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

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1. - E1A07

Which amateur band requires transmission on specific channels rather than on a range of frequencies?

Select	Answer
A	30 meter band
B	60 meter band
C	17 meter band
D	12 meter band

2. - E1B03

Within what distance must an amateur station protect an FCC monitoring facility from harmful interference?

Select	Answer
A	30 miles
B	3 miles
C	10 miles
D	1 mile

3. - E1C08

What is the maximum permissible duration of a remotely controlled station's transmissions if its control link malfunctions?

Select	Answer
A	5 minutes
B	30 seconds
C	3 minutes
D	10 minutes

4. - E1D04

What is an Earth station in the amateur satellite service?

Select	Answer
A	An amateur station within 50 km of the Earth's surface intended for communications with amateur stations by means of objects in space
B	An amateur station that is not able to communicate using amateur satellites
C	An amateur station that transmits telemetry consisting of measurement of upper atmosphere
D	Any amateur station on the surface of the Earth

5. - E1E11

What must the VE team do if an examinee scores a passing grade on all examination elements needed for an upgrade or new license?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	Photocopy all examination documents and forward them to the FCC for processing
C	Three VEs must certify that the examinee is qualified for the license grant and that they have complied with the administering VE requirements
D	Issue the examinee the new or upgrade license

6. - E1F03

Under what circumstances may a dealer sell an external RF power amplifier capable of operation below 144 MHz if it has not been granted FCC certification?

Select	Answer
A	It was imported from a manufacturer in a country that does not require certification of RF power amplifiers
B	It was purchased in used condition from an amateur operator and is sold to another amateur operator for use at that operator's station
C	It was imported from a manufacturer in another country and was certificated by that country's government
D	The equipment dealer assembled it from a kit

7. - E2A14

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

Select	Answer
A	Doppler shift of beacon signals
B	APRS
C	Radar
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	20 KHz
C	15 KHz
D	10 KHz

9. - E2C04

What type of transmission is most often used for a ham radio mesh network?

Select	Answer
A	Frequency division multiplex in the 24 GHz band
B	Store and forward on the 440 MHz band
C	Multiple Frequency Shift Keying in the 10 GHz band
D	Spread spectrum in the 2.4 GHz band

10. - E2D05

Which of the following techniques is normally used by low Earth orbiting digital satellites to relay messages around the world?

Select	Answer
A	Multi-satellite relaying
B	Node hopping
C	Digipeating
D	Store-and-forward

11. - E2E10

Which of these digital modes has the narrowest bandwidth?

Select	Answer
A	PSK31
B	170 Hz shift, 45 baud RTTY
C	MFSK16
D	300-baud packet

12. - E3A11

What is a typical range for tropospheric propagation of microwave signals?

Select	Answer
A	2500 miles
B	1200 miles
C	10 miles to 50 miles
D	100 miles to 300 miles

13. - E3B05

Which amateur bands typically support long-path propagation?

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

14. - E3C05

What orientation of Bz (B sub z) increases the likelihood that incoming particles from the Sun will cause disturbed conditions?

Select	Answer
A	Southward
B	Northward
C	Westward
D	Eastward

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

16. - E4B01

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

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

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 atmospheric noise to phase noise
C	The ratio of thermal noise to atmospheric noise
D	The ratio in dB of the noise generated by the receiver to the theoretical minimum noise

18. - E4D09

What is the purpose of the preselector in a communications receiver?

Select	Answer
A	To allow selection of the optimum RF amplifier device
B	To increase rejection of unwanted signals
C	To provide a range of AGC time constants
D	To store often-used frequencies

19. - E4E02

Which of the following types of receiver noise can often be reduced with a DSP noise filter?

Select	Answer
A	Broadband white noise
B	Ignition noise
C	All of these choices are correct
D	Power line noise

20. - E5A16

What is the resonant frequency of a parallel RLC circuit if R is 33 ohms, L is 50 microhenrys and C is 10 picofarads?

Select	Answer
A	23.5 kHz
B	7.12 MHz
C	23.5 MHz
D	7.12 kHz

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

22. - E5C02

How are impedances described in polar coordinates?

Select	Answer
A	By real and imaginary parts
B	By Y and G values
C	By X and R values
D	By phase angle and amplitude

23. - E5D03

What is microstrip?

Select	Answer
A	Miniature coax used for low power applications
B	Lightweight transmission line made of common zip cord
C	Precision printed circuit conductors above a ground plane that provide constant impedance interconnects at microwave frequencies
D	Short lengths of coax mounted on printed circuit boards to minimize time delay between microwave circuits

24. - E6A11

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

Select	Answer
A	2
B	1
C	6
D	3

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	A large region of intrinsic material
C	Extremely high reverse breakdown voltage
D	Reverse bias controls its forward voltage drop

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	It is totally immune to electrostatic damage
C	Its simplicity results in much less expensive devices than standard CMOS
D	All of these choices are correct

27. - E6D17

Why should core saturation of a conventional impedance matching transformer be avoided?

