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

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1. - E0A01

What is the primary function of an external earth connection or ground rod?

Select	Answer
A	Reduce RF current flow between pieces of equipment
B	Reduce received noise
C	Reduce RFI to telephones and home entertainment systems
D	Lightning protection

2. - E1A02

When using a transceiver that displays the carrier frequency of phone signals, which of the following displayed frequencies represents the lowest frequency at which a properly adjusted LSB emission will be totally within the band?

Select	Answer
A	1 kHz above the lower band edge
B	The exact lower band edge
C	3 kHz above the lower band edge
D	300 Hz above the lower band edge

3. - E1B09

Which amateur stations may be operated under RACES rules?

Select	Answer
A	Only those club stations licensed to Amateur Extra Class operators
B	Any FCC-licensed amateur station participating in the Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS)
C	Any FCC-licensed amateur station except a Technician Class
D	Any FCC-licensed amateur station certified by the responsible civil defense organization for the area served

4. - E1C03

How do the control operator responsibilities of a station under automatic control differ from one under local control?

Select	Answer
A	Under local control a control operator is not required to be present at a control point
B	Under local control there is no control operator
C	Under automatic control there is no control operator
D	Under automatic control the control operator is not required to be present at the control point

5. - E1D10

Which amateur stations are eligible to be telecommand stations of space stations (subject to the privileges of the class of operator license held by the control operator of the station)?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	Any amateur station so designated by the ITU
C	Any amateur station so designated by the space station licensee
D	Any amateur station designated by NASA

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	All these choices are correct
B	Photocopy all examination documents and forward them to the FCC for processing
C	Issue the examinee the new or upgrade license
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. - E1F09

Which of the following conditions apply when transmitting spread spectrum emissions?

Select	Answer
A	A station transmitting SS emission must not cause harmful interference to other stations employing other authorized emissions
B	All these choices are correct
C	The transmission must not be used to obscure the meaning of any communication
D	The transmitting station must be in an area regulated by the FCC or in a country that permits SS emissions

8. - E2A01

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

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

9. - E2B05

Which of the following describes the use of vestigial sideband in analog fast-scan TV transmissions?

Select	Answer
A	Vestigial sideband provides high frequency emphasis to sharpen the picture
B	The vestigial sideband contains chroma information
C	Vestigial sideband reduces bandwidth while allowing for simple video detector circuitry
D	The vestigial sideband carries the audio information

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. - E2D10

How can an APRS station be used to help support a public service communications activity?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	An APRS station with an emergency medical technician can automatically transmit medical data to the nearest hospital
C	APRS stations with General Personnel Scanners can automatically relay the participant numbers and time as they pass the check points
D	An APRS station with a Global Positioning System unit can automatically transmit information to show a mobile station's position during the event

12. - E2E08

Which of the following HF digital modes can be used to transfer binary files?

Select	Answer
A	RTTY
B	PACTOR
C	Hellschreiber
D	AMTOR

13. - E3A08

When a meteor strikes the Earth's atmosphere, a cylindrical region of free electrons is formed at what layer of the ionosphere?

Select	Answer
A	The D layer
B	The E layer
C	The F2 layer
D	The F1 layer

14. - E3B02

What is the approximate maximum range for signals using transequatorial propagation?

Select	Answer
A	2500 miles
B	5000 miles
C	7500 miles
D	1000 miles

15. - E3C07

Which of the following descriptors indicates the greatest solar flare intensity?

Select	Answer
A	Class B
B	Class M
C	Class A
D	Class X

16. - E4A06

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

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

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

18. - E4C04

What is the noise figure of a receiver?

Select	Answer
A	The ratio of thermal noise to atmospheric noise
B	The ratio of the noise bandwidth in hertz to the theoretical bandwidth of a resistive network
C	The ratio in dB of the noise generated by the receiver to the theoretical minimum noise
D	The ratio of atmospheric noise to phase noise

19. - E4D08

What causes intermodulation in an electronic circuit?

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

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. - 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	Resistance
B	Capacitance
C	Resonance
D	Conductance

22. - E5B01

What is the term for the time required for the capacitor in an RC circuit to be charged to 63.2% of the applied voltage or to discharge to 36.8% of its initial voltage?

Select	Answer
A	One time constant
B	An exponential rate of one
C	One exponential period
D	A time factor of one

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 horizontal axis
C	On a line through the origin, slanted at 45 degrees
D	On the vertical axis

24. - E5D07

How many watts are consumed in a circuit having a power factor of 0.71 if the apparent power is 500VA?

Select	Answer
A	1.42 mW
B	704 W
C	355 W
D	252 W

25. - E6A07

Which of the following indicates that a silicon NPN junction transistor is biased on?

Select	Answer
A	Base-to-emitter voltage of approximately 6 to 7 volts
B	Base-to-emitter resistance of approximately 6 to 7 ohms
C	Base-to-emitter voltage of approximately 0.6 to 0.7 volts
D	Base-to-emitter resistance of approximately 0.6 to 0.7 ohms

26. - E6B11

What is used to control the attenuation of RF signals by a PIN diode?

Select	Answer
A	Forward DC bias current
B	Capacitance of an RF coupling capacitor
C	Reverse voltage larger than the RF signal
D	A sub-harmonic pump signal

27. - E6C10

In Figure E6-3, what is the schematic symbol for a NOR gate?

