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

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1. - E0A01

What is the primary function of an external earth connection or ground rod?

Select	Answer
A	Reduce RF current flow between pieces of equipment
B	Reduce received noise
C	Reduce RFI to telephones and home entertainment systems
D	Lightning protection

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

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

4. - E1C04

What is meant by IARP?

Select	Answer
A	A forecast of intermittent aurora radio propagation
B	An indication of increased antenna reflected power
C	The internal amateur radio practices policy of the FCC
D	An international amateur radio permit that allows U.S. amateurs to operate in certain countries of the Americas

5. - E1D04

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

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

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	A person who has volunteered to prepare amateur operator license examinations
D	The person who has entered into an agreement with the FCC to be the VE session manager

7. - E1F02

What privileges are authorized in the U.S. to persons holding an amateur service license granted by the government of Canada?

Select	Answer
A	The operating terms and conditions of the Canadian amateur service license, not to exceed U.S. Amateur Extra Class license privileges
B	Full privileges, up to and including those of the Amateur Extra Class license, on the 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meter bands
C	All privileges of the Amateur Extra Class license
D	None, they must obtain a U.S. license

8. - E2A06

What are Keplerian elements?

Select	Answer
A	High-emission heater filaments used in magnetron tubes
B	Phase reversing elements in a Yagi antenna
C	Encrypting codes used for spread spectrum modulation
D	Parameters that define the orbit of a satellite

9. - E2B07

What is the name of the signal component that carries color information in NTSC video?

Select	Answer
A	Hue
B	Chroma
C	Spectral intensity
D	Luminance

10. - E2C03

From which of the following bands is amateur radio contesting generally excluded?

Select	Answer
A	6 meters
B	33 centimeters
C	30 meters
D	2 meters

11. - E2D08

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

Select	Answer
A	Acknowledgement
B	Connect
C	Disconnect
D	Unnumbered Information

12. - E2E04

What is indicated when one of the ellipses in an FSK crossed-ellipse display suddenly disappears?

Select	Answer
A	Selective fading has occurred
B	One of the signal filters is saturated
C	The mark and space signal have been inverted
D	The receiver has drifted 5 kHz from the desired receive frequency

13. - E3A05

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

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

14. - E3B04

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

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

15. - E3C06

By how much does the VHF/UHF radio horizon distance exceed the geometric horizon?

Select	Answer
A	By approximately 50 percent of the distance
B	By approximately twice the distance
C	By approximately four times the distance
D	By approximately 15 percent of the distance

16. - E4A10

Which of the following displays multiple digital signal states simultaneously?

Select	Answer
A	Logic analyzer
B	Network analyzer
C	Modulation monitor
D	Bit error rate tester

17. - E4B04

Which S parameter represents input port return loss or reflection coefficient (equivalent to VSWR)?

Select	Answer
A	S12
B	S21
C	S11
D	S22

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

19. - E4D01

What is meant by the blocking dynamic range of a receiver?

Select	Answer
A	The minimum difference in dB between two signals which produce third-order intermodulation products greater than the noise floor
B	The minimum difference in dB between the levels of two FM signals that will cause one signal to block the other
C	The difference in dB between the noise floor and the third-order intercept point
D	The difference in dB between the noise floor and the level of an incoming signal that will cause 1 dB of gain compression

20. - E4E02

Which of the following types of noise can often be reduced with a digital signal processing noise filter?

Select	Answer
A	Power line noise
B	Ignition noise
C	All these choices are correct
D	Broadband white noise

21. - E5A13

What is an effect of increasing Q in a series resonant circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Phase shift can become uncontrolled
B	Parasitic effects are minimized
C	Internal voltages increase
D	Fewer components are needed for the same performance

22. - E5B07

What is the phase angle between the voltage across and the current through a series RLC circuit if XC is 500 ohms, R is 1 kilohm, and XL is 250 ohms?

Select	Answer
A	14.0 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
B	14.0 degrees with the voltage leading the current
C	68.2 degrees with the voltage leading the current
D	68.2 degrees with the voltage lagging the current

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 7
B	Point 8
C	Point 1
D	Point 3

24. - E5D14

What is reactive power?

Select	Answer
A	Power consumed in wire resistance in an inductor
B	Power lost because of capacitor leakage
C	Wattless, nonproductive power
D	Power consumed in circuit Q

25. - E6A08

What term indicates the frequency at which the grounded-base current gain of a transistor has decreased to 0.7 of the gain obtainable at 1 kHz?

