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. - E0A01

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

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

2. - E1A11

Which of the following describes authorization or licensing required when operating an amateur station aboard a U.S.-registered vessel in international waters?

Select	Answer
A	Only General Class or higher amateur licenses
B	Any amateur license with an FCC Marine or Aircraft endorsement
C	Any FCC-issued amateur license
D	An unrestricted Radiotelephone Operator Permit

3. - E1B01

Which of the following constitutes a spurious emission?

Select	Answer
A	An amateur station transmission made without the proper call sign identification
B	An emission outside the signal's necessary bandwidth that can be reduced or eliminated without affecting the information transmitted
C	A signal transmitted to prevent its detection by any station other than the intended recipient
D	Any transmitted signal that unintentionally interferes with another licensed radio station

4. - E1C13

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

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

5. - E1D07

Which HF amateur bands have frequencies authorized for space stations?

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

6. - E1E02

Who does Part 97 task with maintaining the pools of questions for all U.S. amateur license examinations?

Select	Answer
A	The FCC
B	The VECs
C	The VEs
D	The ARRL

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	The equipment dealer assembled it from a kit
B	It was purchased in used condition from an amateur operator and is sold to another amateur operator for use at that operator's station
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. - E2A05

What do the letters in a satellite's mode designator specify?

Select	Answer
A	The polarization of uplink and downlink signals
B	Power limits for uplink and downlink transmissions
C	The location of the ground control station
D	The uplink and downlink frequency ranges

9. - E2B10

What aspect of an analog slow-scan television signal encodes the brightness of the picture?

Select	Answer
A	Tone amplitude
B	Tone frequency
C	Sync amplitude
D	Sync frequency

10. - E2C06

During a VHF/UHF contest, in which band segment would you expect to find the highest level of SSB or CW activity?

Select	Answer
A	In the middle of each band, usually on the national calling frequency
B	In the middle of the band, usually 25 kHz above the national calling frequency
C	In the weak signal segment of the band, with most of the activity near the calling frequency
D	At the top of each band, usually in a segment reserved for contests

11. - E2D10

How can an APRS station be used to help support a public service communications activity?

Select	Answer
A	APRS stations with General Personnel Scanners can automatically relay the participant numbers and time as they pass the check points
B	All these choices are correct
C	An APRS station with an emergency medical technician can automatically transmit medical data to the nearest hospital
D	An APRS station with a Global Positioning System unit can automatically transmit information to show a mobile station's position during the event

12. - E2E10

Which of these digital modes has the narrowest bandwidth?

Select	Answer
A	PSK31
B	300-baud packet
C	170 Hz shift, 45-baud RTTY
D	MFSK16

13. - E3A06

What might help to restore contact when DX signals become too weak to copy across an entire HF band a few hours after sunset?

Select	Answer
A	Switch to a lower frequency HF band
B	Switch to a higher frequency HF band
C	Wait 24 hours before attempting another communication on the band
D	Wait 90 minutes or so for the signal degradation to pass

14. - E3B11

At what time of day can sporadic E propagation occur?

Select	Answer
A	Only around sunset
B	Any time
C	Only around sunset and sunrise
D	Only in hours of darkness

15. - E3C07

Which of the following descriptors indicates the greatest solar flare intensity?

Select	Answer
A	Class X
B	Class M
C	Class A
D	Class B

16. - E4A07

Which of the following is an advantage of using an antenna analyzer compared to an SWR bridge to measure antenna SWR?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	Antenna analyzers display a time-varying representation of the modulation envelope
C	Antenna analyzers do not need an external RF source
D	Antenna analyzers automatically tune your antenna for resonance

17. - E4B07

What do the subscripts of S parameters represent?

Select	Answer
A	Relative quality of the data
B	Frequency order of the measurements
C	The port or ports at which measurements are made
D	The relative time between measurements

18. - E4C15

What is reciprocal mixing?

Select	Answer
A	Two digital signals combining from alternate time slots
B	Local oscillator phase noise mixing with adjacent strong signals to create interference to desired signals
C	Two out-of-band signals mixing to generate an in-band spurious signal
D	In-phase signals cancelling in a mixer resulting in loss of receiver sensitivity

19. - E4D12

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

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

20. - E4E03

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

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

21. - E5A09

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

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

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

23. - E5C02

How are impedances described in polar coordinates?

