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	1.5 kHz
B	2.8 kHz
C	60 Hz
D	170 Hz

2. - E1B01

Which of the following constitutes a spurious emission?

Select	Answer
A	A signal transmitted to prevent its detection by any station other than the intended recipient
B	Any transmitted signal that unintentionally interferes with another licensed radio station
C	An amateur station transmission made at random without the proper call sign identification
D	An emission outside its necessary bandwidth that can be reduced or eliminated without affecting the information transmitted

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	Only when transmitting RTTY or data emissions
C	When agreed upon by the sending or receiving station
D	Never

4. - E1D02

What is the amateur satellite service?

Select	Answer
A	A spacecraft launching service for amateur-built satellites
B	A radio communications service using amateur radio stations on satellites
C	A radio communications service using stations on Earth satellites for public service broadcast
D	A radio navigation service using satellites for the purpose of self training, intercommunication and technical studies carried out by amateurs

5. - E1E12

What must the VE team do with the application form if the examinee does not pass the exam?

Select	Answer
A	Send the application form to the FCC and inform the FCC of the grade
B	Return the application document to the examinee
C	Maintain the application form with the VEC's records
D	Destroy the application form

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	440 MHz - 450 MHz
B	53 MHz - 54 MHz
C	222 MHz - 223 MHz
D	420 MHz - 430 MHz

7. - E2A06

On what band would a satellite receive signals if it were operating in mode U/V?

Select	Answer
A	50.0 MHz - 50.2 MHz
B	29.5 MHz - 29.7 MHz
C	435 MHz - 438 MHz
D	144 MHz - 146 MHz

8. - E2B12

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

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

10. - E2D06

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

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

11. - E2E08

Which of the following HF digital modes can be used to transfer binary files?

Select	Answer
A	PACTOR
B	Hellschreiber
C	AMTOR
D	RTTY

12. - E3A09

Which of the following frequency range is most suited for meteor scatter communications?

Select	Answer
A	1.8 MHz - 1.9 MHz
B	28 MHz - 148 MHz
C	10 MHz - 14 MHz
D	220 MHz - 450 MHz

13. - E3B04

What is meant by the terms extraordinary and ordinary waves?

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

14. - E3C02

What is indicated by a rising A or K index?

Select	Answer
A	An increase in the critical frequency
B	Higher levels of solar UV radiation
C	Decreasing disruption of the geomagnetic field
D	Increasing disruption of the geomagnetic field

15. - E4A11

Which of the following is good practice when using an oscilloscope probe?

Select	Answer
A	Never use a DC-coupled probe to measure an AC circuit
B	All of these choices are correct
C	Keep the signal ground connection of the probe as short as possible
D	Never use a high impedance probe to measure a low impedance circuit

16. - E4B06

How much power is being absorbed by the load when a directional power meter connected between a transmitter and a terminating load reads 100 watts forward power and 25 watts reflected power?

Select	Answer
A	75 watts
B	25 watts
C	125 watts
D	100 watts

17. - E4C10

Which of the following is a desirable amount of selectivity for an amateur RTTY HF receiver?

Select	Answer
A	2400 Hz
B	100 Hz
C	6000 Hz
D	300 Hz

18. - E4D10

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

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

19. - E4E12

What is one disadvantage of using some types of automatic DSP notch-filters when attempting to copy CW signals?

Select	Answer
A	Ringing in the DSP filter will completely remove the spaces between the CW characters
B	A DSP filter can remove the desired signal at the same time as it removes interfering signals
C	Received CW signals will appear to be modulated at the DSP clock frequency
D	Any nearby signal passing through the DSP system will overwhelm the desired signal

20. - E5A15

Which of the following can increase Q for inductors and capacitors?

Select	Answer
A	Lower reactance
B	Lower self-resonant frequency
C	Lower losses
D	Higher self-resonant frequency

21. - E5B06

What is susceptance?

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

22. - E5C01

Which of the following represents a capacitive reactance in rectangular notation?

Select	Answer
A	+jX
B	X
C	Omega
D	-jX

23. - E5D02

Why is it important to keep lead lengths short for components used in circuits for VHF and above?

Select	Answer
A	To increase the thermal time constant
B	To maintain component lifetime
C	To avoid unwanted inductive reactance
D	All of these choices are correct

24. - E6A02

Which of the following semiconductor materials contains excess free electrons?

Select	Answer
A	Bipolar
B	P-type
C	Insulated gate
D	N-type

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	Extremely high reverse breakdown voltage
C	Reverse bias controls its forward voltage drop
D	Ability to dissipate large amounts of power

26. - E6C13

Which of the following is an advantage of BiCMOS logic?

