US Amateur Radio - Amateur Extra (Element 4, 2020-2024) Practice Test

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1. - E0A01

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

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

2. - E1A14

Except in some parts of Alaska, what is the maximum power permitted on the 630 meter band?

Select	Answer
A	50 watts PEP
B	100 watts PEP
C	1 watt EIRP
D	5 watts EIRP

3. - E1B07

To what type of regulations does PRB-1 apply?

Select	Answer
A	State and local zoning
B	FAA tower height limits
C	Homeowners associations
D	Use of wireless devices in vehicles

4. - E1C02

Which of the following types of communications may be transmitted to amateur stations in foreign countries?

Select	Answer
A	Messages intended for users of the maritime satellite service
B	All these choices are correct
C	Communications incidental to the purpose of the amateur service and remarks of a personal nature
D	Business-related messages for non-profit organizations

5. - E1D03

What is a space telecommand station?

Select	Answer
A	An amateur station located on the surface of the Earth for communication with other Earth stations by means of Earth satellites
B	An amateur station that receives telemetry from a satellite or balloon more than 50 kilometers above the surface of the Earth
C	An amateur station that transmits communications to initiate, modify or terminate functions of a space station
D	An amateur station located in a satellite or a balloon more than 50 kilometers above the surface of the Earth

6. - 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 submit the documents to the coordinating VEC for grading
B	They must collect and send the documents to the NCVEC for grading
C	They must collect and send the documents to the FCC according to instructions
D	They must submit the application document to the coordinating VEC according to the coordinating VEC instructions

7. - 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 south of the border between the U.S. and Canada
C	A line roughly parallel to and north of the border between the U.S. and Mexico
D	A line roughly parallel to and west of the U.S. Atlantic coastline

8. - E2A03

How is the signal inverted by an inverting linear transponder?

Select	Answer
A	The signal is passed through a non-linear filter
B	The signal is detected and remodulated on the reverse sideband
C	The signal is passed through a mixer and the difference rather than the sum is transmitted
D	The signal is reduced to I and Q components and the Q component is filtered out

9. - E2B04

How is color information sent in analog SSTV?

Select	Answer
A	Color information is sent on a 2.8 kHz subcarrier
B	Color lines are sent sequentially
C	Color is amplitude modulated on the frequency modulated intensity signal
D	Color is sent in a color burst at the end of each line

10. - E2C09

What type of equipment is commonly used to implement an amateur radio mesh network?

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

11. - E2D03

Which of the following digital modes is especially useful for EME communications?

Select	Answer
A	PACTOR III
B	JT65
C	Olivia
D	MSK144

12. - E2E04

What is indicated when one of the ellipses in an FSK crossed-ellipse display suddenly disappears?

Select	Answer
A	Selective fading has occurred
B	The receiver has drifted 5 kHz from the desired receive frequency
C	The mark and space signal have been inverted
D	One of the signal filters is saturated

13. - E3A14

What is meant by circularly polarized electromagnetic waves?

Select	Answer
A	Waves with an electric field bent into a circular shape
B	Waves produced by a loop antenna
C	Waves that circle the Earth
D	Waves with a rotating electric field

14. - E3B06

Which of the following amateur bands most frequently provides long-path propagation?

Select	Answer
A	80 meters
B	10 meters
C	6 meters
D	20 meters

15. - E3C01

What does the radio communication term "ray tracing" describe?

Select	Answer
A	The process in which an electronic display presents a pattern
B	Modeling a radio wave's path through the ionosphere
C	Determining the radiation pattern from an array of antennas
D	Evaluating high voltage sources for x-rays

16. - E4A04

How is the compensation of an oscilloscope probe typically adjusted?

Select	Answer
A	A square wave is displayed and the probe is adjusted until the horizontal portions of the displayed wave are as nearly flat as possible
B	A DC voltage standard is displayed and the probe is adjusted until the displayed voltage is accurate
C	A high frequency sine wave is displayed and the probe is adjusted for maximum amplitude
D	A frequency standard is displayed and the probe is adjusted until the deflection time is accurate

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

18. - E4C09

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

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

19. - E4D08

What causes intermodulation in an electronic circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Too little gain
B	Lack of neutralization
C	Positive feedback
D	Nonlinear circuits or devices

20. - E4E06

What is one type of electrical interference that might be caused by a nearby personal computer?

Select	Answer
A	The appearance of unstable modulated or unmodulated signals at specific frequencies
B	A whining type noise that continually pulses off and on
C	A clicking noise at intervals of a few seconds
D	A loud AC hum in the audio output of your station receiver

21. - E5A16

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

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

22. - E5B12

What is admittance?

Select	Answer
A	The inverse of Q factor
B	The term for the gain of a field effect transistor
C	The turns ratio of a transformer
D	The inverse of impedance

23. - E5C12

Which point on Figure E5-1 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 3
B	Point 1
C	Point 8
D	Point 7

24. - E5D06

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

Select	Answer
A	In all directions; omni-directional
B	In a direction opposite to the current
C	In the same direction as the current
D	In a circle around the conductor

25. - E6A06

What is the beta of a bipolar junction transistor?

Select	Answer
A	The frequency at which the current gain is reduced to 0.707
B	The switching speed
C	The breakdown voltage of the base to collector junction
D	The change in collector current with respect to base current

26. - E6B11

What is used to control the attenuation of RF signals by a PIN diode?

