reactance

22. - E5C12

If you plot the impedance of a circuit using the rectangular coordinate system and find the impedance point falls on the right side of the graph on the horizontal axis, what do you know about the circuit?

Select	Answer
A	It has to be a direct current circuit
B	It contains resistance and capacitive reactance
C	It contains resistance and inductive reactance
D	It is equivalent to a pure resistance

23. - E5D05

Which parasitic characteristic increases with conductor length?

Select	Answer
A	Inductance
B	Malleability
C	Permittivity
D	Permeability

24. - E6A10

In Figure E6-2, what is the schematic symbol for an N-channel dual-gate MOSFET?

Select	Answer
A	5
B	6
C	2
D	4

25. - E6B04

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

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

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 that insures that an oscillator frequency does not drive lower over time
C	A resistor connected to the positive or negative supply line used to establish a voltage when an input or output is an open circuit
D	A resistor in a keying circuit used to reduce key clicks

27. - E6D02

What is the equivalent circuit of a quartz crystal?

Select	Answer
A	Motional capacitance, motional inductance, loss resistance, and a capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance all in parallel
B	Motional capacitance, motional inductance, and loss resistance in series, all in parallel with a shunt capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance
C	Motional inductance and loss resistance in series, paralleled with motional capacitance and a capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance
D	Motional capacitance, motional inductance, loss resistance, and a capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance all in series

28. - E6E09

Which of the following component package types would be most suitable for use at frequencies above the HF range?

Select	Answer
A	TO-220
B	Axial lead
C	Surface mount
D	Radial lead

29. - E6F07

What is a solid state relay?

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

30. - E7A03

Which of the following can divide the frequency of a pulse train by 2?

Select	Answer
A	An XOR gate
B	A flip-flop
C	An OR gate
D	A multiplexer

31. - E7B11

In Figure E7-1, what is the purpose of R3?

Select	Answer
A	Self bias
B	Output load resistor
C	Emitter bypass
D	Fixed bias

32. - E7C06

What are the distinguishing features of an elliptical filter?

Select	Answer
A	Gradual passband rolloff with extreme stop band ripple
B	Extremely sharp cutoff with one or more notches in the stop band
C	Extremely flat response over its pass band with gradually rounded stop band corners
D	Gradual passband rolloff with minimal stop band ripple

33. - E7D09

What is the main reason to use a charge controller with a solar power system?

Select	Answer
A	Prevention of battery damage due to overcharge
B	Control of electrolyte levels during battery discharge
C	Prevention of battery undercharge
D	Matching of day and night charge rates

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 loop modulator followed by a mixer
D	By using a reactance modulator followed by a mixer

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 can respond faster to impulses
C	All of these choices are correct
D	FIR filters delay all frequency components of the signal by the same amount

36. - E7G12

What is an integrated circuit operational amplifier?

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

37. - E7H14

What is a phase-locked loop circuit?

Select	Answer
A	An electronic servo loop consisting of a phase detector, a low-pass filter, a voltage-controlled oscillator, and a stable reference oscillator
B	An electronic servo loop consisting of a ratio detector, reactance modulator, and voltage-controlled oscillator
C	An electronic circuit consisting of a precision push-pull amplifier with a differential input
D	An electronic circuit also known as a monostable multivibrator

38. - E8A07

What determines the PEP-to-average power ratio of a single-sideband phone signal?

Select	Answer
A	The degree of carrier suppression
B	The frequency of the modulating signal
C	The amplifier gain
D	The characteristics of the modulating signal

39. - E8B08

What describes Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing?

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

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	Special binary codes provide automatic correction
D	If errors are detected, redundant data is substituted

41. - E8D07

What is a common cause of overmodulation of AFSK signals?

Select	Answer
A	Bit errors in the modem
B	Excessive transmit audio levels
C	Ground loops
D	Excessive numbers of retries

42. - E9A02

What antenna has no gain in any direction?

Select	Answer
A	Half-wave dipole
B	Quarter-wave vertical
C	Yagi
D	Isotropic antenna

43. - E9B09

What type of computer program technique is commonly used for modeling antennas?

Select	Answer
A	Method of Moments
B	Calculus differentiation with respect to physical properties
C	Mutual impedance analysis
D	Graphical analysis

44. - E9C13

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

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

45. - E9D12

Which of the following would provide the best RF ground for your station?

Select	Answer
A	An electrically short connection to 3 or 4 interconnected ground rods driven into the Earth
B	An electrically short connection to a metal water pipe
C	A 50 ohm resistor connected to ground
D	An electrically short connection to 3 or 4 interconnected ground rods via a series RF choke

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 resonance must be lower than the operating frequency
C	The driven element reactance must be inductive
D	The driven element reactance must be capacitive

47. - E9F13

What impedance does a 1/4 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 characteristic impedance of the transmission line
C	The same as the generator output impedance
D	Very low impedance

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

50. - E0A07

How may dangerous levels of carbon monoxide from an emergency generator be detected?

Select	Answer
A	Any ordinary smoke detector can be used
B	By the odor
C	By the yellowish appearance of the gas
D	Only with a carbon monoxide detector

Figure E6-2

Figure E7-1