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	Polymorphic silicon
B	Polytetrafluoroethylene
C	Polyethylene
D	Polychlorinated biphenyls

2. - E1A12

What special operating frequency restrictions are imposed on slow scan TV transmissions?

Select	Answer
A	They are restricted to phone band segments
B	None; they are allowed on all amateur frequencies
C	They are restricted to 7.245 MHz, 14.245 MHz, 21.345 MHz, and 28.945 MHz
D	They are not permitted above 54 MHz

3. - E1B06

Which of the following additional rules apply if you are installing an amateur station antenna at a site at or near a public use airport?

Select	Answer
A	You must obtain a construction permit from the airport zoning authority
B	You must submit engineering drawings to the FAA
C	You may have to notify the Federal Aviation Administration and register it with the FCC as required by Part 17 of the FCC rules
D	You must file an Environmental Impact Statement with the EPA before construction begins

4. - E1C10

What is the permitted mean power of any spurious emission relative to the mean power of the fundamental emission from a station transmitter or external RF amplifier installed after January 1, 2003 and transmitting on a frequency below 30 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	At least 73 dB below
B	At least 53 dB below
C	At least 43 dB below
D	At least 63 dB below

5. - E1D03

What is a space telecommand station?

Select	Answer
A	An amateur station located on the surface of the Earth for communication with other Earth stations by means of Earth satellites
B	An amateur station that receives telemetry from a satellite or balloon more than 50 kilometers above the surface of the Earth
C	An amateur station that transmits communications to initiate, modify or terminate functions of a space station
D	An amateur station located in a satellite or a balloon more than 50 kilometers above the surface of the Earth

6. - E1E09

What may be the penalty for a VE who fraudulently administers or certifies an examination?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	Revocation of the VE's amateur station license grant and the suspension of the VE's amateur operator license grant
C	A fine of up to $1000 per occurrence
D	A sentence of up to one year in prison

7. - E1F04

Which of the following geographic descriptions approximately describes "Line A"?

Select	Answer
A	A line roughly parallel to and west of the U.S. Atlantic coastline
B	A line roughly parallel to and south of the border between the U.S. and Canada
C	A line roughly parallel to and north of the border between the U.S. and Mexico
D	A line roughly parallel to and east of the U.S. Pacific coastline

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	Digipeating
C	Node hopping
D	Multi-satellite relaying

9. - E2B04

How is color information sent in analog SSTV?

Select	Answer
A	Color is sent in a color burst at the end of each line
B	Color is amplitude modulated on the frequency modulated intensity signal
C	Color information is sent on a 2.8 kHz subcarrier
D	Color lines are sent sequentially

10. - E2C09

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

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

11. - E2D10

How can an APRS station be used to help support a public service communications activity?

Select	Answer
A	An APRS station with an emergency medical technician can automatically transmit medical data to the nearest hospital
B	All these choices are correct
C	An APRS station with a Global Positioning System unit can automatically transmit information to show a mobile station's position during the event
D	APRS stations with General Personnel Scanners can automatically relay the participant numbers and time as they pass the check points

12. - E2E11

What is the difference between direct FSK and audio FSK?

Select	Answer
A	Direct FSK applies the data signal to the transmitter VFO, while AFSK transmits tones via phone
B	Only direct FSK can be decoded by computer
C	Direct FSK occupies less bandwidth
D	Direct FSK can transmit faster baud rates

13. - E3A09

Which of the following frequency ranges is most suited for meteor scatter communications?

Select	Answer
A	28 MHz - 148 MHz
B	220 MHz - 450 MHz
C	10 MHz - 14 MHz
D	1.8 MHz - 1.9 MHz

14. - E3B11

At what time of day can sporadic E propagation occur?

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

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 15 percent of the distance
C	By approximately twice the distance
D	By approximately four times the distance

16. - E4A01

Which of the following limits the highest frequency signal that can be accurately displayed on a digital oscilloscope?

Select	Answer
A	Sampling rate of the analog-to-digital converter
B	Amount of memory
C	All these choices are correct
D	Q of the circuit

17. - E4B01

Which of the following factors most affects the accuracy of a frequency counter?

Select	Answer
A	Input attenuator accuracy
B	Decade divider accuracy
C	Temperature coefficient of the logic
D	Time base accuracy

18. - E4C13

How does a narrow-band roofing filter affect receiver performance?

Select	Answer
A	It improves dynamic range by attenuating strong signals near the receive frequency
B	It improves intelligibility by using low Q circuitry to reduce ringing
C	All these choices are correct
D	It improves sensitivity by reducing front end noise

19. - E4D02

Which of the following describes problems caused by poor dynamic range in a receiver?

Select	Answer
A	Cross-modulation of the desired signal and insufficient audio power to operate the speaker
B	Spurious signals caused by cross-modulation and desensitization from strong adjacent signals
C	Oscillator instability requiring frequent retuning and loss of ability to recover the opposite sideband
D	Oscillator instability and severe audio distortion of all but the strongest received signals

20. - E4E04

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

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

21. - E5A15

Which of the following increases Q for inductors and capacitors?

