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

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1. - E0A11

Which of the following injuries can result from using high-power UHF or microwave transmitters?

Select	Answer
A	Hearing loss caused by high voltage corona discharge
B	Ingestion of ozone gas from the cooling system
C	Localized heating of the body from RF exposure in excess of the MPE limits
D	Blood clotting from the intense magnetic field

2. - E1A01

Which of the following carrier frequencies is illegal for LSB AFSK emissions on the 17 meter band RTTY and data segment of 18.068 to 18.110 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	18.110 MHz
B	18.107 MHz
C	18.100 MHz
D	18.068 MHz

3. - E1B10

What frequencies are authorized to an amateur station operating under RACES rules?

Select	Answer
A	Specific segments in the amateur service MF, HF, VHF and UHF bands
B	Specific local government channels
C	Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) channels
D	All amateur service frequencies authorized to the control operator

4. - E1C11

Which of the following operating arrangements allows an FCC-licensed U.S. citizen to operate in many European countries, and alien amateurs from many European countries to operate in the U.S.?

Select	Answer
A	ITU reciprocal license
B	All these choices are correct
C	CEPT agreement
D	IARP agreement

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

6. - E1E03

What is a Volunteer Examiner Coordinator?

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

7. - E1F05

Amateur stations may not transmit in which of the following frequency segments if they are located in the contiguous 48 states and north of Line A?

Select	Answer
A	420 MHz - 430 MHz
B	440 MHz - 450 MHz
C	53 MHz - 54 MHz
D	222 MHz - 223 MHz

8. - E2A10

What type of satellite appears to stay in one position in the sky?

Select	Answer
A	Geomagnetic
B	Geostationary
C	LEO
D	HEO

9. - E2B01

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

Select	Answer
A	60
B	120
C	90
D	30

10. - E2C09

What type of equipment is commonly used to implement an amateur radio mesh network?

Select	Answer
A	A 440 MHz transceiver with a 9600 baud modem
B	A 2 meter VHF transceiver with a 1200 baud modem
C	A wireless router running custom firmware
D	An optical cable connection between the USB ports of 2 separate computers

11. - E2D01

Which of the following digital modes is designed for meteor scatter communications?

Select	Answer
A	WSPR
B	MSK144
C	APRS
D	Hellschreiber

12. - E2E12

How do ALE stations establish contact?

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

13. - E3A07

Atmospheric ducts capable of propagating microwave signals often form over what geographic feature?

Select	Answer
A	Urban areas
B	Mountain ranges
C	Bodies of water
D	Forests

14. - E3B12

What is the primary characteristic of chordal hop propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Propagation away from the great circle bearing between stations
B	Signals reflected back toward the transmitting station
C	Propagation across the geomagnetic equator
D	Successive ionospheric refractions without an intermediate reflection from the ground

15. - E3C15

What might be indicated by a sudden rise in radio background noise across a large portion of the HF spectrum?

Select	Answer
A	Increased transequatorial propagation is likely
B	Long-path propagation is likely
C	A temperature inversion has occurred
D	A solar flare has occurred

16. - E4A03

Which of the following test instruments is used to display spurious signals and/or intermodulation distortion products generated by an SSB transmitter?

Select	Answer
A	A wattmeter
B	A time-domain reflectometer
C	A spectrum analyzer
D	A logic analyzer

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	100 watts
C	125 watts
D	75 watts

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

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

20. - E4E08

What current flows equally on all conductors of an unshielded multi-conductor cable?

Select	Answer
A	Differential-mode current
B	Return current
C	Common-mode current
D	Reactive current only

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	Conductance
D	Capacitance

22. - E5B02

What letter is commonly used to represent susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	G
B	Y
C	B
D	X

23. - E5C12

Which point on Figure E5-1 best represents the impedance of a series circuit consisting of a 300-ohm resistor and a 19-picofarad capacitor at 21.200 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	Point 1
B	Point 7
C	Point 3
D	Point 8

24. - E5D06

In what direction is the magnetic field oriented about a conductor in relation to the direction of electron flow?

Select	Answer
A	In a direction opposite to the current
B	In a circle around the conductor
C	In the same direction as the current
D	In all directions; omni-directional

25. - E6A11

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

Select	Answer
A	2
B	1
C	3
D	6

26. - E6B09

What is a common use for point-contact diodes?

Select	Answer
A	As a high-voltage rectifier
B	As a constant current source
C	As a constant voltage source
D	As an RF detector

27. - E6C05

What is an advantage of CMOS logic devices over TTL devices?

Select	Answer
A	Differential output capability
B	Immune to damage from static discharge
C	Lower power consumption
D	Lower distortion

28. - E6D13

What is the primary cause of inductor self-resonance?

