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

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1. - E0A08

What does SAR measure?

Select	Answer
A	The rate at which RF energy is absorbed by the body
B	Signal Amplification Rating
C	The rate of RF energy reflected from stationary terrain
D	Synthetic Aperture Ratio of the human body

2. - E1A10

If an amateur station is installed aboard a ship or aircraft, what condition must be met before the station is operated?

Select	Answer
A	The amateur station must have a power supply that is completely independent of the main ship or aircraft power supply
B	The amateur station operator must agree not to transmit when the main radio of the ship or aircraft is in use
C	Its operation must be approved by the master of the ship or the pilot in command of the aircraft
D	The amateur operator must have an FCC Marine or Aircraft endorsement on his or her amateur license

3. - E1B03

Within what distance must an amateur station protect an FCC monitoring facility from harmful interference?

Select	Answer
A	1 mile
B	10 miles
C	3 miles
D	30 miles

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

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 located in a satellite or a balloon more than 50 kilometers above the surface of the Earth
C	An amateur station that receives telemetry from a satellite or balloon more than 50 kilometers above the surface of the Earth
D	An amateur station that transmits communications to initiate, modify or terminate functions of a space station

6. - E1E10

What must the administering VEs do after the administration of a successful examination for an amateur operator license?

Select	Answer
A	They must collect and send the documents to the FCC according to instructions
B	They must collect and submit the documents to the coordinating VEC for grading
C	They must submit the application document to the coordinating VEC according to the coordinating VEC instructions
D	They must collect and send the documents to the NCVEC for grading

7. - E1F03

Under what circumstances may a dealer sell an external RF power amplifier capable of operation below 144 MHz if it has not been granted FCC certification?

Select	Answer
A	It was imported from a manufacturer in another country and was certificated by that country's government
B	It was purchased in used condition from an amateur operator and is sold to another amateur operator for use at that operator's station
C	The equipment dealer assembled it from a kit
D	It was imported from a manufacturer in a country that does not require certification of RF power amplifiers

8. - E2A11

What type of antenna can be used to minimize the effects of spin modulation and Faraday rotation?

Select	Answer
A	A linearly polarized antenna
B	A log-periodic dipole array
C	A circularly polarized antenna
D	An isotropic antenna

9. - E2B10

What aspect of an analog slow-scan television signal encodes the brightness of the picture?

Select	Answer
A	Sync frequency
B	Sync amplitude
C	Tone amplitude
D	Tone frequency

10. - E2C03

From which of the following bands is amateur radio contesting generally excluded?

Select	Answer
A	33 centimeters
B	30 meters
C	6 meters
D	2 meters

11. - E2D04

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

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

12. - E2E04

What is indicated when one of the ellipses in an FSK crossed-ellipse display suddenly disappears?

Select	Answer
A	The mark and space signal have been inverted
B	The receiver has drifted 5 kHz from the desired receive frequency
C	Selective fading has occurred
D	One of the signal filters is saturated

13. - E3A14

What is meant by circularly polarized electromagnetic waves?

Select	Answer
A	Waves produced by a loop antenna
B	Waves that circle the Earth
C	Waves with an electric field bent into a circular shape
D	Waves with a rotating electric field

14. - E3B09

At what time of year is sporadic E propagation most likely to occur?

Select	Answer
A	Around the equinoxes, especially the fall equinox
B	Around the solstices, especially the summer solstice
C	Around the solstices, especially the winter solstice
D	Around the equinoxes, especially the spring equinox

15. - E3C11

What does VOACAP software model?

Select	Answer
A	AC current and impedance
B	VHF radio propagation
C	AC voltage and impedance
D	HF propagation

16. - E4A09

Which of the following is good practice when using an oscilloscope probe?

Select	Answer
A	Never use a high-impedance probe to measure a low-impedance circuit
B	Keep the signal ground connection of the probe as short as possible
C	Never use a DC-coupled probe to measure an AC circuit
D	All these choices are correct

17. - E4B04

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

Select	Answer
A	S22
B	S21
C	S12
D	S11

18. - E4C02

Which of the following receiver circuits can be effective in eliminating interference from strong out-of-band signals?

Select	Answer
A	A front-end filter or pre-selector
B	A notch filter
C	A properly adjusted product detector
D	A narrow IF filter

19. - E4D04

Which of the following may reduce or eliminate intermodulation interference in a repeater caused by another transmitter operating in close proximity?

Select	Answer
A	A properly terminated circulator at the output of the repeater's transmitter
B	A band-pass filter in the feed line between the transmitter and receiver
C	Utilizing a Class D final amplifier
D	Utilizing a Class C final amplifier

20. - E4E07

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

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

21. - E5A13

What is an effect of increasing Q in a series resonant circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Parasitic effects are minimized
B	Fewer components are needed for the same performance
C	Phase shift can become uncontrolled
D	Internal voltages increase

22. - E5B03

How is impedance in polar form converted to an equivalent admittance?

Select	Answer
A	Take the square root of the magnitude and add 180 degrees to the angle
B	Take the reciprocal of the angle and change the sign of the magnitude
C	Square the magnitude and subtract 90 degrees from the angle
D	Take the reciprocal of the magnitude and change the sign of the angle

23. - E5C10

Which point on Figure E5-1 best represents the impedance of a series circuit consisting of a 400-ohm resistor and a 38-picofarad capacitor at 14 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	Point 2
B	Point 4
C	Point 6
D	Point 5

24. - E5D14

What is reactive power?