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

27. - E6D10

What is a primary advantage of using a toroidal core instead of a solenoidal core in an inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Toroidal cores make it easier to couple the magnetic energy into other components
B	Toroidal cores confine most of the magnetic field within the core material
C	Toroidal cores exhibit greater hysteresis
D	Toroidal cores have lower Q characteristics

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	Nearly infinite gain, very high input impedance, and very low output impedance
C	Controlled gain, low noise figure, and constant input and output impedance over the specified frequency range
D	The ability to retrieve information from a single signal even in the presence of other strong signals

29. - E6F14

Which of the following is true of LCD displays?

Select	Answer
A	They may be hard view through polarized lenses
B	All of these choices are correct
C	They are hard to view in high ambient light conditions
D	They only display alphanumeric symbols

30. - E7A07

What logical operation does a NAND gate perform?

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

31. - E7B07

Which of the following is a likely result when a Class C amplifier is used to amplify a single-sideband phone signal?

Select	Answer
A	Increased overall intelligibility
B	Signal inversion
C	Reduced intermodulation products
D	Signal distortion and excessive bandwidth

32. - E7C06

What are the distinguishing features of an elliptical filter?

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

33. - E7D04

Which of the following types of linear voltage regulator usually make the most efficient use of the primary power source?

Select	Answer
A	A shunt regulator
B	A series regulator
C	A shunt current source
D	A series current source

34. - E7E11

Which type of detector is used for demodulating SSB signals?

Select	Answer
A	Phase detector
B	Phase comparator
C	Product detector
D	Discriminator

35. - E7F03

What type of digital signal processing filter is used to generate an SSB signal?

Select	Answer
A	An elliptical filter
B	A Hilbert-transform filter
C	A notch filter
D	An adaptive filter

36. - E7G07

What magnitude of voltage gain can be expected from the circuit in Figure E7-4 when R1 is 10 ohms and RF is 470 ohms?

Select	Answer
A	47
B	24
C	0.21
D	94

37. - E7H04

How is positive feedback supplied in a Colpitts oscillator?

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

38. - E8A02

What type of wave has a rise time significantly faster than its fall time (or vice versa)?

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

39. - E8B09

What is meant by deviation ratio?

Select	Answer
A	The ratio of the highest audio modulating frequency to the average audio modulating frequency
B	The ratio of the audio modulating frequency to the center carrier frequency
C	The ratio of the maximum carrier frequency deviation to the highest audio modulating frequency
D	The ratio of the carrier center frequency to the audio modulating frequency

40. - E8C01

How is Forward Error Correction implemented?

Select	Answer
A	By transmitting a special algorithm to the receiving station along with the data characters
B	By transmitting extra data that may be used to detect and correct transmission errors
C	By the receiving station repeating each block of three data characters
D	By varying the frequency shift of the transmitted signal according to a predefined algorithm

41. - E8D07

What is a common cause of overmodulation of AFSK signals?

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

42. - E9A13

How much gain does an antenna have compared to a 1/2-wavelength dipole when it has 12 dB gain over an isotropic antenna?

Select	Answer
A	6.17 dB
B	14.15 dB
C	9.85 dB
D	12.5 dB

43. - E9B05

What type of antenna pattern over real ground is shown in Figure E9-2?

Select	Answer
A	Polarization
B	Elevation
C	Azimuth
D	Radiation resistance

44. - E9C09

What is a G5RV antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A multi-band trap antenna
B	A wide band dipole using shorted coaxial cable for the radiating elements and fed with a 4:1 balun
C	A multi-band dipole antenna fed with coax and a balun through a selected length of open wire transmission line
D	A phased array antenna consisting of multiple loops

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 the Q
C	To minimize losses
D	To swamp out harmonics

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. - E9F08

What is the term for the ratio of the actual speed at which a signal travels through a transmission line to the speed of light in a vacuum?

Select	Answer
A	Surge impedance
B	Characteristic impedance
C	Velocity factor
D	Standing wave ratio

48. - E9G08

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

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

49. - E9H02

Which is generally true for low band (160 meter and 80 meter) receiving antennas?

Select	Answer
A	They must be erected at least 1/2 wavelength above the ground to attain good directivity
B	Atmospheric noise is so high that gain over a dipole is not important
C	Low loss coax transmission line is essential for good performance
D	All of these choices are correct

50. - E0A01

What is the primary function of an external earth connection or ground rod?

Select	Answer
A	Reduce received noise
B	Reduce RFI to telephones and home entertainment systems
C	Reduce RF current flow between pieces of equipment
D	Lightning protection

Figure E7-4

Figure E9-2