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

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1. - E1A02

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

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

2. - E1B09

Which amateur stations may be operated under RACES rules?

Select	Answer
A	Any FCC-licensed amateur station certified by the responsible civil defense organization for the area served
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 except a Technician class

3. - E1C04

What is meant by IARP?

Select	Answer
A	The internal amateur radio practices policy of the FCC
B	A forecast of intermittent aurora radio propagation
C	An international amateur radio permit that allows U.S. amateurs to operate in certain countries of the Americas
D	An indication of increased antenna reflected power

4. - E1D03

What is a telecommand station in the amateur satellite service?

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

5. - E1E01

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

Select	Answer
A	2
B	4
C	5
D	3

6. - E1F11

Which of the following best describes one of the standards that must be met by an external RF power amplifier if it is to qualify for a grant of FCC certification?

Select	Answer
A	It must exhibit a gain of 0 dB or less over its full output range
B	It must be capable of external RF switching between its input and output networks
C	It must produce full legal output when driven by not more than 5 watts of mean RF input power
D	It must satisfy the FCC's spurious emission standards when operated at the lesser of 1500 watts or its full output power

7. - E2A10

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

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

8. - E2B01

How many times per second is a new frame transmitted in a fast-scan (NTSC) television system?

Select	Answer
A	60
B	90
C	30
D	120

9. - E2C11

How should you generally identify your station when attempting to contact a DX station during a contest or in a pileup?

Select	Answer
A	Send the call sign of the DX station three times, the words "this is", then your call sign three times
B	Send your full call sign and grid square
C	Send your full call sign once or twice
D	Send only the last two letters of your call sign until you make contact

10. - E2D06

Which of the following describes a method of establishing EME contacts?

Select	Answer
A	Storing and forwarding digital messages
B	Judging optimum transmission times by monitoring beacons reflected from the Moon
C	High speed CW identification to avoid fading
D	Time synchronous transmissions alternately from each station

11. - E2E06

What is the most common data rate used for HF packet?

Select	Answer
A	110 baud
B	300 baud
C	1200 baud
D	48 baud

12. - E3A13

Which emission mode is best for aurora propagation?

Select	Answer
A	SSB
B	RTTY
C	FM
D	CW

13. - E3B04

What is meant by the terms extraordinary and ordinary waves?

Select	Answer
A	Refracted rays and reflected waves
B	Long path and short path waves
C	Extraordinary waves describe rare long skip propagation compared to ordinary waves which travel shorter distances
D	Independent waves created in the ionosphere that are elliptically polarized

14. - E3C08

What does the space weather term G5 mean?

Select	Answer
A	An extreme geomagnetic storm
B	Moderate solar wind
C	Very low solar activity
D	Waning sunspot numbers

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	Amount of memory on the soundcard
C	All of these choices are correct
D	Q of the interface of the interface circuit

16. - E4B01

Which of the following factors most affects the accuracy of a frequency counter?

Select	Answer
A	Input attenuator accuracy
B	Time base accuracy
C	Decade divider accuracy
D	Temperature coefficient of the logic

17. - E4C12

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

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

18. - E4D10

What does a third-order intercept level of 40 dBm mean with respect to receiver performance?

Select	Answer
A	A pair of 1 mW input signals will produce a third-order intermodulation product which is 40 dB stronger than the input signal
B	The receiver can tolerate signals up to 40 dB above the noise floor without producing third-order intermodulation products
C	Signals less than 40 dBm will not generate audible third-order intermodulation products
D	A pair of 40 dBm signals will theoretically generate a third-order intermodulation product with the same level as the input signals

19. - E4E16

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

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

20. - E5A11

What is the half-power bandwidth of a parallel resonant circuit that has a resonant frequency of 7.1 MHz and a Q of 150?

Select	Answer
A	47.3 kHz
B	315.6 Hz
C	23.67 kHz
D	157.8 Hz

21. - E5B06

What is susceptance?

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

22. - E5C07

What is a vector?

Select	Answer
A	The value of a quantity that changes over time
B	The inverse of the tangent function
C	A quantity with both magnitude and an angular component
D	The inverse of the sine function

23. - E5D06

In what direction is the magnetic field oriented about a conductor in relation to the direction of electron flow?

Select	Answer
A	In a direction determined by the left-hand rule
B	In a direction opposite to the current
C	In all directions; omni-directional
D	In the same direction as the current

24. - E6A13

What do the initials CMOS stand for?

Select	Answer
A	Complementary Mica-Oxide Silicon
B	Common Mode Oscillating System
C	Common Mode Organic Silicon
D	Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor

25. - E6B05

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

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

26. - E6C13

Which of the following is an advantage of BiCMOS logic?

Select	Answer
A	It has the high input impedance of CMOS and the low output impedance of bipolar transistors
B	All of these choices are correct
C	It is totally immune to electrostatic damage
D	Its simplicity results in much less expensive devices than standard CMOS

27. - E6D02

What is the equivalent circuit of a quartz crystal?

