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

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1. - E0A05

What is one of the potential hazards of operating in the amateur radio microwave bands?

Select	Answer
A	The extremely high frequency energy can damage the joints of antenna structures
B	The high gain antennas commonly used can result in high exposure levels
C	Microwaves often travel long distances by ionospheric reflection
D	Microwaves are ionizing radiation

2. - E1A11

Which of the following describes authorization or licensing required when operating an amateur station aboard a U.S.-registered vessel in international waters?

Select	Answer
A	Any amateur license with an FCC Marine or Aircraft endorsement
B	An unrestricted Radiotelephone Operator Permit
C	Any FCC-issued amateur license
D	Only General Class or higher amateur licenses

3. - E1B07

To what type of regulations does PRB-1 apply?

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

4. - E1C12

On what portion of the 630 meter band are phone emissions permitted?

Select	Answer
A	Only the bottom 3 kHz
B	The entire band
C	None
D	Only the top 3 kHz

5. - E1D07

Which HF amateur bands have frequencies authorized for space stations?

Select	Answer
A	Only the 40, 20, 17, 15, 12, and 10 meter bands
B	Only the 40, 30, 20, 15, 12, and 10 meter bands
C	Only the 40, 20, 17, 15, and 10 meter bands
D	All HF bands

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

7. - E1F04

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

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

8. - E2A05

What do the letters in a satellite's mode designator specify?

Select	Answer
A	Power limits for uplink and downlink transmissions
B	The uplink and downlink frequency ranges
C	The location of the ground control station
D	The polarization of uplink and downlink signals

9. - E2B04

How is color information sent in analog SSTV?

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

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

11. - E2D09

What type of modulation is used for JT65 contacts?

Select	Answer
A	Multi-tone AFSK
B	IEEE 802.11
C	RTTY
D	PSK

12. - E2E12

How do ALE stations establish contact?

Select	Answer
A	ALE radios monitor an internet site for the frequency they are being paged on
B	ALE radios activate when they hear their signal echoed by back scatter
C	ALE radios send a constant tone code to establish a frequency for future use
D	ALE constantly scans a list of frequencies, activating the radio when the designated call sign is received

13. - E3A06

What might help to restore contact when DX signals become too weak to copy across an entire HF band a few hours after sunset?

Select	Answer
A	Switch to a lower frequency HF band
B	Wait 24 hours before attempting another communication on the band
C	Wait 90 minutes or so for the signal degradation to pass
D	Switch to a higher frequency HF band

14. - E3B11

At what time of day can sporadic E propagation occur?

Select	Answer
A	Only around sunset
B	Only in hours of darkness
C	Any time
D	Only around sunset and sunrise

15. - E3C14

Why does the radio-path horizon distance exceed the geometric horizon?

Select	Answer
A	E-region skip
B	Due to the Doppler effect
C	D-region skip
D	Downward bending due to density variations in the atmosphere

16. - E4A10

Which of the following displays multiple digital signal states simultaneously?

Select	Answer
A	Network analyzer
B	Modulation monitor
C	Logic analyzer
D	Bit error rate tester

17. - E4B02

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

Select	Answer
A	When used as an ammeter, the full scale reading in amps divided by ohms per volt rating will determine the size of shunt needed
B	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
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. - 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	Signals are attenuated separately from the noise
B	The attenuator has a low-pass filter to increase the strength of lower frequency signals
C	The attenuator has a noise filter to suppress interference
D	Atmospheric noise is generally greater than internally generated noise even after attenuation

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	146.34 MHz and 146.61 MHz
C	146.10 MHz and 147.30 MHz
D	146.88 MHz and 146.34 MHz

20. - E4E03

Which of the following signals might a receiver noise blanker be able to remove from desired signals?

Select	Answer
A	Signals that appear across a wide bandwidth
B	Signals that are constant at all IF levels
C	Signals that have a sharply peaked frequency distribution
D	Signals that appear at one IF but not another

21. - E5A11

What is the half-power bandwidth of a resonant circuit that has a resonant frequency of 7.1 MHz and a Q of 150?

Select	Answer
A	23.67 kHz
B	315.6 Hz
C	47.3 kHz
D	157.8 Hz

22. - E5B07

What is the phase angle between the voltage across and the current through a series RLC circuit if XC is 500 ohms, R is 1 kilohm, and XL is 250 ohms?

Select	Answer
A	68.2 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
B	14.0 degrees with the voltage leading the current
C	68.2 degrees with the voltage leading the current
D	14.0 degrees with the voltage lagging the current

23. - E5C09

When using rectangular coordinates to graph the impedance of a circuit, what do the axes represent?

