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. - E0A09

Which insulating material commonly used as a thermal conductor for some types of electronic devices is extremely toxic if broken or crushed and the particles are accidentally inhaled?

Select	Answer
A	Mica
B	Beryllium Oxide
C	Uranium Hexafluoride
D	Zinc oxide

2. - E1A06

Where must the carrier frequency of a CW signal be set to comply with FCC rules for 60 meter operation?

Select	Answer
A	At the highest frequency of the channel
B	On any frequency where the signal's sidebands are within the channel
C	At the lowest frequency of the channel
D	At the center frequency of the channel

3. - E1B05

What is the National Radio Quiet Zone?

Select	Answer
A	An area in New Mexico surrounding the White Sands Test Area
B	An area in Florida surrounding Cape Canaveral
C	An area surrounding the National Radio Astronomy Observatory
D	An area in Puerto Rico surrounding the Arecibo Radio Telescope

4. - E1C12

On what portion of the 630 meter band are phone emissions permitted?

Select	Answer
A	None
B	The entire band
C	Only the bottom 3 kHz
D	Only the top 3 kHz

5. - E1D07

Which HF amateur bands have frequencies authorized for space stations?

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

6. - E1E04

Which of the following best describes the Volunteer Examiner accreditation process?

Select	Answer
A	Each General, Advanced and Amateur Extra Class operator is automatically accredited as a VE when the license is granted
B	The procedure by which a VEC confirms that the VE applicant meets FCC requirements to serve as an examiner
C	The prospective VE obtains accreditation from the FCC
D	The amateur operator applying must pass a VE examination administered by the FCC Enforcement Bureau

7. - E1F08

Which of the following types of amateur station communications are prohibited?

Select	Answer
A	Communications that have political content, except as allowed by the Fairness Doctrine
B	Communications in a language other than English
C	Communications that have religious content
D	Communications transmitted for hire or material compensation, except as otherwise provided in the rules

8. - E2A10

What type of satellite appears to stay in one position in the sky?

Select	Answer
A	HEO
B	Geostationary
C	LEO
D	Geomagnetic

9. - E2B04

How is color information sent in analog SSTV?

Select	Answer
A	Color is sent in a color burst at the end of each line
B	Color information is sent on a 2.8 kHz subcarrier
C	Color is amplitude modulated on the frequency modulated intensity signal
D	Color lines are sent sequentially

10. - E2C01

What indicator is required to be used by U.S.-licensed operators when operating a station via remote control and the remote transmitter is located in the U.S.?

Select	Answer
A	/R# where # is the district of the remote station
B	No additional indicator is required
C	/ followed by the USPS two-letter abbreviation for the state in which the remote station is located
D	/ followed by the ARRL Section of the remote station

11. - E2D04

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

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

12. - E2E02

What do the letters FEC mean as they relate to digital operation?

Select	Answer
A	Final Error Correction
B	First Error Correction
C	Forward Error Correction
D	Fatal Error Correction

13. - E3A04

What do Hepburn maps predict?

Select	Answer
A	Locations of auroral reflecting zones
B	Probability of tropospheric propagation
C	Likelihood of rain scatter along cold or warm fronts
D	Sporadic E propagation

14. - E3B04

What is meant by the terms "extraordinary" and "ordinary" waves?

Select	Answer
A	Extraordinary waves describe rare long-skip propagation compared to ordinary waves, which travel shorter distances
B	Long-path and short-path waves
C	Refracted rays and reflected waves
D	Independent waves created in the ionosphere that are elliptically polarized

15. - E3C03

Which of the following signal paths is most likely to experience high levels of absorption when the A index or K index is elevated?

Select	Answer
A	Polar
B	Transequatorial
C	Sporadic E
D	NVIS

16. - E4A06

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

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

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	100 watts
B	25 watts
C	125 watts
D	75 watts

18. - E4C10

What is an advantage of having a variety of receiver IF bandwidths from which to select?

Select	Answer
A	Receiver power consumption can be reduced when wider bandwidth is not required
B	Receive bandwidth can be set to match the modulation bandwidth, maximizing signal-to-noise ratio and minimizing interference
C	Multiple frequencies can be received simultaneously if desired
D	The noise figure of the RF amplifier can be adjusted to match the modulation type, thus increasing receiver sensitivity

19. - E4D06

What is the term for spurious signals generated by the combination of two or more signals in a non-linear device or circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Amplifier desensitization
B	Adjacent channel interference
C	Neutralization
D	Intermodulation

20. - E4E03

Which of the following signals might a receiver noise blanker be able to remove from desired signals?

Select	Answer
A	Signals that are constant at all IF levels
B	Signals that have a sharply peaked frequency distribution
C	Signals that appear across a wide bandwidth
D	Signals that appear at one IF but not another

21. - E5A07

What is the magnitude of the current at the input of a parallel RLC circuit at resonance?

Select	Answer
A	R/L
B	Maximum
C	L/R
D	Minimum

22. - E5B06

What is susceptance?

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

23. - E5C11

Which point in Figure E5-1 best represents the impedance of a series circuit consisting of a 300-ohm resistor and an 18-microhenry inductor at 3.505 MHz?

