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

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1. - E0A09

Which insulating material commonly used as a thermal conductor for some types of electronic devices is extremely toxic if broken or crushed and the particles are accidentally inhaled?

Select	Answer
A	Mica
B	Uranium Hexafluoride
C	Beryllium Oxide
D	Zinc oxide

2. - E1A14

Except in some parts of Alaska, what is the maximum power permitted on the 630 meter band?

Select	Answer
A	5 watts EIRP
B	50 watts PEP
C	100 watts PEP
D	1 watt EIRP

3. - E1B05

What is the National Radio Quiet Zone?

Select	Answer
A	An area in Florida surrounding Cape Canaveral
B	An area in New Mexico surrounding the White Sands Test Area
C	An area surrounding the National Radio Astronomy Observatory
D	An area in Puerto Rico surrounding the Arecibo Radio Telescope

4. - E1C01

What is the maximum bandwidth for a data emission on 60 meters?

Select	Answer
A	2.8 kHz
B	170 Hz
C	1.5 kHz
D	60 Hz

5. - E1D01

What is the definition of telemetry?

Select	Answer
A	Two-way transmissions in excess of 1000 feet
B	One-way transmission that initiates, modifies, or terminates the functions of a device at a distance
C	One-way transmission of measurements at a distance from the measuring instrument
D	Two-way transmissions of data

6. - E1E02

Who does Part 97 task with maintaining the pools of questions for all U.S. amateur license examinations?

Select	Answer
A	The VECs
B	The ARRL
C	The VEs
D	The FCC

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	The transmitting station must be in an area regulated by the FCC or in a country that permits SS emissions
C	All these choices are correct
D	The transmission must not be used to obscure the meaning of any communication

8. - E2A13

Which of the following techniques is normally used by low Earth orbiting digital satellites to relay messages around the world?

Select	Answer
A	Multi-satellite relaying
B	Node hopping
C	Store-and-forward
D	Digipeating

9. - E2B07

What is the name of the signal component that carries color information in NTSC video?

Select	Answer
A	Chroma
B	Hue
C	Spectral intensity
D	Luminance

10. - E2C02

Which of the following best describes the term self-spotting? in connection with HF contest operating?

Select	Answer
A	An automatic method for rapidly zero beating or tuning to a station's frequency before calling that station
B	A manual technique for rapidly zero beating or tuning to a station's frequency before calling that station
C	The acceptable practice of manually posting the call signs of stations on a spotting network
D	The often-prohibited practice of posting one's own call sign and frequency on a spotting network

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. - E2E10

Which of these digital modes has the narrowest bandwidth?

Select	Answer
A	170 Hz shift, 45-baud RTTY
B	PSK31
C	MFSK16
D	300-baud packet

13. - E3A02

What characterizes libration fading of an EME signal?

Select	Answer
A	A fluttery irregular fading
B	The returning echo is several hertz lower in frequency than the transmitted signal
C	A gradual loss of signal as the sun rises
D	A slow change in the pitch of the CW signal

14. - E3B06

Which of the following amateur bands most frequently provides long-path propagation?

Select	Answer
A	10 meters
B	6 meters
C	20 meters
D	80 meters

15. - E3C04

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

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

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

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. - 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	Atmospheric noise is generally greater than internally generated noise even after attenuation
C	The attenuator has a low-pass filter to increase the strength of lower frequency signals
D	The attenuator has a noise filter to suppress interference

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 are an indication of poor image rejection
B	Odd-order products overload the IF filters
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. - E4E10

What might be the cause of a loud roaring or buzzing AC line interference that comes and goes at intervals?

Select	Answer
A	A defective doorbell or doorbell transformer inside a nearby residence
B	Arcing contacts in a thermostatically controlled device
C	A malfunctioning illuminated advertising display
D	All these choices are correct

21. - E5A07

What is the magnitude of the current at the input of a parallel RLC circuit at resonance?

Select	Answer
A	R/L
B	Maximum
C	L/R
D	Minimum

22. - E5B02

What letter is commonly used to represent susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	G
B	X
C	B
D	Y

23. - E5C05

What is the name of the diagram used to show the phase relationship between impedances at a given frequency?

Select	Answer
A	Phasor diagram
B	Venn diagram
C	Near field diagram
D	Far field diagram

24. - E5D02

Why is it important to keep lead lengths short for components used in circuits for VHF and above?

Select	Answer
A	To increase the thermal time constant
B	To avoid unwanted inductive reactance
C	All these choices are correct
D	To maintain component lifetime

25. - E6A08

What term indicates the frequency at which the grounded-base current gain of a transistor has decreased to 0.7 of the gain obtainable at 1 kHz?

