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

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1. - E0A09

Which insulating material commonly used as a thermal conductor for some types of electronic devices is extremely toxic if broken or crushed and the particles are accidentally inhaled?

Select	Answer
A	Uranium Hexafluoride
B	Beryllium Oxide
C	Mica
D	Zinc oxide

2. - E1A10

If an amateur station is installed aboard a ship or aircraft, what condition must be met before the station is operated?

Select	Answer
A	Its operation must be approved by the master of the ship or the pilot in command of the aircraft
B	The amateur station operator must agree not to transmit when the main radio of the ship or aircraft is in use
C	The amateur operator must have an FCC Marine or Aircraft endorsement on his or her amateur license
D	The amateur station must have a power supply that is completely independent of the main ship or aircraft power supply

3. - E1B12

What must the control operator of a repeater operating in the 70 cm band do if a radiolocation system experiences interference from that repeater?

Select	Answer
A	Reduce the repeater antenna HAAT (Height Above Average Terrain)
B	All these choices are correct
C	File an FAA NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) with the repeater system's ERP, call sign, and six-character grid locator
D	Cease operation or make changes to the repeater to mitigate the interference

4. - E1C08

What is the maximum permissible duration of a remotely controlled station's transmissions if its control link malfunctions?

Select	Answer
A	10 minutes
B	3 minutes
C	5 minutes
D	30 seconds

5. - E1D12

Which of the following amateur stations may transmit one-way communications?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	A space station, beacon station, or telecommand station
C	A message forwarding station or automatically controlled digital station
D	A local repeater or linked repeater station

6. - E1E11

What must the VE team do if an examinee scores a passing grade on all examination elements needed for an upgrade or new license?

Select	Answer
A	Photocopy all examination documents and forward them to the FCC for processing
B	Issue the examinee the new or upgrade license
C	All these choices are correct
D	Three VEs must certify that the examinee is qualified for the license grant and that they have complied with the administering VE requirements

7. - E1F10

Who may be the control operator of an auxiliary station?

Select	Answer
A	Any licensed amateur operator
B	Only General, Advanced or Amateur Extra Class operators
C	Only Technician, General, Advanced or Amateur Extra Class operators
D	Only Amateur Extra Class operators

8. - E2A07

Which of the following types of signals can be relayed through a linear transponder?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	PSK and packet
C	SSB and SSTV
D	FM and CW

9. - E2B03

How is an interlaced scanning pattern generated in a fast-scan (NTSC) television system?

Select	Answer
A	By scanning odd numbered lines in one field and even numbered lines in the next
B	By scanning two fields simultaneously
C	By scanning lines from left to right in one field and right to left in the next
D	By scanning each field from bottom to top

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

11. - E2D05

What is one advantage of the JT65 mode?

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

12. - E2E10

Which of these digital modes has the narrowest bandwidth?

Select	Answer
A	MFSK16
B	PSK31
C	300-baud packet
D	170 Hz shift, 45-baud RTTY

13. - E3A01

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

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

14. - E3B04

What is meant by the terms "extraordinary" and "ordinary" waves?

Select	Answer
A	Independent waves created in the ionosphere that are elliptically polarized
B	Extraordinary waves describe rare long-skip propagation compared to ordinary waves, which travel shorter distances
C	Refracted rays and reflected waves
D	Long-path and short-path waves

15. - E3C04

What does the value of Bz (B sub Z) represent?

Select	Answer
A	Geomagnetic field stability
B	Critical frequency for vertical transmissions
C	Direction and strength of the interplanetary magnetic field
D	Duration of long-delayed echoes

16. - E4A06

What is the effect of aliasing on a digital oscilloscope caused by setting the time base too slow?

Select	Answer
A	Excessive blanking occurs, which prevents display of the signal
B	Calibration of the vertical scale is no longer valid
C	All signals will have a DC offset
D	A false, jittery low-frequency version of the signal is displayed

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	25 watts
B	125 watts
C	75 watts
D	100 watts

18. - E4C01

What is an effect of excessive phase noise in a receiver's local oscillator?

Select	Answer
A	It decreases receiver third-order intercept point
B	It can combine with strong signals on nearby frequencies to generate interference
C	It can affect the receiver's frequency calibration
D	It limits the receiver's ability to receive strong signals

19. - E4D12

What is the term for the reduction in receiver sensitivity caused by a strong signal near the received frequency?

Select	Answer
A	Squelch gain rollback
B	Cross-modulation interference
C	Quieting
D	Desensitization

20. - E4E09

What undesirable effect can occur when using an IF noise blanker?

Select	Answer
A	Received audio in the speech range might have an echo effect
B	The audio frequency bandwidth of the received signal might be compressed
C	FM signals can no longer be demodulated
D	Nearby signals may appear to be excessively wide even if they meet emission standards

21. - E5A06

What is the magnitude of the circulating current within the components of a parallel LC circuit at resonance?

Select	Answer
A	It equals 2 multiplied by pi, multiplied by frequency, multiplied by inductance
B	It equals 1 divided by the quantity 2 times pi, multiplied by the square root of inductance L multiplied by capacitance C
C	It is at a minimum
D	It is at a maximum

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	220 seconds
B	55 seconds
C	440 seconds
D	110 seconds

23. - E5C07

Where is the impedance of a pure resistance plotted on rectangular coordinates?

