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

2. - E1B04

What must be done before placing an amateur station within an officially designated wilderness area or wildlife preserve, or an area listed in the National Register of Historical Places?

Select	Answer
A	A proposal must be submitted to the National Park Service
B	A letter of intent must be filed with the National Audubon Society
C	A form FSD-15 must be submitted to the Department of the Interior
D	An Environmental Assessment must be submitted to the FCC

3. - E1C13

Which of the following is required in order to operate in accordance with CEPT rules in foreign countries where permitted?

Select	Answer
A	You must identify in the official language of the country in which you are operating
B	You must bring a copy of FCC Public Notice DA 11-221
C	You must append "/CEPT" to your call sign
D	The U.S. embassy must approve of your operation

4. - E1D06

Which of the following is a requirement of a space station?

Select	Answer
A	The space station must cease all transmissions after 5 years
B	The space station must be capable of changing its orbit whenever such a change is ordered by NASA
C	All of these choices are correct
D	The space station must be capable of terminating transmissions by telecommand when directed by the FCC

5. - E1E01

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

Select	Answer
A	5
B	2
C	4
D	3

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

7. - E2A04

What is meant by the term mode as applied to an amateur radio satellite?

Select	Answer
A	The satellite's uplink and downlink frequency bands
B	The type of signals that can be relayed through the satellite
C	The satellite's orientation with respect to the Earth
D	Whether the satellite is in a polar or equatorial orbit

8. - E2B04

What is blanking in a video signal?

Select	Answer
A	Transmitting a black and white test pattern
B	Turning off the scanning beam while it is traveling from right to left or from bottom to top
C	Synchronization of the horizontal and vertical sync pulses
D	Turning off the scanning beam at the conclusion of a transmission

9. - E2C13

What indicator is required to be used by U.S.-licensed operators when operating a station via remote control where the transmitter is located in the U.S.?

Select	Answer
A	/ followed by the USPS two letter abbreviation for the state in which the remote station is located
B	No additional indicator is required
C	The ARRL section of the remote station
D	/R# where # is the district of the remote station

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	Digipeating
C	Store-and-forward
D	Node hopping

11. - E2E05

Which type of digital mode does not support keyboard-to-keyboard operation?

Select	Answer
A	RTTY
B	MFSK
C	PSK31
D	Winlink

12. - E3A04

What do Hepburn maps predict?

Select	Answer
A	Probability of tropospheric propagation
B	Likelihood of rain-scatter along cold or warm fronts
C	Sporadic E propagation
D	Locations of auroral reflecting zones

13. - E3B04

What is meant by the terms extraordinary and ordinary waves?

Select	Answer
A	Long path and short path waves
B	Refracted rays and reflected 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. - E3C14

Why does the radio-path horizon distance exceed the geometric horizon?

Select	Answer
A	Downward bending due to density variations in the atmosphere
B	Downward bending due to aurora refraction
C	E-region skip
D	D-region skip

15. - E4A03

Which of the following test instrument is used to display spurious signals and/or intermodulation distortion products in an SSB transmitter?

Select	Answer
A	A time-domain reflectometer
B	A logic analyzer
C	A spectrum analyzer
D	A wattmeter

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. - E4C09

Which of the following choices is a good reason for selecting a high frequency for the design of the IF in a conventional HF or VHF communications receiver?

Select	Answer
A	Easier for front-end circuitry to eliminate image responses
B	Reduced drift
C	Fewer components in the receiver
D	Improved receiver noise figure

18. - E4D13

Which of the following can cause receiver desensitization?

Select	Answer
A	Squelch gain misadjusted
B	Strong adjacent channel signals
C	Audio bias adjusted too high
D	Audio gain adjusted too low

19. - E4E13

What might be the cause of a loud roaring or buzzing AC line interference that comes and goes at intervals?

Select	Answer
A	A malfunctioning illuminated advertising display
B	A defective doorbell or doorbell transformer inside a nearby residence
C	Arcing contacts in a thermostatically controlled device
D	All of these choices are correct

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	44.72 MHz
C	22.36 MHz
D	1.78 MHz

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

22. - E5C16

Which point on Figure E5-2 best represents the impedance of a series circuit consisting of a 300 ohm resistor and a 19 picofarad capacitor at 21.200 MHz?

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

23. - E5D13

How much power is consumed in a circuit consisting of a 100 ohm resistor in series with a 100 ohm inductive reactance drawing 1 ampere?

Select	Answer
A	100 Watts
B	70.7 Watts
C	200 Watts
D	141.4 Watts

24. - E6A16

What are the majority charge carriers in N-type semiconductor material?

Select	Answer
A	Free protons
B	Holes
C	Free electrons
D	Free neutrons

25. - E6B13

What type of bias is required for an LED to emit light?

