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

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1. - E0A10

What toxic material may be present in some electronic components such as high voltage capacitors and transformers?

Select	Answer
A	Polytetrafluoroethylene
B	Polymorphic silicon
C	Polyethylene
D	Polychlorinated biphenyls

2. - E1A12

What special operating frequency restrictions are imposed on slow scan TV transmissions?

Select	Answer
A	They are restricted to phone band segments
B	None; they are allowed on all amateur frequencies
C	They are not permitted above 54 MHz
D	They are restricted to 7.245 MHz, 14.245 MHz, 21.345 MHz, and 28.945 MHz

3. - E1B07

To what type of regulations does PRB-1 apply?

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

4. - E1C13

What notifications must be given before transmitting on the 630 meter or 2200 meter bands?

Select	Answer
A	Operators must inform the Utilities Technology Council (UTC) of their call sign and coordinates of the station
B	Operators must inform the FAA of their intent to operate, giving their call sign and distance to the nearest runway
C	A special endorsement must be requested from the FCC
D	An environmental impact statement must be filed with the Department of the Interior

5. - E1D01

What is the definition of telemetry?

Select	Answer
A	Two-way transmissions in excess of 1000 feet
B	One-way transmission that initiates, modifies, or terminates the functions of a device at a distance
C	One-way transmission of measurements at a distance from the measuring instrument
D	Two-way transmissions of data

6. - E1E08

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

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

7. - E1F11

Which of the following best describes one of the standards that must be met by an external RF power amplifier if it is to qualify for a grant of FCC certification?

Select	Answer
A	It must be capable of external RF switching between its input and output networks
B	It must satisfy the FCC's spurious emission standards when operated at the lesser of 1500 watts or its full output power
C	It must produce full legal output when driven by not more than 5 watts of mean RF input power
D	It must exhibit a gain of 0 dB or less over its full output range

8. - 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	Whether the satellite is in a low earth or geostationary orbit
C	The satellite's orientation with respect to the Earth
D	Whether the satellite is in a polar or equatorial orbit

9. - E2B08

What technique allows commercial analog TV receivers to be used for fast-scan TV operations on the 70 cm band?

Select	Answer
A	Using USB and demodulating the signal with a computer sound card
B	Transmitting on the abandoned TV channel 2
C	Using converted satellite TV dishes
D	Transmitting on channels shared with cable TV

10. - E2C07

What is the Cabrillo format?

Select	Answer
A	The most common set of contest rules
B	A method of exchanging information during a contest QSO
C	A standard for submission of electronic contest logs
D	The rules of order for meetings between contest sponsors

11. - E2D03

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

Select	Answer
A	MSK144
B	Olivia
C	JT65
D	PACTOR III

12. - E2E05

Which of these digital modes does not support keyboard-to-keyboard operation?

Select	Answer
A	RTTY
B	PACTOR
C	MFSK
D	PSK31

13. - E3A01

What is the approximate maximum separation measured along the surface of the Earth between two stations communicating by EME?

Select	Answer
A	5000 miles, if the moon is at perigee
B	2000 miles, if the moon is at apogee
C	500 miles, if the moon is at perigee
D	12,000 miles, if the moon is visible by both stations

14. - E3B06

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

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

15. - E3C13

What type of polarization is best for ground-wave propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Vertical
B	Elliptical
C	Circular
D	Horizontal

16. - E4A01

Which of the following limits the highest frequency signal that can be accurately displayed on a digital oscilloscope?

Select	Answer
A	Q of the circuit
B	All these choices are correct
C	Amount of memory
D	Sampling rate of the analog-to-digital converter

17. - E4B04

Which S parameter represents input port return loss or reflection coefficient (equivalent to VSWR)?

Select	Answer
A	S22
B	S11
C	S12
D	S21

18. - E4C12

Which of the following has the largest effect on an SDR receiver's dynamic range?

Select	Answer
A	Anti-aliasing input filter bandwidth
B	CPU register width in bits
C	RAM speed used for data storage
D	Analog-to-digital converter sample width in bits

19. - E4D08

What causes intermodulation in an electronic circuit?

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

20. - E4E11

What could cause local AM broadcast band signals to combine to generate spurious signals in the MF or HF bands?

Select	Answer
A	Your station receiver IF amplifier stage is defective
B	You are receiving skywave signals from a distant station
C	Nearby corroded metal joints are mixing and re-radiating the broadcast signals
D	One or more of the broadcast stations is transmitting an over-modulated signal

21. - E5A09

How is the Q of an RLC parallel resonant circuit calculated?

Select	Answer
A	Resistance divided by the reactance of either the inductance or capacitance
B	Reactance of either the inductance or capacitance multiplied by the resistance
C	Reactance of the inductance multiplied by the reactance of the capacitance
D	Reactance of either the inductance or capacitance divided by the resistance

22. - E5B04

What is the time constant of a circuit having two 220-microfarad capacitors and two 1-megohm resistors, all in parallel?

Select	Answer
A	440 seconds
B	110 seconds
C	55 seconds
D	220 seconds

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 8
B	Point 3
C	Point 7
D	Point 1

24. - 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	All these choices are correct
C	To avoid unwanted inductive reactance
D	To maintain component lifetime

25. - E6A08

What term indicates the frequency at which the grounded-base current gain of a transistor has decreased to 0.7 of the gain obtainable at 1 kHz?

