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

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1. - E0A08

What does SAR measure?

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

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

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

4. - E1C09

What is the highest modulation index permitted at the highest modulation frequency for angle modulation below 29.0 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	2.0
B	0.5
C	1.0
D	3.0

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

6. - E1E12

What must the VE team do with the application form if the examinee does not pass the exam?

Select	Answer
A	Maintain the application form with the VEC's records
B	Destroy the application form
C	Send the application form to the FCC and inform the FCC of the grade
D	Return the application document to the examinee

7. - E1F08

Which of the following types of amateur station communications are prohibited?

Select	Answer
A	Communications that have political content, except as allowed by the Fairness Doctrine
B	Communications in a language other than English
C	Communications transmitted for hire or material compensation, except as otherwise provided in the rules
D	Communications that have religious content

8. - E2A04

What is meant by the term mode? as applied to an amateur radio satellite?

Select	Answer
A	Whether the satellite is in a polar or equatorial orbit
B	Whether the satellite is in a low earth or geostationary orbit
C	The satellite's orientation with respect to the Earth
D	The satellite's uplink and downlink frequency bands

9. - E2B09

What hardware, other than a receiver with SSB capability and a suitable computer, is needed to decode SSTV using Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM)?

Select	Answer
A	A special front end limiter
B	A special notch filter to remove synchronization pulses
C	A special IF converter
D	No other hardware is needed

10. - E2C03

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

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

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

13. - E3A12

What is the cause of auroral activity?

Select	Answer
A	Meteor showers concentrated in the extreme northern and southern latitudes
B	An extreme low-pressure area in the polar regions
C	The interaction in the F2 layer between the solar wind and the Van Allen belt
D	The interaction in the E layer of charged particles from the Sun with the Earth's magnetic field

14. - E3B02

What is the approximate maximum range for signals using transequatorial propagation?

Select	Answer
A	7500 miles
B	1000 miles
C	2500 miles
D	5000 miles

15. - E3C07

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

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

16. - E4A11

How should an antenna analyzer be connected when measuring antenna resonance and feed point impedance?

Select	Answer
A	Connect the analyzer via a high-impedance transformer to the antenna
B	Loosely couple the antenna and a dummy load to the analyzer
C	Connect the antenna feed line directly to the analyzer's connector
D	Loosely couple the analyzer near the antenna base

17. - E4B04

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

Select	Answer
A	S21
B	S12
C	S22
D	S11

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

19. - E4D01

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

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

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	Broadband white noise
C	Ignition noise
D	All these choices are correct

21. - E5A06

What is the magnitude of the circulating current within the components of a parallel LC circuit at resonance?

Select	Answer
A	It equals 2 multiplied by pi, multiplied by frequency, multiplied by inductance
B	It equals 1 divided by the quantity 2 times pi, multiplied by the square root of inductance L multiplied by capacitance C
C	It is at a maximum
D	It is at a minimum

22. - E5B03

How is impedance in polar form converted to an equivalent admittance?

Select	Answer
A	Take the reciprocal of the magnitude and change the sign of the angle
B	Take the square root of the magnitude and add 180 degrees to the angle
C	Square the magnitude and subtract 90 degrees from the angle
D	Take the reciprocal of the angle and change the sign of the magnitude

23. - E5C05

What is the name of the diagram used to show the phase relationship between impedances at a given frequency?

Select	Answer
A	Far field diagram
B	Phasor diagram
C	Near field diagram
D	Venn diagram

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	600 watts
C	1000 watts
D	1600 watts

25. - E6A06

What is the beta of a bipolar junction transistor?

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

26. - E6B09

What is a common use for point-contact diodes?

Select	Answer
A	As a constant current source
B	As an RF detector
C	As a high-voltage rectifier
D	As a constant voltage source

27. - E6C08

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

Select	Answer
A	2
B	1
C	4
D	3

28. - E6D11

Which type of core material decreases inductance when inserted into a coil?

Select	Answer
A	Powdered iron
B	Ferrite
C	Ceramic
D	Brass

29. - E6E04

Which is the most common input and output impedance of circuits that use MMICs?

Select	Answer
A	50 ohms
B	10 ohms
C	300 ohms
D	450 ohms

30. - E6F08

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

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

31. - E7A02

What is the function of a decade counter?