Select	Answer
A	Corner frequency
B	Alpha cutoff frequency
C	Beta cutoff frequency
D	Alpha rejection frequency

26. - E6B06

Which of the following is a common use of a Schottky diode?

Select	Answer
A	As a variable capacitance in an automatic frequency control circuit
B	As a rectifier in high current power supplies
C	As a constant voltage reference in a power supply
D	As a VHF/UHF mixer or detector

27. - E6C01

What is the function of hysteresis in a comparator?

Select	Answer
A	To increase the sensitivity
B	To prevent input noise from causing unstable output signals
C	To cause the output to change states continually
D	To allow the comparator to be used with AC input signals

28. - E6D01

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

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

29. - E6E01

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

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

30. - E6F07

What is a solid-state relay?

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

31. - E7A01

Which circuit is bistable?

Select	Answer
A	An AND gate
B	An OR gate
C	A bipolar amplifier
D	A flip-flop

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

33. - E7C05

Which filter type is described as having ripple in the passband and a sharp cutoff?

Select	Answer
A	A passive op-amp filter
B	An active LC filter
C	A Butterworth filter
D	A Chebyshev filter

34. - E7D05

Which of the following types of linear voltage regulator places a constant load on the unregulated voltage source?

Select	Answer
A	A shunt regulator
B	A shunt current source
C	A series regulator
D	A constant current source

35. - E7E08

What are the principal frequencies that appear at the output of a mixer circuit?

Select	Answer
A	The two input frequencies along with their sum and difference frequencies
B	Two and four times the original frequency
C	The square root of the product of input frequencies
D	1.414 and 0.707 times the input frequency

36. - E7F04

What is a common method of generating an SSB signal using digital signal processing?

Select	Answer
A	A frequency synthesizer removes the unwanted sidebands
B	Signals are combined in quadrature phase relationship
C	Varying quartz crystal characteristics emulated in digital form
D	Mixing products are converted to voltages and subtracted by adder circuits

37. - E7G01

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

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

38. - E7H12

Which of the following must be done to ensure that a crystal oscillator provides the frequency specified by the crystal manufacturer?

Select	Answer
A	Bias the crystal at a specified voltage
B	Provide the crystal with a specified parallel inductance
C	Provide the crystal with a specified parallel capacitance
D	Bias the crystal at a specified current

39. - E8A03

What type of wave does a Fourier analysis show to be made up of sine waves of a given fundamental frequency plus all its harmonics?

Select	Answer
A	A sine wave
B	A cosine wave
C	A sawtooth wave
D	A square wave

40. - E8B07

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing is a technique used for which type of amateur communication?

Select	Answer
A	OFDM signals are not allowed on amateur bands
B	Extremely low-power contacts
C	EME
D	High-speed digital modes

41. - E8C08

How does ARQ accomplish error correction?

Select	Answer
A	If errors are detected, redundant data is substituted
B	Special polynomial codes provide automatic correction
C	If errors are detected, a retransmission is requested
D	Special binary codes provide automatic correction

42. - E8D11

What is one advantage of using ASCII code for data communications?

Select	Answer
A	It contains fewer information bits per character than any other code
B	It includes built-in error correction features
C	It is possible to transmit both upper and lower case text
D	It uses one character as a shift code to send numeric and special characters

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 resistance in the atmosphere that an antenna must overcome to be able to radiate a signal
C	The specific impedance of the antenna
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	75 degrees
B	25 degrees
C	7.5 degrees
D	45 degrees

45. - E9C03

What is the radiation pattern of two 1/4-wavelength vertical antennas spaced 1/2-wavelength apart and fed in phase?

Select	Answer
A	Omni-directional
B	Cardioid
C	A Figure-8 broadside to the axis of the array
D	A Figure-8 end-fire along the axis of the array

46. - E9D10

What happens to feed-point impedance at the base of a fixed length HF mobile antenna when operated below its resonant frequency?

Select	Answer
A	The radiation resistance increases and the capacitive reactance decreases
B	The radiation resistance decreases and the capacitive reactance decreases
C	The radiation resistance increases and the capacitive reactance increases
D	The radiation resistance decreases and the capacitive reactance increases

47. - E9E09

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

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

49. - E9G10

What do the arcs on a Smith chart represent?

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

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	The geometric angles of sky waves from the source are used to determine its position
D	A fixed receiving station plots three headings to the signal source

Figure E9-2