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

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1. - E0A05

What is one of the potential hazards of operating in the amateur radio microwave bands?

Select	Answer
A	The extremely high frequency energy can damage the joints of antenna structures
B	Microwaves are ionizing radiation
C	The high gain antennas commonly used can result in high exposure levels
D	Microwaves often travel long distances by ionospheric reflection

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	14.149 MHz
D	14.100 MHz

3. - E1B07

To what type of regulations does PRB-1 apply?

Select	Answer
A	Homeowners associations
B	FAA tower height limits
C	State and local zoning
D	Use of wireless devices in vehicles

4. - E1C08

What is the maximum permissible duration of a remotely controlled station's transmissions if its control link malfunctions?

Select	Answer
A	5 minutes
B	10 minutes
C	3 minutes
D	30 seconds

5. - E1D06

What is the maximum permitted transmitter output power when operating a model craft by telecommand?

Select	Answer
A	5 watts
B	100 watts
C	1 watt
D	2 watts

6. - E1E03

What is a Volunteer Examiner Coordinator?

Select	Answer
A	An organization that has entered into an agreement with the FCC to coordinate, prepare, and administer amateur operator license examinations
B	The person who has entered into an agreement with the FCC to be the VE session manager
C	A person who has volunteered to administer amateur operator license examinations
D	A person who has volunteered to prepare amateur operator license examinations

7. - E1F07

When may an amateur station send a message to a business?

Select	Answer
A	When the total money involved does not exceed $25
B	When neither the amateur nor his or her employer has a pecuniary interest in the communications
C	When transmitting international third-party communications
D	When the control operator is employed by the FCC or another government agency

8. - E2A02

Which of the following occurs when a satellite is using an inverting linear transponder?

Select	Answer
A	Upper sideband on the uplink becomes lower sideband on the downlink, and vice versa
B	All these choices are correct
C	Signal position in the band is reversed
D	Doppler shift is reduced because the uplink and downlink shifts are in opposite directions

9. - E2B03

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

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

10. - E2C04

Which of the following frequencies are sometimes used for amateur radio mesh networks?

Select	Answer
A	HF frequencies where digital communications are permitted
B	Cable TV channels 41 through 43
C	Frequencies shared with various unlicensed wireless data services
D	The 60 meter band channel centered on 5373 kHz

11. - E2D02

Which of the following is a good technique for making meteor scatter contacts?

Select	Answer
A	Use of special digital modes
B	15-second timed transmission sequences with stations alternating based on location
C	All these choices are correct
D	Short transmissions with rapidly repeated call signs and signal reports

12. - E2E13

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

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

13. - E3A07

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

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

14. - E3B10

Why is chordal hop propagation desirable?

Select	Answer
A	The MUF for chordal hop propagation is much lower than for normal skip propagation
B	The signal experiences less loss compared to multi-hop using Earth as a reflector
C	Signals travel faster along ionospheric chords
D	Atmospheric noise is lower in the direction of chordal hop propagation

15. - E3C02

What is indicated by a rising A or K index?

Select	Answer
A	Increasing disruption of the geomagnetic field
B	An increase in the critical frequency
C	Higher levels of solar UV radiation
D	Decreasing disruption of the geomagnetic field

16. - E4A10

Which of the following displays multiple digital signal states simultaneously?

Select	Answer
A	Network analyzer
B	Bit error rate tester
C	Logic analyzer
D	Modulation monitor

17. - E4B08

Which of the following can be used to measure the Q of a series-tuned circuit?

Select	Answer
A	The resonant frequency of the circuit
B	The frequency shift
C	The bandwidth of the circuit's frequency response
D	The inductance to capacitance ratio

18. - E4C15

What is reciprocal mixing?

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

19. - E4D10

What does a third-order intercept level of 40 dBm mean with respect to receiver performance?

Select	Answer
A	A pair of 40 dBm input signals will theoretically generate a third-order intermodulation product that has the same output amplitude as either of the input signals
B	Signals less than 40 dBm will not generate audible third-order intermodulation products
C	A pair of 1 mW input signals will produce a third-order intermodulation product that is 40 dB stronger than the input signal
D	The receiver can tolerate signals up to 40 dB above the noise floor without producing third-order intermodulation products

20. - E4E07

Which of the following can cause shielded cables to radiate or receive interference?

Select	Answer
A	Low inductance ground connections at both ends of the shield
B	Tying all ground connections to a common point resulting in differential-mode currents in the shield
C	Use of braided shielding material
D	Common-mode currents on the shield and conductors

21. - E5A05

What is the result of increasing the Q of an impedance-matching circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Matching bandwidth is increased
B	Matching range is increased
C	Matching bandwidth is decreased
D	It has no effect on impedance matching

22. - E5B08

What is the phase angle between the voltage across and the current through a series RLC circuit if XC is 100 ohms, R is 100 ohms, and XL is 75 ohms?

Select	Answer
A	76 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
B	76 degrees with the voltage leading the current
C	14 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
D	14 degrees with the voltage leading the current

23. - E5C03

Which of the following represents an inductive reactance in polar coordinates?

