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

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

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	Reduce the repeater antenna HAAT (Height Above Average Terrain)
C	Cease operation or make changes to the repeater to mitigate the interference
D	All these choices are correct

4. - E1C07

At what level below a signal's mean power level is its bandwidth determined according to FCC rules?

Select	Answer
A	26 dB
B	6 dB
C	23 dB
D	3 dB

5. - E1D06

What is the maximum permitted transmitter output power when operating a model craft by telecommand?

Select	Answer
A	1 watt
B	5 watts
C	2 watts
D	100 watts

6. - E1E09

What may be the penalty for a VE who fraudulently administers or certifies an examination?

Select	Answer
A	A fine of up to $1000 per occurrence
B	Revocation of the VE's amateur station license grant and the suspension of the VE's amateur operator license grant
C	All these choices are correct
D	A sentence of up to one year in prison

7. - E1F05

Amateur stations may not transmit in which of the following frequency segments if they are located in the contiguous 48 states and north of Line A?

Select	Answer
A	222 MHz - 223 MHz
B	420 MHz - 430 MHz
C	53 MHz - 54 MHz
D	440 MHz - 450 MHz

8. - E2A01

What is the direction of an ascending pass for an amateur satellite?

Select	Answer
A	From west to east
B	From north to south
C	From east to west
D	From south to north

9. - E2B02

How many horizontal lines make up a fast-scan (NTSC) television frame?

Select	Answer
A	60
B	1080
C	525
D	30

10. - E2C12

What technique do individual nodes use to form a mesh network?

Select	Answer
A	Custom code plugs for the local trunking systems
B	Discovery and link establishment protocols
C	Forward error correction and Viterbi codes
D	Acting as store-and-forward digipeaters

11. - E2D07

What digital protocol is used by APRS?

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

12. - E2E01

Which of the following types of modulation is common for data emissions below 30 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	DTMF tones modulating an FM signal
B	Pulse modulation
C	FSK
D	Spread spectrum

13. - E3A13

Which of these emission modes is best for auroral propagation?

Select	Answer
A	FM
B	RTTY
C	SSB
D	CW

14. - E3B09

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

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

15. - E3C10

What does the 304A solar parameter measure?

Select	Answer
A	The ratio of x-ray flux to radio flux, correlated to sunspot number
B	The solar wind velocity at 304 degrees from the solar equator, correlated to solar activity
C	The solar emission at 304 GHz, correlated to x-ray flare levels
D	UV emissions at 304 angstroms, correlated to the solar flux index

16. - E4A06

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

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

17. - E4B05

What three test loads are used to calibrate an RF vector network analyzer?

Select	Answer
A	Short circuit, open circuit, and 50 ohms
B	50 ohms, 75 ohms, and 90 ohms
C	Short circuit, open circuit, and resonant circuit
D	50 ohms through 1/8 wavelength, 1/4 wavelength, and 1/2 wavelength of coaxial cable

18. - E4C12

Which of the following has the largest effect on an SDR receiver's dynamic range?

Select	Answer
A	Analog-to-digital converter sample width in bits
B	CPU register width in bits
C	RAM speed used for data storage
D	Anti-aliasing input filter bandwidth

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

20. - E4E04

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

Select	Answer
A	By installing filter capacitors in series with the DC power lead and a blocking capacitor in 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 a noise suppression resistor and a blocking capacitor in both leads
D	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

21. - E5A10

How is the Q of an RLC series resonant circuit calculated?

Select	Answer
A	Reactance of either the inductance or capacitance divided by the resistance
B	Resistance divided by the reactance of either the inductance or capacitance
C	Reactance of either the inductance or capacitance multiplied by the resistance
D	Reactance of the inductance multiplied by the reactance of the capacitance

22. - E5B02

What letter is commonly used to represent susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	X
B	B
C	Y
D	G

23. - E5C12

Which point on Figure E5-1 best represents the impedance of a series circuit consisting of a 300-ohm resistor and a 19-picofarad capacitor at 21.200 MHz?

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

24. - E5D01

What is the result of skin effect?

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

25. - E6A06

What is the beta of a bipolar junction transistor?

