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	Beryllium Oxide
B	Mica
C	Zinc oxide
D	Uranium Hexafluoride

2. - E1A07

What is the maximum power permitted on the 2200 meter band?

Select	Answer
A	1 watt EIRP (Equivalent isotropic radiated power)
B	100 watts PEP
C	50 watts PEP
D	5 watts EIRP (Equivalent isotropic radiated power)

3. - E1B11

What does PRB-1 require of regulations affecting amateur radio?

Select	Answer
A	No limitations may be placed on antenna size or placement
B	Use of wireless devices in a vehicle is exempt from regulation
C	Reasonable accommodations of amateur radio must be made
D	Amateur radio operations must be permitted in any private residence

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

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

6. - E1E07

What should a VE do if a candidate fails to comply with the examiner's instructions during an amateur operator license examination?

Select	Answer
A	Immediately terminate the candidate's examination
B	Immediately terminate everyone's examination and close the session
C	Allow the candidate to complete the examination, but invalidate the results
D	Warn the candidate that continued failure to comply will result in termination of the examination

7. - E1F11

Which of the following best describes one of the standards that must be met by an external RF power amplifier if it is to qualify for a grant of FCC certification?

Select	Answer
A	It must exhibit a gain of 0 dB or less over its full output range
B	It must satisfy the FCC's spurious emission standards when operated at the lesser of 1500 watts or its full output power
C	It must produce full legal output when driven by not more than 5 watts of mean RF input power
D	It must be capable of external RF switching between its input and output networks

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

9. - E2B07

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

Select	Answer
A	Spectral intensity
B	Chroma
C	Hue
D	Luminance

10. - E2C10

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

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

11. - E2D04

What technology is used to track, in real time, balloons carrying amateur radio transmitters?

Select	Answer
A	Doppler shift of beacon signals
B	Bandwidth compressed LORAN
C	Ultrasonics
D	APRS

12. - E2E02

What do the letters FEC mean as they relate to digital operation?

Select	Answer
A	Fatal Error Correction
B	First Error Correction
C	Forward Error Correction
D	Final Error Correction

13. - E3A12

What is the cause of auroral activity?

Select	Answer
A	Meteor showers concentrated in the extreme northern and southern latitudes
B	The interaction in the E layer of charged particles from the Sun with the Earth's magnetic field
C	The interaction in the F2 layer between the solar wind and the Van Allen belt
D	An extreme low-pressure area in the polar regions

14. - E3B10

Why is chordal hop propagation desirable?

Select	Answer
A	The signal experiences less loss compared to multi-hop using Earth as a reflector
B	Atmospheric noise is lower in the direction of chordal hop propagation
C	Signals travel faster along ionospheric chords
D	The MUF for chordal hop propagation is much lower than for normal skip propagation

15. - E3C06

By how much does the VHF/UHF radio horizon distance exceed the geometric horizon?

Select	Answer
A	By approximately 50 percent of the distance
B	By approximately four times the distance
C	By approximately 15 percent of the distance
D	By approximately twice the distance

16. - E4A11

How should an antenna analyzer be connected when measuring antenna resonance and feed point impedance?

Select	Answer
A	Connect the analyzer via a high-impedance transformer to the antenna
B	Connect the antenna feed line directly to the analyzer's connector
C	Loosely couple the analyzer near the antenna base
D	Loosely couple the antenna and a dummy load to the analyzer

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

18. - E4C12

Which of the following has the largest effect on an SDR receiver's dynamic range?

Select	Answer
A	CPU register width in bits
B	Analog-to-digital converter sample width in bits
C	RAM speed used for data storage
D	Anti-aliasing input filter bandwidth

19. - E4D07

Which of the following reduces the likelihood of receiver desensitization?

Select	Answer
A	Raise the receiver IF frequency
B	Switch from fast AGC to slow AGC
C	Decrease the RF bandwidth of the receiver
D	Increase the receiver front end gain

20. - E4E07

Which of the following can cause shielded cables to radiate or receive interference?

Select	Answer
A	Low inductance ground connections at both ends of the shield
B	Use of braided shielding material
C	Common-mode currents on the shield and conductors
D	Tying all ground connections to a common point resulting in differential-mode currents in the shield

21. - E5A14

What is the resonant frequency of an RLC circuit if R is 22 ohms, L is 50 microhenries and C is 40 picofarads?

Select	Answer
A	1.78 MHz
B	44.72 MHz
C	22.36 MHz
D	3.56 MHz

22. - E5B09

What is the relationship between the AC current through a capacitor and the voltage across a capacitor?

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

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	Far field diagram
C	Venn diagram
D	Near field diagram

24. - E5D14

What is reactive power?

Select	Answer
A	Wattless, nonproductive power
B	Power consumed in wire resistance in an inductor
C	Power lost because of capacitor leakage
D	Power consumed in circuit Q

25. - E6A01

In what application is gallium arsenide used as a semiconductor material?

Select	Answer
A	In high-current rectifier circuits
B	In high-power audio circuits
C	In microwave circuits
D	In very low-frequency RF circuits

26. - E6B07

What is the failure mechanism when a junction diode fails due to excessive current?

