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

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1. - E0A08

What does SAR measure?

Select	Answer
A	The rate at which RF energy is absorbed by the body
B	Synthetic Aperture Ratio of the human body
C	Signal Amplification Rating
D	The rate of RF energy reflected from stationary terrain

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

3. - E1B04

What must be done before placing an amateur station within an officially designated wilderness area or wildlife preserve, or an area listed in the National Register of Historic Places?

Select	Answer
A	A proposal must be submitted to the National Park Service
B	A letter of intent must be filed with the Environmental Protection Agency
C	An Environmental Assessment must be submitted to the FCC
D	A form FSD-15 must be submitted to the Department of the Interior

4. - E1C10

What is the permitted mean power of any spurious emission relative to the mean power of the fundamental emission from a station transmitter or external RF amplifier installed after January 1, 2003 and transmitting on a frequency below 30 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	At least 63 dB below
B	At least 43 dB below
C	At least 53 dB below
D	At least 73 dB below

5. - E1D06

What is the maximum permitted transmitter output power when operating a model craft by telecommand?

Select	Answer
A	2 watts
B	5 watts
C	1 watt
D	100 watts

6. - E1E03

What is a Volunteer Examiner Coordinator?

Select	Answer
A	An organization that has entered into an agreement with the FCC to coordinate, prepare, and administer amateur operator license examinations
B	A person who has volunteered to prepare amateur operator license examinations
C	A person who has volunteered to administer amateur operator license examinations
D	The person who has entered into an agreement with the FCC to be the VE session manager

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 produce full legal output when driven by not more than 5 watts of mean RF input power
C	It must exhibit a gain of 0 dB or less over its full output range
D	It must satisfy the FCC's spurious emission standards when operated at the lesser of 1500 watts or its full output power

8. - E2A11

What type of antenna can be used to minimize the effects of spin modulation and Faraday rotation?

Select	Answer
A	An isotropic antenna
B	A log-periodic dipole array
C	A circularly polarized antenna
D	A linearly polarized antenna

9. - E2B01

How many times per second is a new frame transmitted in a fast-scan (NTSC) television system?

Select	Answer
A	120
B	90
C	60
D	30

10. - E2C02

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

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

11. - E2D07

What digital protocol is used by APRS?

Select	Answer
A	PACTOR
B	802.11
C	AX.25
D	AMTOR

12. - E2E09

Which of the following HF digital modes uses variable-length coding for bandwidth efficiency?

Select	Answer
A	PACTOR
B	PSK31
C	RTTY
D	MT63

13. - E3A03

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

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

14. - E3B03

What is the best time of day for transequatorial propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Morning
B	Afternoon or early evening
C	Late at night
D	Noon

15. - E3C13

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

Select	Answer
A	Vertical
B	Circular
C	Horizontal
D	Elliptical

16. - E4A11

How should an antenna analyzer be connected when measuring antenna resonance and feed point impedance?

Select	Answer
A	Connect the antenna feed line directly to the analyzer's connector
B	Loosely couple the analyzer near the antenna base
C	Connect the analyzer via a high-impedance transformer to the antenna
D	Loosely couple the antenna and a dummy load to the analyzer

17. - E4B02

What is the significance of voltmeter sensitivity expressed in ohms per volt?

Select	Answer
A	When used as a galvanometer, the reading in volts multiplied by the ohms per volt rating will determine the power drawn by the device under test
B	When used as an ammeter, the full scale reading in amps divided by ohms per volt rating will determine the size of shunt needed
C	When used as an ohmmeter, the reading in ohms divided by the ohms per volt rating will determine the voltage applied to the circuit
D	The full scale reading of the voltmeter multiplied by its ohms per volt rating will indicate the input impedance of the voltmeter

18. - E4C03

What is the term for the suppression in an FM receiver of one signal by another stronger signal on the same frequency?

Select	Answer
A	Capture effect
B	Frequency discrimination
C	Desensitization
D	Cross-modulation interference

19. - E4D11

Why are odd-order intermodulation products, created within a receiver, of particular interest compared to other products?

Select	Answer
A	Odd-order products are an indication of poor image rejection
B	Odd-order products of two signals in the band of interest are also likely to be within the band
C	Odd-order products overload the IF filters
D	Odd-order intermodulation produces three products for every input signal within the band of interest

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	Your station receiver IF amplifier stage is defective
C	You are receiving skywave signals from a distant station
D	One or more of the broadcast stations is transmitting an over-modulated signal

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

22. - E5B06

What is susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	The magnetic impedance of a circuit
B	The ratio of magnetic field to electric field
C	The imaginary part of admittance
D	A measure of the efficiency of a transformer

23. - E5C03

Which of the following represents an inductive reactance in polar coordinates?

Select	Answer
A	A positive phase angle
B	A negative phase angle
C	A negative magnitude
D	A positive magnitude

24. - E5D01

What is the result of skin effect?

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

25. - E6A06

What is the beta of a bipolar junction transistor?

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

26. - E6B10

In Figure E6-2, what is the schematic symbol for a light-emitting diode?

