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. - E0A08

What does SAR measure?

Select	Answer
A	Signal Amplification Rating
B	Synthetic Aperture Ratio of the human body
C	The rate at which RF energy is absorbed by the body
D	The rate of RF energy reflected from stationary terrain

2. - E1A08

If a station in a message forwarding system inadvertently forwards a message that is in violation of FCC rules, who is primarily accountable for the rules violation?

Select	Answer
A	The control operator of the packet bulletin board station
B	The control operators of all the stations in the system
C	The control operators of all the stations in the system not authenticating the source from which they accept communications
D	The control operator of the originating station

3. - E1B06

Which of the following additional rules apply if you are installing an amateur station antenna at a site at or near a public use airport?

Select	Answer
A	You must submit engineering drawings to the FAA
B	You must obtain a construction permit from the airport zoning authority
C	You may have to notify the Federal Aviation Administration and register it with the FCC as required by Part 17 of the FCC rules
D	You must file an Environmental Impact Statement with the EPA before construction begins

4. - E1C01

What is the maximum bandwidth for a data emission on 60 meters?

Select	Answer
A	170 Hz
B	60 Hz
C	1.5 kHz
D	2.8 kHz

5. - E1D02

Which of the following may transmit special codes intended to obscure the meaning of messages?

Select	Answer
A	Auxiliary relay links carrying repeater audio
B	Binary control characters
C	Data containing personal information
D	Telecommand signals from a space telecommand station

6. - E1E10

What must the administering VEs do after the administration of a successful examination for an amateur operator license?

Select	Answer
A	They must collect and submit the documents to the coordinating VEC for grading
B	They must submit the application document to the coordinating VEC according to the coordinating VEC instructions
C	They must collect and send the documents to the FCC according to instructions
D	They must collect and send the documents to the NCVEC for grading

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

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. - E2B01

How many times per second is a new frame transmitted in a fast-scan (NTSC) television system?

Select	Answer
A	90
B	30
C	120
D	60

10. - E2C12

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

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

11. - E2D05

What is one advantage of the JT65 mode?

Select	Answer
A	The ability to decode signals which have a very low signal-to-noise ratio
B	Permits fast-scan TV transmissions over narrow bandwidth
C	Uses only a 65 Hz bandwidth
D	Easily copied by ear if necessary

12. - E2E09

Which of the following HF digital modes uses variable-length coding for bandwidth efficiency?

Select	Answer
A	PACTOR
B	PSK31
C	RTTY
D	MT63

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 E layer
B	The F2 layer
C	The F1 layer
D	The D layer

14. - E3B12

What is the primary characteristic of chordal hop propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Signals reflected back toward the transmitting station
B	Propagation across the geomagnetic equator
C	Successive ionospheric refractions without an intermediate reflection from the ground
D	Propagation away from the great circle bearing between stations

15. - E3C10

What does the 304A solar parameter measure?

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

16. - E4A08

Which of the following measures SWR?

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

17. - E4B09

What is indicated if the current reading on an RF ammeter placed in series with the antenna feed line of a transmitter increases as the transmitter is tuned to resonance?

Select	Answer
A	There is more power going into the antenna
B	There is an impedance mismatch between the antenna and feed line
C	The transmitter is not properly neutralized
D	There is possibly a short to ground in the feed line

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

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

20. - E4E02

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

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

21. - E5A01

What can cause the voltage across reactances in a series RLC circuit to be higher than the voltage applied to the entire circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Resonance
B	Resistance
C	Conductance
D	Capacitance

22. - E5B10

What is the relationship between the AC current through an inductor and the voltage across an inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Current leads voltage by 90 degrees
B	Voltage and current are 180 degrees out of phase
C	Voltage leads current by 90 degrees
D	Voltage and current are in phase

23. - E5C01

Which of the following represents capacitive reactance in rectangular notation?

Select	Answer
A	Delta
B	Omega
C	+jX
D	-jX

24. - E5D04

Why are short connections used at microwave frequencies?

Select	Answer
A	To reduce phase shift along the connection
B	To increase neutralizing resistance
C	To reduce noise figure
D	To increase compensating capacitance

25. - E6A05

How does DC input impedance at the gate of a field-effect transistor compare with the DC input impedance of a bipolar transistor?

Select	Answer
A	An FET has higher input impedance
B	They are both low impedance
C	An FET has lower input impedance
D	They are both high impedance

26. - E6B11

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

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

27. - E6C04

Which of the following is an advantage of BiCMOS logic?

Select	Answer
A	Its simplicity results in much less expensive devices than standard CMOS
B	All these choices are correct
C	It has the high input impedance of CMOS and the low output impedance of bipolar transistors
D	It is immune to electrostatic damage

28. - E6D04

Which materials are commonly used as a core in an inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Ferrite and brass
B	Polystyrene and polyethylene
C	Cobalt and aluminum
D	Teflon and Delrin

29. - E6E07

What type of transmission line is used for connections to MMICs?

Select	Answer
A	Circular waveguide
B	Microstrip
C	Miniature coax
D	Parallel wire

30. - E6F08

Why are optoisolators often used in conjunction with solid-state circuits when switching 120 VAC?

