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

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1. - E0A11

Which of the following injuries can result from using high-power UHF or microwave transmitters?

Select	Answer
A	Ingestion of ozone gas from the cooling system
B	Localized heating of the body from RF exposure in excess of the MPE limits
C	Hearing loss caused by high voltage corona discharge
D	Blood clotting from the intense magnetic field

2. - E1A03

What is the maximum legal carrier frequency on the 20 meter band for transmitting USB AFSK digital signals having a 1 kHz bandwidth?

Select	Answer
A	14.349 MHz
B	14.070 MHz
C	14.100 MHz
D	14.149 MHz

3. - E1B08

What limitations may the FCC place on an amateur station if its signal causes interference to domestic broadcast reception, assuming that the receivers involved are of good engineering design?

Select	Answer
A	The amateur station must avoid transmitting during certain hours on frequencies that cause the interference
B	The amateur station must cease operation on all frequencies below 30 MHz
C	The amateur station must cease operation
D	The amateur station must cease operation on all frequencies above 30 MHz

4. - E1C02

Which of the following types of communications may be transmitted to amateur stations in foreign countries?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	Communications incidental to the purpose of the amateur service and remarks of a personal nature
C	Messages intended for users of the maritime satellite service
D	Business-related messages for non-profit organizations

5. - E1D09

Which UHF amateur bands have frequencies authorized for space stations?

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

6. - E1E11

What must the VE team do if an examinee scores a passing grade on all examination elements needed for an upgrade or new license?

Select	Answer
A	Issue the examinee the new or upgrade license
B	All these choices are correct
C	Photocopy all examination documents and forward them to the FCC for processing
D	Three VEs must certify that the examinee is qualified for the license grant and that they have complied with the administering VE requirements

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 a country that does not require certification of RF power amplifiers
D	It was imported from a manufacturer in another country and was certificated by that country's government

8. - E2A05

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

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

9. - E2B05

Which of the following describes the use of vestigial sideband in analog fast-scan TV transmissions?

Select	Answer
A	Vestigial sideband provides high frequency emphasis to sharpen the picture
B	The vestigial sideband carries the audio information
C	The vestigial sideband contains chroma information
D	Vestigial sideband reduces bandwidth while allowing for simple video detector circuitry

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	Forward error correction and Viterbi codes
D	Acting as store-and-forward digipeaters

11. - E2D01

Which of the following digital modes is designed for meteor scatter communications?

Select	Answer
A	Hellschreiber
B	MSK144
C	WSPR
D	APRS

12. - E2E13

Which of these digital modes has the fastest data throughput under clear communication conditions?

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

13. - E3A07

Atmospheric ducts capable of propagating microwave signals often form over what geographic feature?

Select	Answer
A	Forests
B	Bodies of water
C	Mountain ranges
D	Urban areas

14. - E3B06

Which of the following amateur bands most frequently provides long-path propagation?

Select	Answer
A	80 meters
B	6 meters
C	20 meters
D	10 meters

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

16. - E4A10

Which of the following displays multiple digital signal states simultaneously?

Select	Answer
A	Network analyzer
B	Logic 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	S21
B	S12
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	The attenuator has a noise filter to suppress interference
B	Signals are attenuated separately from the noise
C	The attenuator has a low-pass filter to increase the strength of lower frequency signals
D	Atmospheric noise is generally greater than internally generated noise even after attenuation

19. - E4D11

Why are odd-order intermodulation products, created within a receiver, of particular interest compared to other products?

Select	Answer
A	Odd-order products are an indication of poor image rejection
B	Odd-order products of two signals in the band of interest are also likely to be within the band
C	Odd-order intermodulation produces three products for every input signal within the band of interest
D	Odd-order products overload the IF filters

20. - E4E05

How can radio frequency interference from an AC motor be suppressed?

Select	Answer
A	By using a ground-fault current interrupter in the circuit used to power the motor
B	By installing a high-pass filter in series with the motor's power leads
C	By installing a brute-force AC-line filter in series with the motor leads
D	By installing a bypass capacitor in series with the motor leads

21. - E5A13

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

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

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	68.2 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	14.0 degrees with the voltage lagging the current

23. - E5C02

How are impedances described in polar coordinates?

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

24. - E5D15

What is the power factor of an RL circuit having a 45-degree phase angle between the voltage and the current?

Select	Answer
A	0.707
B	1.0
C	0.5
D	0.866

25. - E6A02

Which of the following semiconductor materials contains excess free electrons?

Select	Answer
A	Insulated gate
B	Bipolar
C	P-type
D	N-type

26. - E6B01

What is the most useful characteristic of a Zener diode?

Select	Answer
A	A negative resistance region
B	An internal capacitance that varies with the applied voltage
C	A constant current drop under conditions of varying voltage
D	A constant voltage drop under conditions of varying current

27. - E6C04

Which of the following is an advantage of BiCMOS logic?

