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

Logging in (or registering) will help the system to select questions that you need to focus on.

1. - E0A06

Why are there separate electric (E) and magnetic (H) field MPE limits?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	Ground reflections and scattering make the field strength vary with location
C	E field and H field radiation intensity peaks can occur at different locations
D	The body reacts to electromagnetic radiation from both the E and H fields

2. - E1A08

If a station in a message forwarding system inadvertently forwards a message that is in violation of FCC rules, who is primarily accountable for the rules violation?

Select	Answer
A	The control operators of all the stations in the system not authenticating the source from which they accept communications
B	The control operator of the packet bulletin board station
C	The control operators of all the stations in the system
D	The control operator of the originating station

3. - E1B04

What must be done before placing an amateur station within an officially designated wilderness area or wildlife preserve, or an area listed in the National Register of Historic Places?

Select	Answer
A	A letter of intent must be filed with the Environmental Protection Agency
B	A form FSD-15 must be submitted to the Department of the Interior
C	An Environmental Assessment must be submitted to the FCC
D	A proposal must be submitted to the National Park Service

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

5. - E1D12

Which of the following amateur stations may transmit one-way communications?

Select	Answer
A	A space station, beacon station, or telecommand station
B	A message forwarding station or automatically controlled digital station
C	A local repeater or linked repeater station
D	All these choices are correct

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

7. - E1F01

On what frequencies are spread spectrum transmissions permitted?

Select	Answer
A	Only on amateur frequencies above 222 MHz
B	Only on amateur frequencies above 50 MHz
C	Only on amateur frequencies above 420 MHz
D	Only on amateur frequencies above 144 MHz

8. - E2A08

Why should effective radiated power to a satellite that uses a linear transponder be limited?

Select	Answer
A	To prevent creating errors in the satellite telemetry
B	To avoid reducing the downlink power to all other users
C	To prevent the satellite from emitting out-of-band signals
D	To avoid interfering with terrestrial QSOs

9. - E2B12

What signals SSTV receiving software to begin a new picture line?

Select	Answer
A	Specific tone amplitudes
B	A two-tone signal
C	Specific tone frequencies
D	Elapsed time

10. - E2C07

What is the Cabrillo format?

Select	Answer
A	The most common set of contest rules
B	A method of exchanging information during a contest QSO
C	The rules of order for meetings between contest sponsors
D	A standard for submission of electronic contest logs

11. - E2D09

What type of modulation is used for JT65 contacts?

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

12. - E2E07

Which of the following is a possible reason that attempts to initiate contact with a digital station on a clear frequency are unsuccessful?

Select	Answer
A	Another station you are unable to hear is using the frequency
B	Your transmit frequency is incorrect
C	All these choices are correct
D	The protocol version you are using is not supported by the digital station

13. - E3A06

What might help to restore contact when DX signals become too weak to copy across an entire HF band a few hours after sunset?

Select	Answer
A	Wait 24 hours before attempting another communication on the band
B	Switch to a lower frequency HF band
C	Switch to a higher frequency HF band
D	Wait 90 minutes or so for the signal degradation to pass

14. - E3B12

What is the primary characteristic of chordal hop propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Propagation away from the great circle bearing between stations
B	Successive ionospheric refractions without an intermediate reflection from the ground
C	Signals reflected back toward the transmitting station
D	Propagation across the geomagnetic equator

15. - E3C15

What might be indicated by a sudden rise in radio background noise across a large portion of the HF spectrum?

Select	Answer
A	Increased transequatorial propagation is likely
B	A temperature inversion has occurred
C	Long-path propagation is likely
D	A solar flare has occurred

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

17. - E4B08

Which of the following can be used to measure the Q of a series-tuned circuit?

Select	Answer
A	The inductance to capacitance ratio
B	The resonant frequency of the circuit
C	The bandwidth of the circuit's frequency response
D	The frequency shift

18. - E4C05

What does a receiver noise floor of -174 dBm represent?

Select	Answer
A	The galactic noise contribution to minimum detectable signal
B	The minimum detectable signal as a function of receive frequency
C	The theoretical noise in a 1 Hz bandwidth at the input of a perfect receiver at room temperature
D	The noise figure of a 1 Hz bandwidth receiver

19. - E4D08

What causes intermodulation in an electronic circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Too little gain
B	Lack of neutralization
C	Positive feedback
D	Nonlinear circuits or devices

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. - E5A11

What is the half-power bandwidth of a resonant circuit that has a resonant frequency of 7.1 MHz and a Q of 150?

Select	Answer
A	157.8 Hz
B	315.6 Hz
C	23.67 kHz
D	47.3 kHz

22. - E5B07

What is the phase angle between the voltage across and the current through a series RLC circuit if XC is 500 ohms, R is 1 kilohm, and XL is 250 ohms?

Select	Answer
A	14.0 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
B	68.2 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
C	68.2 degrees with the voltage leading the current
D	14.0 degrees with the voltage leading the current

23. - E5C12

Which point on Figure E5-1 best represents the impedance of a series circuit consisting of a 300-ohm resistor and a 19-picofarad capacitor at 21.200 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	Point 7
B	Point 3
C	Point 1
D	Point 8

24. - E5D11

What is the power factor of an RL circuit having a 60-degree phase angle between the voltage and the current?

