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

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1. - E0A04

When evaluating a site with multiple transmitters operating at the same time, the operators and licensees of which transmitters are responsible for mitigating over-exposure situations?

Select	Answer
A	Only commercial transmitters
B	Each transmitter that produces 5 percent or more of its MPE limit in areas where the total MPE limit is exceeded.
C	Only the most powerful transmitter
D	Each transmitter operating with a duty cycle greater than 50 percent

2. - E1A08

If a station in a message forwarding system inadvertently forwards a message that is in violation of FCC rules, who is primarily accountable for the rules violation?

Select	Answer
A	The control operators of all the stations in the system not authenticating the source from which they accept communications
B	The control operator of the packet bulletin board station
C	The control operator of the originating station
D	The control operators of all the stations in the system

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	Reduce the repeater antenna HAAT (Height Above Average Terrain)
B	File an FAA NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) with the repeater system's ERP, call sign, and six-character grid locator
C	Cease operation or make changes to the repeater to mitigate the interference
D	All these choices are correct

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. - E1D05

What must be posted at the station location of a station being operated by telecommand on or within 50 km of the earth's surface?

Select	Answer
A	A label with the name, address, and telephone number of the control operator
B	All these choices are correct
C	A photocopy of the station license
D	A label with the name, address, and telephone number of the station licensee

6. - E1E08

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

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

7. - E1F09

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

Select	Answer
A	The transmission must not be used to obscure the meaning of any communication
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	All these choices are correct

8. - E2A09

What do the terms L band and S band specify regarding satellite communications?

Select	Answer
A	The 23 centimeter and 13 centimeter bands
B	FM and Digital Store-and-Forward systems
C	Which sideband to use
D	The 2 meter and 70 centimeter bands

9. - E2B12

What signals SSTV receiving software to begin a new picture line?

Select	Answer
A	A two-tone signal
B	Specific tone amplitudes
C	Elapsed time
D	Specific tone frequencies

10. - E2C12

What technique do individual nodes use to form a mesh network?

Select	Answer
A	Acting as store-and-forward digipeaters
B	Custom code plugs for the local trunking systems
C	Discovery and link establishment protocols
D	Forward error correction and Viterbi codes

11. - E2D08

What type of packet frame is used to transmit APRS beacon data?

Select	Answer
A	Unnumbered Information
B	Acknowledgement
C	Connect
D	Disconnect

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

13. - E3A04

What do Hepburn maps predict?

Select	Answer
A	Sporadic E propagation
B	Locations of auroral reflecting zones
C	Probability of tropospheric propagation
D	Likelihood of rain scatter along cold or warm fronts

14. - E3B07

What happens to linearly polarized radio waves that split into ordinary and extraordinary waves in the ionosphere?

Select	Answer
A	They are bent toward the magnetic poles
B	They become elliptically polarized
C	They become depolarized
D	They become phase locked

15. - E3C09

How does the intensity of an X3 flare compare to that of an X2 flare?

Select	Answer
A	10 percent greater
B	Twice as great
C	50 percent greater
D	Four times as great

16. - E4A02

Which of the following parameters does a spectrum analyzer display on the vertical and horizontal axes?

Select	Answer
A	SWR and time
B	SWR and frequency
C	RF amplitude and time
D	RF amplitude and frequency

17. - E4B04

Which S parameter represents input port return loss or reflection coefficient (equivalent to VSWR)?

Select	Answer
A	S12
B	S21
C	S11
D	S22

18. - E4C08

An SDR receiver is overloaded when input signals exceed what level?

Select	Answer
A	One-half the maximum sample rate
B	The maximum count value of the analog-to-digital converter
C	The reference voltage of the analog-to-digital converter
D	One-half the maximum sampling buffer size

19. - E4D09

What is the purpose of the preselector in a communications receiver?

Select	Answer
A	To store often-used frequencies
B	To allow selection of the optimum RF amplifier device
C	To increase rejection of signals outside the desired band
D	To provide a range of AGC time constants

20. - E4E09

What undesirable effect can occur when using an IF noise blanker?

Select	Answer
A	FM signals can no longer be demodulated
B	Received audio in the speech range might have an echo effect
C	Nearby signals may appear to be excessively wide even if they meet emission standards
D	The audio frequency bandwidth of the received signal might be compressed

21. - E5A08

What is the phase relationship between the current through and the voltage across a series resonant circuit at resonance?

Select	Answer
A	The current leads the voltage by 90 degrees
B	The voltage and current are 180 degrees out of phase
C	The voltage and current are in phase
D	The voltage leads the current by 90 degrees

22. - E5B06

What is susceptance?

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

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 positive magnitude
D	A negative magnitude

24. - E5D03

What is microstrip?

Select	Answer
A	Lightweight transmission line made of common zip cord
B	Miniature coax used for low power applications
C	Short lengths of coax mounted on printed circuit boards to minimize time delay between microwave circuits
D	Precision printed circuit conductors above a ground plane that provide constant impedance interconnects at microwave frequencies

25. - E6A04

What is the name given to an impurity atom that adds holes to a semiconductor crystal structure?

Select	Answer
A	Donor impurity
B	Insulator impurity
C	Acceptor impurity
D	N-type impurity

26. - E6B05

What characteristic of a PIN diode makes it useful as an RF switch?