Select	Answer
A	It decodes a binary number for display on a seven-segment LED display
B	It produces one output pulse for every 10 input pulses
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. - E7B01

For what portion of the signal cycle does each active element in a push-pull Class AB amplifier conduct?

Select	Answer
A	Less than 180 degrees
B	Exactly 180 degrees
C	More than 180 degrees but less than 360 degrees
D	The entire cycle

33. - E7C03

What advantage does a series-L Pi-L-network have over a series-L Pi-network for impedance matching between the final amplifier of a vacuum-tube transmitter and an antenna?

Select	Answer
A	Does not require a capacitor
B	Greater transformation range
C	Higher efficiency
D	Greater harmonic suppression

34. - E7D09

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

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

35. - E7E03

What is a frequency discriminator stage in a FM receiver?

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

36. - E7F01

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

Select	Answer
A	Incoming RF is converted to a control voltage for a voltage controlled oscillator
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	A switching mixer is used to generate I and Q signals directly from the RF input

37. - E7G06

What is the gain-bandwidth of an operational amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	The gain of the amplifier at a filter's cutoff frequency
B	The frequency at which the open-loop gain of the amplifier equals one
C	The frequency at which the amplifier's offset voltage is zero
D	The maximum frequency for a filter circuit using that type of amplifier

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

39. - E8A07

What determines the PEP-to-average power ratio of a single-sideband phone signal?

Select	Answer
A	Amplifier gain
B	The degree of carrier suppression
C	Speech characteristics
D	The frequency of the modulating signal

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 data streams share the same channel by transmitting time of transmission as the sub-carrier
C	Two or more signals are quadrature modulated to increase bandwidth efficiency
D	Two or more signals are arranged to share discrete time slots of a data transmission

41. - E8C10

How may data rate be increased without increasing bandwidth?

Select	Answer
A	Using forward error correction
B	Using a more efficient digital code
C	Increasing analog-to-digital conversion resolution
D	It is impossible

42. - E8D10

What are some of the differences between the Baudot digital code and ASCII?

Select	Answer
A	Baudot uses 5 data bits per character, ASCII uses 7 or 8; Baudot uses 2 characters as letters/figures shift codes, ASCII has no letters/figures shift code
B	Baudot uses 4 data bits per character, ASCII uses 7 or 8; Baudot uses 1 character as a letters/figures shift code, ASCII has no letters/figures code
C	Baudot uses 7 data bits per character, ASCII uses 8; Baudot has no letters/figures shift code, ASCII uses 2 letters/figures shift codes
D	Baudot uses 6 data bits per character, ASCII uses 7 or 8; Baudot has no letters/figures shift code, ASCII uses 2 letters/figures shift codes

43. - E9A13

What term describes station output, taking into account all gains and losses?

Select	Answer
A	Apparent power
B	Power factor
C	Half-power bandwidth
D	Effective radiated power

44. - E9B03

In the antenna radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-1, what is the front-to-side ratio?

Select	Answer
A	18 dB
B	14 dB
C	24 dB
D	12 dB

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

46. - E9D10

What happens to feed-point impedance at the base of a fixed length HF mobile antenna when operated below its resonant frequency?

Select	Answer
A	The radiation resistance increases and the capacitive reactance decreases
B	The radiation resistance increases and the capacitive reactance increases
C	The radiation resistance decreases and the capacitive reactance increases
D	The radiation resistance decreases and the capacitive reactance decreases

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 1/2 wavelength piece of 300-ohm twinlead in series between the antenna terminals and the 50-ohm feed cable
B	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
C	Connect a 1/2 wavelength shorted stub of 75-ohm cable in parallel with the 50-ohm cable where it attaches to the antenna
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. - E9F08

Which of the following is a significant difference between foam dielectric coaxial cable and solid dielectric cable, assuming all other parameters are the same?

Select	Answer
A	Foam dielectric has lower safe operating voltage limits
B	Foam dielectric has lower loss per unit of length
C	Foam dielectric has higher velocity factor
D	All these choices are correct

49. - E9G01

Which of the following can be calculated using a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Radiation resistance
B	Radio propagation
C	Antenna radiation pattern
D	Impedance along transmission lines

50. - E9H11

What feature of a cardioid pattern antenna makes it useful for direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	A very sharp peak
B	Broadband response
C	A very sharp single null
D	High radiation angle

Figure E6-3

Figure E9-1