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

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1. - E0A02

When evaluating RF exposure levels from your station at a neighbor's home, what must you do?

Select	Answer
A	Ensure signals from your station are less than the controlled Maximum Permitted Emission (MPE) limits
B	Ensure signals from your station are less than the uncontrolled Maximum Permitted Exposure (MPE) limits
C	Ensure signals from your station are less than the controlled Maximum Permitted Exposure (MPE) limits
D	Ensure signals from your station are less than the uncontrolled Maximum Permitted Emission (MPE) limits

2. - E1A03

What is the maximum legal carrier frequency on the 20 meter band for transmitting USB AFSK digital signals having a 1 kHz bandwidth?

Select	Answer
A	14.070 MHz
B	14.149 MHz
C	14.100 MHz
D	14.349 MHz

3. - E1B01

Which of the following constitutes a spurious emission?

Select	Answer
A	A signal transmitted to prevent its detection by any station other than the intended recipient
B	An emission outside the signal's necessary bandwidth that can be reduced or eliminated without affecting the information transmitted
C	Any transmitted signal that unintentionally interferes with another licensed radio station
D	An amateur station transmission made without the proper call sign identification

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

5. - E1D04

Which of the following is required in the identification transmissions from a balloon-borne telemetry station?

Select	Answer
A	The output power of the balloon transmitter
B	All these choices are correct
C	The station's six-character Maidenhead grid locator
D	Call sign

6. - E1E03

What is a Volunteer Examiner Coordinator?

Select	Answer
A	An organization that has entered into an agreement with the FCC to coordinate, prepare, and administer amateur operator license examinations
B	A person who has volunteered to administer amateur operator license examinations
C	The person who has entered into an agreement with the FCC to be the VE session manager
D	A person who has volunteered to prepare amateur operator license examinations

7. - E1F06

Under what circumstances might the FCC issue a Special Temporary Authority (STA) to an amateur station?

Select	Answer
A	To allow regular operation on Land Mobile channels
B	To provide temporary operation while awaiting normal licensing
C	To provide for experimental amateur communications
D	To provide additional spectrum for personal use

8. - E2A07

Which of the following types of signals can be relayed through a linear transponder?

Select	Answer
A	PSK and packet
B	SSB and SSTV
C	FM and CW
D	All these choices are correct

9. - E2B11

What is the function of the Vertical Interval Signaling (VIS) code sent as part of an SSTV transmission?

Select	Answer
A	To provide vertical synchronization
B	To identify the call sign of the station transmitting
C	To identify the SSTV mode being used
D	To lock the color burst oscillator in color SSTV images

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

11. - E2D02

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

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

12. - E2E11

What is the difference between direct FSK and audio FSK?

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

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. - E3B07

What happens to linearly polarized radio waves that split into ordinary and extraordinary waves in the ionosphere?

Select	Answer
A	They are bent toward the magnetic poles
B	They become phase locked
C	They become elliptically polarized
D	They become depolarized

15. - E3C01

What does the radio communication term "ray tracing" describe?

Select	Answer
A	Evaluating high voltage sources for x-rays
B	Determining the radiation pattern from an array of antennas
C	The process in which an electronic display presents a pattern
D	Modeling a radio wave's path through the ionosphere

16. - E4A09

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

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
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	Never use a high-impedance probe to measure a low-impedance circuit

17. - E4B08

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

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

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	-174 dBm
B	-164 dBm
C	-148 dBm
D	-155 dBm

19. - E4D10

What does a third-order intercept level of 40 dBm mean with respect to receiver performance?

Select	Answer
A	A pair of 1 mW input signals will produce a third-order intermodulation product that is 40 dB stronger than the input signal
B	The receiver can tolerate signals up to 40 dB above the noise floor without producing third-order intermodulation products
C	A pair of 40 dBm input signals will theoretically generate a third-order intermodulation product that has the same output amplitude as either of the input signals
D	Signals less than 40 dBm will not generate audible third-order intermodulation products

20. - E4E11

What could cause local AM broadcast band signals to combine to generate spurious signals in the MF or HF bands?

