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

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1. - E0A02

When evaluating RF exposure levels from your station at a neighbor's home, what must you do?

Select	Answer
A	Ensure signals from your station are less than the controlled Maximum Permitted Emission (MPE) limits
B	Ensure signals from your station are less than the uncontrolled Maximum Permitted Exposure (MPE) limits
C	Ensure signals from your station are less than the uncontrolled Maximum Permitted Emission (MPE) limits
D	Ensure signals from your station are less than the controlled Maximum Permitted Exposure (MPE) limits

2. - E1A05

What is the maximum power output permitted on the 60 meter band?

Select	Answer
A	50 watts PEP effective radiated power relative to a dipole
B	50 watts PEP effective radiated power relative to an isotropic radiator
C	100 watts PEP effective radiated power relative to the gain of a half-wave dipole
D	100 watts PEP effective radiated power relative to an isotropic radiator

3. - E1B05

What is the National Radio Quiet Zone?

Select	Answer
A	An area in Puerto Rico surrounding the Arecibo Radio Telescope
B	An area in Florida surrounding Cape Canaveral
C	An area in New Mexico surrounding the White Sands Test Area
D	An area surrounding the National Radio Astronomy Observatory

4. - E1C14

How long must an operator wait after filing a notification with the Utilities Technology Council (UTC) before operating on the 2200 meter or 630 meter band?

Select	Answer
A	Operators may not operate until a test signal has been transmitted in coordination with the local power company
B	Operators must not operate until approval is received
C	Operators may operate after 30 days, providing they have not been told that their station is within 1 km of PLC systems using those frequencies
D	Operations may commence immediately, and may continue unless interference is reported by the UTC

5. - E1D08

Which VHF amateur bands have frequencies authorized for space stations?

Select	Answer
A	2 meters and 1.25 meters
B	6 meters and 2 meters
C	2 meters
D	6 meters, 2 meters, and 1.25 meters

6. - E1E12

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

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

7. - E1F02

What privileges are authorized in the U.S. to persons holding an amateur service license granted by the government of Canada?

Select	Answer
A	The operating terms and conditions of the Canadian amateur service license, not to exceed U.S. Amateur Extra Class license privileges
B	All privileges of the Amateur Extra Class license
C	None, they must obtain a U.S. license
D	Full privileges, up to and including those of the Amateur Extra Class license, on the 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meter bands

8. - E2A01

What is the direction of an ascending pass for an amateur satellite?

Select	Answer
A	From west to east
B	From east to west
C	From south to north
D	From north to south

9. - E2B10

What aspect of an analog slow-scan television signal encodes the brightness of the picture?

Select	Answer
A	Sync amplitude
B	Sync frequency
C	Tone frequency
D	Tone amplitude

10. - E2C02

Which of the following best describes the term self-spotting? in connection with HF contest operating?

Select	Answer
A	An automatic method for rapidly zero beating or tuning to a station's frequency before calling that station
B	A manual technique for rapidly zero beating or tuning to a station's frequency before calling that station
C	The often-prohibited practice of posting one's own call sign and frequency on a spotting network
D	The acceptable practice of manually posting the call signs of stations on a spotting network

11. - E2D05

What is one advantage of the JT65 mode?

Select	Answer
A	Uses only a 65 Hz bandwidth
B	Easily copied by ear if necessary
C	The ability to decode signals which have a very low signal-to-noise ratio
D	Permits fast-scan TV transmissions over narrow bandwidth

12. - E2E01

Which of the following types of modulation is common for data emissions below 30 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	DTMF tones modulating an FM signal
B	Pulse modulation
C	FSK
D	Spread spectrum

13. - E3A03

When scheduling EME contacts, which of these conditions will generally result in the least path loss?

Select	Answer
A	When the moon is full
B	When the MUF is above 30 MHz
C	When the moon is at apogee
D	When the moon is at perigee

14. - E3B09

At what time of year is sporadic E propagation most likely to occur?

Select	Answer
A	Around the solstices, especially the summer solstice
B	Around the solstices, especially the winter solstice
C	Around the equinoxes, especially the fall equinox
D	Around the equinoxes, especially the spring equinox

15. - E3C03

Which of the following signal paths is most likely to experience high levels of absorption when the A index or K index is elevated?

Select	Answer
A	Sporadic E
B	Transequatorial
C	NVIS
D	Polar

16. - E4A02

Which of the following parameters does a spectrum analyzer display on the vertical and horizontal axes?

Select	Answer
A	SWR and time
B	RF amplitude and time
C	RF amplitude and frequency
D	SWR and frequency

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

18. - E4C11

Why can an attenuator be used to reduce receiver overload on the lower frequency HF bands with little or no impact on signal-to-noise ratio?

Select	Answer
A	Atmospheric noise is generally greater than internally generated noise even after attenuation
B	The attenuator has a noise filter to suppress interference
C	Signals are attenuated separately from the noise
D	The attenuator has a low-pass filter to increase the strength of lower frequency signals

19. - E4D09

What is the purpose of the preselector in a communications receiver?

