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

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1. - E0A07

How may dangerous levels of carbon monoxide from an emergency generator be detected?

Select	Answer
A	By the odor
B	By the yellowish appearance of the gas
C	Only with a carbon monoxide detector
D	Any ordinary smoke detector can be used

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

3. - E1B03

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

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

4. - E1C04

What is meant by IARP?

Select	Answer
A	An international amateur radio permit that allows U.S. amateurs to operate in certain countries of the Americas
B	The internal amateur radio practices policy of the FCC
C	An indication of increased antenna reflected power
D	A forecast of intermittent aurora radio propagation

5. - E1D02

Which of the following may transmit special codes intended to obscure the meaning of messages?

Select	Answer
A	Binary control characters
B	Telecommand signals from a space telecommand station
C	Auxiliary relay links carrying repeater audio
D	Data containing personal information

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	A sentence of up to one year in prison
C	A fine of up to $1000 per occurrence
D	Revocation of the VE's amateur station license grant and the suspension of the VE's amateur operator license grant

7. - E1F01

On what frequencies are spread spectrum transmissions permitted?

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

8. - E2A06

What are Keplerian elements?

Select	Answer
A	Parameters that define the orbit of a satellite
B	Phase reversing elements in a Yagi antenna
C	High-emission heater filaments used in magnetron tubes
D	Encrypting codes used for spread spectrum modulation

9. - E2B02

How many horizontal lines make up a fast-scan (NTSC) television frame?

Select	Answer
A	60
B	1080
C	525
D	30

10. - E2C06

During a VHF/UHF contest, in which band segment would you expect to find the highest level of SSB or CW activity?

Select	Answer
A	At the top of each band, usually in a segment reserved for contests
B	In the middle of each band, usually on the national calling frequency
C	In the middle of the band, usually 25 kHz above the national calling frequency
D	In the weak signal segment of the band, with most of the activity near the calling frequency

11. - E2D02

Which of the following is a good technique for making meteor scatter contacts?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	15-second timed transmission sequences with stations alternating based on location
C	Use of special digital modes
D	Short transmissions with rapidly repeated call signs and signal reports

12. - E2E05

Which of these digital modes does not support keyboard-to-keyboard operation?

Select	Answer
A	PSK31
B	RTTY
C	PACTOR
D	MFSK

13. - E3A09

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

Select	Answer
A	28 MHz - 148 MHz
B	1.8 MHz - 1.9 MHz
C	10 MHz - 14 MHz
D	220 MHz - 450 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	Only around sunset and sunrise
D	Any time

15. - E3C07

Which of the following descriptors indicates the greatest solar flare intensity?

Select	Answer
A	Class B
B	Class M
C	Class X
D	Class A

16. - E4A06

What is the effect of aliasing on a digital oscilloscope caused by setting the time base too slow?

Select	Answer
A	Calibration of the vertical scale is no longer valid
B	Excessive blanking occurs, which prevents display of the signal
C	All signals will have a DC offset
D	A false, jittery low-frequency version of the signal is displayed

17. - E4B05

What three test loads are used to calibrate an RF vector network analyzer?

Select	Answer
A	Short circuit, open circuit, and resonant circuit
B	50 ohms, 75 ohms, and 90 ohms
C	50 ohms through 1/8 wavelength, 1/4 wavelength, and 1/2 wavelength of coaxial cable
D	Short circuit, open circuit, and 50 ohms

18. - E4C06

A CW receiver with the AGC off has an equivalent input noise power density of -174 dBm/Hz. What would be the level of an unmodulated carrier input to this receiver that would yield an audio output SNR of 0 dB in a 400 Hz noise bandwidth?

Select	Answer
A	-148 dBm
B	-174 dBm
C	-164 dBm
D	-155 dBm

19. - E4D02

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

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

20. - E4E10

What might be the cause of a loud roaring or buzzing AC line interference that comes and goes at intervals?

Select	Answer
A	A malfunctioning illuminated advertising display
B	A defective doorbell or doorbell transformer inside a nearby residence
C	All these choices are correct
D	Arcing contacts in a thermostatically controlled device

21. - E5A05

What is the result of increasing the Q of an impedance-matching circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Matching bandwidth is decreased
B	It has no effect on impedance matching
C	Matching bandwidth is increased
D	Matching range is increased

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

23. - E5C06

What does the impedance 50-j25 represent?

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

24. - E5D02

Why is it important to keep lead lengths short for components used in circuits for VHF and above?

Select	Answer
A	To maintain component lifetime
B	To avoid unwanted inductive reactance
C	To increase the thermal time constant
D	All these choices are correct

25. - E6A01

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

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

26. - E6B03

What type of bias is required for an LED to emit light?