Select	Answer
A	2
B	1
C	3
D	4

28. - E6D01

Why should core saturation of an impedance matching transformer be avoided?

Select	Answer
A	Magnetic flux would increase with frequency
B	Temporary changes of the core permeability could result
C	Harmonics and distortion could result
D	RF susceptance would increase

29. - E6E06

What characteristics of the MMIC make it a popular choice for VHF through microwave circuits?

Select	Answer
A	Plate current that is controlled by a control grid
B	Nearly infinite gain, very high input impedance, and very low output impedance
C	Controlled gain, low noise figure, and constant input and output impedance over the specified frequency range
D	The ability to retrieve information from a single signal even in the presence of other strong signals

30. - E6F09

What is the efficiency of a photovoltaic cell?

Select	Answer
A	The relative fraction of light that is converted to current
B	The open-circuit voltage divided by the short-circuit current under full illumination
C	The output RF power divided by the input DC power
D	Cost per kilowatt-hour generated

31. - E7A07

What logical operation does a NAND gate perform?

Select	Answer
A	It produces logic 1 at its output only when all inputs are logic 1
B	It produces logic 0 at its output if some but not all inputs are logic 1
C	It produces logic 0 at its output only when all inputs are logic 1
D	It produces logic 0 at its output only when all inputs are logic 0

32. - E7B06

Which of the following amplifier types reduces even-order harmonics?

Select	Answer
A	Class C
B	Push-push
C	Class AB
D	Push-pull

33. - E7C04

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

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

34. - E7D13

What is the equation for calculating power dissipated by a series linear voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	Output voltage multiplied by output current
B	Input voltage divided by output current
C	Voltage difference from input to output multiplied by output current
D	Input voltage multiplied by input current

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 AM signals by using an electrically variable resistance
D	To produce PM or FM signals by using an electrically variable inductance or capacitance

36. - E7F01

What is meant by direct digital conversion as applied to software defined radios?

Select	Answer
A	Software is converted from source code to object code during operation of the receiver
B	A switching mixer is used to generate I and Q signals directly from the RF input
C	Incoming RF is digitized by an analog-to-digital converter without being mixed with a local oscillator signal
D	Incoming RF is converted to a control voltage for a voltage controlled oscillator

37. - E7G11

What absolute voltage gain can be expected from the circuit in Figure E7-3 when R1 is 3300 ohms and RF is 47 kilohms?

Select	Answer
A	14
B	7
C	28
D	0.07

38. - E7H11

What are the major spectral impurity components of direct digital synthesizers?

Select	Answer
A	Broadband noise
B	Digital conversion noise
C	Spurious signals at discrete frequencies
D	Nyquist limit noise

39. - E8A02

Which of the following is a type of analog-to-digital conversion?

Select	Answer
A	Phase reversal
B	Level shifting
C	Successive approximation
D	Harmonic regeneration

40. - E8B05

What is the deviation ratio of an FM-phone signal having a maximum frequency swing of plus-or-minus 5 kHz when the maximum modulation frequency is 3 kHz?

Select	Answer
A	0.167
B	1.67
C	60
D	0.6

41. - E8C12

What factors affect the bandwidth of a transmitted CW signal?

Select	Answer
A	Modulation index and output power
B	All these choices are correct
C	IF bandwidth and Q
D	Keying speed and shape factor (rise and fall time)

42. - E8D06

What is the advantage of including parity bits in ASCII characters?

Select	Answer
A	Some types of errors can be detected
B	Faster transmission rate
C	Foreign language characters can be sent
D	The signal can overpower interfering signals

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	159 watts
B	63.2 watts
C	252 watts
D	632 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	Ground conductivity will not be accurately modeled
B	The antenna will become mechanically unstable
C	The resulting design will favor radiation of harmonic energy
D	The computed feed point impedance may be incorrect

45. - E9C05

Which of the following is a type of OCFD antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A dipole fed approximately 1/3 the way from one end with a 4:1 balun to provide multiband operation
B	A remotely tunable dipole antenna using orthogonally controlled frequency diversity
C	A multiband dipole antenna using one-way circular polarization for frequency diversity
D	A folded dipole center-fed with 300-ohm transmission line

46. - E9D05

What usually occurs if a Yagi antenna is designed solely for maximum forward gain?

Select	Answer
A	The frequency response is widened over the whole frequency band
B	The SWR is reduced
C	The front-to-back ratio decreases
D	The front-to-back ratio increases

47. - E9E09

Which of the following is used to shunt-feed a grounded tower at its base?

Select	Answer
A	Gamma match
B	All these choices are correct
C	Double-bazooka match
D	Hairpin match

48. - E9F08

Which of the following is a significant difference between foam dielectric coaxial cable and solid dielectric cable, assuming all other parameters are the same?

Select	Answer
A	Foam dielectric has lower safe operating voltage limits
B	All these choices are correct
C	Foam dielectric has higher velocity factor
D	Foam dielectric has lower loss per unit of length

49. - E9G08

What is the process of normalization with regard to a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Reassigning resistance values with regard to the reactance axis
B	Reassigning reactance values with regard to the resistance axis
C	Reassigning prime center with regard to the reactance axis
D	Reassigning impedance values with regard to the prime center

50. - E9H05

What is the main drawback of a small wire-loop antenna for direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	It has a bidirectional pattern
C	It is practical for use only on VHF and higher bands
D	It has no clearly defined null

Figure E6-3

Figure E7-3