Select	Answer
A	A positive magnitude
B	A positive phase angle
C	A negative magnitude
D	A negative phase angle

24. - E5D02

Why is it important to keep lead lengths short for components used in circuits for VHF and above?

Select	Answer
A	To avoid unwanted inductive reactance
B	To maintain component lifetime
C	All these choices are correct
D	To increase the thermal time constant

25. - E6A01

In what application is gallium arsenide used as a semiconductor material?

Select	Answer
A	In very low-frequency RF circuits
B	In microwave circuits
C	In high-power audio circuits
D	In high-current rectifier circuits

26. - E6B08

Which of the following is a Schottky barrier diode?

Select	Answer
A	PIN junction
B	Thermionic emission diode
C	Electrolytic rectifier
D	Metal-semiconductor junction

27. - E6C10

In Figure E6-3, what is the schematic symbol for a NOR gate?

Select	Answer
A	2
B	3
C	1
D	4

28. - E6D07

What is current in the primary winding of a transformer called if no load is attached to the secondary?

Select	Answer
A	Magnetizing current
B	Excitation current
C	Stabilizing current
D	Direct current

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. - E6F09

What is the efficiency of a photovoltaic cell?

Select	Answer
A	Cost per kilowatt-hour generated
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	The relative fraction of light that is converted to current

31. - E7A04

How many flip-flops are required to divide a signal frequency by 4?

Select	Answer
A	4
B	2
C	1
D	8

32. - E7B08

How can an RF power amplifier be neutralized?

Select	Answer
A	By reducing the driving power
B	By feeding a 180-degree out-of-phase portion of the output back to the input
C	By increasing the driving power
D	By feeding an in-phase component of the output back to the input

33. - E7C06

What are the distinguishing features of an elliptical filter?

Select	Answer
A	Gradual passband rolloff with extreme stop band ripple
B	Extremely sharp cutoff with one or more notches in the stop band
C	Gradual passband rolloff with minimal stop band ripple
D	Extremely flat response over its pass band with gradually rounded stop band corners

34. - E7D11

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

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

35. - E7E11

Which type of detector circuit is used for demodulating SSB signals?

Select	Answer
A	Discriminator
B	Phase comparator
C	Product detector
D	Phase detector

36. - E7F09

Why is an anti-aliasing digital filter required in a digital decimator?

Select	Answer
A	It removes low-frequency signal components to eliminate the need for DC restoration
B	It peaks the response of the decimator, improving bandwidth
C	It removes high-frequency signal components that would otherwise be reproduced as lower frequency components
D	It notches out the sampling frequency to avoid sampling errors

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	0.21
B	24
C	94
D	47

38. - E7H10

What information is contained in the lookup table of a direct digital synthesizer (DDS)?

Select	Answer
A	Amplitude values that represent the desired waveform
B	Frequently used receiver and transmitter frequencies
C	The phase relationship between a voltage-controlled oscillator and the output waveform
D	The phase relationship between a reference oscillator and the output waveform

39. - E8A11

Which of the following is a measure of the quality of an analog-to-digital converter?

Select	Answer
A	Reciprocal mixing
B	Power factor
C	Total harmonic distortion
D	Peak envelope power

40. - E8B02

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

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

41. - E8C12

What factors affect the bandwidth of a transmitted CW signal?

Select	Answer
A	Modulation index and output power
B	Keying speed and shape factor (rise and fall time)
C	All these choices are correct
D	IF bandwidth and Q

42. - E8D06

What is the advantage of including parity bits in ASCII characters?

Select	Answer
A	Foreign language characters can be sent
B	The signal can overpower interfering signals
C	Some types of errors can be detected
D	Faster transmission rate

43. - E9A05

What is included in the total resistance of an antenna system?

Select	Answer
A	Transmission-line resistance plus radiation resistance
B	Radiation resistance plus transmission resistance
C	Radiation resistance plus loss resistance
D	Radiation resistance plus space impedance

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

45. - E9C05

Which of the following is a type of OCFD antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A multiband dipole antenna using one-way circular polarization for frequency diversity
B	A dipole fed approximately 1/3 the way from one end with a 4:1 balun to provide multiband operation
C	A remotely tunable dipole antenna using orthogonally controlled frequency diversity
D	A folded dipole center-fed with 300-ohm transmission line

46. - E9D08

What happens as the Q of an antenna increases?

Select	Answer
A	SWR bandwidth decreases
B	More common-mode current is present on the feed line
C	SWR bandwidth increases
D	Gain is reduced

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	Insert a 1/2 wavelength piece of 300-ohm twinlead 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. - E9F06

What is the approximate physical length of an air-insulated, parallel conductor transmission line that is electrically 1/2 wavelength long at 14.10 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	10.6 meters
B	13.3 meters
C	8.5 meters
D	7.0 meters

49. - E9G04

What are the two families of circles and arcs that make up a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Resistance and voltage
B	Resistance and reactance
C	Voltage and impedance
D	Reactance and voltage

50. - E9H11

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

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

Figure E6-3