Select	Answer
A	The X axis represents the resistive component and the Y axis represents the reactive component
B	The X axis represents the magnitude and the Y axis represents the phase angle
C	The X axis represents the phase angle and the Y axis represents the magnitude
D	The X axis represents the reactive component and the Y axis represents the resistive component

24. - E5D12

How many watts are consumed in a circuit having a power factor of 0.2 if the input is 100 VAC at 4 amperes?

Select	Answer
A	80 watts
B	2000 watts
C	400 watts
D	50 watts

25. - E6A09

What is a depletion-mode FET?

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

26. - E6B07

What is the failure mechanism when a junction diode fails due to excessive current?

Select	Answer
A	Excessive junction temperature
B	Charge carrier depletion
C	Insufficient forward voltage
D	Excessive inverse voltage

27. - E6C11

In Figure E6-3, what is the schematic symbol for the NOT operation (inverter)?

Select	Answer
A	5
B	2
C	6
D	4

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

29. - E6E03

Which of the following materials is likely to provide the highest frequency of operation when used in MMICs?

Select	Answer
A	Gallium nitride
B	Silicon
C	Silicon nitride
D	Silicon dioxide

30. - E6F07

What is a solid-state relay?

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

31. - E7A04

How many flip-flops are required to divide a signal frequency by 4?

Select	Answer
A	4
B	8
C	1
D	2

32. - E7B04

Where on the load line of a Class A common emitter amplifier would bias normally be set?

Select	Answer
A	At a point where the load line intersects the zero bias current curve
B	Where the load line intersects the voltage axis
C	Approximately halfway between saturation and cutoff
D	At a point where the bias resistor equals the load resistor

33. - E7C12

What is one advantage of a Pi-matching network over an L-matching network consisting of a single inductor and a single capacitor?

Select	Answer
A	Pi-networks provide balanced input and output
B	The Q of Pi-networks can be controlled
C	L-networks cannot perform impedance transformation
D	Pi-networks are more stable

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	Discriminator
B	Product detector
C	Phase comparator
D	Phase detector

36. - E7F09

Why is an anti-aliasing digital filter required in a digital decimator?

Select	Answer
A	It removes low-frequency signal components to eliminate the need for DC restoration
B	It notches out the sampling frequency to avoid sampling errors
C	It peaks the response of the decimator, improving bandwidth
D	It removes high-frequency signal components that would otherwise be reproduced as lower frequency components

37. - E7G10

What absolute voltage gain can be expected from the circuit in Figure E7-3 when R1 is 1800 ohms and RF is 68 kilohms?

Select	Answer
A	76
B	1
C	0.03
D	38

38. - E7H14

What is a phase-locked loop circuit?

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

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	Immunity to out-of-sequence coding reduces spurious responses
C	Very high speed allows digitizing high frequencies
D	All these choices are correct

40. - E8B01

What is the modulation index of an FM signal?

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

41. - E8C03

Why should phase-shifting of a PSK signal be done at the zero crossing of the RF signal?

Select	Answer
A	To simplify modulation
B	To improve carrier suppression
C	All these choices are correct
D	To minimize bandwidth

42. - E8D09

What is considered an acceptable maximum IMD level for an idling PSK signal?

Select	Answer
A	+10 dB
B	-30 dB
C	+15 dB
D	-20 dB

43. - E9A09

What is antenna efficiency?

Select	Answer
A	Radiation resistance divided by total resistance
B	Radiation resistance divided by transmission resistance
C	Total resistance divided by radiation resistance
D	Effective radiated power divided by transmitter output

44. - E9B05

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

Select	Answer
A	Azimuth
B	Radiation resistance
C	Polarization
D	Elevation

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. - E9D07

What is an advantage of using top loading in a shortened HF vertical antenna?

Select	Answer
A	Higher losses
B	Lower Q
C	Greater structural strength
D	Improved radiation efficiency

47. - E9E03

What is the name of the matching system that uses a section of transmission line connected in parallel with the feed line at or near the feed point?

Select	Answer
A	The delta match
B	The omega match
C	The stub match
D	The gamma match

48. - E9F09

What is the approximate physical length of a foam polyethylene dielectric coaxial transmission line that is electrically 1/4 wavelength long at 7.2 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	5.2 meters
B	6.9 meters
C	10.4 meters
D	8.3 meters

49. - E9G03

Which of the following is often determined using a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Satellite azimuth and elevation bearings
B	Trigonometric functions
C	Beam headings and radiation patterns
D	Impedance and SWR values in transmission lines

50. - E9H09

What is a Pennant antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A four-element, high-gain vertical array invented by George Pennant
B	A small, vertically oriented receiving antenna consisting of a triangular loop terminated in approximately 900 ohms
C	A form of rhombic antenna terminated in a variable capacitor to provide frequency diversity
D	A stealth antenna built to look like a flagpole

Figure E6-3

Figure E7-2

Figure E7-3

Figure E9-2