Select	Answer
A	Excessive inverse voltage
B	Excessive junction temperature
C	Charge carrier depletion
D	Insufficient forward voltage

27. - E6C10

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

Select	Answer
A	3
B	2
C	1
D	4

28. - E6D12

What is inductor saturation?

Select	Answer
A	The ability of the inductor's core to store magnetic energy has been exceeded
B	The inductor's voltage rating is exceeded causing a flashover
C	Adjacent inductors become over-coupled
D	The inductor windings are over-coupled

29. - E6E10

What advantage does surface-mount technology offer at RF compared to using through-hole components?

Select	Answer
A	Shorter circuit-board traces
B	All these choices are correct
C	Smaller circuit area
D	Components have less parasitic inductance and capacitance

30. - E6F03

What is the most common configuration of an optoisolator or optocoupler?

Select	Answer
A	An LED and a phototransistor
B	A frequency modulated helium-neon laser
C	A lens and a photomultiplier
D	An amplitude modulated helium-neon laser

31. - E7A03

Which of the following can divide the frequency of a pulse train by 2?

Select	Answer
A	An XOR gate
B	An OR gate
C	A flip-flop
D	A multiplexer

32. - E7B17

Why are odd-order rather than even-order intermodulation distortion products of concern in linear power amplifiers?

Select	Answer
A	Because they invert the sidebands causing distortion
B	Because they are relatively close in frequency to the desired signal
C	Because they maintain the sidebands, thus causing multiple duplicate signals
D	Because they are relatively far in frequency from the desired signal

33. - E7C10

Which of the following filters would be the best choice for use in a 2 meter band repeater duplexer?

Select	Answer
A	An L-C filter
B	A DSP filter
C	A crystal filter
D	A cavity 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	Permits a wide range of output voltage settings
C	Maintains nearly constant output impedance over a wide range of load current
D	Maintains nearly constant output voltage over a wide range of load current

35. - E7E09

What occurs when an excessive amount of signal energy reaches a mixer circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Spurious mixer products are generated
B	Mixer blanking occurs
C	A beat frequency is generated
D	Automatic limiting occurs

36. - E7F13

What is the function of taps in a digital signal processing filter?

Select	Answer
A	Select the point at which baseband signals are generated
B	Provide access for debugging software
C	Provide incremental signal delays for filter algorithms
D	To reduce excess signal pressure levels

37. - E7G04

What is meant by the "op-amp input offset voltage"?

Select	Answer
A	The differential input voltage needed to bring the open loop output voltage to zero
B	The potential between the amplifier input terminals of the op-amp in an open loop condition
C	The difference between the output voltage of the op-amp and the input voltage required in the immediately following stage
D	The output voltage of the op-amp minus its input voltage

38. - E7H04

How is positive feedback supplied in a Colpitts oscillator?

Select	Answer
A	Through a neutralizing capacitor
B	Through link coupling
C	Through a capacitive divider
D	Through a tapped coil

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 square wave
C	A sawtooth wave
D	A cosine wave

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 decreases as the RF carrier frequency increases
D	It increases as the RF carrier frequency increases

41. - E8C07

What is the bandwidth of a 4800-Hz frequency shift, 9600-baud ASCII FM transmission?

Select	Answer
A	5.76 kHz
B	15.36 kHz
C	4.8 kHz
D	9.6 kHz

42. - E8D03

How does the spread spectrum technique of frequency hopping work?

Select	Answer
A	The frequency of the transmitted signal is changed very rapidly according to a pseudorandom sequence also used by the receiving station
B	If interference is detected by the receiver it will signal the transmitter to change frequencies
C	If interference is detected by the receiver it will signal the transmitter to wait until the frequency is clear
D	A binary bit stream is used to shift the phase of an RF carrier very rapidly in a pseudorandom sequence

43. - E9A11

Which of the following factors determines ground losses for a ground-mounted vertical antenna operating in the 3 MHz to 30 MHz range?

Select	Answer
A	The standing wave ratio
B	Distance from the transmitter
C	Take-off angle
D	Soil conductivity

44. - E9B03

In the antenna radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-1, what is the front-to-side ratio?

Select	Answer
A	12 dB
B	14 dB
C	18 dB
D	24 dB

45. - E9C09

Which of the following describes a G5RV antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A phased array antenna consisting of multiple loops
B	A wide band dipole using shorted coaxial cable for the radiating elements and fed with a�4:1 balun
C	A multi-band trap antenna
D	A multi-band dipole antenna fed with coax and a balun through a selected length of open wire transmission line

46. - E9D11

Which of the following conductors would be best for minimizing losses in a station's RF ground system?

Select	Answer
A	Resistive wire, such as spark plug wire
B	Stranded wire
C	Solid wire
D	Wide flat copper strap

47. - E9E06

Which of these feed line impedances would be suitable for constructing a quarter-wave Q-section for matching a 100-ohm loop to 50-ohm feed line?

Select	Answer
A	50 ohms
B	75 ohms
C	62 ohms
D	450 ohms

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

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 impedance values with regard to the prime center
C	Reassigning prime center with regard to the reactance axis
D	Reassigning reactance values with regard to the resistance axis

50. - E9H11

What feature of a cardioid pattern antenna makes it useful for direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	A very sharp single null
B	High radiation angle
C	A very sharp peak
D	Broadband response

Figure E6-3

Figure E9-1