Select	Answer
A	Optoisolators eliminate the effects of reflected light in the control circuit
B	Optoisolators provide a very high degree of electrical isolation between a control circuit and the circuit being switched
C	Optoisolators provide impedance matching between the control circuit and power circuit
D	Optoisolators provide a low impedance link between a control circuit and a power circuit

31. - E7A10

What is a truth table?

Select	Answer
A	A table of logic symbols that indicate the logic states of an op-amp
B	A diagram showing logic states when the digital device output is true
C	A list of inputs and corresponding outputs for a digital device
D	A table of logic symbols that indicate the high logic states of an op-amp

32. - E7B17

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

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

33. - E7C01

How are the capacitors and inductors of a low-pass filter Pi-network arranged between the network's input and output?

Select	Answer
A	An inductor is connected between the input and ground, another inductor is connected between the output and ground, and a capacitor is connected between the input and output
B	A capacitor is connected between the input and ground, another capacitor is connected between the output and ground, and an inductor is connected between input and output
C	Two inductors are in series between the input and output, and a capacitor is connected between the two inductors and ground
D	Two capacitors are in series between the input and output, and an inductor is connected between the two capacitors and ground

34. - E7D12

What is the dropout voltage of an analog voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	Minimum input voltage for rated power dissipation
B	Maximum that the output voltage may decrease at rated load
C	Minimum input-to-output voltage required to maintain regulation
D	Maximum output voltage drops when the input voltage is varied over its specified range

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	Two and four times the original frequency
C	The square root of the product of input frequencies
D	1.414 and 0.707 times the input frequency

36. - E7F08

What is the function of decimation?

Select	Answer
A	Reducing the effective sample rate by removing samples
B	Removing unnecessary significant digits
C	Attenuating the signal
D	Converting data to binary code decimal form

37. - E7G12

What is an operational amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	An amplifier used to increase the average output of frequency modulated amateur signals to the legal limit
B	A high-gain, direct-coupled differential amplifier with very high input impedance and very low output impedance
C	A RF amplifier used in the UHF and microwave regions
D	A digital audio amplifier whose characteristics are determined by components external to the amplifier

38. - E7H02

What is a microphonic?

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

39. - E8A10

What is the purpose of a low-pass filter used in conjunction with a digital-to-analog converter?

Select	Answer
A	Lower the input bandwidth to increase the effective resolution
B	Improve accuracy by removing out-of-sequence codes from the input
C	All these choices are correct
D	Remove harmonics from the output caused by the discrete analog levels generated

40. - E8B10

What is frequency division multiplexing?

Select	Answer
A	Two or more information streams are merged into a baseband, which then modulates the transmitter
B	The transmitted signal is divided into packets of information
C	Two or more information streams are merged into a digital combiner, which then pulse position modulates the transmitter
D	The transmitted signal jumps from band to band at a predetermined rate

41. - E8C06

What is the bandwidth of a 170-hertz shift, 300-baud ASCII transmission?

Select	Answer
A	0.1 Hz
B	1.0 kHz
C	0.5 kHz
D	0.3 kHz

42. - E8D03

How does the spread spectrum technique of frequency hopping work?

Select	Answer
A	A binary bit stream is used to shift the phase of an RF carrier very rapidly in a pseudorandom sequence
B	If interference is detected by the receiver it will signal the transmitter to wait until the frequency is clear
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. - E9A03

What is the radiation resistance of an antenna?

Select	Answer
A	The value of a resistance that would dissipate the same amount of power as that radiated from an antenna
B	The combined losses of the antenna elements and feed line
C	The resistance in the atmosphere that an antenna must overcome to be able to radiate a signal
D	The specific impedance of the antenna

44. - E9B09

What type of computer program technique is commonly used for modeling antennas?

Select	Answer
A	Mutual impedance analysis
B	Method of Moments
C	Calculus differentiation with respect to physical properties
D	Graphical analysis

45. - E9C08

What is a folded dipole antenna?

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

46. - E9D09

What is the function of a loading coil used as part of an HF mobile antenna?

Select	Answer
A	To cancel capacitive reactance
B	To lower the Q
C	To lower the losses
D	To increase the SWR bandwidth

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 gamma match
C	The stub match
D	The delta match

48. - E9F12

What impedance does a 1/4-wavelength transmission line present to a generator when the line is open at the far end?

Select	Answer
A	Very low impedance
B	The same as the characteristic impedance of the line
C	The same as the input impedance to the generator
D	Very high impedance

49. - E9G11

How are the wavelength scales on a Smith chart calibrated?

Select	Answer
A	In fractions of antenna electrical wavelength
B	In fractions of transmission line electrical wavelength
C	In fractions of transmission line electrical frequency
D	In fractions of antenna electrical frequency

50. - E9H07

Why is RF attenuation used when direction-finding?

Select	Answer
A	To prevent receiver overload which reduces pattern nulls
B	To compensate for isotropic directivity and the antenna effect of feed lines
C	To increase receiver sensitivity
D	To narrow the receiver bandwidth