Select	Answer
A	Reverse bias
B	Forward bias
C	Inductive bias
D	Zero bias

26. - E6C01

What is the function of hysteresis in a comparator?

Select	Answer
A	To allow the comparator to be used with AC input signal
B	To prevent input noise from causing unstable output signals
C	To cause the output to change states continually
D	To increase the sensitivity

27. - E6D04

Which materials are commonly used as a slug core in a variable inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Ferrite and brass
B	Polystyrene and polyethylene
C	Teflon and Delrin
D	Cobalt and aluminum

28. - E6E05

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

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

29. - E6F03

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

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

30. - E7A04

How many flip-flops are required to divide a signal frequency by 4?

Select	Answer
A	1
B	2
C	4
D	8

31. - E7B03

Which of the following components form the output of a class D amplifier circuit?

Select	Answer
A	A matched load resistor to prevent damage by switching transients
B	A high-pass filter to compensate for low gain at low frequencies
C	A low-pass filter to remove switching signal components
D	A temperature compensating load resistor to improve linearity

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

33. - E7D08

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

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

34. - E7E02

What is the function of a reactance modulator?

Select	Answer
A	To produce PM signals by using an electrically variable inductance or capacitance
B	To produce AM signals by using an electrically variable inductance or capacitance
C	To produce AM signals by using an electrically variable resistance
D	To produce PM signals by using an electrically variable resistance

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

36. - E7G09

What will be the output voltage of the circuit shown in Figure E7-4 if R1 is 1000 ohms, RF is 10,000 ohms, and 0.23 volts DC is applied to the input?

Select	Answer
A	-2.3 volts
B	-0.23 volts
C	0.23 volts
D	2.3 volts

37. - E7H14

What is a phase-locked loop circuit?

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

38. - E8A11

What type of information can be conveyed using digital waveforms?

Select	Answer
A	Data
B	Human speech
C	All of these choices are correct
D	Video signals

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 carrier center frequency to the audio modulating frequency
C	The ratio of the maximum carrier frequency deviation to the highest audio modulating frequency
D	The ratio of the audio modulating frequency to the center carrier frequency

40. - E8C10

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

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

41. - E8D01

Why are received spread spectrum signals resistant to interference?

Select	Answer
A	Signals not using the spread spectrum algorithm are suppressed in the receiver
B	The receiver is always equipped with a digital blanker
C	The high power used by a spread spectrum transmitter keeps its signal from being easily overpowered
D	If interference is detected by the receiver it will signal the transmitter to change frequencies

42. - E9A09

How is antenna efficiency calculated?

Select	Answer
A	(radiation resistance / transmission resistance) x 100 per cent
B	(total resistance / radiation resistance) x 100 per cent
C	(radiation resistance / total resistance) x 100 per cent
D	(effective radiated power / transmitter output) x 100 percent

43. - E9B12

What is the far field of an antenna?

Select	Answer
A	The region where radiated power dissipates over a specified time period
B	The region where the shape of the antenna pattern is independent of distance
C	The region of the ionosphere where radiated power is not refracted
D	The region where radiated field strengths are obstructed by objects of reflection

44. - E9C15

How does the radiation pattern of a horizontally polarized 3-element beam antenna vary with its height above ground?

Select	Answer
A	The main lobe takeoff angle decreases with increasing height
B	The horizontal beam width increases with height
C	The horizontal beam width decreases with height
D	The main lobe takeoff angle increases with increasing height

45. - E9D12

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

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

46. - E9E03

What is the name of the matching system that uses a section of transmission line connected in parallel with the feed line at or near the feed point?

Select	Answer
A	The stub match
B	The gamma match
C	The omega match
D	The delta match

47. - E9F07

How does ladder line compare to small-diameter coaxial cable such as RG-58 at 50 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	Lower loss
B	Higher SWR
C	Lower velocity factor
D	Smaller reflection coefficient

48. - E9G02

What type of coordinate system is used in a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Voltage lines and current chords
B	Resistance lines and reactance chords
C	Resistance circles and reactance arcs
D	Voltage circles and current arcs

49. - E9H07

Why is it advisable to use an RF attenuator on a receiver being used for direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	It compensates for the effects of an isotropic antenna, thereby improving directivity
B	It prevents receiver overload which could make it difficult to determine peaks or nulls
C	It narrows the bandwidth of the received signal to improve signal to noise ratio
D	It reduces loss of received signals caused by antenna pattern nulls, thereby increasing sensitivity

50. - E0A04

When evaluating a site with multiple transmitters operating at the same time, the operators and licensees of which transmitters are responsible for mitigating over-exposure situations?

Select	Answer
A	Each transmitter that produces 5 percent or more of its MPE limit at accessible locations
B	Only the most powerful transmitter
C	Only commercial transmitters
D	Each transmitter operating with a duty-cycle greater than 50 percent

Figure E5-2

Figure E7-3

Figure E7-4