Select	Answer
A	Corner frequency
B	Alpha cutoff frequency
C	Alpha rejection frequency
D	Beta cutoff frequency

26. - E6B05

What characteristic of a PIN diode makes it useful as an RF switch?

Select	Answer
A	Ability to dissipate large amounts of power
B	Extremely high reverse breakdown voltage
C	Reverse bias controls its forward voltage drop
D	Low junction capacitance

27. - E6C01

What is the function of hysteresis in a comparator?

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

28. - E6D09

What devices are commonly used as VHF and UHF parasitic suppressors at the input and output terminals of a transistor HF amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	Butterworth filters
B	Electrolytic capacitors
C	Steel-core toroids
D	Ferrite beads

29. - E6E07

What type of transmission line is used for connections to MMICs?

Select	Answer
A	Microstrip
B	Circular waveguide
C	Parallel wire
D	Miniature coax

30. - E6F10

What is the most common type of photovoltaic cell used for electrical power generation?

Select	Answer
A	Cadmium Sulfide
B	Silicon
C	Selenium
D	Copper oxide

31. - E7A11

What type of logic defines "1" as a high voltage?

Select	Answer
A	Positive Logic
B	Negative logic
C	Reverse Logic
D	Assertive Logic

32. - E7B13

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

Select	Answer
A	An amplifier with a low impedance output that follows the base input voltage
B	A two-transistor amplifier with the emitters sharing a common bias resistor
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. - E7C04

How does an impedance-matching circuit transform a complex impedance to a resistive impedance?

Select	Answer
A	Reactive currents are dissipated in matched resistances
B	It introduces negative resistance to cancel the resistive part of impedance
C	It cancels the reactive part of the impedance and changes the resistive part to a desired value
D	It introduces transconductance to cancel the reactive part of impedance

34. - E7D03

What device is typically used as a stable voltage reference in a linear voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	A varactor diode
B	A Zener diode
C	A tunnel diode
D	An SCR

35. - E7E03

What is a frequency discriminator stage in a FM receiver?

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

36. - E7F02

What kind of digital signal processing audio filter is used to remove unwanted noise from a received SSB signal?

Select	Answer
A	A phase-inverting filter
B	A Hilbert-transform filter
C	An adaptive filter
D	A crystal-lattice filter

37. - E7G01

What is the typical output impedance of an op-amp?

Select	Answer
A	Very low
B	Very high
C	100 ohms
D	1000 ohms

38. - E7H06

Which of the following oscillator circuits are commonly used in VFOs?

Select	Answer
A	Colpitts and Hartley
B	Pierce and Zener
C	Armstrong and deForest
D	Negative feedback and balanced feedback

39. - E8A07

What determines the PEP-to-average power ratio of a single-sideband phone signal?

Select	Answer
A	The frequency of the modulating signal
B	Speech characteristics
C	The degree of carrier suppression
D	Amplifier gain

40. - E8B10

What is frequency division multiplexing?

Select	Answer
A	The transmitted signal is divided into packets of information
B	The transmitted signal jumps from band to band at a predetermined rate
C	Two or more information streams are merged into a baseband, which then modulates the transmitter
D	Two or more information streams are merged into a digital combiner, which then pulse position modulates the transmitter

41. - E8C05

What is the approximate bandwidth of a 13-WPM International Morse Code transmission?

Select	Answer
A	13 Hz
B	26 Hz
C	52 Hz
D	104 Hz

42. - E8D05

What is the most common method of reducing key clicks?

Select	Answer
A	Reduce keying waveform rise and fall times
B	Low-pass filters at the transmitter output
C	Increase keying waveform rise and fall times
D	High-pass filters at the transmitter output

43. - E9A02

What is the effective radiated power relative to a dipole of a repeater station with 150 watts transmitter power output, 2 dB feed line loss, 2.2 dB duplexer loss, and 7 dBd antenna gain?

Select	Answer
A	1977 watts
B	420 watts
C	286 watts
D	78.7 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	The computed feed point impedance may be incorrect
B	The antenna will become mechanically unstable
C	Ground conductivity will not be accurately modeled
D	The resulting design will favor radiation of harmonic energy

45. - E9C10

Which of the following describes a Zepp antenna?

Select	Answer
A	An omni-directional antenna commonly used for satellite communications
B	A dipole constructed from zip cord
C	An end-fed dipole antenna
D	A vertical array capable of quickly changing the direction of maximum radiation by changing phasing lines

46. - 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 3 or 4 interconnected ground rods via a series RF choke
C	An electrically short connection to a metal water pipe
D	An electrically short connection to 3 or 4 interconnected ground rods driven into the Earth

47. - E9E07

What parameter describes the interactions at the load end of a mismatched transmission line?

Select	Answer
A	Velocity factor
B	Characteristic impedance
C	Dielectric constant
D	Reflection coefficient

48. - E9F11

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

Select	Answer
A	A capacitive reactance
B	An inductive reactance
C	The same as the characteristic impedance of the line
D	Infinite

49. - E9G02

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

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

50. - E9H11

What feature of a cardioid pattern antenna makes it useful for direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	A very sharp single null
B	Broadband response
C	A very sharp peak
D	High radiation angle

Figure E5-1