Select	Answer
A	Zero bias
B	Inductive bias
C	Forward bias
D	Reverse bias

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	Bandwidth is very limited
C	The input switching threshold is about one-half the power supply voltage
D	The input switching threshold is about two times the power supply voltage

28. - E6D10

What is a primary advantage of using a toroidal core instead of a solenoidal core in an inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Toroidal cores make it easier to couple the magnetic energy into other components
B	Toroidal cores confine most of the magnetic field within the core material
C	Toroidal cores exhibit greater hysteresis
D	Toroidal cores have lower Q characteristics

29. - E6E06

What characteristics of the MMIC make it a popular choice for VHF through microwave circuits?

Select	Answer
A	The ability to retrieve information from a single signal even in the presence of other strong signals
B	Nearly infinite gain, very high input impedance, and very low output impedance
C	Controlled gain, low noise figure, and constant input and output impedance over the specified frequency range
D	Plate current that is controlled by a control grid

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	The output RF power divided by the input DC power
C	Cost per kilowatt-hour generated
D	The relative fraction of light that is converted to current

31. - E7A02

What is the function of a decade counter?

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

32. - E7B10

In Figure E7-1, what is the purpose of R1 and R2?

Select	Answer
A	Voltage divider bias
B	Load resistors
C	Feedback
D	Self bias

33. - E7C02

Which of the following is a property of a T-network with series capacitors and a parallel shunt inductor?

Select	Answer
A	It is a low-pass filter
B	It is a notch filter
C	It is a band-pass filter
D	It is a high-pass filter

34. - E7D09

What is the main reason to use a charge controller with a solar power system?

Select	Answer
A	Matching of day and night charge rates
B	Prevention of battery undercharge
C	Prevention of battery damage due to overcharge
D	Control of electrolyte levels during battery discharge

35. - E7E10

How does a diode envelope detector function?

Select	Answer
A	By sensing the change of reactance in the diode with respect to frequency
B	By rectification and filtering of RF signals
C	By breakdown of the Zener voltage
D	By mixing signals with noise in the transition region of the diode

36. - E7F13

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

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

37. - E7G03

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

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

38. - E7H05

How is positive feedback supplied in a Pierce oscillator?

Select	Answer
A	Through link coupling
B	Through a quartz crystal
C	Through a tapped coil
D	Through a neutralizing capacitor

39. - E8A10

What is the purpose of a low-pass filter used in conjunction with a digital-to-analog converter?

Select	Answer
A	Remove harmonics from the output caused by the discrete analog levels generated
B	All these choices are correct
C	Improve accuracy by removing out-of-sequence codes from the input
D	Lower the input bandwidth to increase the effective resolution

40. - E8B07

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing is a technique used for which type of amateur communication?

Select	Answer
A	Extremely low-power contacts
B	EME
C	OFDM signals are not allowed on amateur bands
D	High-speed digital modes

41. - E8C01

How is Forward Error Correction implemented?

Select	Answer
A	By transmitting a special algorithm to the receiving station along with the data characters
B	By varying the frequency shift of the transmitted signal according to a predefined algorithm
C	By transmitting extra data that may be used to detect and correct transmission errors
D	By the receiving station repeating each block of three data characters

42. - E8D05

What is the most common method of reducing key clicks?

Select	Answer
A	Low-pass filters at the transmitter output
B	High-pass filters at the transmitter output
C	Increase keying waveform rise and fall times
D	Reduce keying waveform rise and fall times

43. - E9A01

What is an isotropic antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A spacecraft antenna used to direct signals toward Earth
B	A horizontally polarized antenna used to compare Yagi antennas
C	A theoretical, omnidirectional antenna used as a reference for antenna gain
D	A grounded antenna used to measure Earth conductivity

44. - E9B07

How does the total amount of radiation emitted by a directional gain antenna compare with the total amount of radiation emitted from a theoretical isotropic antenna, assuming each is driven by the same amount of power?

Select	Answer
A	The radiation from the isotropic antenna is 2.15 dB stronger than that from the directional antenna
B	The total amount of radiation from the directional antenna is stronger by its front-to-back ratio
C	They are the same
D	The total amount of radiation from the directional antenna is increased by the gain of the antenna

45. - E9C08

What is a folded dipole antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A dipole configured to provide forward gain
B	A type of ground-plane antenna
C	A dipole one-quarter wavelength long
D	A half-wave dipole with an additional parallel wire connecting its two ends

46. - E9D04

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

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

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. - E9F07

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

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

49. - E9G08

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

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

50. - E9H06

What is the triangulation method of direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	A fixed receiving station plots three headings to the signal source
B	Antenna headings from several different receiving locations are used to locate the signal source
C	The geometric angles of sky waves from the source are used to determine its position
D	A fixed receiving station uses three different antennas to plot the location of the signal source

Figure E7-1