Select	Answer
A	Alpha cutoff frequency
B	Beta cutoff frequency
C	Corner frequency
D	Alpha rejection frequency

26. - E6B11

What is used to control the attenuation of RF signals by a PIN diode?

Select	Answer
A	Capacitance of an RF coupling capacitor
B	Reverse voltage larger than the RF signal
C	A sub-harmonic pump signal
D	Forward DC bias current

27. - E6C08

In Figure E6-3, what is the schematic symbol for a NAND gate?

Select	Answer
A	2
B	3
C	1
D	4

28. - E6D12

What is inductor saturation?

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

29. - E6E03

Which of the following materials is likely to provide the highest frequency of operation when used in MMICs?

Select	Answer
A	Gallium nitride
B	Silicon nitride
C	Silicon dioxide
D	Silicon

30. - E6F01

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

Select	Answer
A	Protons
B	Holes
C	Photons
D	Electrons

31. - E7A09

What logical operation is performed by an exclusive NOR gate?

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

32. - E7B15

What is one way to prevent thermal runaway in a bipolar transistor amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	Neutralization
B	Use a resistor in series with the emitter
C	Select transistors with high beta
D	All these choices are correct

33. - E7C05

Which filter type is described as having ripple in the passband and a sharp cutoff?

Select	Answer
A	A passive op-amp filter
B	An active LC filter
C	A Butterworth filter
D	A Chebyshev filter

34. - E7D09

What is the main reason to use a charge controller with a solar power system?

Select	Answer
A	Control of electrolyte levels during battery discharge
B	Prevention of battery undercharge
C	Prevention of battery damage due to overcharge
D	Matching of day and night charge rates

35. - E7E03

What is a frequency discriminator stage in a FM receiver?

Select	Answer
A	A circuit for detecting FM signals
B	A circuit for filtering two closely adjacent signals
C	An automatic band-switching circuit
D	An FM generator circuit

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	Incoming RF is digitized by an analog-to-digital converter without being mixed with a local oscillator signal
C	Software is converted from source code to object code during operation of the receiver
D	Incoming RF is converted to a control voltage for a voltage controlled oscillator

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	47
B	94
C	24
D	0.21

38. - E7H02

What is a microphonic?

Select	Answer
A	An IC used for amplifying microphone signals
B	Changes in oscillator frequency due to mechanical vibration
C	Distortion caused by RF pickup on the microphone cable
D	Excess loading of the microphone by an oscillator

39. - E8A04

What is "dither" with respect to analog-to-digital converters?

Select	Answer
A	An abnormal condition where the converter cannot settle on a value to represent the signal
B	A small amount of noise added to the input signal to allow more precise representation of a signal over time
C	An error caused by irregular quantization step size
D	A method of decimation by randomly skipping samples

40. - E8B03

What is the modulation index of an FM-phone signal having a maximum frequency deviation of 3000 Hz either side of the carrier frequency when the modulating frequency is 1000 Hz?

Select	Answer
A	3000
B	1000
C	0.3
D	3

41. - E8C02

What is the definition of symbol rate in a digital transmission?

Select	Answer
A	The number of control characters in a message packet
B	The number of characters carried per second by the station-to-station link
C	The rate at which the waveform changes to convey information
D	The duration of each bit in a message sent over the air

42. - E8D03

How does the spread spectrum technique of frequency hopping work?

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

43. - E9A02

What is the effective radiated power relative to a dipole of a repeater station with 150 watts transmitter power output, 2 dB feed line loss, 2.2 dB duplexer loss, and 7 dBd antenna gain?

Select	Answer
A	78.7 watts
B	286 watts
C	420 watts
D	1977 watts

44. - E9B07

How does the total amount of radiation emitted by a directional gain antenna compare with the total amount of radiation emitted from a theoretical isotropic antenna, assuming each is driven by the same amount of power?

Select	Answer
A	The radiation from the isotropic antenna is 2.15 dB stronger than that from the directional antenna
B	The total amount of radiation from the directional antenna is increased by the gain of the antenna
C	They are the same
D	The total amount of radiation from the directional antenna is stronger by its front-to-back ratio

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

46. - E9D04

Why should an HF mobile antenna loading coil have a high ratio of reactance to resistance?

Select	Answer
A	To lower the radiation angle
B	To swamp out harmonics
C	To minimize the Q
D	To minimize losses

47. - E9E07

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

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

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	The same as the characteristic impedance of the line
C	A capacitive reactance
D	An inductive reactance

49. - E9G02

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

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

50. - E9H03

What is Receiving Directivity Factor (RDF)?

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

Figure E5-1

Figure E6-3