Select	Answer
A	Motional capacitance, motional inductance, and loss resistance in series, all in parallel with a shunt capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance
B	Motional capacitance, motional inductance, loss resistance, and a capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance all in parallel
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. - E6E05

Which of the following noise figure values is typical of a low-noise UHF preamplifier?

Select	Answer
A	-20 dBm
B	44 dBm
C	-10 dB
D	2 dB

29. - E6F07

What is a solid state relay?

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

30. - E7A12

What type of logic defines "0" as a high voltage?

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

31. - E7B12

What type of amplifier circuit is shown in Figure E7-1?

Select	Answer
A	Common collector
B	Common emitter
C	Emitter follower
D	Common base

32. - E7C07

What kind of filter would you use to attenuate an interfering carrier signal while receiving an SSB transmission?

Select	Answer
A	An all-pass filter
B	A band-pass filter
C	A Pi-network filter
D	A notch filter

33. - E7D13

What is the equation for calculating power dissipation by a series connected linear voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	Output voltage multiplied by output current
B	Voltage difference from input to output multiplied by output current
C	Input voltage multiplied by input current
D	Input voltage divided by output current

34. - E7E06

Why is de-emphasis commonly used in FM communications receivers?

Select	Answer
A	For higher efficiency
B	To reduce impulse noise reception
C	To remove third-order distortion products
D	For compatibility with transmitters using phase modulation

35. - E7F09

Why is an anti-aliasing digital filter required in a digital decimator?

Select	Answer
A	It peaks the response of the decimator, improving bandwidth
B	It removes high-frequency signal components which would otherwise be reproduced as lower frequency components
C	It removes low frequency signal components to eliminate the need for DC restoration
D	It notches out the sampling frequency to avoid sampling errors

36. - E7G01

What is the typical output impedance of an integrated circuit op-amp?

Select	Answer
A	1000 ohms
B	100 ohms
C	Very high
D	Very low

37. - E7H06

Which of the following oscillator circuits are commonly used in VFOs?

Select	Answer
A	Armstrong and deForest
B	Negative feedback and balanced feedback
C	Colpitts and Hartley
D	Pierce and Zener

38. - E8A01

What is the name of the process that shows that a square wave is made up of a sine wave plus all of its odd harmonics?

Select	Answer
A	Numerical analysis
B	Differential analysis
C	Vector analysis
D	Fourier analysis

39. - E8B11

What is digital time division multiplexing?

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

40. - E8C09

Which is the name of a digital code where each preceding or following character changes by only one bit?

Select	Answer
A	Binary Coded Decimal Code
B	Gray code
C	Excess 3 code
D	Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code

41. - E8D09

What is considered a good minimum IMD level for an idling PSK signal?

Select	Answer
A	+15 dB
B	+10 dB
C	-30 dB
D	-20 dB

42. - E9A10

Which of the following choices is a way to improve the efficiency of a ground-mounted quarter-wave vertical antenna?

Select	Answer
A	Shorten the radiating element
B	Reduce the diameter of the radiating element
C	Install a good radial system
D	Isolate the coax shield from ground

43. - E9B14

What type of information can be obtained by submitting the details of a proposed new antenna to a modeling program?

Select	Answer
A	SWR vs frequency charts
B	All of these choices are correct
C	Antenna gain
D	Polar plots of the far field elevation and azimuth patterns

44. - E9C14

How does the performance of a horizontally polarized antenna mounted on the side of a hill compare with the same antenna mounted on flat ground?

Select	Answer
A	The horizontal beam width increases in the uphill direction
B	The horizontal beam width decreases in the downhill direction
C	The main lobe takeoff angle decreases in the downhill direction
D	The main lobe takeoff angle increases in the downhill direction

45. - E9D04

Why should an HF mobile antenna loading coil have a high ratio of reactance to resistance?

Select	Answer
A	To maximize losses
B	To minimize losses
C	To swamp out harmonics
D	To minimize the Q

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. - E9F11

What impedance does a 1/8 wavelength transmission line present to a generator when the line is open at the far end?

Select	Answer
A	The same as the input impedance of the final generator stage
B	The same as the characteristic impedance of the line
C	A capacitive reactance
D	An inductive reactance

48. - E9G09

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

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

49. - E9H11

What characteristic of a cardioid pattern antenna is useful for direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	A very sharp single null
B	A very sharp peak
C	Broad band response
D	High-radiation angle

50. - E0A09

Which insulating material commonly used as a thermal conductor for some types of electronic devices is extremely toxic if broken or crushed and the particles are accidentally inhaled?

Select	Answer
A	Beryllium Oxide
B	Zinc oxide
C	Mica
D	Uranium Hexafluoride

Figure E7-1