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

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1. - 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 operating with a duty cycle greater than 50 percent
B	Each transmitter that produces 5 percent or more of its MPE limit in areas where the total MPE limit is exceeded.
C	Only the most powerful transmitter
D	Only commercial transmitters

2. - E1A04

With your transceiver displaying the carrier frequency of phone signals, you hear a DX station calling CQ on 3.601 MHz LSB. Is it legal to return the call using lower sideband on the same frequency?

Select	Answer
A	No, the sideband will extend beyond the edge of the phone band segment
B	No, U.S. stations are not permitted to use phone emissions below 3.610 MHz
C	Yes, because the DX station initiated the contact
D	Yes, because the displayed frequency is within the 75 meter phone band segment

3. - E1B02

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	15 kHz
C	10 kHz
D	20 kHz

4. - E1C02

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

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

5. - E1D10

Which amateur stations are eligible to be telecommand stations of space stations (subject to the privileges of the class of operator license held by the control operator of the station)?

Select	Answer
A	Any amateur station designated by NASA
B	Any amateur station so designated by the space station licensee
C	Any amateur station so designated by the ITU
D	All these choices are correct

6. - E1E08

To which of the following examinees may a VE not administer an examination?

Select	Answer
A	Relatives of the VE as listed in the FCC rules
B	Friends of the VE
C	Employees of the VE
D	All these choices are correct

7. - E1F04

Which of the following geographic descriptions approximately describes "Line A"?

Select	Answer
A	A line roughly parallel to and south of the border between the U.S. and Canada
B	A line roughly parallel to and north of the border between the U.S. and Mexico
C	A line roughly parallel to and east of the U.S. Pacific coastline
D	A line roughly parallel to and west of the U.S. Atlantic coastline

8. - E2A02

Which of the following occurs when a satellite is using an inverting linear transponder?

Select	Answer
A	Doppler shift is reduced because the uplink and downlink shifts are in opposite directions
B	Signal position in the band is reversed
C	Upper sideband on the uplink becomes lower sideband on the downlink, and vice versa
D	All these choices are correct

9. - E2B04

How is color information sent in analog SSTV?

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

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

11. - E2D04

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

Select	Answer
A	Bandwidth compressed LORAN
B	Doppler shift of beacon signals
C	Ultrasonics
D	APRS

12. - E2E07

Which of the following is a possible reason that attempts to initiate contact with a digital station on a clear frequency are unsuccessful?

Select	Answer
A	Another station you are unable to hear is using the frequency
B	All these choices are correct
C	The protocol version you are using is not supported by the digital station
D	Your transmit frequency is incorrect

13. - E3A11

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

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

14. - E3B05

Which amateur bands typically support long-path propagation?

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

15. - E3C01

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

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

16. - E4A09

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

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

17. - 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	100 watts
C	125 watts
D	25 watts

18. - E4C13

How does a narrow-band roofing filter affect receiver performance?

Select	Answer
A	It improves dynamic range by attenuating strong signals near the receive frequency
B	All these choices are correct
C	It improves sensitivity by reducing front end noise
D	It improves intelligibility by using low Q circuitry to reduce ringing

19. - E4D05

What transmitter frequencies would cause an intermodulation-product signal in a receiver tuned to 146.70 MHz when a nearby station transmits on 146.52 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	173.35 MHz and 139.40 MHz
B	146.88 MHz and 146.34 MHz
C	146.10 MHz and 147.30 MHz
D	146.34 MHz and 146.61 MHz

20. - E4E08

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

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

21. - E5A03

What is the magnitude of the impedance of a series RLC circuit at resonance?

Select	Answer
A	High, as compared to the circuit resistance
B	Approximately equal to circuit resistance
C	Approximately equal to capacitive reactance
D	Approximately equal to inductive reactance

22. - E5B08

What is the phase angle between the voltage across and the current through a series RLC circuit if XC is 100 ohms, R is 100 ohms, and XL is 75 ohms?

Select	Answer
A	14 degrees with the voltage leading the current
B	76 degrees with the voltage leading the current
C	14 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
D	76 degrees with the voltage lagging the current

23. - E5C02

How are impedances described in polar coordinates?

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

24. - E5D02

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

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

25. - E6A09

What is a depletion-mode FET?

Select	Answer
A	An FET that exhibits a current flow between source and drain when no gate voltage is applied
B	An FET that has no current flow between source and drain when no gate voltage is applied
C	Any FET for which holes are the majority carriers
D	Any FET without a channel

26. - E6B04

What type of semiconductor device is designed for use as a voltage-controlled capacitor?

