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	Blood clotting from the intense magnetic field
D	Hearing loss caused by high voltage corona discharge

2. - E1A12

What special operating frequency restrictions are imposed on slow scan TV transmissions?

Select	Answer
A	They are restricted to phone band segments
B	They are restricted to 7.245 MHz, 14.245 MHz, 21.345 MHz, and 28.945 MHz
C	None; they are allowed on all amateur frequencies
D	They are not permitted above 54 MHz

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

4. - E1C03

How do the control operator responsibilities of a station under automatic control differ from one under local control?

Select	Answer
A	Under automatic control there is no control operator
B	Under automatic control the control operator is not required to be present at the control point
C	Under local control there is no control operator
D	Under local control a control operator is not required to be present at a control point

5. - E1D11

Which amateur stations are eligible to operate as Earth stations?

Select	Answer
A	Only those of General, Advanced or Amateur Extra Class operators
B	Any amateur station, subject to the privileges of the class of operator license held by the control operator
C	Only those of Amateur Extra Class operators
D	Any amateur station whose licensee has filed a pre-space notification with the FCC's International Bureau

6. - E1E07

What should a VE do if a candidate fails to comply with the examiner's instructions during an amateur operator license examination?

Select	Answer
A	Immediately terminate the candidate's examination
B	Allow the candidate to complete the examination, but invalidate the results
C	Immediately terminate everyone's examination and close the session
D	Warn the candidate that continued failure to comply will result in termination of the examination

7. - E1F08

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

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

8. - E2A11

What type of antenna can be used to minimize the effects of spin modulation and Faraday rotation?

Select	Answer
A	A linearly polarized antenna
B	A circularly polarized antenna
C	A log-periodic dipole array
D	An isotropic antenna

9. - E2B03

How is an interlaced scanning pattern generated in a fast-scan (NTSC) television system?

Select	Answer
A	By scanning odd numbered lines in one field and even numbered lines in the next
B	By scanning lines from left to right in one field and right to left in the next
C	By scanning each field from bottom to top
D	By scanning two fields simultaneously

10. - E2C12

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

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

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. - E2E04

What is indicated when one of the ellipses in an FSK crossed-ellipse display suddenly disappears?

Select	Answer
A	The mark and space signal have been inverted
B	The receiver has drifted 5 kHz from the desired receive frequency
C	Selective fading has occurred
D	One of the signal filters is saturated

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 F1 layer
C	The D layer
D	The F2 layer

14. - E3B05

Which amateur bands typically support long-path propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Only 30 meters to 10 meters
B	6 meters to 2 meters
C	160 meters to 10 meters
D	Only 160 meters to 40 meters

15. - E3C04

What does the value of Bz (B sub Z) represent?

Select	Answer
A	Direction and strength of the interplanetary magnetic field
B	Duration of long-delayed echoes
C	Critical frequency for vertical transmissions
D	Geomagnetic field stability

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 analyzer near the antenna base
C	Loosely couple the antenna and a dummy load to the analyzer
D	Connect the antenna feed line directly to the analyzer's connector

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	There is possibly a short to ground in the feed line
D	The transmitter is not properly neutralized

18. - E4C10

What is an advantage of having a variety of receiver IF bandwidths from which to select?

Select	Answer
A	The noise figure of the RF amplifier can be adjusted to match the modulation type, thus increasing receiver sensitivity
B	Receiver power consumption can be reduced when wider bandwidth is not required
C	Receive bandwidth can be set to match the modulation bandwidth, maximizing signal-to-noise ratio and minimizing interference
D	Multiple frequencies can be received simultaneously if desired

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 two signals which produce third-order intermodulation products greater than the noise floor
C	The minimum difference in dB between the levels of two FM signals that will cause one signal to block the other
D	The difference in dB between the noise floor and the third-order intercept point

20. - E4E11

What could cause local AM broadcast band signals to combine to generate spurious signals in the MF or HF bands?

Select	Answer
A	You are receiving skywave signals from a distant station
B	Nearby corroded metal joints are mixing and re-radiating the broadcast signals
C	One or more of the broadcast stations is transmitting an over-modulated signal
D	Your station receiver IF amplifier stage is defective

21. - E5A06

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

Select	Answer
A	It is at a minimum
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 equals 2 multiplied by pi, multiplied by frequency, multiplied by inductance

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	Take the reciprocal of the angle and change the sign of the magnitude
D	Square the magnitude and subtract 90 degrees from the angle

23. - E5C10

Which point on Figure E5-1 best represents the impedance of a series circuit consisting of a 400-ohm resistor and a 38-picofarad capacitor at 14 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	Point 5
B	Point 2
C	Point 4
D	Point 6

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	0.5
C	1.0
D	0.866

25. - E6A12

Why do many MOSFET devices have internally connected Zener diodes on the gates?