Select	Answer
A	Lower losses
B	Lower reactance
C	Lower self-resonant frequency
D	Higher self-resonant frequency

22. - E5B09

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

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

23. - E5C05

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

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

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	1.0
B	0.866
C	0.5
D	0.707

25. - E6A10

In Figure E6-1, what is the schematic symbol for an N-channel dual-gate MOSFET?

Select	Answer
A	6
B	2
C	4
D	5

26. - E6B02

What is an important characteristic of a Schottky diode as compared to an ordinary silicon diode when used as a power supply rectifier?

Select	Answer
A	Longer carrier retention time
B	Much higher reverse voltage breakdown
C	More constant reverse avalanche voltage
D	Less forward voltage drop

27. - E6C06

Why do CMOS digital integrated circuits have high immunity to noise on the input signal or power supply?

Select	Answer
A	Large bypass capacitance is inherent
B	The input switching threshold is about one-half the power supply voltage
C	Bandwidth is very limited
D	The input switching threshold is about two times the power supply voltage

28. - E6D09

What devices are commonly used as VHF and UHF parasitic suppressors at the input and output terminals of a transistor HF amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	Ferrite beads
B	Butterworth filters
C	Steel-core toroids
D	Electrolytic capacitors

29. - E6E10

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

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

30. - E6F03

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

Select	Answer
A	A frequency modulated helium-neon laser
B	An LED and a phototransistor
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	A multiplexer
C	A flip-flop
D	An OR gate

32. - E7B15

What is one way to prevent thermal runaway in a bipolar transistor amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	Use a resistor in series with the emitter
B	Neutralization
C	Select transistors with high beta
D	All these choices are correct

33. - E7C06

What are the distinguishing features of an elliptical filter?

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

34. - E7D07

What is the purpose of C2 in the circuit shown in Figure E7-2?

Select	Answer
A	It is a brute force filter for the output
B	To self-resonate at the hum frequency
C	It bypasses rectifier output ripple around D1
D	To provide fixed DC bias for Q1

35. - E7E11

Which type of detector circuit is used for demodulating SSB signals?

Select	Answer
A	Phase detector
B	Discriminator
C	Phase comparator
D	Product detector

36. - E7F08

What is the function of decimation?

Select	Answer
A	Reducing the effective sample rate by removing samples
B	Converting data to binary code decimal form
C	Removing unnecessary significant digits
D	Attenuating the signal

37. - E7G07

What magnitude of voltage gain can be expected from the circuit in Figure E73 when R1 is 10 ohms and RF is 470 ohms?

Select	Answer
A	47
B	0.21
C	24
D	94

38. - E7H08

Which of the following components can be used to reduce thermal drift in crystal oscillators?

Select	Answer
A	NP0 capacitors
B	Toroidal inductors
C	Wirewound resistors
D	Non-inductive resistors

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 method of decimation by randomly skipping samples
C	A small amount of noise added to the input signal to allow more precise representation of a signal over time
D	An error caused by irregular quantization step size

40. - E8B03

What is the modulation index of an FM-phone signal having a maximum frequency deviation of 3000 Hz either side of the carrier frequency when the modulating frequency is 1000 Hz?

Select	Answer
A	3000
B	3
C	1000
D	0.3

41. - E8C08

How does ARQ accomplish error correction?

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

42. - E8D11

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

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

43. - E9A07

What is the effective isotropic radiated power of a repeater station with 200 watts transmitter power output, 2 dB feed line loss, 2.8 dB duplexer loss, 1.2 dB circulator loss, and 7 dBi antenna gain?

Select	Answer
A	252 watts
B	159 watts
C	63.2 watts
D	632 watts

44. - E9B01

In the antenna radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-1, what is the beamwidth?

Select	Answer
A	25 degrees
B	30 degrees
C	50 degrees
D	75 degrees

45. - E9C06

What is the effect of adding a terminating resistor to a rhombic antenna?

Select	Answer
A	It decreases the ground loss
B	It changes the radiation pattern from horizontal to vertical polarization
C	It changes the radiation pattern from bidirectional to unidirectional
D	It reflects the standing waves on the antenna elements back to the transmitter

46. - E9D01

How much does the gain of an ideal parabolic dish antenna change when the operating frequency is doubled?

Select	Answer
A	2 dB
B	6 dB
C	4 dB
D	3 dB

47. - E9E02

What is the name of an antenna matching system that matches an unbalanced feed line to an antenna by feeding the driven element both at the center of the element and at a fraction of a wavelength to one side of center?

Select	Answer
A	The stub match
B	The gamma match
C	The delta match
D	The epsilon match

48. - E9F07

How does ladder line compare to small-diameter coaxial cable such as RG-58 at 50 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	Lower velocity factor
B	Lower loss
C	Smaller reflection coefficient
D	Higher SWR

49. - E9G09

What third family of circles is often added to a Smith chart during the process of solving problems?

Select	Answer
A	Coaxial-length circles
B	Radiation-pattern circles
C	Antenna-length circles
D	Standing wave ratio circles

50. - E9H02

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

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
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	Atmospheric noise is so high that gain over a dipole is not important

Figure E6-1

Figure E7-2

Figure E9-1