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	Polychlorinated biphenyls
C	Polytetrafluoroethylene
D	Polyethylene

2. - E1A13

Who must be in physical control of the station apparatus of an amateur station aboard any vessel or craft that is documented or registered in the United States?

Select	Answer
A	Only a person named in an amateur station license grant
B	Any person named in an amateur station license grant or a person holding an unrestricted Radiotelephone Operator Permit
C	Only a person with an FCC Marine Radio license grant
D	Any person holding an FCC issued amateur license or who is authorized for alien reciprocal operation

3. - E1B02

Which of the following is an acceptable bandwidth for Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) based voice or SSTV digital transmissions made on the HF amateur bands?

Select	Answer
A	15 kHz
B	10 kHz
C	20 kHz
D	3 kHz

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

5. - E1D07

Which HF amateur bands have frequencies authorized for space stations?

Select	Answer
A	All HF bands
B	Only the 40, 20, 17, 15, 12, and 10 meter bands
C	Only the 40, 20, 17, 15, and 10 meter bands
D	Only the 40, 30, 20, 15, 12, and 10 meter bands

6. - E1E05

What is the minimum passing score on all amateur operator license examinations?

Select	Answer
A	Minimum passing score of 74%
B	Minimum passing score of 77%
C	Minimum passing score of 70%
D	Minimum passing score of 80%

7. - E1F04

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

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

8. - E2A12

What is the purpose of digital store-and-forward functions on an amateur radio satellite?

Select	Answer
A	To store digital messages in the satellite for later download by other stations
B	To upload operational software for the transponder
C	To delay download of telemetry between satellites
D	To relay messages between satellites

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. - E2C03

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

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

11. - E2D09

What type of modulation is used for JT65 contacts?

Select	Answer
A	RTTY
B	Multi-tone AFSK
C	PSK
D	IEEE 802.11

12. - E2E13

Which of these digital modes has the fastest data throughput under clear communication conditions?

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

13. - E3A12

What is the cause of auroral activity?

Select	Answer
A	An extreme low-pressure area in the polar regions
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	Meteor showers concentrated in the extreme northern and southern latitudes

14. - E3B05

Which amateur bands typically support long-path propagation?

Select	Answer
A	160 meters to 10 meters
B	Only 30 meters to 10 meters
C	Only 160 meters to 40 meters
D	6 meters to 2 meters

15. - E3C10

What does the 304A solar parameter measure?

Select	Answer
A	The solar emission at 304 GHz, correlated to x-ray flare levels
B	The solar wind velocity at 304 degrees from the solar equator, correlated to solar activity
C	UV emissions at 304 angstroms, correlated to the solar flux index
D	The ratio of x-ray flux to radio flux, correlated to sunspot number

16. - E4A04

How is the compensation of an oscilloscope probe typically adjusted?

Select	Answer
A	A high frequency sine wave is displayed and the probe is adjusted for maximum amplitude
B	A DC voltage standard is displayed and the probe is adjusted until the displayed voltage is accurate
C	A frequency standard is displayed and the probe is adjusted until the deflection time is accurate
D	A square wave is displayed and the probe is adjusted until the horizontal portions of the displayed wave are as nearly flat as possible

17. - E4B06

How much power is being absorbed by the load when a directional power meter connected between a transmitter and a terminating load reads 100 watts forward power and 25 watts reflected power?

Select	Answer
A	75 watts
B	125 watts
C	100 watts
D	25 watts

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

19. - E4D05

What transmitter frequencies would cause an intermodulation-product signal in a receiver tuned to 146.70 MHz when a nearby station transmits on 146.52 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	146.88 MHz and 146.34 MHz
B	173.35 MHz and 139.40 MHz
C	146.10 MHz and 147.30 MHz
D	146.34 MHz and 146.61 MHz

20. - E4E09

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

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

21. - E5A09

How is the Q of an RLC parallel resonant circuit calculated?

Select	Answer
A	Reactance of the inductance multiplied by the reactance of the capacitance
B	Reactance of either the inductance or capacitance divided by the resistance
C	Resistance divided by the reactance of either the inductance or capacitance
D	Reactance of either the inductance or capacitance multiplied by the resistance

22. - E5B11

What is the phase angle between the voltage across and the current through a series RLC circuit if XC is 25 ohms, R is 100 ohms, and XL is 50 ohms?

Select	Answer
A	14 degrees with the voltage leading the current
B	76 degrees with the voltage leading the current
C	76 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
D	14 degrees with the voltage lagging the current

23. - E5C06

What does the impedance 50-j25 represent?