Select	Answer
A	0.5
B	1.73
C	1.414
D	0.866

25. - E6A06

What is the beta of a bipolar junction transistor?

Select	Answer
A	The change in collector current with respect to base current
B	The frequency at which the current gain is reduced to 0.707
C	The breakdown voltage of the base to collector junction
D	The switching speed

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

27. - E6C08

In Figure E6-3, what is the schematic symbol for a NAND gate?

Select	Answer
A	3
B	4
C	2
D	1

28. - E6D02

What is the equivalent circuit of a quartz crystal?

Select	Answer
A	Motional capacitance, motional inductance, loss resistance, and a capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance all in series
B	Motional capacitance, motional inductance, loss resistance, and a capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance all in parallel
C	Motional capacitance, motional inductance, and loss resistance in series, all in parallel with a shunt capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance
D	Motional inductance and loss resistance in series, paralleled with motional capacitance and a capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance

29. - E6E12

Why are DIP through-hole package ICs not typically used at UHF and higher frequencies?

Select	Answer
A	Too many pins
B	Excessive lead length
C	Epoxy coating is conductive above 300 MHz
D	Unsuitable for combining analog and digital signals

30. - E6F11

What is the approximate open-circuit voltage produced by a fully illuminated silicon photovoltaic cell?

Select	Answer
A	12 V
B	1.5 V
C	0.5 V
D	0.1 V

31. - E7A02

What is the function of a decade counter?

Select	Answer
A	It produces 10 output pulses for every input pulse
B	It decodes a decimal number for display on a seven-segment LED display
C	It decodes a binary number for display on a seven-segment LED display
D	It produces one output pulse for every 10 input pulses

32. - E7B06

Which of the following amplifier types reduces even-order harmonics?

Select	Answer
A	Class AB
B	Push-pull
C	Push-push
D	Class C

33. - E7C07

Which describes a Pi-L-network used for matching a vacuum tube final amplifier to a 50-ohm unbalanced output?

Select	Answer
A	A Phase Inverter Load network
B	A Pi-network with an additional series inductor on the output
C	A matching network in which all components are isolated from ground
D	A network with only three discrete parts

34. - E7D07

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

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

35. - E7E06

Why is de-emphasis commonly used in FM communications receivers?

Select	Answer
A	To reduce impulse noise reception
B	For higher efficiency
C	To remove third-order distortion products
D	For compatibility with transmitters using phase modulation

36. - E7F08

What is the function of decimation?

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

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	94
B	47
C	24
D	0.21

38. - E7H11

What are the major spectral impurity components of direct digital synthesizers?

Select	Answer
A	Nyquist limit noise
B	Broadband noise
C	Spurious signals at discrete frequencies
D	Digital conversion noise

39. - E8A06

What is the approximate ratio of PEP-to-average power in a typical single-sideband phone signal?

Select	Answer
A	25 to 1
B	100 to 1
C	2.5 to 1
D	1 to 1

40. - E8B04

What is the modulation index of an FM-phone signal having a maximum carrier deviation of plus or minus 6 kHz when modulated with a 2 kHz modulating frequency?

Select	Answer
A	2000
B	6000
C	3
D	1/3

41. - E8C06

What is the bandwidth of a 170-hertz shift, 300-baud ASCII transmission?

Select	Answer
A	0.3 kHz
B	0.5 kHz
C	0.1 Hz
D	1.0 kHz

42. - E8D06

What is the advantage of including parity bits in ASCII characters?

Select	Answer
A	Foreign language characters can be sent
B	Faster transmission rate
C	The signal can overpower interfering signals
D	Some types of errors can be detected

43. - E9A04

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

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

44. - E9B04

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

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

45. - E9C01

What is the radiation pattern of two 1/4-wavelength vertical antennas spaced 1/2-wavelength apart and fed 180 degrees out of phase?

Select	Answer
A	Omni-directional
B	A figure-8 oriented along the axis of the array
C	Cardioid
D	A figure-8 broadside to the axis of the array

46. - E9D08

What happens as the Q of an antenna increases?

Select	Answer
A	SWR bandwidth decreases
B	Gain is reduced
C	More common-mode current is present on the feed line
D	SWR bandwidth 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	62 ohms
B	75 ohms
C	50 ohms
D	450 ohms

48. - E9F01

What is the velocity factor of a transmission line?

Select	Answer
A	The ratio of the characteristic impedance of the line to the terminating impedance
B	The index of shielding for coaxial cable
C	The velocity of the wave in the transmission line multiplied by the velocity of light in a vacuum
D	The velocity of the wave in the transmission line divided by the velocity of light in a vacuum

49. - E9G03

Which of the following is often determined using a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Beam headings and radiation patterns
B	Impedance and SWR values in transmission lines
C	Trigonometric functions
D	Satellite azimuth and elevation bearings

50. - E9H05

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

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

Figure E5-1

Figure E6-3

Figure E7-2