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	3 to 30 MHz
B	30 to 300 MHz
C	300 kHz to 3 MHz
D	300 to 3000 MHz

2. - E1A13

Who must be in physical control of the station apparatus of an amateur station aboard any vessel or craft that is documented or registered in the United States?

Select	Answer
A	Any person holding an FCC issued amateur license or who is authorized for alien reciprocal operation
B	Any person named in an amateur station license grant or a person holding an unrestricted Radiotelephone Operator Permit
C	Only a person with an FCC Marine Radio license grant
D	Only a person named in an amateur station license grant

3. - E1B12

What must the control operator of a repeater operating in the 70 cm band do if a radiolocation system experiences interference from that repeater?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	File an FAA NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) with the repeater system's ERP, call sign, and six-character grid locator
C	Cease operation or make changes to the repeater to mitigate the interference
D	Reduce the repeater antenna HAAT (Height Above Average Terrain)

4. - E1C13

What notifications must be given before transmitting on the 630 meter or 2200 meter bands?

Select	Answer
A	Operators must inform the Utilities Technology Council (UTC) of their call sign and coordinates of the station
B	An environmental impact statement must be filed with the Department of the Interior
C	A special endorsement must be requested from the FCC
D	Operators must inform the FAA of their intent to operate, giving their call sign and distance to the nearest runway

5. - E1D09

Which UHF amateur bands have frequencies authorized for space stations?

Select	Answer
A	33 cm and 13 cm
B	70 cm only
C	70 cm and 33 cm
D	70 cm and 13 cm

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

7. - E1F03

Under what circumstances may a dealer sell an external RF power amplifier capable of operation below 144 MHz if it has not been granted FCC certification?

Select	Answer
A	It was purchased in used condition from an amateur operator and is sold to another amateur operator for use at that operator's station
B	The equipment dealer assembled it from a kit
C	It was imported from a manufacturer in another country and was certificated by that country's government
D	It was imported from a manufacturer in a country that does not require certification of RF power amplifiers

8. - E2A02

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

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

9. - E2B11

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

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

10. - E2C11

How should you generally identify your station when attempting to contact a DX station during a contest or in a pileup?

Select	Answer
A	Send the call sign of the DX station three times, the words this is,then your call sign three times
B	Send your full call sign and grid square
C	Send only the last two letters of your call sign until you make contact
D	Send your full call sign once or twice

11. - E2D07

What digital protocol is used by APRS?

Select	Answer
A	PACTOR
B	AX.25
C	802.11
D	AMTOR

12. - E2E03

How is the timing of FT4 contacts organized?

Select	Answer
A	Stations take turns on alternate days
B	Alternating transmissions at 7.5 second intervals
C	It depends on the lunar phase
D	By exchanging ACK/NAK packets

13. - E3A08

When a meteor strikes the Earth's atmosphere, a cylindrical region of free electrons is formed at what layer of the ionosphere?

Select	Answer
A	The D layer
B	The F2 layer
C	The E layer
D	The F1 layer

14. - E3B09

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

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

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

16. - E4A04

How is the compensation of an oscilloscope probe typically adjusted?

Select	Answer
A	A high frequency sine wave is displayed and the probe is adjusted for maximum amplitude
B	A frequency standard is displayed and the probe is adjusted until the deflection time is accurate
C	A square wave is displayed and the probe is adjusted until the horizontal portions of the displayed wave are as nearly flat as possible
D	A DC voltage standard is displayed and the probe is adjusted until the displayed voltage is accurate

17. - E4B11

Which of the following can be measured with a vector network analyzer?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	Reflection coefficient
C	Output impedance
D	Input impedance

18. - E4C11

Why can an attenuator be used to reduce receiver overload on the lower frequency HF bands with little or no impact on signal-to-noise ratio?

Select	Answer
A	The attenuator has a low-pass filter to increase the strength of lower frequency signals
B	The attenuator has a noise filter to suppress interference
C	Atmospheric noise is generally greater than internally generated noise even after attenuation
D	Signals are attenuated separately from the noise

19. - E4D04

Which of the following may reduce or eliminate intermodulation interference in a repeater caused by another transmitter operating in close proximity?

Select	Answer
A	Utilizing a Class D final amplifier
B	A properly terminated circulator at the output of the repeater's transmitter
C	A band-pass filter in the feed line between the transmitter and receiver
D	Utilizing a Class C final amplifier

20. - E4E07

Which of the following can cause shielded cables to radiate or receive interference?

Select	Answer
A	Low inductance ground connections at both ends of the shield
B	Use of braided shielding material
C	Tying all ground connections to a common point resulting in differential-mode currents in the shield
D	Common-mode currents on the shield and conductors

21. - E5A05

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

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

22. - E5B01

What is the term for the time required for the capacitor in an RC circuit to be charged to 63.2% of the applied voltage or to discharge to 36.8% of its initial voltage?

Select	Answer
A	One time constant
B	A time factor of one
C	An exponential rate of one
D	One exponential period

23. - E5C04

What coordinate system is often used to display the resistive, inductive, and/or capacitive reactance components of impedance?

Select	Answer
A	Rectangular coordinates
B	Faraday grid
C	Elliptical coordinates
D	Maidenhead grid

24. - E5D01

What is the result of skin effect?

Select	Answer
A	Thermal effects on the surface of the conductor increase the impedance
B	Thermal effects on the surface of the conductor decrease the impedance
C	As frequency decreases, RF current flows in a thinner layer of the conductor, closer to the surface
D	As frequency increases, RF current flows in a thinner layer of the conductor, closer to the surface

25. - E6A03

Why does a PN-junction diode not conduct current when reverse biased?