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

24. - E5D08

How many watts are consumed in a circuit having a power factor of 0.6 if the input is 200VAC at 5 amperes?

Select	Answer
A	200 watts
B	1000 watts
C	1600 watts
D	600 watts

25. - E6A02

Which of the following semiconductor materials contains excess free electrons?

Select	Answer
A	N-type
B	Insulated gate
C	Bipolar
D	P-type

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. - E6C09

What is a Programmable Logic Device (PLD)?

Select	Answer
A	Programmable equipment used for testing digital logic integrated circuits
B	A logic circuit that can be modified during use
C	A programmable collection of logic gates and circuits in a single integrated circuit
D	A type of transistor whose gain can be changed by digital logic circuits

28. - E6D12

What is inductor saturation?

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

29. - E6E09

Which of the following component package types would be most suitable for use at frequencies above the HF range?

Select	Answer
A	Axial lead
B	Radial lead
C	Surface mount
D	TO-220

30. - E6F06

Which of these materials is most commonly used to create photoconductive devices?

Select	Answer
A	A liquid semiconductor
B	An ordinary metal
C	A heavy metal
D	A crystalline semiconductor

31. - E7A01

Which circuit is bistable?

Select	Answer
A	A flip-flop
B	A bipolar amplifier
C	An AND gate
D	An OR gate

32. - E7B03

Which of the following components form the output of a class D amplifier circuit?

Select	Answer
A	A matched load resistor to prevent damage by switching transients
B	A high-pass filter to compensate for low gain at low frequencies
C	A temperature compensating load resistor to improve linearity
D	A low-pass filter to remove switching signal components

33. - E7C12

What is one advantage of a Pi-matching network over an L-matching network consisting of a single inductor and a single capacitor?

Select	Answer
A	Pi-networks provide balanced input and output
B	Pi-networks are more stable
C	The Q of Pi-networks can be controlled
D	L-networks cannot perform impedance transformation

34. - E7D07

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

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

35. - E7E05

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

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

36. - E7F01

What is meant by direct digital conversion as applied to software defined radios?

Select	Answer
A	A switching mixer is used to generate I and Q signals directly from the RF input
B	Software is converted from source code to object code during operation of the receiver
C	Incoming RF is digitized by an analog-to-digital converter without being mixed with a local oscillator signal
D	Incoming RF is converted to a control voltage for a voltage controlled oscillator

37. - E7G06

What is the gain-bandwidth of an operational amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	The gain of the amplifier at a filter's cutoff frequency
B	The frequency at which the amplifier's offset voltage is zero
C	The frequency at which the open-loop gain of the amplifier equals one
D	The maximum frequency for a filter circuit using that type of amplifier

38. - E7H07

How can an oscillator's microphonic responses be reduced?

Select	Answer
A	Mechanically isolate the oscillator circuitry from its enclosure
B	Increase the bias voltage
C	Reduce noise on the oscillator's power supply
D	Use NP0 capacitors

39. - E8A10

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

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

40. - E8B05

What is the deviation ratio of an FM-phone signal having a maximum frequency swing of plus-or-minus 5 kHz when the maximum modulation frequency is 3 kHz?

Select	Answer
A	60
B	0.167
C	0.6
D	1.67

41. - E8C07

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

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

42. - E8D06

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

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

43. - E9A12

How much gain does an antenna have compared to a 1/2-wavelength dipole when it has 6 dB gain over an isotropic antenna?

Select	Answer
A	2.79 dB
B	6.0 dB
C	8.15 dB
D	3.85 dB

44. - E9B10

What is the principle of a Method of Moments analysis?

Select	Answer
A	A wire is modeled as a single sine-wave voltage source
B	A wire is modeled as a series of segments, each having a uniform value of current
C	A wire is modeled as a series of segments, each having a distinct value of voltage across it
D	A wire is modeled as a single sine-wave current generator

45. - E9C07

What is the approximate feed point impedance at the center of a two-wire folded dipole antenna?

Select	Answer
A	50 ohms
B	72 ohms
C	300 ohms
D	450 ohms

46. - E9D09

What is the function of a loading coil used as part of an HF mobile antenna?

Select	Answer
A	To lower the Q
B	To increase the SWR bandwidth
C	To cancel capacitive reactance
D	To lower the losses

47. - E9E03

What is the name of the matching system that uses a section of transmission line connected in parallel with the feed line at or near the feed point?

Select	Answer
A	The omega match
B	The gamma match
C	The stub match
D	The delta match

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

49. - E9G07

On the Smith chart shown in Figure E9-3, what is the only straight line shown?

Select	Answer
A	The voltage axis
B	The current axis
C	The resistance axis
D	The reactance axis

50. - E9H03

What is Receiving Directivity Factor (RDF)?

Select	Answer
A	Forward gain compared to the gain in the reverse direction
B	Relative directivity compared to a dipole
C	Forward gain compared to average gain over the entire hemisphere
D	Relative directivity compared to isotropic

Figure E5-1

Figure E7-2

Figure E9-3