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

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1. - E0A06

Why are there separate electric (E) and magnetic (H) field MPE limits?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	Ground reflections and scattering make the field strength vary with location
C	E field and H field radiation intensity peaks can occur at different locations
D	The body reacts to electromagnetic radiation from both the E and H fields

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	14.149 MHz
B	14.070 MHz
C	14.349 MHz
D	14.100 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 cease operation on all frequencies above 30 MHz
B	The amateur station must cease operation
C	The amateur station must cease operation on all frequencies below 30 MHz
D	The amateur station must avoid transmitting during certain hours on frequencies that cause the interference

4. - E1C13

What notifications must be given before transmitting on the 630 meter or 2200 meter bands?

Select	Answer
A	Operators must inform the FAA of their intent to operate, giving their call sign and distance to the nearest runway
B	Operators must inform the Utilities Technology Council (UTC) of their call sign and coordinates of the station
C	A special endorsement must be requested from the FCC
D	An environmental impact statement must be filed with the Department of the Interior

5. - E1D10

Which amateur stations are eligible to be telecommand stations of space stations (subject to the privileges of the class of operator license held by the control operator of the station)?

Select	Answer
A	Any amateur station so designated by the ITU
B	Any amateur station so designated by the space station licensee
C	All these choices are correct
D	Any amateur station designated by NASA

6. - E1E06

Who is responsible for the proper conduct and necessary supervision during an amateur operator license examination session?

Select	Answer
A	Each administering VE
B	The VE session manager
C	The FCC
D	The VEC coordinating the session

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 that have religious content
C	Communications transmitted for hire or material compensation, except as otherwise provided in the rules
D	Communications in a language other than English

8. - E2A04

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

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

9. - E2B06

What is vestigial sideband modulation?

Select	Answer
A	Narrow-band FM modulation achieved by filtering one sideband from the audio before frequency modulating the carrier
B	A type of modulation in which one sideband is inverted
C	Spread spectrum modulation achieved by applying FM modulation following single sideband amplitude modulation
D	Amplitude modulation in which one complete sideband and a portion of the other are transmitted

10. - E2C03

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

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

11. - E2D08

What type of packet frame is used to transmit APRS beacon data?

Select	Answer
A	Acknowledgement
B	Disconnect
C	Connect
D	Unnumbered Information

12. - E2E09

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

Select	Answer
A	PSK31
B	PACTOR
C	RTTY
D	MT63

13. - E3A12

What is the cause of auroral activity?

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

14. - E3B11

At what time of day can sporadic E propagation occur?

Select	Answer
A	Only around sunset
B	Only in hours of darkness
C	Only around sunset and sunrise
D	Any time

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	Geomagnetic field stability
D	Critical frequency for vertical transmissions

16. - E4A09

Which of the following is good practice when using an oscilloscope probe?

Select	Answer
A	Never use a DC-coupled probe to measure an AC circuit
B	Keep the signal ground connection of the probe as short as possible
C	All these choices are correct
D	Never use a high-impedance probe to measure a low-impedance circuit

17. - E4B07

What do the subscripts of S parameters represent?

Select	Answer
A	The relative time between measurements
B	Frequency order of the measurements
C	Relative quality of the data
D	The port or ports at which measurements are made

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	Easier for front-end circuitry to eliminate image responses
D	Improved receiver noise figure

19. - E4D08

What causes intermodulation in an electronic circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Positive feedback
B	Too little gain
C	Nonlinear circuits or devices
D	Lack of neutralization

20. - E4E06

What is one type of electrical interference that might be caused by a nearby personal computer?

Select	Answer
A	A loud AC hum in the audio output of your station receiver
B	A whining type noise that continually pulses off and on
C	The appearance of unstable modulated or unmodulated signals at specific frequencies
D	A clicking noise at intervals of a few seconds

21. - E5A11

What is the half-power bandwidth of a resonant circuit that has a resonant frequency of 7.1 MHz and a Q of 150?

Select	Answer
A	157.8 Hz
B	315.6 Hz
C	47.3 kHz
D	23.67 kHz

22. - E5B05

What happens to the magnitude of a pure reactance when it is converted to a susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	It is unchanged
B	It becomes the reciprocal
C	It is shifted by 90 degrees
D	The sign is reversed

23. - E5C06

What does the impedance 50-j25 represent?

Select	Answer
A	25 ohms resistance in series with 50 ohms inductive reactance
B	50 ohms resistance in series with 25 ohms inductive reactance
C	25 ohms resistance in series with 50 ohms capacitive reactance
D	50 ohms resistance in series with 25 ohms capacitive reactance

24. - E5D09

What happens to reactive power in an AC circuit that has both ideal inductors and ideal capacitors?

Select	Answer
A	It is dissipated as kinetic energy in the circuit
B	It is repeatedly exchanged between the associated magnetic and electric fields, but is not dissipated
C	It is dissipated as heat in the circuit
D	It is dissipated in the formation of inductive and capacitive fields

25. - E6A11

In Figure E6-1, what is the schematic symbol for a P-channel junction FET?