Select	Answer
A	On a horizontal line, offset vertically above the horizontal axis
B	On the vertical axis
C	On the horizontal axis
D	On a line through the origin, slanted at 45 degrees

24. - E5D01

What is the result of skin effect?

Select	Answer
A	As frequency increases, RF current flows in a thinner layer of the conductor, closer to the surface
B	Thermal effects on the surface of the conductor decrease the impedance
C	As frequency decreases, RF current flows in a thinner layer of the conductor, closer to the surface
D	Thermal effects on the surface of the conductor increase the impedance

25. - E6A11

In Figure E6-1, what is the schematic symbol for a P-channel junction FET?

Select	Answer
A	3
B	6
C	2
D	1

26. - E6B05

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

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

27. - E6C02

What happens when the level of a comparator's input signal crosses the threshold?

Select	Answer
A	The comparator enters latch-up
B	The feedback loop becomes unstable
C	The IC input can be damaged
D	The comparator changes its output state

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	Steel-core toroids
C	Electrolytic capacitors
D	Ferrite beads

29. - E6E07

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

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

30. - E6F03

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

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

31. - E7A09

What logical operation is performed by an exclusive NOR gate?

Select	Answer
A	It produces logic 0 at its output only if all inputs are logic 0
B	It produces logic 0 at its output if only one input is logic 1
C	It produces logic 1 at its output only if all inputs are logic 1
D	It produces logic 1 at its output if only one input is logic 1

32. - E7B12

What type of amplifier circuit is shown in Figure E7-1?

Select	Answer
A	Emitter follower
B	Common emitter
C	Common base
D	Common collector

33. - E7C10

Which of the following filters would be the best choice for use in a 2 meter band repeater duplexer?

Select	Answer
A	A DSP filter
B	An L-C filter
C	A crystal filter
D	A cavity filter

34. - E7D12

What is the dropout voltage of an analog voltage regulator?

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

35. - E7E07

What is meant by the term "baseband" in radio communications?

Select	Answer
A	The unmodulated bandwidth of the transmitted signal
B	The lowest frequency band that the transmitter or receiver covers
C	The frequency range occupied by a message signal prior to modulation
D	The basic oscillator frequency in an FM transmitter that is multiplied to increase the deviation and carrier frequency

36. - E7F03

What type of digital signal processing filter is used to generate an SSB signal?

Select	Answer
A	An elliptical filter
B	An adaptive filter
C	A Hilbert-transform filter
D	A notch filter

37. - E7G08

How does the gain of an ideal operational amplifier vary with frequency?

Select	Answer
A	It decreases logarithmically with increasing frequency
B	It decreases linearly with increasing frequency
C	It increases linearly with increasing frequency
D	It does not vary with frequency

38. - E7H05

How is positive feedback supplied in a Pierce oscillator?

Select	Answer
A	Through link coupling
B	Through a tapped coil
C	Through a quartz crystal
D	Through a neutralizing capacitor

39. - E8A10

What is the purpose of a low-pass filter used in conjunction with a digital-to-analog converter?

Select	Answer
A	Lower the input bandwidth to increase the effective resolution
B	All these choices are correct
C	Improve accuracy by removing out-of-sequence codes from the input
D	Remove harmonics from the output caused by the discrete analog levels generated

40. - E8B08

What describes Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing?

Select	Answer
A	A frequency modulation technique that uses non-harmonically related frequencies
B	A bandwidth compression technique using Fourier transforms
C	A digital mode for narrow-band, slow-speed transmissions
D	A digital modulation technique using subcarriers at frequencies chosen to avoid intersymbol interference

41. - E8C09

Which digital code allows only one bit to change between sequential code values?

Select	Answer
A	Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code
B	Excess 3 code
C	Gray code
D	Binary Coded Decimal Code

42. - E8D05

What is the most common method of reducing key clicks?

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

43. - E9A04

Which of the following factors affect the feed point impedance of an antenna?

Select	Answer
A	The input power level
B	Transmission line length
C	The settings of an antenna tuner at the transmitter
D	Antenna height

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

45. - E9C11

How is the far-field elevation pattern of a vertically polarized antenna affected by being mounted over seawater versus soil?

Select	Answer
A	Fewer vertical angle lobes will be present
B	Additional higher vertical angle lobes will appear
C	The low-angle radiation decreases
D	The low-angle radiation increases

46. - E9D08

What happens as the Q of an antenna increases?

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

48. - E9F07

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

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

49. - E9G06

On the Smith chart shown in Figure E9-3, what is the name for the large outer circle on which the reactance arcs terminate?

Select	Answer
A	Reactance axis
B	Polar axis
C	Prime axis
D	Impedance axis

50. - E9H03

What is Receiving Directivity Factor (RDF)?

Select	Answer
A	Relative directivity compared to a dipole
B	Forward gain compared to the gain in the reverse direction
C	Forward gain compared to average gain over the entire hemisphere
D	Relative directivity compared to isotropic

Figure E6-1

Figure E7-1

Figure E9-3