Select	Answer
A	Inter-turn capacitance
B	The skin effect
C	Non-linear core hysteresis
D	Inductive kickback

29. - E6E12

Why are DIP through-hole package ICs not typically used at UHF and higher frequencies?

Select	Answer
A	Too many pins
B	Unsuitable for combining analog and digital signals
C	Excessive lead length
D	Epoxy coating is conductive above 300 MHz

30. - E6F09

What is the efficiency of a photovoltaic cell?

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

31. - E7A07

What logical operation does a NAND gate perform?

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

32. - E7B13

Which of the following describes an emitter follower (or common collector) amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	An OR circuit with only one emitter used for output
B	An amplifier with a low impedance output that follows the base input voltage
C	A differential amplifier with both inputs fed to the emitter of the input transistor
D	A two-transistor amplifier with the emitters sharing a common bias resistor

33. - E7C02

Which of the following is a property of a T-network with series capacitors and a parallel shunt inductor?

Select	Answer
A	It is a high-pass filter
B	It is a notch filter
C	It is a low-pass filter
D	It is a band-pass filter

34. - E7D11

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

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

35. - E7E03

What is a frequency discriminator stage in a FM receiver?

Select	Answer
A	A circuit for filtering two closely adjacent signals
B	An FM generator circuit
C	A circuit for detecting FM signals
D	An automatic band-switching circuit

36. - E7F01

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

Select	Answer
A	A switching mixer is used to generate I and Q signals directly from the RF input
B	Software is converted from source code to object code during operation of the receiver
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. - E7G01

What is the typical output impedance of an op-amp?

Select	Answer
A	100 ohms
B	Very low
C	Very high
D	1000 ohms

38. - E7H07

How can an oscillator's microphonic responses be reduced?

Select	Answer
A	Use NP0 capacitors
B	Mechanically isolate the oscillator circuitry from its enclosure
C	Increase the bias voltage
D	Reduce noise on the oscillator's power supply

39. - E8A04

What is "dither" with respect to analog-to-digital converters?

Select	Answer
A	An abnormal condition where the converter cannot settle on a value to represent the signal
B	A small amount of noise added to the input signal to allow more precise representation of a signal over time
C	An error caused by irregular quantization step size
D	A method of decimation by randomly skipping samples

40. - E8B02

How does the modulation index of a phase-modulated emission vary with RF carrier frequency?

Select	Answer
A	It does not depend on the RF carrier frequency
B	It varies with the square root of the RF carrier frequency
C	It increases as the RF carrier frequency increases
D	It decreases as the RF carrier frequency increases

41. - E8C06

What is the bandwidth of a 170-hertz shift, 300-baud ASCII transmission?

Select	Answer
A	0.3 kHz
B	0.5 kHz
C	0.1 Hz
D	1.0 kHz

42. - E8D02

What spread spectrum communications technique uses a high-speed binary bit stream to shift the phase of an RF carrier?

Select	Answer
A	Binary phase-shift keying
B	Frequency hopping
C	Phase compandored spread spectrum
D	Direct sequence

43. - E9A03

What is the radiation resistance of an antenna?

Select	Answer
A	The value of a resistance that would dissipate the same amount of power as that radiated from an antenna
B	The specific impedance of the antenna
C	The combined losses of the antenna elements and feed line
D	The resistance in the atmosphere that an antenna must overcome to be able to radiate a signal

44. - E9B04

What is the front-to-back ratio of the radiation pattern shown in Figure E92?

Select	Answer
A	28 dB
B	38 dB
C	15 dB
D	3 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. - E9D06

What happens to the SWR bandwidth when one or more loading coils are used to resonate an electrically short antenna?

Select	Answer
A	It is unchanged if the loading coil is located at a voltage maximum point
B	It is unchanged if the loading coil is located at the feed point
C	It is decreased
D	It is increased

47. - E9E01

What system matches a higher-impedance transmission line to a lower-impedance antenna by connecting the line to the driven element in two places spaced a fraction of a wavelength each side of element center?

Select	Answer
A	The stub matching system
B	The gamma matching system
C	The delta matching system
D	The omega matching system

48. - E9F01

What is the velocity factor of a transmission line?

Select	Answer
A	The index of shielding for coaxial cable
B	The velocity of the wave in the transmission line multiplied by the velocity of light in a vacuum
C	The ratio of the characteristic impedance of the line to the terminating impedance
D	The velocity of the wave in the transmission line divided by the velocity of light in a vacuum

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	Impedance axis
C	Prime axis
D	Polar axis

50. - E9H06

What is the triangulation method of direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	A fixed receiving station uses three different antennas to plot the location of the signal source
B	Antenna headings from several different receiving locations are used to locate the signal source
C	A fixed receiving station plots three headings to the signal source
D	The geometric angles of sky waves from the source are used to determine its position

Figure E5-1

Figure E6-1

Figure E9-3