Select	Answer
A	Reverse voltage larger than the RF signal
B	Capacitance of an RF coupling capacitor
C	A sub-harmonic pump signal
D	Forward DC bias current

27. - E6C05

What is an advantage of CMOS logic devices over TTL devices?

Select	Answer
A	Lower distortion
B	Lower power consumption
C	Differential output capability
D	Immune to damage from static discharge

28. - E6D13

What is the primary cause of inductor self-resonance?

Select	Answer
A	Inductive kickback
B	Non-linear core hysteresis
C	The skin effect
D	Inter-turn capacitance

29. - E6E05

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

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

30. - E6F09

What is the efficiency of a photovoltaic cell?

Select	Answer
A	The open-circuit voltage divided by the short-circuit current under full illumination
B	The output RF power divided by the input DC power
C	Cost per kilowatt-hour generated
D	The relative fraction of light that is converted to current

31. - E7A05

Which of the following is a circuit that continuously alternates between two states without an external clock?

Select	Answer
A	T flip-flop
B	Monostable multivibrator
C	J-K flip-flop
D	Astable multivibrator

32. - E7B02

What is a Class D amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	An amplifier that uses drift-mode FETs for high efficiency
B	A frequency doubling amplifier
C	A low power amplifier that uses a differential amplifier for improved linearity
D	A type of amplifier that uses switching technology to achieve high efficiency

33. - E7C07

Which describes a Pi-L-network used for matching a vacuum tube final amplifier to a 50-ohm unbalanced output?

Select	Answer
A	A Phase Inverter Load network
B	A network with only three discrete parts
C	A Pi-network with an additional series inductor on the output
D	A matching network in which all components are isolated from ground

34. - E7D12

What is the dropout voltage of an analog voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	Maximum that the output voltage may decrease at rated load
B	Minimum input-to-output voltage required to maintain regulation
C	Minimum input voltage for rated power dissipation
D	Maximum output voltage drops when the input voltage is varied over its specified range

35. - E7E06

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

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

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

37. - E7G02

What is ringing in a filter?

Select	Answer
A	Partial cancellation of the signal over a range of frequencies
B	An echo caused by a long time delay
C	Undesired oscillations added to the desired signal
D	A reduction in high frequency response

38. - E7H10

What information is contained in the lookup table of a direct digital synthesizer (DDS)?

Select	Answer
A	Amplitude values that represent the desired waveform
B	The phase relationship between a voltage-controlled oscillator and the output waveform
C	The phase relationship between a reference oscillator and the output waveform
D	Frequently used receiver and transmitter frequencies

39. - E8A02

Which of the following is a type of analog-to-digital conversion?

Select	Answer
A	Harmonic regeneration
B	Successive approximation
C	Level shifting
D	Phase reversal

40. - E8B06

What is the deviation ratio of an FM-phone signal having a maximum frequency swing of plus or minus 7.5 kHz when the maximum modulation frequency is 3.5 kHz?

Select	Answer
A	2.14
B	0.214
C	47
D	0.47

41. - E8C08

How does ARQ accomplish error correction?

Select	Answer
A	Special polynomial codes provide automatic correction
B	Special binary codes provide automatic correction
C	If errors are detected, a retransmission is requested
D	If errors are detected, redundant data is substituted

42. - 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 high power used by a spread spectrum transmitter keeps its signal from being easily overpowered
C	If interference is detected by the receiver it will signal the transmitter to change frequencies
D	The receiver is always equipped with a digital blanker

43. - E9A07

What is the effective isotropic 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	632 watts
B	63.2 watts
C	159 watts
D	252 watts

44. - E9B03

In the antenna radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-1, what is the front-to-side ratio?

Select	Answer
A	24 dB
B	14 dB
C	18 dB
D	12 dB

45. - E9C04

What happens to the radiation pattern of an unterminated long wire antenna as the wire length is increased?

Select	Answer
A	The lobes become more perpendicular to the wire
B	The lobes align more in the direction of the wire
C	The vertical angle increases
D	The front-to-back ratio decreases

46. - E9D04

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

Select	Answer
A	To swamp out harmonics
B	To lower the radiation angle
C	To minimize the Q
D	To minimize losses

47. - E9E09

Which of the following is used to shunt-feed a grounded tower at its base?

Select	Answer
A	Double-bazooka match
B	Gamma match
C	Hairpin match
D	All these choices are correct

48. - E9F12

What impedance does a 1/4-wavelength transmission line present to a generator when the line is open at the far end?

Select	Answer
A	Very low impedance
B	The same as the input impedance to the generator
C	Very high impedance
D	The same as the characteristic impedance of the line

49. - E9G04

What are the two families of circles and arcs that make up a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Reactance and voltage
B	Resistance and voltage
C	Resistance and reactance
D	Voltage and impedance

50. - E9H04

What is an advantage of placing a grounded electrostatic shield around a small loop direction-finding antenna?

Select	Answer
A	It eliminates unbalanced capacitive coupling to the surroundings, improving the nulls
B	It adds capacitive loading, increasing the bandwidth of the antenna
C	It eliminates tracking errors caused by strong out-of-band signals
D	It increases signal strength by providing a better match to the feed line

Figure E5-1

Figure E9-1