Select	Answer
A	Tunnel diode
B	Varactor diode
C	Zener diode
D	Silicon-controlled rectifier

27. - E6C07

What best describes a pull-up or pull-down resistor?

Select	Answer
A	A resistor that ensures that an oscillator frequency does not drift
B	A resistor connected to an op-amp output that prevents signals from exceeding the power supply voltage
C	A resistor in a keying circuit used to reduce key clicks
D	A resistor connected to the positive or negative supply line used to establish a voltage when an input or output is an open circuit

28. - E6D08

What is one reason for using powdered-iron cores rather than ferrite cores in an inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Powdered-iron cores use smaller diameter wire for the same inductance
B	Powdered-iron cores generally have greater initial permeability
C	Powdered-iron cores generally maintain their characteristics at higher currents
D	Powdered-iron cores generally require fewer turns to produce a given inductance

29. - E6E12

Why are DIP through-hole package ICs not typically used at UHF and higher frequencies?

Select	Answer
A	Unsuitable for combining analog and digital signals
B	Epoxy coating is conductive above 300 MHz
C	Excessive lead length
D	Too many pins

30. - E6F01

What absorbs the energy from light falling on a photovoltaic cell?

Select	Answer
A	Protons
B	Photons
C	Electrons
D	Holes

31. - E7A06

What is a characteristic of a monostable multivibrator?

Select	Answer
A	It switches momentarily to the opposite binary state and then returns to its original state after a set time
B	It maintains a constant output voltage, regardless of variations in the input voltage
C	It produces a continuous square wave oscillating between 1 and 0
D	It stores one bit of data in either a 0 or 1 state

32. - E7B13

Which of the following describes an emitter follower (or common collector) amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	A two-transistor amplifier with the emitters sharing a common bias resistor
B	An amplifier with a low impedance output that follows the base input voltage
C	A differential amplifier with both inputs fed to the emitter of the input transistor
D	An OR circuit with only one emitter used for output

33. - E7C06

What are the distinguishing features of an elliptical filter?

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

34. - E7D08

What type of circuit is shown in Figure E7-2?

Select	Answer
A	Monostable multivibrator
B	Switching voltage regulator
C	Grounded emitter amplifier
D	Linear voltage regulator

35. - E7E11

Which type of detector circuit is used for demodulating SSB signals?

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

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

37. - E7G07

What magnitude of voltage gain can be expected from the circuit in Figure E73 when R1 is 10 ohms and RF is 470 ohms?

Select	Answer
A	47
B	24
C	0.21
D	94

38. - E7H15

Which of these functions can be performed by a phase-locked loop?

Select	Answer
A	Comparison of two digital input signals, digital pulse counter
B	Frequency synthesis, FM demodulation
C	Wide-band AF and RF power amplification
D	Photovoltaic conversion, optical coupling

39. - E8A08

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

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

40. - E8B09

What is deviation ratio?

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

41. - E8C08

How does ARQ accomplish error correction?

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

42. - E8D01

Why are received spread spectrum signals resistant to interference?

Select	Answer
A	The receiver is always equipped with a digital blanker
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	Signals not using the spread spectrum algorithm are suppressed in the receiver

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	252 watts
C	63.2 watts
D	159 watts

44. - E9B11

What is a disadvantage of decreasing the number of wire segments in an antenna model below 10 segments per half-wavelength?

Select	Answer
A	Ground conductivity will not be accurately modeled
B	The resulting design will favor radiation of harmonic energy
C	The computed feed point impedance may be incorrect
D	The antenna will become mechanically unstable

45. - E9C08

What is a folded dipole antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A dipole configured to provide forward gain
B	A half-wave dipole with an additional parallel wire connecting its two ends
C	A dipole one-quarter wavelength long
D	A type of ground-plane antenna

46. - E9D08

What happens as the Q of an antenna increases?

Select	Answer
A	SWR bandwidth decreases
B	SWR bandwidth increases
C	Gain is reduced
D	More common-mode current is present on the feed line

47. - 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 stub matching system
D	The delta matching system

48. - E9F07

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

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

49. - E9G05

Which of the following is a common use for a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Determine the loss/100 feet of a transmission line, given the velocity factor and conductor materials
B	Determine the length and position of an impedance matching stub
C	Determine the gain of an antenna given the physical and electrical parameters
D	Determine the impedance of a transmission line, given the physical dimensions

50. - E9H04

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

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

Figure E7-2