Select	Answer
A	Harmonics and distortion could result
B	Temporary changes of the core permeability could result
C	Magnetic flux would increase with frequency
D	RF susceptance would increase

28. - E6E06

What characteristics of the MMIC make it a popular choice for VHF through microwave circuits?

Select	Answer
A	Plate current that is controlled by a control grid
B	The ability to retrieve information from a single signal even in the presence of other strong signals
C	Controlled gain, low noise figure, and constant input and output impedance over the specified frequency range
D	Nearly infinite gain, very high input impedance, and very low output impedance

29. - E6F03

What is the most common configuration of an optoisolator or optocoupler?

Select	Answer
A	An LED and a phototransistor
B	A frequency modulated helium-neon laser
C	A lens and a photomultiplier
D	An amplitude modulated helium-neon laser

30. - E7A07

What logical operation does a NAND gate perform?

Select	Answer
A	It produces logic "1" at its output only when all inputs are logic "1"
B	It produces logic "0" at its output only when all inputs are logic "1"
C	It produces logic "0" at its output only when all inputs are logic "0"
D	It produces logic "0" at its output if some but not all inputs are logic "1"

31. - E7B11

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

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

32. - E7C08

Which of the following factors has the greatest effect in helping determine the bandwidth and response shape of a crystal ladder filter?

Select	Answer
A	The DC voltage applied to the quartz crystal
B	The relative frequencies of the individual crystals
C	The gain of the RF stage preceding the filter
D	The amplitude of the signals passing through the filter

33. - E7D08

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

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

34. - E7E12

What is a frequency discriminator stage in a FM receiver?

Select	Answer
A	An automatic band-switching circuit
B	A circuit for filtering two closely adjacent signals
C	An FM generator circuit
D	A circuit for detecting FM signals

35. - E7F17

What do the letters I and Q in I/Q Modulation represent?

Select	Answer
A	Instantaneous and Quenched
B	Instantaneous and Quasi-stable
C	Inactive and Quiescent
D	In-phase and Quadrature

36. - E7G04

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

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

37. - E7H03

How is positive feedback supplied in a Hartley oscillator?

Select	Answer
A	Through a tapped coil
B	Through link coupling
C	Through a neutralizing capacitor
D	Through a capacitive divider

38. - E8A08

Why would a direct or flash conversion analog-to-digital converter be useful for a software defined radio?

Select	Answer
A	Immunity to out of sequence coding reduces spurious responses
B	All of these choices are correct
C	Very low power consumption decreases frequency drift
D	Very high speed allows digitizing high frequencies

39. - E8B05

What is the deviation ratio of an FM-phone signal having a maximum frequency swing of plus-or-minus 5 kHz when the maximum modulation frequency is 3 kHz?

Select	Answer
A	0.167
B	1.67
C	60
D	0.6

40. - E8C03

When performing phase shift keying, why is it advantageous to shift phase precisely at the zero crossing of the RF carrier?

Select	Answer
A	This results in the least possible transmitted bandwidth for the particular mode
B	All of these choices are correct
C	It is easier to demodulate with a conventional, non-synchronous detector
D	It improves carrier suppression

41. - E8D02

What spread spectrum communications technique uses a high speed binary bit stream to shift the phase of an RF carrier?

Select	Answer
A	Phase compandored spread spectrum
B	Binary phase-shift keying
C	Frequency hopping
D	Direct sequence

42. - E9A17

What is the effective radiated power of a repeater station with 200 watts transmitter power output, 2 dB feed line loss, 2.8 dB duplexer loss, 1.2 dB circulator loss, and 7 dBi antenna gain?

Select	Answer
A	159 watts
B	252 watts
C	632 watts
D	63.2 watts

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 power dissipates over a specified time period
D	The region where radiated field strengths are obstructed by objects of reflection

44. - E9C12

Which of the following describes an extended double Zepp antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A portable antenna erected using two push support poles
B	A center fed 1.25 wavelength antenna (two 5/8 wave elements in phase)
C	An end fed folded dipole antenna
D	A wideband vertical antenna constructed from precisely tapered aluminum tubing

45. - E9D09

What is the function of a loading coil used as part of an HF mobile antenna?

Select	Answer
A	To lower the Q
B	To lower the losses
C	To increase the SWR bandwidth
D	To cancel capacitive reactance

46. - E9E01

What system matches a higher impedance transmission line to a lower impedance antenna by connecting the line to the driven element in two places spaced a fraction of a wavelength each side of element center?

Select	Answer
A	The omega matching system
B	The gamma matching system
C	The delta matching system
D	The stub matching system

47. - E9F10

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

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

48. - E9G03

Which of the following is often determined using a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Beam headings and radiation patterns
B	Impedance and SWR values in transmission lines
C	Trigonometric functions
D	Satellite azimuth and elevation bearings

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

50. - E0A02

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

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

Figure E6-2

Figure E7-1

Figure E7-3