Select	Answer
A	To increase rejection of signals outside the desired band
B	To allow selection of the optimum RF amplifier device
C	To provide a range of AGC time constants
D	To store often-used frequencies

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

21. - E5A01

What can cause the voltage across reactances in a series RLC circuit to be higher than the voltage applied to the entire circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Resonance
B	Resistance
C	Capacitance
D	Conductance

22. - E5B09

What is the relationship between the AC current through a capacitor and the voltage across a capacitor?

Select	Answer
A	Voltage and current are 180 degrees out of phase
B	Voltage leads current by 90 degrees
C	Current leads voltage by 90 degrees
D	Voltage and current are in phase

23. - E5C10

Which point on Figure E5-1 best represents the impedance of a series circuit consisting of a 400-ohm resistor and a 38-picofarad capacitor at 14 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	Point 2
B	Point 5
C	Point 4
D	Point 6

24. - E5D09

What happens to reactive power in an AC circuit that has both ideal inductors and ideal capacitors?

Select	Answer
A	It is repeatedly exchanged between the associated magnetic and electric fields, but is not dissipated
B	It is dissipated as kinetic energy in the circuit
C	It is dissipated as heat in the circuit
D	It is dissipated in the formation of inductive and capacitive fields

25. - E6A10

In Figure E6-1, what is the schematic symbol for an N-channel dual-gate MOSFET?

Select	Answer
A	2
B	4
C	6
D	5

26. - E6B03

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

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

27. - E6C01

What is the function of hysteresis in a comparator?

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

28. - E6D08

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

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

29. - E6E10

What advantage does surface-mount technology offer at RF compared to using through-hole components?

Select	Answer
A	Components have less parasitic inductance and capacitance
B	Shorter circuit-board traces
C	All these choices are correct
D	Smaller circuit area

30. - E6F07

What is a solid-state relay?

Select	Answer
A	A mechanical relay that latches in the on or off state each time it is pulsed
B	A relay using transistors to drive the relay coil
C	A device that uses semiconductors to implement the functions of an electromechanical relay
D	A semiconductor passive delay line

31. - E7A06

What is a characteristic of a monostable multivibrator?

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

32. - E7B02

What is a Class D amplifier?

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

33. - E7C05

Which filter type is described as having ripple in the passband and a sharp cutoff?

Select	Answer
A	A Butterworth filter
B	A passive op-amp filter
C	An active LC filter
D	A Chebyshev filter

34. - E7D05

Which of the following types of linear voltage regulator places a constant load on the unregulated voltage source?

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

35. - E7E02

What is the function of a reactance modulator?

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

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. - 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	94
B	24
C	47
D	0.21

38. - E7H14

What is a phase-locked loop circuit?

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

39. - E8A03

What type of wave does a Fourier analysis show to be made up of sine waves of a given fundamental frequency plus all its harmonics?

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

40. - E8B01

What is the modulation index of an FM signal?

Select	Answer
A	The bandwidth of the transmitted signal divided by the modulating signal frequency
B	The type of modulation used by the transmitter
C	The ratio of modulating signal amplitude to frequency deviation
D	The ratio of frequency deviation to modulating signal frequency

41. - E8C02

What is the definition of symbol rate in a digital transmission?

Select	Answer
A	The duration of each bit in a message sent over the air
B	The rate at which the waveform changes to convey information
C	The number of characters carried per second by the station-to-station link
D	The number of control characters in a message packet

42. - E8D08

What parameter evaluates distortion of an AFSK signal caused by excessive input audio levels?

Select	Answer
A	Baud rate
B	Signal-to-noise ratio
C	Intermodulation Distortion (IMD)
D	Repeat Request Rate (RRR)

43. - E9A01

What is an isotropic antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A theoretical, omnidirectional antenna used as a reference for antenna gain
B	A horizontally polarized antenna used to compare Yagi antennas
C	A spacecraft antenna used to direct signals toward Earth
D	A grounded antenna used to measure Earth conductivity

44. - E9B02

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

Select	Answer
A	24 dB
B	18 dB
C	36 dB
D	14 dB

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. - E9D08

What happens as the Q of an antenna increases?

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

47. - E9E11

What is the primary purpose of phasing lines when used with an antenna having multiple driven elements?

Select	Answer
A	It creates a low-angle radiation pattern
B	It ensures that each driven element operates in concert with the others to create the desired antenna pattern
C	It prevents reflected power from traveling back down the feed line and causing harmonic radiation from the transmitter
D	It allows single-band antennas to operate on other bands

48. - E9F13

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

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

49. - E9G09

What third family of circles is often added to a Smith chart during the process of solving problems?

Select	Answer
A	Radiation-pattern circles
B	Standing wave ratio circles
C	Coaxial-length circles
D	Antenna-length circles

50. - E9H01

When constructing a Beverage antenna, which of the following factors should be included in the design to achieve good performance at the desired frequency?

Select	Answer
A	It should be configured as a four-sided loop
B	It should be one or more wavelengths long
C	Its overall length must not exceed 1/4 wavelength
D	It must be mounted more than 1 wavelength above ground

Figure E5-1

Figure E6-1

Figure E9-1