Select	Answer
A	Only N-type semiconductor material can conduct current
B	Holes in P-type material and electrons in the N-type material are separated by the applied voltage, widening the depletion region
C	Excess holes in P-type material combine with the electrons in N-type material, converting the entire diode into an insulator
D	Only P-type semiconductor material can conduct current

26. - E6B05

What characteristic of a PIN diode makes it useful as an RF switch?

Select	Answer
A	Low junction capacitance
B	Reverse bias controls its forward voltage drop
C	Ability to dissipate large amounts of power
D	Extremely high reverse breakdown voltage

27. - E6C01

What is the function of hysteresis in a comparator?

Select	Answer
A	To prevent input noise from causing unstable output signals
B	To cause the output to change states continually
C	To increase the sensitivity
D	To allow the comparator to be used with AC input signals

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

29. - E6E12

Why are DIP through-hole package ICs not typically used at UHF and higher frequencies?

Select	Answer
A	Too many pins
B	Epoxy coating is conductive above 300 MHz
C	Unsuitable for combining analog and digital signals
D	Excessive lead length

30. - E6F02

What happens to the conductivity of a photoconductive material when light shines on it?

Select	Answer
A	It decreases
B	It stays the same
C	It increases
D	It becomes unstable

31. - E7A04

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

Select	Answer
A	4
B	8
C	2
D	1

32. - E7B18

What is a characteristic of a grounded-grid amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	High filament voltage
B	Low bandwidth
C	High power gain
D	Low input impedance

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

34. - E7D08

What type of circuit is shown in Figure E7-2?

Select	Answer
A	Linear voltage regulator
B	Grounded emitter amplifier
C	Switching voltage regulator
D	Monostable multivibrator

35. - E7E09

What occurs when an excessive amount of signal energy reaches a mixer circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Spurious mixer products are generated
B	Automatic limiting occurs
C	Mixer blanking occurs
D	A beat frequency is generated

36. - E7F02

What kind of digital signal processing audio filter is used to remove unwanted noise from a received SSB signal?

Select	Answer
A	A phase-inverting filter
B	A Hilbert-transform filter
C	An adaptive filter
D	A crystal-lattice filter

37. - E7G09

What will be the output voltage of the circuit shown in Figure E7-3 if R1 is 1000 ohms, RF is 10,000 ohms, and 0.23 volts DC is applied to the input?

Select	Answer
A	-2.3 volts
B	0.23 volts
C	2.3 volts
D	-0.23 volts

38. - E7H05

How is positive feedback supplied in a Pierce oscillator?

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

39. - E8A02

Which of the following is a type of analog-to-digital conversion?

Select	Answer
A	Level shifting
B	Successive approximation
C	Harmonic regeneration
D	Phase reversal

40. - E8B07

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

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

41. - E8C03

Why should phase-shifting of a PSK signal be done at the zero crossing of the RF signal?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	To simplify modulation
C	To improve carrier suppression
D	To minimize bandwidth

42. - E8D03

How does the spread spectrum technique of frequency hopping work?

Select	Answer
A	If interference is detected by the receiver it will signal the transmitter to wait until the frequency is clear
B	A binary bit stream is used to shift the phase of an RF carrier very rapidly in a pseudorandom sequence
C	The frequency of the transmitted signal is changed very rapidly according to a pseudorandom sequence also used by the receiving station
D	If interference is detected by the receiver it will signal the transmitter to change frequencies

43. - E9A04

Which of the following factors affect the feed point impedance of an antenna?

Select	Answer
A	Antenna height
B	The settings of an antenna tuner at the transmitter
C	Transmission line length
D	The input power level

44. - E9B02

In the antenna radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-1, what is the front-to-back ratio?

Select	Answer
A	24 dB
B	36 dB
C	18 dB
D	14 dB

45. - E9C01

What is the radiation pattern of two 1/4-wavelength vertical antennas spaced 1/2-wavelength apart and fed 180 degrees out of phase?

Select	Answer
A	A figure-8 oriented along the axis of the array
B	Omni-directional
C	A figure-8 broadside to the axis of the array
D	Cardioid

46. - E9D10

What happens to feed-point impedance at the base of a fixed length HF mobile antenna when operated below its resonant frequency?

Select	Answer
A	The radiation resistance decreases and the capacitive reactance increases
B	The radiation resistance increases and the capacitive reactance decreases
C	The radiation resistance decreases and the capacitive reactance decreases
D	The radiation resistance increases and the capacitive reactance increases

47. - E9E08

What is a use for a Wilkinson divider?

Select	Answer
A	It is used to feed high-impedance antennas from a low-impedance source
B	It divides the operating frequency of a transmitter signal so it can be used on a lower frequency band
C	It is used to divide power equally between two 50-ohm loads while maintaining 50-ohm input impedance
D	It is used to feed low-impedance loads from a high-impedance source

48. - E9F11

What impedance does a 1/8-wavelength transmission line present to a generator when the line is open at the far end?

Select	Answer
A	Infinite
B	An inductive reactance
C	A capacitive reactance
D	The same as the characteristic impedance of the line

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	Standing wave ratio circles
C	Antenna-length circles
D	Coaxial-length circles

50. - E9H02

Which is generally true for low band (160 meter and 80 meter) receiving antennas?

Select	Answer
A	Low loss coax transmission line is essential for good performance
B	Atmospheric noise is so high that gain over a dipole is not important
C	They must be erected at least 1/2 wavelength above the ground to attain good directivity
D	All these choices are correct

Figure E7-2

Figure E7-3

Figure E9-1