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

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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	Uranium Hexafluoride
B	Mica
C	Zinc oxide
D	Beryllium Oxide

2. - E1A10

If an amateur station is installed aboard a ship or aircraft, what condition must be met before the station is operated?

Select	Answer
A	The amateur station must have a power supply that is completely independent of the main ship or aircraft power supply
B	The amateur station operator must agree not to transmit when the main radio of the ship or aircraft is in use
C	Its operation must be approved by the master of the ship or the pilot in command of the aircraft
D	The amateur operator must have an FCC Marine or Aircraft endorsement on his or her amateur license

3. - E1B11

What does PRB-1 require of regulations affecting amateur radio?

Select	Answer
A	Reasonable accommodations of amateur radio must be made
B	Amateur radio operations must be permitted in any private residence
C	Use of wireless devices in a vehicle is exempt from regulation
D	No limitations may be placed on antenna size or placement

4. - E1C06

Which of the following is required in order to operate in accordance with CEPT rules in foreign countries where permitted?

Select	Answer
A	You must append "/CEPT" to your call sign
B	You must identify in the official language of the country in which you are operating
C	The U.S. embassy must approve of your operation
D	You must bring a copy of FCC Public Notice DA 16-1048

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. - E1E01

For which types of out-of-pocket expenses do the Part 97 rules state that VEs and VECs may be reimbursed?

Select	Answer
A	Teaching an amateur operator license examination preparation course
B	No expenses are authorized for reimbursement
C	Preparing, processing, administering, and coordinating an examination for an amateur radio operator license
D	Providing amateur operator license examination preparation training materials

7. - E1F04

Which of the following geographic descriptions approximately describes "Line A"?

Select	Answer
A	A line roughly parallel to and north of the border between the U.S. and Mexico
B	A line roughly parallel to and east of the U.S. Pacific coastline
C	A line roughly parallel to and west of the U.S. Atlantic coastline
D	A line roughly parallel to and south of the border between the U.S. and Canada

8. - E2A02

Which of the following occurs when a satellite is using an inverting linear transponder?

Select	Answer
A	Doppler shift is reduced because the uplink and downlink shifts are in opposite directions
B	All these choices are correct
C	Signal position in the band is reversed
D	Upper sideband on the uplink becomes lower sideband on the downlink, and vice versa

9. - E2B05

Which of the following describes the use of vestigial sideband in analog fast-scan TV transmissions?

Select	Answer
A	The vestigial sideband contains chroma information
B	Vestigial sideband provides high frequency emphasis to sharpen the picture
C	The vestigial sideband carries the audio information
D	Vestigial sideband reduces bandwidth while allowing for simple video detector circuitry

10. - E2C05

What is the function of a DX QSL Manager?

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

11. - E2D08

What type of packet frame is used to transmit APRS beacon data?

Select	Answer
A	Unnumbered Information
B	Disconnect
C	Acknowledgement
D	Connect

12. - E2E05

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

Select	Answer
A	RTTY
B	PSK31
C	MFSK
D	PACTOR

13. - E3A02

What characterizes libration fading of an EME signal?

Select	Answer
A	A slow change in the pitch of the CW signal
B	The returning echo is several hertz lower in frequency than the transmitted signal
C	A fluttery irregular fading
D	A gradual loss of signal as the sun rises

14. - E3B09

At what time of year is sporadic E propagation most likely to occur?

Select	Answer
A	Around the equinoxes, especially the fall equinox
B	Around the solstices, especially the summer solstice
C	Around the solstices, especially the winter solstice
D	Around the equinoxes, especially the spring equinox

15. - E3C01

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

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

16. - E4A08

Which of the following measures SWR?

Select	Answer
A	A Q meter
B	A spectrum analyzer
C	An ohmmeter
D	An antenna analyzer

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 resonant frequency of the circuit
C	The bandwidth of the circuit's frequency response
D	The inductance to capacitance ratio

18. - E4C09

Which of the following choices is a good reason for selecting a high frequency for the design of the IF in a superheterodyne HF or VHF communications receiver?

Select	Answer
A	Fewer components in the receiver
B	Easier for front-end circuitry to eliminate image responses
C	Reduced drift
D	Improved receiver noise figure

19. - E4D12

What is the term for the reduction in receiver sensitivity caused by a strong signal near the received frequency?

Select	Answer
A	Quieting
B	Squelch gain rollback
C	Desensitization
D	Cross-modulation interference

20. - E4E01

What problem can occur when using an automatic notch filter (ANF) to remove interfering carriers while receiving CW signals?

Select	Answer
A	Any nearby signal passing through the DSP system will overwhelm the desired signal
B	Ringing in the DSP filter will completely remove the spaces between the CW characters
C	Received CW signals will appear to be modulated at the DSP clock frequency
D	Removal of the CW signal as well as the interfering carrier

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

22. - E5B12

What is admittance?

Select	Answer
A	The inverse of Q factor
B	The turns ratio of a transformer
C	The inverse of impedance
D	The term for the gain of a field effect transistor

23. - E5C03

Which of the following represents an inductive reactance in polar coordinates?

Select	Answer
A	A positive magnitude
B	A positive phase angle
C	A negative phase angle
D	A negative magnitude

24. - E5D03

What is microstrip?