Select	Answer
A	To keep the gate voltage within specifications and prevent the device from overheating
B	To protect the substrate from excessive voltages
C	To reduce the chance of static damage to the gate
D	To provide a voltage reference for the correct amount of reverse-bias gate voltage

26. - E6B03

What type of bias is required for an LED to emit light?

Select	Answer
A	Forward bias
B	Zero bias
C	Reverse bias
D	Inductive bias

27. - E6C06

Why do CMOS digital integrated circuits have high immunity to noise on the input signal or power supply?

Select	Answer
A	Bandwidth is very limited
B	Large bypass capacitance is inherent
C	The input switching threshold is about one-half the power supply voltage
D	The input switching threshold is about two times the power supply voltage

28. - E6D05

What is one reason for using ferrite cores rather than powdered iron in an inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Ferrite toroids generally require fewer turns to produce a given inductance value
B	Ferrite toroids generally have better temperature stability
C	Ferrite toroids are easier to use with surface mount technology
D	Ferrite toroids generally have lower initial permeability

29. - E6E08

How is power supplied to the most common type of MMIC?

Select	Answer
A	Through a resistor and/or RF choke connected to the amplifier output lead
B	Directly to the bias voltage (VCC IN) lead
C	MMICs require no operating bias
D	Through a capacitor and RF choke connected to the amplifier input lead

30. - E6F10

What is the most common type of photovoltaic cell used for electrical power generation?

Select	Answer
A	Cadmium Sulfide
B	Selenium
C	Copper oxide
D	Silicon

31. - E7A07

What logical operation does a NAND gate perform?

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

32. - E7B13

Which of the following describes an emitter follower (or common collector) amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	A two-transistor amplifier with the emitters sharing a common bias resistor
B	A differential amplifier with both inputs fed to the emitter of the input transistor
C	An amplifier with a low impedance output that follows the base input voltage
D	An OR circuit with only one emitter used for output

33. - E7C05

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

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

34. - E7D13

What is the equation for calculating power dissipated by a series linear voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	Input voltage divided by output current
B	Input voltage multiplied by input current
C	Voltage difference from input to output multiplied by output current
D	Output voltage multiplied by output current

35. - E7E03

What is a frequency discriminator stage in a FM receiver?

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

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

37. - E7G07

What magnitude of voltage gain can be expected from the circuit in Figure E73 when R1 is 10 ohms and RF is 470 ohms?

Select	Answer
A	24
B	47
C	94
D	0.21

38. - E7H11

What are the major spectral impurity components of direct digital synthesizers?

Select	Answer
A	Spurious signals at discrete frequencies
B	Digital conversion noise
C	Broadband noise
D	Nyquist limit noise

39. - E8A07

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

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

40. - E8B04

What is the modulation index of an FM-phone signal having a maximum carrier deviation of plus or minus 6 kHz when modulated with a 2 kHz modulating frequency?

Select	Answer
A	3
B	1/3
C	2000
D	6000

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	Modulation index and output power
C	IF bandwidth and Q
D	All these choices are correct

42. - E8D09

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

Select	Answer
A	-20 dB
B	+15 dB
C	+10 dB
D	-30 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	159 watts
D	252 watts

44. - E9B03

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

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

45. - E9C04

What happens to the radiation pattern of an unterminated long wire antenna as the wire length is increased?

Select	Answer
A	The lobes align more in the direction of the wire
B	The front-to-back ratio decreases
C	The lobes become more perpendicular to the wire
D	The vertical angle increases

46. - E9D12

Which of the following would provide the best RF ground for your station?

Select	Answer
A	An electrically short connection to 3 or 4 interconnected ground rods driven into the Earth
B	An electrically short connection to a metal water pipe
C	A 50-ohm resistor connected to ground
D	An electrically short connection to 3 or 4 interconnected ground rods via a series RF choke

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 stub match
B	The epsilon match
C	The gamma match
D	The delta match

48. - E9F01

What is the velocity factor of a transmission line?

Select	Answer
A	The velocity of the wave in the transmission line divided by the velocity of light in a vacuum
B	The ratio of the characteristic impedance of the line to the terminating impedance
C	The velocity of the wave in the transmission line multiplied by the velocity of light in a vacuum
D	The index of shielding for coaxial cable

49. - E9G10

What do the arcs on a Smith chart represent?

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

50. - E9H05

What is the main drawback of a small wire-loop antenna for direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	It is practical for use only on VHF and higher bands
C	It has a bidirectional pattern
D	It has no clearly defined null

Figure E5-1

Figure E9-1