Select	Answer
A	6
B	2
C	3
D	1

26. - E6B01

What is the most useful characteristic of a Zener diode?

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

27. - E6C10

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

Select	Answer
A	4
B	2
C	3
D	1

28. - E6D03

Which of the following is an aspect of the piezoelectric effect?

Select	Answer
A	Generation of electrical energy in the presence of light
B	Mechanical deformation of material by the application of a voltage
C	Mechanical deformation of material by the application of a magnetic field
D	Increased conductivity in the presence of light

29. - E6E04

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

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

30. - E6F01

What absorbs the energy from light falling on a photovoltaic cell?

Select	Answer
A	Photons
B	Electrons
C	Protons
D	Holes

31. - E7A04

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

Select	Answer
A	2
B	4
C	8
D	1

32. - E7B03

Which of the following components form the output of a class D amplifier circuit?

Select	Answer
A	A high-pass filter to compensate for low gain at low frequencies
B	A low-pass filter to remove switching signal components
C	A matched load resistor to prevent damage by switching transients
D	A temperature compensating load resistor to improve linearity

33. - E7C09

What is a crystal lattice filter?

Select	Answer
A	A filter using lattice-shaped quartz crystals for high-Q performance
B	A power supply filter made with interlaced quartz crystals
C	An audio filter made with four quartz crystals that resonate at 1 kHz intervals
D	A filter with narrow bandwidth and steep skirts made using quartz crystals

34. - E7D03

What device is typically used as a stable voltage reference in a linear voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	An SCR
B	A tunnel diode
C	A Zener diode
D	A varactor diode

35. - E7E03

What is a frequency discriminator stage in a FM receiver?

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

36. - E7F09

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

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

37. - E7G04

What is meant by the "op-amp input offset voltage"?

Select	Answer
A	The output voltage of the op-amp minus its input voltage
B	The differential input voltage needed to bring the open loop output voltage to zero
C	The difference between the output voltage of the op-amp and the input voltage required in the immediately following stage
D	The potential between the amplifier input terminals of the op-amp in an open loop condition

38. - E7H10

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

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

39. - E8A08

Why would a direct or flash conversion analog-to-digital converter be useful for a software defined radio?

Select	Answer
A	Very low power consumption decreases frequency drift
B	All these choices are correct
C	Immunity to out-of-sequence coding reduces spurious responses
D	Very high speed allows digitizing high frequencies

40. - E8B09

What is deviation ratio?

Select	Answer
A	The ratio of the carrier center frequency to the audio modulating frequency
B	The ratio of the highest audio modulating frequency to the average audio modulating frequency
C	The ratio of the audio modulating frequency to the center carrier frequency
D	The ratio of the maximum carrier frequency deviation to the highest audio modulating frequency

41. - E8C01

How is Forward Error Correction implemented?

Select	Answer
A	By transmitting a special algorithm to the receiving station along with the data characters
B	By the receiving station repeating each block of three data characters
C	By varying the frequency shift of the transmitted signal according to a predefined algorithm
D	By transmitting extra data that may be used to detect and correct transmission errors

42. - E8D09

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

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

43. - E9A06

What is the effective radiated power relative to a dipole of a repeater station with 200 watts transmitter power output, 4 dB feed line loss, 3.2 dB duplexer loss, 0.8 dB circulator loss, and 10 dBd antenna gain?

Select	Answer
A	317 watts
B	2000 watts
C	126 watts
D	300 watts

44. - E9B10

What is the principle of a Method of Moments analysis?

Select	Answer
A	A wire is modeled as a series of segments, each having a uniform value of current
B	A wire is modeled as a single sine-wave current generator
C	A wire is modeled as a single sine-wave voltage source
D	A wire is modeled as a series of segments, each having a distinct value of voltage across it

45. - E9C12

Which of the following describes an Extended Double Zepp antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A center-fed 1.25-wavelength antenna (two 5/8-wave elements in phase)
B	An end-fed folded dipole antenna
C	A wideband vertical antenna constructed from precisely tapered aluminum tubing
D	A portable antenna erected using two push support poles

46. - E9D05

What usually occurs if a Yagi antenna is designed solely for maximum forward gain?

Select	Answer
A	The front-to-back ratio increases
B	The SWR is reduced
C	The frequency response is widened over the whole frequency band
D	The front-to-back ratio decreases

47. - E9E11

What is the primary purpose of phasing lines when used with an antenna having multiple driven elements?

Select	Answer
A	It allows single-band antennas to operate on other bands
B	It ensures that each driven element operates in concert with the others to create the desired antenna pattern
C	It prevents reflected power from traveling back down the feed line and causing harmonic radiation from the transmitter
D	It creates a low-angle radiation pattern

48. - E9F05

What is the approximate physical length of a solid polyethylene dielectric coaxial transmission line that is electrically 1/4 wavelength long at 14.1 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	3.5 meters
B	10.6 meters
C	4.3 meters
D	5.3 meters

49. - E9G02

What type of coordinate system is used in a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Resistance lines and reactance chords
B	Resistance circles and reactance arcs
C	Voltage lines and current chords
D	Voltage circles and current arcs

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

Figure E6-1

Figure E6-3