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

28. - E6D12

What is inductor saturation?

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

29. - E6E05

Which of the following noise figure values is typical of a low-noise UHF preamplifier?

Select	Answer
A	2 dB
B	44 dBm
C	-10 dB
D	-20 dBm

30. - E6F02

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

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

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

32. - E7B16

What is the effect of intermodulation products in a linear power amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	Transmission of spurious signals
B	Creation of parasitic oscillations
C	All these choices are correct
D	Low efficiency

33. - E7C07

Which describes a Pi-L-network used for matching a vacuum tube final amplifier to a 50-ohm unbalanced output?

Select	Answer
A	A Pi-network with an additional series inductor on the output
B	A network with only three discrete parts
C	A Phase Inverter Load network
D	A matching network in which all components are isolated from ground

34. - E7D06

What is the purpose of Q1 in the circuit shown in Figure E7-2?

Select	Answer
A	It provides negative feedback to improve regulation
B	It provides D1 with current
C	It controls the current supplied to the load
D	It provides a constant load for the voltage source

35. - E7E09

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

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

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

37. - E7G12

What is an operational amplifier?

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

38. - E7H14

What is a phase-locked loop circuit?

Select	Answer
A	An electronic servo loop consisting of a ratio detector, reactance modulator, and voltage-controlled oscillator
B	An electronic circuit also known as a monostable multivibrator
C	An electronic servo loop consisting of a phase detector, a low-pass filter, a voltage-controlled oscillator, and a stable reference oscillator
D	An electronic circuit consisting of a precision push-pull amplifier with a differential input

39. - E8A09

How many different input levels can be encoded by an analog-to-digital converter with 8-bit resolution?

Select	Answer
A	256 divided by the gain of the input amplifier
B	256
C	8
D	8 multiplied by the gain of the input amplifier

40. - E8B02

How does the modulation index of a phase-modulated emission vary with RF carrier frequency?

Select	Answer
A	It decreases as the RF carrier frequency increases
B	It varies with the square root of the RF carrier frequency
C	It increases as the RF carrier frequency increases
D	It does not depend on the RF carrier frequency

41. - E8C03

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

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

42. - E8D07

What is a common cause of overmodulation of AFSK signals?

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

43. - E9A09

What is antenna efficiency?

Select	Answer
A	Radiation resistance divided by transmission resistance
B	Total resistance divided by radiation resistance
C	Effective radiated power divided by transmitter output
D	Radiation resistance divided by total resistance

44. - E9B09

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

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

45. - E9C11

How is the far-field elevation pattern of a vertically polarized antenna affected by being mounted over seawater versus soil?

Select	Answer
A	The low-angle radiation increases
B	Fewer vertical angle lobes will be present
C	Additional higher vertical angle lobes will appear
D	The low-angle radiation decreases

46. - E9D02

How can linearly polarized Yagi antennas be used to produce circular polarization?

Select	Answer
A	Stack two Yagis fed in phase to form an array with the respective elements in parallel planes
B	Arrange two Yagis collinear to each other with the driven elements fed 180 degrees out of phase
C	Stack two Yagis fed 90 degrees out of phase to form an array with the respective elements in parallel planes
D	Arrange two Yagis perpendicular to each other with the driven elements at the same point on the boom fed 90 degrees out of phase

47. - E9E10

Which of these choices is an effective way to match an antenna with a 100-ohm feed point impedance to a 50-ohm coaxial cable feed line?

Select	Answer
A	Insert a 1/4-wavelength piece of 75-ohm coaxial cable transmission line in series between the antenna terminals and the 50-ohm feed cable
B	Connect a 1/2 wavelength shorted stub of 75-ohm cable in parallel with the 50-ohm cable where it attaches to the antenna
C	Insert a 1/2 wavelength piece of 300-ohm twinlead in series between the antenna terminals and the 50-ohm feed cable
D	Connect a 1/4-wavelength open stub of 300-ohm twinlead in parallel with the coaxial feed line where it connects to the antenna

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	An inductive reactance
D	A capacitive reactance

49. - E9G08

What is the process of normalization with regard to a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Reassigning prime center with regard to the reactance axis
B	Reassigning resistance values with regard to the reactance axis
C	Reassigning impedance values with regard to the prime center
D	Reassigning reactance values with regard to the resistance axis

50. - E9H04

What is an advantage of placing a grounded electrostatic shield around a small loop direction-finding antenna?

Select	Answer
A	It eliminates tracking errors caused by strong out-of-band signals
B	It eliminates unbalanced capacitive coupling to the surroundings, improving the nulls
C	It adds capacitive loading, increasing the bandwidth of the antenna
D	It increases signal strength by providing a better match to the feed line

Figure E7-2