Select	Answer
A	By phase angle and magnitude
B	By X and R values
C	By Y and G values
D	By real and imaginary parts

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	1600 watts
C	600 watts
D	1000 watts

25. - E6A04

What is the name given to an impurity atom that adds holes to a semiconductor crystal structure?

Select	Answer
A	Acceptor impurity
B	Donor impurity
C	N-type impurity
D	Insulator impurity

26. - E6B04

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

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

27. - E6C07

What best describes a pull-up or pull-down resistor?

Select	Answer
A	A resistor connected to the positive or negative supply line used to establish a voltage when an input or output is an open circuit
B	A resistor that ensures that an oscillator frequency does not drift
C	A resistor connected to an op-amp output that prevents signals from exceeding the power supply voltage
D	A resistor in a keying circuit used to reduce key clicks

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	The inductor windings are over-coupled
D	Adjacent inductors become over-coupled

29. - E6E06

What characteristics of the MMIC make it a popular choice for VHF through microwave circuits?

Select	Answer
A	Nearly infinite gain, very high input impedance, and very low output impedance
B	Controlled gain, low noise figure, and constant input and output impedance over the specified frequency range
C	The ability to retrieve information from a single signal even in the presence of other strong signals
D	Plate current that is controlled by a control grid

30. - E6F09

What is the efficiency of a photovoltaic cell?

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

31. - E7A02

What is the function of a decade counter?

Select	Answer
A	It produces one output pulse for every 10 input pulses
B	It decodes a binary number for display on a seven-segment LED display
C	It decodes a decimal number for display on a seven-segment LED display
D	It produces 10 output pulses for every input pulse

32. - E7B04

Where on the load line of a Class A common emitter amplifier would bias normally be set?

Select	Answer
A	Approximately halfway between saturation and cutoff
B	Where the load line intersects the voltage axis
C	At a point where the bias resistor equals the load resistor
D	At a point where the load line intersects the zero bias current curve

33. - E7C05

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

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

34. - E7D11

What is the function of the pass transistor in a linear voltage regulator circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Maintains nearly constant output impedance over a wide range of load current
B	Permits a wide range of output voltage settings
C	Provides a stable input impedance over a wide range of source voltage
D	Maintains nearly constant output voltage over a wide range of load current

35. - E7E08

What are the principal frequencies that appear at the output of a mixer circuit?

Select	Answer
A	The two input frequencies along with their sum and difference frequencies
B	The square root of the product of input frequencies
C	Two and four times the original frequency
D	1.414 and 0.707 times the input frequency

36. - E7F01

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

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

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. - E7H05

How is positive feedback supplied in a Pierce oscillator?

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

39. - E8A05

What of the following instruments would be the most accurate for measuring the RMS voltage of a complex waveform?

Select	Answer
A	A true-RMS calculating meter
B	A D'Arsonval meter
C	An absorption wave meter
D	A grid dip meter

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 arranged to share discrete time slots of a data transmission
C	Two or more signals are quadrature modulated to increase bandwidth efficiency
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	Keying speed and shape factor (rise and fall time)
B	All these choices are correct
C	IF bandwidth and Q
D	Modulation index and output power

42. - E8D07

What is a common cause of overmodulation of AFSK signals?

Select	Answer
A	Excessive numbers of retries
B	Excessive transmit audio levels
C	Bit errors in the modem
D	Ground loops

43. - E9A04

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

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

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

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	450 ohms
C	72 ohms
D	300 ohms

46. - E9D05

What usually occurs if a Yagi antenna is designed solely for maximum forward gain?

Select	Answer
A	The SWR is reduced
B	The frequency response is widened over the whole frequency band
C	The front-to-back ratio increases
D	The front-to-back ratio decreases

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

48. - E9F02

Which of the following has the biggest effect on the velocity factor of a transmission line?

Select	Answer
A	The termination impedance
B	Dielectric materials used in the line
C	The line length
D	The center conductor resistivity

49. - E9G10

What do the arcs on a Smith chart represent?

Select	Answer
A	SWR
B	Points with constant reactance
C	Frequency
D	Points with constant resistance

50. - E9H03

What is Receiving Directivity Factor (RDF)?

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

Figure E7-3