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

26. - E6B04

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

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

27. - E6C10

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

Select	Answer
A	2
B	3
C	1
D	4

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

29. - E6E01

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

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

30. - E6F09

What is the efficiency of a photovoltaic cell?

Select	Answer
A	The output RF power divided by the input DC power
B	The relative fraction of light that is converted to current
C	The open-circuit voltage divided by the short-circuit current under full illumination
D	Cost per kilowatt-hour generated

31. - E7A07

What logical operation does a NAND gate perform?

Select	Answer
A	It produces logic 0 at its output only when all inputs are logic 0
B	It produces logic 1 at its output only when all inputs are logic 1
C	It produces logic 0 at its output only when all inputs are logic 1
D	It produces logic 0 at its output if some but not all inputs are logic 1

32. - E7B05

What can be done to prevent unwanted oscillations in an RF power amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	Tune the stage for maximum SWR
B	Use a phase inverter in the output filter
C	Install parasitic suppressors and/or neutralize the stage
D	Tune both the input and output for maximum power

33. - E7C04

How does an impedance-matching circuit transform a complex impedance to a resistive impedance?

Select	Answer
A	Reactive currents are dissipated in matched resistances
B	It cancels the reactive part of the impedance and changes the resistive part to a desired value
C	It introduces negative resistance to cancel the resistive part of impedance
D	It introduces transconductance to cancel the reactive part of impedance

34. - E7D01

How does a linear electronic voltage regulator work?

Select	Answer
A	It eliminates the need for a pass transistor
B	It has a ramp voltage as its output
C	The conduction of a control element is varied to maintain a constant output voltage
D	The control element duty cycle is proportional to the line or load conditions

35. - E7E05

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

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

36. - E7F11

What sets the minimum detectable signal level for a direct-sampling SDR receiver in the absence of atmospheric or thermal noise?

Select	Answer
A	Reference voltage level and sample width in bits
B	Sample clock phase noise
C	Data storage transfer rate
D	Missing codes and jitter

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	-0.23 volts
D	-2.3 volts

38. - E7H12

Which of the following must be done to ensure that a crystal oscillator provides the frequency specified by the crystal manufacturer?

Select	Answer
A	Bias the crystal at a specified voltage
B	Provide the crystal with a specified parallel inductance
C	Provide the crystal with a specified parallel capacitance
D	Bias the crystal at a specified current

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. - E8B11

What is digital time division multiplexing?

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

41. - E8C12

What factors affect the bandwidth of a transmitted CW signal?

Select	Answer
A	IF bandwidth and Q
B	All these choices are correct
C	Modulation index and output power
D	Keying speed and shape factor (rise and fall time)

42. - E8D09

What is considered an acceptable maximum IMD level for an idling PSK signal?

Select	Answer
A	-20 dB
B	-30 dB
C	+15 dB
D	+10 dB

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	63.2 watts
B	632 watts
C	252 watts
D	159 watts

44. - E9B11

What is a disadvantage of decreasing the number of wire segments in an antenna model below 10 segments per half-wavelength?

Select	Answer
A	The resulting design will favor radiation of harmonic energy
B	The antenna will become mechanically unstable
C	The computed feed point impedance may be incorrect
D	Ground conductivity will not be accurately modeled

45. - E9C08

What is a folded dipole antenna?

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

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 minimize the Q
C	To minimize losses
D	To swamp out harmonics

47. - E9E02

What is the name of an antenna matching system that matches an unbalanced feed line to an antenna by feeding the driven element both at the center of the element and at a fraction of a wavelength to one side of center?

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

48. - E9F06

What is the approximate physical length of an air-insulated, parallel conductor transmission line that is electrically 1/2 wavelength long at 14.10 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	10.6 meters
B	7.0 meters
C	13.3 meters
D	8.5 meters

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	Coaxial-length circles
D	Standing wave ratio circles

50. - E9H01

When constructing a Beverage antenna, which of the following factors should be included in the design to achieve good performance at the desired frequency?

Select	Answer
A	Its overall length must not exceed 1/4 wavelength
B	It must be mounted more than 1 wavelength above ground
C	It should be configured as a four-sided loop
D	It should be one or more wavelengths long

Figure E5-1

Figure E6-3

Figure E7-3