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

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1. - E0A03

Over what range of frequencies are the FCC human body RF exposure limits most restrictive?

Select	Answer
A	300 kHz to 3 MHz
B	30 to 300 MHz
C	3 to 30 MHz
D	300 to 3000 MHz

2. - E1A14

Except in some parts of Alaska, what is the maximum power permitted on the 630 meter band?

Select	Answer
A	1 watt EIRP
B	50 watts PEP
C	5 watts EIRP
D	100 watts PEP

3. - E1B10

What frequencies are authorized to an amateur station operating under RACES rules?

Select	Answer
A	Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) channels
B	Specific local government channels
C	Specific segments in the amateur service MF, HF, VHF and UHF bands
D	All amateur service frequencies authorized to the control operator

4. - E1C10

What is the permitted mean power of any spurious emission relative to the mean power of the fundamental emission from a station transmitter or external RF amplifier installed after January 1, 2003 and transmitting on a frequency below 30 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	At least 43 dB below
B	At least 73 dB below
C	At least 53 dB below
D	At least 63 dB below

5. - E1D07

Which HF amateur bands have frequencies authorized for space stations?

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

6. - E1E03

What is a Volunteer Examiner Coordinator?

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

7. - E1F01

On what frequencies are spread spectrum transmissions permitted?

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

8. - E2A04

What is meant by the term mode? as applied to an amateur radio satellite?

Select	Answer
A	The satellite's uplink and downlink frequency bands
B	Whether the satellite is in a polar or equatorial orbit
C	Whether the satellite is in a low earth or geostationary orbit
D	The satellite's orientation with respect to the Earth

9. - E2B06

What is vestigial sideband modulation?

Select	Answer
A	Spread spectrum modulation achieved by applying FM modulation following single sideband amplitude modulation
B	A type of modulation in which one sideband is inverted
C	Narrow-band FM modulation achieved by filtering one sideband from the audio before frequency modulating the carrier
D	Amplitude modulation in which one complete sideband and a portion of the other are transmitted

10. - E2C05

What is the function of a DX QSL Manager?

Select	Answer
A	To relay calls to and from a DX station
B	To run a net to allow many stations to contact a rare DX station
C	To allocate frequencies for DXpeditions
D	To handle the receiving and sending of confirmation cards for a DX station

11. - E2D04

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

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

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

13. - E3A05

Tropospheric propagation of microwave signals often occurs in association with what phenomenon?

Select	Answer
A	Grayline
B	Lightning discharges
C	Sprites and jets
D	Warm and cold fronts

14. - E3B12

What is the primary characteristic of chordal hop propagation?

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

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

16. - E4A06

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

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

17. - E4B08

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

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

18. - E4C13

How does a narrow-band roofing filter affect receiver performance?

Select	Answer
A	It improves intelligibility by using low Q circuitry to reduce ringing
B	All these choices are correct
C	It improves sensitivity by reducing front end noise
D	It improves dynamic range by attenuating strong signals near the receive frequency

19. - E4D11

Why are odd-order intermodulation products, created within a receiver, of particular interest compared to other products?

Select	Answer
A	Odd-order intermodulation produces three products for every input signal within the band of interest
B	Odd-order products overload the IF filters
C	Odd-order products are an indication of poor image rejection
D	Odd-order products of two signals in the band of interest are also likely to be within the band

20. - E4E04

How can conducted and radiated noise caused by an automobile alternator be suppressed?

Select	Answer
A	By installing a high-pass filter in series with the radio's power lead and a low-pass filter in parallel with the field lead
B	By connecting the radio's power leads directly to the battery and by installing coaxial capacitors in line with the alternator leads
C	By installing filter capacitors in series with the DC power lead and a blocking capacitor in the field lead
D	By installing a noise suppression resistor and a blocking capacitor in both leads

21. - E5A12

What is the half-power bandwidth of a resonant circuit that has a resonant frequency of 3.7 MHz and a Q of 118?

Select	Answer
A	15.7 kHz
B	218.3 kHz
C	436.6 kHz
D	31.4 kHz

22. - E5B06

What is susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	The magnetic impedance of a circuit
B	The ratio of magnetic field to electric field
C	The imaginary part of admittance
D	A measure of the efficiency of a transformer

23. - E5C02

How are impedances described in polar coordinates?

Select	Answer
A	By phase angle and magnitude
B	By Y and G values
C	By X and R values
D	By real and imaginary parts

24. - E5D02

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

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

25. - E6A04

What is the name given to an impurity atom that adds holes to a semiconductor crystal structure?

Select	Answer
A	Acceptor impurity
B	Donor impurity
C	Insulator impurity
D	N-type impurity

26. - E6B07

What is the failure mechanism when a junction diode fails due to excessive current?