Select	Answer
A	5
B	6
C	1
D	7

27. - E6C01

What is the function of hysteresis in a comparator?

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

28. - E6D10

What is a primary advantage of using a toroidal core instead of a solenoidal core in an inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Toroidal cores exhibit greater hysteresis
B	Toroidal cores make it easier to couple the magnetic energy into other components
C	Toroidal cores have lower Q characteristics
D	Toroidal cores confine most of the magnetic field within the core material

29. - E6E09

Which of the following component package types would be most suitable for use at frequencies above the HF range?

Select	Answer
A	TO-220
B	Radial lead
C	Axial lead
D	Surface mount

30. - E6F08

Why are optoisolators often used in conjunction with solid-state circuits when switching 120 VAC?

Select	Answer
A	Optoisolators provide a low impedance link between a control circuit and a power circuit
B	Optoisolators provide a very high degree of electrical isolation between a control circuit and the circuit being switched
C	Optoisolators provide impedance matching between the control circuit and power circuit
D	Optoisolators eliminate the effects of reflected light in the control circuit

31. - E7A10

What is a truth table?

Select	Answer
A	A table of logic symbols that indicate the high logic states of an op-amp
B	A list of inputs and corresponding outputs for a digital device
C	A diagram showing logic states when the digital device output is true
D	A table of logic symbols that indicate the logic states of an op-amp

32. - E7B08

How can an RF power amplifier be neutralized?

Select	Answer
A	By reducing the driving power
B	By feeding a 180-degree out-of-phase portion of the output back to the input
C	By increasing the driving power
D	By feeding an in-phase component of the output back to the input

33. - E7C01

How are the capacitors and inductors of a low-pass filter Pi-network arranged between the network's input and output?

Select	Answer
A	An inductor is connected between the input and ground, another inductor is connected between the output and ground, and a capacitor is connected between the input and output
B	Two capacitors are in series between the input and output, and an inductor is connected between the two capacitors and ground
C	A capacitor is connected between the input and ground, another capacitor is connected between the output and ground, and an inductor is connected between input and output
D	Two inductors are in series between the input and output, and a capacitor is connected between the two inductors and ground

34. - E7D11

What is the function of the pass transistor in a linear voltage regulator circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Maintains nearly constant output voltage over a wide range of load current
B	Permits a wide range of output voltage settings
C	Provides a stable input impedance over a wide range of source voltage
D	Maintains nearly constant output impedance over a wide range of load current

35. - E7E09

What occurs when an excessive amount of signal energy reaches a mixer circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Mixer blanking occurs
B	Automatic limiting occurs
C	A beat frequency is generated
D	Spurious mixer products are generated

36. - E7F03

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

Select	Answer
A	A Hilbert-transform filter
B	An elliptical filter
C	A notch filter
D	An adaptive 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 increases linearly with increasing frequency
C	It does not vary with frequency
D	It decreases linearly with increasing frequency

38. - E7H08

Which of the following components can be used to reduce thermal drift in crystal oscillators?

Select	Answer
A	Non-inductive resistors
B	Toroidal inductors
C	NP0 capacitors
D	Wirewound resistors

39. - E8A07

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

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

40. - E8B04

What is the modulation index of an FM-phone signal having a maximum carrier deviation of plus or minus 6 kHz when modulated with a 2 kHz modulating frequency?

Select	Answer
A	2000
B	6000
C	3
D	1/3

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	Binary Coded Decimal Code
C	Excess 3 code
D	Gray code

42. - E8D04

What is the primary effect of extremely short rise or fall time on a CW signal?

Select	Answer
A	Limits data speed
B	The generation of key clicks
C	The generation of RF harmonics
D	More difficult to copy

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	252 watts
B	63.2 watts
C	632 watts
D	159 watts

44. - E9B05

What type of antenna pattern is shown in Figure E9-2?

Select	Answer
A	Elevation
B	Polarization
C	Azimuth
D	Radiation resistance

45. - E9C01

What is the radiation pattern of two 1/4-wavelength vertical antennas spaced 1/2-wavelength apart and fed 180 degrees out of phase?

Select	Answer
A	Omni-directional
B	A figure-8 broadside to the axis of the array
C	Cardioid
D	A figure-8 oriented along the axis of the array

46. - E9D12

Which of the following would provide the best RF ground for your station?

Select	Answer
A	An electrically short connection to a metal water pipe
B	A 50-ohm resistor connected to ground
C	An electrically short connection to 3 or 4 interconnected ground rods driven into the Earth
D	An electrically short connection to 3 or 4 interconnected ground rods via a series RF choke

47. - E9E07

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

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

48. - E9F02

Which of the following has the biggest effect on the velocity factor of a transmission line?

Select	Answer
A	The center conductor resistivity
B	The line length
C	The termination impedance
D	Dielectric materials used in the line

49. - E9G10

What do the arcs on a Smith chart represent?

Select	Answer
A	SWR
B	Points with constant reactance
C	Points with constant resistance
D	Frequency

50. - E9H03

What is Receiving Directivity Factor (RDF)?

Select	Answer
A	Relative directivity compared to isotropic
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 a dipole

Figure E6-2

Figure E9-2