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

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1. - E0A10

What toxic material may be present in some electronic components such as high voltage capacitors and transformers?

Select	Answer
A	Polytetrafluoroethylene
B	Polyethylene
C	Polychlorinated biphenyls
D	Polymorphic silicon

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	18.068 MHz
B	18.107 MHz
C	18.110 MHz
D	18.100 MHz

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	All these choices are correct
B	Reduce the repeater antenna HAAT (Height Above Average Terrain)
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. - E1C13

What notifications must be given before transmitting on the 630 meter or 2200 meter bands?

Select	Answer
A	Operators must inform the FAA of their intent to operate, giving their call sign and distance to the nearest runway
B	Operators must inform the Utilities Technology Council (UTC) of their call sign and coordinates of the station
C	An environmental impact statement must be filed with the Department of the Interior
D	A special endorsement must be requested from the FCC

5. - E1D02

Which of the following may transmit special codes intended to obscure the meaning of messages?

Select	Answer
A	Auxiliary relay links carrying repeater audio
B	Binary control characters
C	Data containing personal information
D	Telecommand signals from a space telecommand station

6. - E1E08

To which of the following examinees may a VE not administer an examination?

Select	Answer
A	Employees of the VE
B	All these choices are correct
C	Friends of the VE
D	Relatives of the VE as listed in the FCC rules

7. - E1F09

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

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

8. - E2A06

What are Keplerian elements?

Select	Answer
A	High-emission heater filaments used in magnetron tubes
B	Phase reversing elements in a Yagi antenna
C	Encrypting codes used for spread spectrum modulation
D	Parameters that define the orbit of a satellite

9. - E2B03

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

Select	Answer
A	By scanning each field from bottom to top
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 odd numbered lines in one field and even numbered lines in the next

10. - E2C10

Why might a DX station state that they are listening on another frequency?

Select	Answer
A	To separate the calling stations from the DX station
B	All these choices are correct
C	Because the DX station may be transmitting on a frequency that is prohibited to some responding stations
D	To improve operating efficiency by reducing interference

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

13. - E3A01

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

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

14. - E3B11

At what time of day can sporadic E propagation occur?

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

15. - E3C04

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

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

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 antenna and a dummy load to the analyzer
C	Loosely couple the analyzer near the antenna base
D	Connect the analyzer via a high-impedance transformer to the antenna

17. - E4B11

Which of the following can be measured with a vector network analyzer?

Select	Answer
A	Output impedance
B	All these choices are correct
C	Input impedance
D	Reflection coefficient

18. - E4C07

What does the MDS of a receiver represent?

Select	Answer
A	The multiplex distortion stability
B	The meter display sensitivity
C	The minimum discernible signal
D	The maximum detectable spectrum

19. - E4D06

What is the term for spurious signals generated by the combination of two or more signals in a non-linear device or circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Adjacent channel interference
B	Intermodulation
C	Neutralization
D	Amplifier desensitization

20. - E4E04

How can conducted and radiated noise caused by an automobile alternator be suppressed?

Select	Answer
A	By connecting the radio's power leads directly to the battery and by installing coaxial capacitors in line with the alternator leads
B	By installing a high-pass filter in series with the radio's power lead and a low-pass filter in parallel with the field lead
C	By installing a noise suppression resistor and a blocking capacitor in both leads
D	By installing filter capacitors in series with the DC power lead and a blocking capacitor in the field lead

21. - E5A10

How is the Q of an RLC series resonant circuit calculated?

Select	Answer
A	Reactance of either the inductance or capacitance multiplied by the resistance
B	Reactance of the inductance multiplied by the reactance of the capacitance
C	Reactance of either the inductance or capacitance divided by the resistance
D	Resistance divided by the reactance of either the inductance or capacitance

22. - E5B05

What happens to the magnitude of a pure reactance when it is converted to a susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	The sign is reversed
B	It is unchanged
C	It is shifted by 90 degrees
D	It becomes the reciprocal

23. - E5C03

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

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

24. - E5D15

What is the power factor of an RL circuit having a 45-degree phase angle between the voltage and the current?

Select	Answer
A	0.866
B	0.707
C	0.5
D	1.0

25. - E6A05

How does DC input impedance at the gate of a field-effect transistor compare with the DC input impedance of a bipolar transistor?