Select	Answer
A	Precision printed circuit conductors above a ground plane that provide constant impedance interconnects at microwave frequencies
B	Short lengths of coax mounted on printed circuit boards to minimize time delay between microwave circuits
C	Lightweight transmission line made of common zip cord
D	Miniature coax used for low power applications

25. - E6A06

What is the beta of a bipolar junction transistor?

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

26. - E6B04

What type of semiconductor device is designed for use as a voltage-controlled capacitor?

Select	Answer
A	Zener diode
B	Silicon-controlled rectifier
C	Tunnel diode
D	Varactor diode

27. - E6C10

In Figure E6-3, what is the schematic symbol for a NOR gate?

Select	Answer
A	4
B	3
C	1
D	2

28. - E6D03

Which of the following is an aspect of the piezoelectric effect?

Select	Answer
A	Generation of electrical energy in the presence of light
B	Mechanical deformation of material by the application of a voltage
C	Mechanical deformation of material by the application of a magnetic field
D	Increased conductivity in the presence of light

29. - E6E01

Why is gallium arsenide (GaAs) useful for semiconductor devices operating at UHF and higher frequencies?

Select	Answer
A	Lower junction voltage drop
B	Higher noise figures
C	Lower transconductance
D	Higher electron mobility

30. - E6F10

What is the most common type of photovoltaic cell used for electrical power generation?

Select	Answer
A	Copper oxide
B	Selenium
C	Silicon
D	Cadmium Sulfide

31. - E7A06

What is a characteristic of a monostable multivibrator?

Select	Answer
A	It stores one bit of data in either a 0 or 1 state
B	It produces a continuous square wave oscillating between 1 and 0
C	It switches momentarily to the opposite binary state and then returns to its original state after a set time
D	It maintains a constant output voltage, regardless of variations in the input voltage

32. - E7B17

Why are odd-order rather than even-order intermodulation distortion products of concern in linear power amplifiers?

Select	Answer
A	Because they invert the sidebands causing distortion
B	Because they are relatively close in frequency to the desired signal
C	Because they maintain the sidebands, thus causing multiple duplicate signals
D	Because they are relatively far in frequency from the desired signal

33. - E7C06

What are the distinguishing features of an elliptical filter?

Select	Answer
A	Gradual passband rolloff with extreme stop band ripple
B	Extremely flat response over its pass band with gradually rounded stop band corners
C	Extremely sharp cutoff with one or more notches in the stop band
D	Gradual passband rolloff with minimal stop band ripple

34. - E7D03

What device is typically used as a stable voltage reference in a linear voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	A varactor diode
B	A tunnel diode
C	An SCR
D	A Zener diode

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 heterodyne suppressor
C	A pre-emphasis network
D	A heterodyne enhancer

36. - E7F05

How frequently must an analog signal be sampled by an analog-to-digital converter so that the signal can be accurately reproduced?

Select	Answer
A	At least half the rate of the highest frequency component of the signal
B	At least twice the rate of the highest frequency component of the signal
C	At the same rate as the highest frequency component of the signal
D	At four times the rate of the highest frequency component of the signal

37. - E7G05

How can unwanted ringing and audio instability be prevented in an op-amp RC audio filter circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Restrict gain but increase Q
B	Restrict Q but increase gain
C	Increase both gain and Q
D	Restrict both gain and Q

38. - E7H05

How is positive feedback supplied in a Pierce oscillator?

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

39. - E8A09

How many different input levels can be encoded by an analog-to-digital converter with 8-bit resolution?

Select	Answer
A	8
B	256
C	8 multiplied by the gain of the input amplifier
D	256 divided by the gain of the input amplifier

40. - E8B08

What describes Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing?

Select	Answer
A	A digital mode for narrow-band, slow-speed transmissions
B	A digital modulation technique using subcarriers at frequencies chosen to avoid intersymbol interference
C	A frequency modulation technique that uses non-harmonically related frequencies
D	A bandwidth compression technique using Fourier transforms

41. - E8C04

What technique minimizes the bandwidth of a PSK31 signal?

Select	Answer
A	Zero-sum character encoding
B	Use of sinusoidal data pulses
C	Reed-Solomon character encoding
D	Use of trapezoidal data pulses

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

43. - E9A07

What is the effective isotropic radiated power of a repeater station with 200 watts transmitter power output, 2 dB feed line loss, 2.8 dB duplexer loss, 1.2 dB circulator loss, and 7 dBi antenna gain?

Select	Answer
A	632 watts
B	252 watts
C	63.2 watts
D	159 watts

44. - E9B05

What type of antenna pattern is shown in Figure E9-2?

Select	Answer
A	Polarization
B	Elevation
C	Radiation resistance
D	Azimuth

45. - E9C08

What is a folded dipole antenna?

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

46. - E9D01

How much does the gain of an ideal parabolic dish antenna change when the operating frequency is doubled?

Select	Answer
A	6 dB
B	4 dB
C	3 dB
D	2 dB

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	75 ohms
B	50 ohms
C	450 ohms
D	62 ohms

48. - E9F01

What is the velocity factor of a transmission line?

Select	Answer
A	The index of shielding for coaxial cable
B	The ratio of the characteristic impedance of the line to the terminating impedance
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. - 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 resistance axis
C	The reactance axis
D	The current axis

50. - E9H11

What feature of a cardioid pattern antenna makes it useful for direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	A very sharp peak
B	A very sharp single null
C	Broadband response
D	High radiation angle

Figure E6-3

Figure E9-2

Figure E9-3