Select	Answer
A	25 ohms resistance in series with 50 ohms inductive reactance
B	25 ohms resistance in series with 50 ohms capacitive reactance
C	50 ohms resistance in series with 25 ohms capacitive reactance
D	50 ohms resistance in series with 25 ohms inductive reactance

24. - E5D07

How many watts are consumed in a circuit having a power factor of 0.71 if the apparent power is 500VA?

Select	Answer
A	704 W
B	252 W
C	1.42 mW
D	355 W

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	5
D	4

26. - E6B11

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

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

27. - E6C02

What happens when the level of a comparator's input signal crosses the threshold?

Select	Answer
A	The comparator changes its output state
B	The IC input can be damaged
C	The comparator enters latch-up
D	The feedback loop becomes unstable

28. - E6D12

What is inductor saturation?

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

29. - E6E01

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

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

30. - E6F09

What is the efficiency of a photovoltaic cell?

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

31. - E7A07

What logical operation does a NAND gate perform?

Select	Answer
A	It produces logic 0 at its output only when all inputs are logic 0
B	It produces logic 1 at its output only when all inputs are logic 1
C	It produces logic 0 at its output only when all inputs are logic 1
D	It produces logic 0 at its output if some but not all inputs are logic 1

32. - E7B14

Why are switching amplifiers more efficient than linear amplifiers?

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

33. - E7C10

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

Select	Answer
A	A cavity filter
B	A DSP filter
C	A crystal filter
D	An L-C filter

34. - E7D15

What is the purpose of a step-start circuit in a high-voltage power supply?

Select	Answer
A	To compensate for variations of the incoming line voltage
B	To allow for remote control of the power supply
C	To allow the filter capacitors to charge gradually
D	To provide a dual-voltage output for reduced power applications

35. - E7E08

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

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

36. - E7F05

How frequently must an analog signal be sampled by an analog-to-digital converter so that the signal can be accurately reproduced?

Select	Answer
A	At four times the rate of the highest frequency component of the signal
B	At least half the rate of the highest frequency component of the signal
C	At the same rate as the highest frequency component of the signal
D	At least twice the rate of the highest frequency component of the signal

37. - E7G01

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

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

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

39. - E8A05

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

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

40. - E8B10

What is frequency division multiplexing?

Select	Answer
A	The transmitted signal is divided into packets of information
B	The transmitted signal jumps from band to band at a predetermined rate
C	Two or more information streams are merged into a baseband, which then modulates the transmitter
D	Two or more information streams are merged into a digital combiner, which then pulse position modulates the transmitter

41. - E8C07

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

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

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. - E9A08

What is antenna bandwidth?

Select	Answer
A	The angle formed between two imaginary lines drawn through the element ends
B	Antenna length divided by the number of elements
C	The angle between the half-power radiation points
D	The frequency range over which an antenna satisfies a performance requirement

44. - E9B02

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

Select	Answer
A	14 dB
B	24 dB
C	36 dB
D	18 dB

45. - E9C05

Which of the following is a type of OCFD antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A folded dipole center-fed with 300-ohm transmission line
B	A multiband dipole antenna using one-way circular polarization for frequency diversity
C	A remotely tunable dipole antenna using orthogonally controlled frequency diversity
D	A dipole fed approximately 1/3 the way from one end with a 4:1 balun to provide multiband operation

46. - E9D04

Why should an HF mobile antenna loading coil have a high ratio of reactance to resistance?

Select	Answer
A	To minimize losses
B	To lower the radiation angle
C	To swamp out harmonics
D	To minimize the Q

47. - E9E01

What system matches a higher-impedance transmission line to a lower-impedance antenna by connecting the line to the driven element in two places spaced a fraction of a wavelength each side of element center?

Select	Answer
A	The stub matching system
B	The omega matching system
C	The gamma matching system
D	The delta matching system

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 lower loss per unit of length
C	Foam dielectric has lower safe operating voltage limits
D	Foam dielectric has higher velocity factor

49. - E9G08

What is the process of normalization with regard to a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Reassigning prime center with regard to the reactance axis
B	Reassigning reactance values with regard to the resistance axis
C	Reassigning impedance values with regard to the prime center
D	Reassigning resistance values with regard to the reactance axis

50. - E9H05

What is the main drawback of a small wire-loop antenna for direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	It has a bidirectional pattern
B	It is practical for use only on VHF and higher bands
C	All these choices are correct
D	It has no clearly defined null

Figure E6-1

Figure E9-1