Select	Answer
A	An FET has lower input impedance
B	They are both low impedance
C	They are both high impedance
D	An FET has higher input impedance

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	Low junction capacitance
C	Extremely high reverse breakdown voltage
D	Ability to dissipate large amounts of power

27. - E6C09

What is a Programmable Logic Device (PLD)?

Select	Answer
A	A logic circuit that can be modified during use
B	A programmable collection of logic gates and circuits in a single integrated circuit
C	Programmable equipment used for testing digital logic integrated circuits
D	A type of transistor whose gain can be changed by digital logic circuits

28. - E6D07

What is current in the primary winding of a transformer called if no load is attached to the secondary?

Select	Answer
A	Excitation current
B	Magnetizing current
C	Stabilizing current
D	Direct current

29. - E6E01

Why is gallium arsenide (GaAs) useful for semiconductor devices operating at UHF and higher frequencies?

Select	Answer
A	Lower junction voltage drop
B	Lower transconductance
C	Higher noise figures
D	Higher electron mobility

30. - E6F06

Which of these materials is most commonly used to create photoconductive devices?

Select	Answer
A	A heavy metal
B	An ordinary metal
C	A liquid semiconductor
D	A crystalline semiconductor

31. - E7A05

Which of the following is a circuit that continuously alternates between two states without an external clock?

Select	Answer
A	Astable multivibrator
B	T flip-flop
C	J-K flip-flop
D	Monostable multivibrator

32. - E7B02

What is a Class D amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	A low power amplifier that uses a differential amplifier for improved linearity
B	A type of amplifier that uses switching technology to achieve high efficiency
C	A frequency doubling amplifier
D	An amplifier that uses drift-mode FETs for high efficiency

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

34. - E7D06

What is the purpose of Q1 in the circuit shown in Figure E7-2?

Select	Answer
A	It controls the current supplied to the load
B	It provides D1 with current
C	It provides negative feedback to improve regulation
D	It provides a constant load for the voltage source

35. - E7E07

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

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

36. - E7F09

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

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

37. - E7G12

What is an operational amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	An amplifier used to increase the average output of frequency modulated amateur signals to the legal limit
B	A RF amplifier used in the UHF and microwave regions
C	A digital audio amplifier whose characteristics are determined by components external to the amplifier
D	A high-gain, direct-coupled differential amplifier with very high input impedance and very low output impedance

38. - E7H07

How can an oscillator's microphonic responses be reduced?

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

39. - E8A08

Why would a direct or flash conversion analog-to-digital converter be useful for a software defined radio?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	Very low power consumption decreases frequency drift
C	Immunity to out-of-sequence coding reduces spurious responses
D	Very high speed allows digitizing high frequencies

40. - E8B06

What is the deviation ratio of an FM-phone signal having a maximum frequency swing of plus or minus 7.5 kHz when the maximum modulation frequency is 3.5 kHz?

Select	Answer
A	47
B	0.214
C	2.14
D	0.47

41. - E8C05

What is the approximate bandwidth of a 13-WPM International Morse Code transmission?

Select	Answer
A	26 Hz
B	13 Hz
C	104 Hz
D	52 Hz

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	More difficult to copy
C	The generation of RF harmonics
D	The generation of key clicks

43. - E9A03

What is the radiation resistance of an antenna?

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

44. - E9B06

What is the elevation angle of peak response in the antenna radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-2?

Select	Answer
A	7.5 degrees
B	75 degrees
C	45 degrees
D	25 degrees

45. - E9C07

What is the approximate feed point impedance at the center of a two-wire folded dipole antenna?

Select	Answer
A	450 ohms
B	50 ohms
C	300 ohms
D	72 ohms

46. - E9D09

What is the function of a loading coil used as part of an HF mobile antenna?

Select	Answer
A	To lower the losses
B	To lower the Q
C	To cancel capacitive reactance
D	To increase the SWR bandwidth

47. - E9E11

What is the primary purpose of phasing lines when used with an antenna having multiple driven elements?

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

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	Dielectric materials used in the line
C	The line length
D	The termination impedance

49. - E9G10

What do the arcs on a Smith chart represent?

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

50. - E9H02

Which is generally true for low band (160 meter and 80 meter) receiving antennas?

Select	Answer
A	Atmospheric noise is so high that gain over a dipole is not important
B	They must be erected at least 1/2 wavelength above the ground to attain good directivity
C	Low loss coax transmission line is essential for good performance
D	All these choices are correct

Figure E7-2

Figure E9-2