Select	Answer
A	Ability to dissipate large amounts of power
B	Extremely high reverse breakdown voltage
C	Low junction capacitance
D	Reverse bias controls its forward voltage drop

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 distortion
D	Lower power consumption

28. - E6D06

What core material property determines the inductance of an inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Reactivity
B	Resistance
C	Permeability
D	Thermal impedance

29. - E6E07

What type of transmission line is used for connections to MMICs?

Select	Answer
A	Circular waveguide
B	Miniature coax
C	Microstrip
D	Parallel wire

30. - E6F09

What is the efficiency of a photovoltaic cell?

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

31. - E7A06

What is a characteristic of a monostable multivibrator?

Select	Answer
A	It switches momentarily to the opposite binary state and then returns to its original state after a set time
B	It produces a continuous square wave oscillating between 1 and 0
C	It maintains a constant output voltage, regardless of variations in the input voltage
D	It stores one bit of data in either a 0 or 1 state

32. - E7B03

Which of the following components form the output of a class D amplifier circuit?

Select	Answer
A	A matched load resistor to prevent damage by switching transients
B	A high-pass filter to compensate for low gain at low frequencies
C	A low-pass filter to remove switching signal components
D	A temperature compensating load resistor to improve linearity

33. - E7C06

What are the distinguishing features of an elliptical filter?

Select	Answer
A	Extremely sharp cutoff with one or more notches in the stop band
B	Extremely flat response over its pass band with gradually rounded stop band corners
C	Gradual passband rolloff with extreme stop band ripple
D	Gradual passband rolloff with minimal stop band ripple

34. - E7D10

What is the primary reason that a high-frequency switching type high-voltage power supply can be both less expensive and lighter in weight than a conventional power supply?

Select	Answer
A	It uses a large power factor compensation capacitor to recover power from the unused portion of the AC cycle
B	The high frequency inverter design uses much smaller transformers and filter components for an equivalent power output
C	It uses a diode bridge rectifier for increased output
D	The inverter design does not require any output filtering

35. - E7E02

What is the function of a reactance modulator?

Select	Answer
A	To produce AM signals by using an electrically variable resistance
B	To produce PM signals by using an electrically variable resistance
C	To produce AM signals by using an electrically variable inductance or capacitance
D	To produce PM or FM signals by using an electrically variable inductance or capacitance

36. - E7F11

What sets the minimum detectable signal level for a direct-sampling SDR receiver in the absence of atmospheric or thermal noise?

Select	Answer
A	Missing codes and jitter
B	Sample clock phase noise
C	Data storage transfer rate
D	Reference voltage level and sample width in bits

37. - E7G03

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

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

38. - E7H09

What type of frequency synthesizer circuit uses a phase accumulator, lookup table, digital to analog converter, and a low-pass anti-alias filter?

Select	Answer
A	A phase-locked loop synthesizer
B	A diode-switching matrix synthesizer
C	A direct digital synthesizer
D	A hybrid synthesizer

39. - E8A11

Which of the following is a measure of the quality of an analog-to-digital converter?

Select	Answer
A	Reciprocal mixing
B	Total harmonic distortion
C	Peak envelope power
D	Power factor

40. - E8B08

What describes Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing?

Select	Answer
A	A frequency modulation technique that uses non-harmonically related frequencies
B	A digital modulation technique using subcarriers at frequencies chosen to avoid intersymbol interference
C	A bandwidth compression technique using Fourier transforms
D	A digital mode for narrow-band, slow-speed transmissions

41. - E8C02

What is the definition of symbol rate in a digital transmission?

Select	Answer
A	The duration of each bit in a message sent over the air
B	The number of characters carried per second by the station-to-station link
C	The number of control characters in a message packet
D	The rate at which the waveform changes to convey information

42. - E8D05

What is the most common method of reducing key clicks?

Select	Answer
A	High-pass filters at the transmitter output
B	Increase keying waveform rise and fall times
C	Low-pass filters at the transmitter output
D	Reduce keying waveform rise and fall times

43. - E9A13

What term describes station output, taking into account all gains and losses?

Select	Answer
A	Half-power bandwidth
B	Apparent power
C	Effective radiated power
D	Power factor

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. - E9C08

What is a folded dipole antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A dipole configured to provide forward gain
B	A type of ground-plane antenna
C	A half-wave dipole with an additional parallel wire connecting its two ends
D	A dipole one-quarter wavelength long

46. - E9D08

What happens as the Q of an antenna increases?

Select	Answer
A	More common-mode current is present on the feed line
B	SWR bandwidth decreases
C	Gain is reduced
D	SWR bandwidth increases

47. - E9E11

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

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

48. - E9F03

Why is the physical length of a coaxial cable transmission line shorter than its electrical length?

Select	Answer
A	The surge impedance is higher in a parallel feed line
B	Electrical signals move more slowly in a coaxial cable than in air
C	The characteristic impedance is higher in a parallel feed line
D	Skin effect is less pronounced in the coaxial cable

49. - E9G11

How are the wavelength scales on a Smith chart calibrated?

Select	Answer
A	In fractions of antenna electrical frequency
B	In fractions of antenna electrical wavelength
C	In fractions of transmission line electrical wavelength
D	In fractions of transmission line electrical frequency

50. - E9H03

What is Receiving Directivity Factor (RDF)?

Select	Answer
A	Forward gain compared to the gain in the reverse direction
B	Relative directivity compared to isotropic
C	Forward gain compared to average gain over the entire hemisphere
D	Relative directivity compared to a dipole