Select	Answer
A	Excessive junction temperature
B	Charge carrier depletion
C	Excessive inverse voltage
D	Insufficient forward voltage

27. - E6C11

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

Select	Answer
A	6
B	2
C	5
D	4

28. - E6D12

What is inductor saturation?

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

29. - E6E07

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

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

30. - E6F01

What absorbs the energy from light falling on a photovoltaic cell?

Select	Answer
A	Holes
B	Photons
C	Protons
D	Electrons

31. - E7A09

What logical operation is performed by an exclusive NOR gate?

Select	Answer
A	It produces logic 1 at its output if only one input is logic 1
B	It produces logic 0 at its output if only one input is logic 1
C	It produces logic 0 at its output only if all inputs are logic 0
D	It produces logic 1 at its output only if all inputs are logic 1

32. - E7B14

Why are switching amplifiers more efficient than linear amplifiers?

Select	Answer
A	Switching amplifiers operate at higher voltages
B	Linear amplifiers have high gain resulting in higher harmonic content
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	Noise factor
B	Shape factor
C	Passband ripple
D	Phase response

34. - E7D06

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

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

35. - E7E01

Which of the following can be used to generate FM phone emissions?

Select	Answer
A	A reactance modulator on the oscillator
B	A reactance modulator on the final amplifier
C	A balanced modulator on the audio amplifier
D	A balanced modulator on the oscillator

36. - E7F10

What aspect of receiver analog-to-digital conversion determines the maximum receive bandwidth of a Direct Digital Conversion SDR?

Select	Answer
A	Sample width in bits
B	Processor latency
C	Sample rate
D	Sample clock phase noise

37. - E7G01

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

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

38. - E7H11

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

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

39. - E8A03

What type of wave does a Fourier analysis show to be made up of sine waves of a given fundamental frequency plus all its harmonics?

Select	Answer
A	A cosine wave
B	A sawtooth wave
C	A square wave
D	A sine wave

40. - E8B11

What is digital time division multiplexing?

Select	Answer
A	Two or more signals are quadrature modulated to increase bandwidth efficiency
B	Two or more data streams share the same channel by transmitting time of transmission as the sub-carrier
C	Two or more data streams are assigned to discrete sub-carriers on an FM transmitter
D	Two or more signals are arranged to share discrete time slots of a data transmission

41. - E8C06

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

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

42. - E8D02

What spread spectrum communications technique uses a high-speed binary bit stream to shift the phase of an RF carrier?

Select	Answer
A	Phase compandored spread spectrum
B	Direct sequence
C	Binary phase-shift keying
D	Frequency hopping

43. - E9A13

What term describes station output, taking into account all gains and losses?

Select	Answer
A	Half-power bandwidth
B	Power factor
C	Effective radiated power
D	Apparent power

44. - E9B09

What type of computer program technique is commonly used for modeling antennas?

Select	Answer
A	Calculus differentiation with respect to physical properties
B	Method of Moments
C	Mutual impedance analysis
D	Graphical analysis

45. - E9C06

What is the effect of adding a terminating resistor to a rhombic antenna?

Select	Answer
A	It decreases the ground loss
B	It changes the radiation pattern from bidirectional to unidirectional
C	It changes the radiation pattern from horizontal to vertical polarization
D	It reflects the standing waves on the antenna elements back to the transmitter

46. - E9D02

How can linearly polarized Yagi antennas be used to produce circular polarization?

Select	Answer
A	Stack two Yagis fed 90 degrees out of phase to form an array with the respective elements in parallel planes
B	Stack two Yagis fed in phase to form an array with the respective elements in parallel planes
C	Arrange two Yagis collinear to each other with the driven elements fed 180 degrees out of phase
D	Arrange two Yagis perpendicular to each other with the driven elements at the same point on the boom fed 90 degrees out of phase

47. - E9E07

What parameter describes the interactions at the load end of a mismatched transmission line?

Select	Answer
A	Dielectric constant
B	Reflection coefficient
C	Velocity factor
D	Characteristic impedance

48. - E9F13

What impedance does a 1/4-wavelength transmission line present to a generator when the line is shorted at the far end?

Select	Answer
A	Very high impedance
B	The same as the generator output impedance
C	The same as the characteristic impedance of the transmission line
D	Very low impedance

49. - E9G09

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

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

50. - E9H08

What is the function of a sense antenna?

Select	Answer
A	It provides diversity reception that cancels multipath signals
B	It modifies the pattern of a DF antenna array to provide a null in one direction
C	It allows DF antennas to receive signals at different vertical angles
D	It increases the sensitivity of a DF antenna array

Figure E6-3

Figure E7-2