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

25. - E6A10

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

Select	Answer
A	5
B	6
C	2
D	4

26. - E6B11

What is used to control the attenuation of RF signals by a PIN diode?

Select	Answer
A	Reverse voltage larger than the RF signal
B	Capacitance of an RF coupling capacitor
C	A sub-harmonic pump signal
D	Forward DC bias current

27. - E6C11

In Figure E6-3, what is the schematic symbol for the NOT operation (inverter)?

Select	Answer
A	5
B	2
C	6
D	4

28. - E6D04

Which materials are commonly used as a core in an inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Cobalt and aluminum
B	Ferrite and brass
C	Teflon and Delrin
D	Polystyrene and polyethylene

29. - E6E04

Which is the most common input and output impedance of circuits that use MMICs?

Select	Answer
A	10 ohms
B	50 ohms
C	450 ohms
D	300 ohms

30. - E6F04

What is the photovoltaic effect?

Select	Answer
A	The conversion of light to electrical energy
B	The tendency of a battery to discharge when exposed to light
C	The conversion of voltage to current when exposed to light
D	The conversion of electrical energy to mechanical energy

31. - E7A04

How many flip-flops are required to divide a signal frequency by 4?

Select	Answer
A	8
B	1
C	4
D	2

32. - E7B14

Why are switching amplifiers more efficient than linear amplifiers?

Select	Answer
A	Switching amplifiers operate at higher voltages
B	The power transistor is at saturation or cutoff most of the time
C	Switching amplifiers use push-pull circuits
D	Linear amplifiers have high gain resulting in higher harmonic content

33. - E7C11

Which of the following describes a receiving filter's ability to reject signals occupying an adjacent channel?

Select	Answer
A	Shape factor
B	Noise factor
C	Phase response
D	Passband ripple

34. - E7D06

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

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

35. - E7E09

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

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

36. - E7F07

What function is performed by a Fast Fourier Transform?

Select	Answer
A	Converting digital signals from the time domain to the frequency domain
B	Converting 8-bit data to 16-bit data
C	Converting digital signals to analog form
D	Converting analog signals to digital form

37. - E7G08

How does the gain of an ideal operational amplifier vary with frequency?

Select	Answer
A	It decreases linearly with increasing frequency
B	It does not vary with frequency
C	It decreases logarithmically with increasing frequency
D	It increases linearly with increasing frequency

38. - E7H02

What is a microphonic?

Select	Answer
A	Excess loading of the microphone by an oscillator
B	Changes in oscillator frequency due to mechanical vibration
C	An IC used for amplifying microphone signals
D	Distortion caused by RF pickup on the microphone cable

39. - E8A05

What of the following instruments would be the most accurate for measuring the RMS voltage of a complex waveform?

Select	Answer
A	A grid dip meter
B	A D'Arsonval meter
C	A true-RMS calculating meter
D	An absorption wave meter

40. - E8B02

How does the modulation index of a phase-modulated emission vary with RF carrier frequency?

Select	Answer
A	It varies with the square root of the RF carrier frequency
B	It increases as the RF carrier frequency increases
C	It decreases as the RF carrier frequency increases
D	It does not depend on the RF carrier frequency

41. - E8C09

Which digital code allows only one bit to change between sequential code values?

Select	Answer
A	Excess 3 code
B	Gray code
C	Binary Coded Decimal Code
D	Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code

42. - E8D07

What is a common cause of overmodulation of AFSK signals?

Select	Answer
A	Excessive transmit audio levels
B	Ground loops
C	Excessive numbers of retries
D	Bit errors in the modem

43. - E9A04

Which of the following factors affect the feed point impedance of an antenna?

Select	Answer
A	Antenna height
B	The settings of an antenna tuner at the transmitter
C	Transmission line length
D	The input power level

44. - E9B04

What is the front-to-back ratio of the radiation pattern shown in Figure E92?

Select	Answer
A	3 dB
B	15 dB
C	28 dB
D	38 dB

45. - E9C13

How does the radiation pattern of a horizontally polarized 3-element beam antenna vary with increasing height above ground?

Select	Answer
A	The takeoff angle of the lowest elevation lobe increases
B	The horizontal beamwidth decreases
C	The takeoff angle of the lowest elevation lobe decreases
D	The horizontal beamwidth increases

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 increases and the capacitive reactance increases
C	The radiation resistance decreases and the capacitive reactance decreases
D	The radiation resistance decreases and the capacitive reactance increases

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	75 ohms
B	450 ohms
C	50 ohms
D	62 ohms

48. - E9F09

What is the approximate physical length of a foam polyethylene dielectric coaxial transmission line that is electrically 1/4 wavelength long at 7.2 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	10.4 meters
B	8.3 meters
C	5.2 meters
D	6.9 meters

49. - E9G09

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

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

50. - E9H09

What is a Pennant antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A four-element, high-gain vertical array invented by George Pennant
B	A form of rhombic antenna terminated in a variable capacitor to provide frequency diversity
C	A stealth antenna built to look like a flagpole
D	A small, vertically oriented receiving antenna consisting of a triangular loop terminated in approximately 900 ohms

Figure E5-1

Figure E6-1

Figure E6-3

Figure E7-2