Select	Answer
A	Nearby corroded metal joints are mixing and re-radiating the broadcast signals
B	One or more of the broadcast stations is transmitting an over-modulated signal
C	Your station receiver IF amplifier stage is defective
D	You are receiving skywave signals from a distant station

21. - E5A08

What is the phase relationship between the current through and the voltage across a series resonant circuit at resonance?

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

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

23. - E5C05

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

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

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	0.866
B	1.73
C	1.414
D	0.5

25. - E6A09

What is a depletion-mode FET?

Select	Answer
A	Any FET for which holes are the majority carriers
B	An FET that exhibits a current flow between source and drain when no gate voltage is applied
C	An FET that has no current flow between source and drain when no gate voltage is applied
D	Any FET without a channel

26. - E6B09

What is a common use for point-contact diodes?

Select	Answer
A	As a constant voltage source
B	As an RF detector
C	As a constant current source
D	As a high-voltage rectifier

27. - E6C04

Which of the following is an advantage of BiCMOS logic?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	It is immune to electrostatic damage
C	Its simplicity results in much less expensive devices than standard CMOS
D	It has the high input impedance of CMOS and the low output impedance of bipolar transistors

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

29. - E6E07

What type of transmission line is used for connections to MMICs?

Select	Answer
A	Circular waveguide
B	Microstrip
C	Parallel wire
D	Miniature coax

30. - E6F09

What is the efficiency of a photovoltaic cell?

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

31. - E7A04

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

Select	Answer
A	1
B	8
C	2
D	4

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	The power transistor is at saturation or cutoff most of the time
D	Switching amplifiers use push-pull circuits

33. - E7C11

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

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

34. - E7D07

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

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

35. - E7E05

What circuit is added to an FM transmitter to boost the higher audio frequencies?

Select	Answer
A	A de-emphasis network
B	A pre-emphasis network
C	A heterodyne suppressor
D	A heterodyne enhancer

36. - E7F13

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

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

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	0.21
B	47
C	24
D	94

38. - E7H01

What are three oscillator circuits used in amateur radio equipment?

Select	Answer
A	Taft, Pierce and negative feedback
B	Pierce, Fenner and Beane
C	Colpitts, Hartley and Pierce
D	Taft, Hartley and Pierce

39. - E8A10

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

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

40. - E8B09

What is deviation ratio?

Select	Answer
A	The ratio of the audio modulating frequency to the center carrier frequency
B	The ratio of the carrier center frequency to the audio modulating frequency
C	The ratio of the maximum carrier frequency deviation to the highest audio modulating frequency
D	The ratio of the highest audio modulating frequency to the average audio modulating frequency

41. - E8C11

What is the relationship between symbol rate and baud?

Select	Answer
A	Baud is only used for RTTY
B	Baud is twice the symbol rate
C	They are the same
D	Symbol rate is only used for packet-based modes

42. - E8D01

Why are received spread spectrum signals resistant to interference?

Select	Answer
A	Signals not using the spread spectrum algorithm are suppressed in the receiver
B	The high power used by a spread spectrum transmitter keeps its signal from being easily overpowered
C	If interference is detected by the receiver it will signal the transmitter to change frequencies
D	The receiver is always equipped with a digital blanker

43. - E9A01

What is an isotropic antenna?

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

44. - E9B06

What is the elevation angle of peak response in the antenna radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-2?

Select	Answer
A	25 degrees
B	7.5 degrees
C	45 degrees
D	75 degrees

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 takeoff angle of the lowest elevation lobe decreases
C	The horizontal beamwidth increases
D	The horizontal beamwidth decreases

46. - E9D08

What happens as the Q of an antenna increases?

Select	Answer
A	SWR bandwidth decreases
B	More common-mode current is present on the feed line
C	Gain is reduced
D	SWR bandwidth increases

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 gamma matching system
B	The stub matching system
C	The delta matching system
D	The omega matching system

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. - E9G02

What type of coordinate system is used in a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Voltage lines and current chords
B	Resistance lines and reactance chords
C	Resistance circles and reactance arcs
D	Voltage circles and current arcs

50. - E9H07

Why is RF attenuation used when direction-finding?

Select	Answer
A	To increase receiver sensitivity
B	To compensate for isotropic directivity and the antenna effect of feed lines
C	To prevent receiver overload which reduces pattern nulls
D	To narrow the receiver bandwidth

Figure E7-2

Figure E9-2