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

2. - E1A12

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

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

3. - E1B04

What must be done before placing an amateur station within an officially designated wilderness area or wildlife preserve, or an area listed in the National Register of Historic Places?

Select	Answer
A	A proposal must be submitted to the National Park Service
B	An Environmental Assessment must be submitted to the FCC
C	A letter of intent must be filed with the Environmental Protection Agency
D	A form FSD-15 must be submitted to the Department of the Interior

4. - E1C01

What is the maximum bandwidth for a data emission on 60 meters?

Select	Answer
A	170 Hz
B	60 Hz
C	2.8 kHz
D	1.5 kHz

5. - E1D05

What must be posted at the station location of a station being operated by telecommand on or within 50 km of the earth's surface?

Select	Answer
A	A label with the name, address, and telephone number of the control operator
B	A photocopy of the station license
C	All these choices are correct
D	A label with the name, address, and telephone number of the station licensee

6. - E1E09

What may be the penalty for a VE who fraudulently administers or certifies an examination?

Select	Answer
A	Revocation of the VE's amateur station license grant and the suspension of the VE's amateur operator license grant
B	All these choices are correct
C	A sentence of up to one year in prison
D	A fine of up to $1000 per occurrence

7. - E1F05

Amateur stations may not transmit in which of the following frequency segments if they are located in the contiguous 48 states and north of Line A?

Select	Answer
A	222 MHz - 223 MHz
B	53 MHz - 54 MHz
C	440 MHz - 450 MHz
D	420 MHz - 430 MHz

8. - E2A02

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

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

9. - E2B12

What signals SSTV receiving software to begin a new picture line?

Select	Answer
A	Specific tone amplitudes
B	A two-tone signal
C	Specific tone frequencies
D	Elapsed time

10. - E2C08

Which of the following contacts may be confirmed through the U.S. QSL bureau system?

Select	Answer
A	Special event contacts between stations in the U.S.
B	Contacts using tactical call signs
C	Repeater contacts between U.S. club members
D	Contacts between a U.S. station and a non-U.S. station

11. - E2D05

What is one advantage of the JT65 mode?

Select	Answer
A	Permits fast-scan TV transmissions over narrow bandwidth
B	The ability to decode signals which have a very low signal-to-noise ratio
C	Uses only a 65 Hz bandwidth
D	Easily copied by ear if necessary

12. - E2E12

How do ALE stations establish contact?

Select	Answer
A	ALE radios activate when they hear their signal echoed by back scatter
B	ALE constantly scans a list of frequencies, activating the radio when the designated call sign is received
C	ALE radios monitor an internet site for the frequency they are being paged on
D	ALE radios send a constant tone code to establish a frequency for future use

13. - E3A13

Which of these emission modes is best for auroral propagation?

Select	Answer
A	FM
B	SSB
C	RTTY
D	CW

14. - E3B06

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

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

15. - E3C12

How does the maximum range of ground-wave propagation change when the signal frequency is increased?

Select	Answer
A	It peaks at roughly 14 MHz
B	It decreases
C	It stays the same
D	It increases

16. - E4A07

Which of the following is an advantage of using an antenna analyzer compared to an SWR bridge to measure antenna SWR?

Select	Answer
A	Antenna analyzers do not need an external RF source
B	Antenna analyzers automatically tune your antenna for resonance
C	Antenna analyzers display a time-varying representation of the modulation envelope
D	All these choices are correct

17. - E4B11

Which of the following can be measured with a vector network analyzer?

Select	Answer
A	Reflection coefficient
B	Input impedance
C	Output impedance
D	All these choices are correct

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

19. - E4D07

Which of the following reduces the likelihood of receiver desensitization?

Select	Answer
A	Decrease the RF bandwidth of the receiver
B	Raise the receiver IF frequency
C	Switch from fast AGC to slow AGC
D	Increase the receiver front end gain

20. - E4E08

What current flows equally on all conductors of an unshielded multi-conductor cable?

Select	Answer
A	Reactive current only
B	Return current
C	Differential-mode current
D	Common-mode current

21. - E5A15

Which of the following increases Q for inductors and capacitors?

Select	Answer
A	Higher self-resonant frequency
B	Lower self-resonant frequency
C	Lower reactance
D	Lower losses

22. - E5B06

What is susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	A measure of the efficiency of a transformer
B	The magnetic impedance of a circuit
C	The imaginary part of admittance
D	The ratio of magnetic field to electric field

23. - E5C12

Which point on Figure E5-1 best represents the impedance of a series circuit consisting of a 300-ohm resistor and a 19-picofarad capacitor at 21.200 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	Point 1
B	Point 8
C	Point 3
D	Point 7

24. - E5D13

How many watts are consumed in a circuit consisting of a 100-ohm resistor in series with a 100-ohm inductive reactance drawing 1 ampere?

Select	Answer
A	70.7 watts
B	100 watts
C	141.4 watts
D	200 watts

25. - E6A09

What is a depletion-mode FET?

Select	Answer
A	Any FET for which holes are the majority carriers
B	Any FET without a channel
C	An FET that has no current flow between source and drain when no gate voltage is applied
D	An FET that exhibits a current flow between source and drain when no gate voltage is applied

26. - E6B06

Which of the following is a common use of a Schottky diode?

Select	Answer
A	As a rectifier in high current power supplies
B	As a constant voltage reference in a power supply
C	As a variable capacitance in an automatic frequency control circuit
D	As a VHF/UHF mixer or detector

27. - E6C02

What happens when the level of a comparator's input signal crosses the threshold?

Select	Answer
A	The comparator changes its output state
B	The feedback loop becomes unstable
C	The comparator enters latch-up
D	The IC input can be damaged

28. - E6D08

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

Select	Answer
A	Powdered-iron cores generally maintain their characteristics at higher currents
B	Powdered-iron cores generally have greater initial permeability
C	Powdered-iron cores generally require fewer turns to produce a given inductance
D	Powdered-iron cores use smaller diameter wire for the same inductance

29. - E6E06

What characteristics of the MMIC make it a popular choice for VHF through microwave circuits?

Select	Answer
A	The ability to retrieve information from a single signal even in the presence of other strong signals
B	Plate current that is controlled by a control grid
C	Nearly infinite gain, very high input impedance, and very low output impedance
D	Controlled gain, low noise figure, and constant input and output impedance over the specified frequency range

30. - E6F01

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

Select	Answer
A	Photons
B	Electrons
C	Holes
D	Protons

31. - E7A09

What logical operation is performed by an exclusive NOR gate?

Select	Answer
A	It produces logic 1 at its output only if all inputs are logic 1
B	It produces logic 0 at its output if only one input is logic 1
C	It produces logic 0 at its output only if all inputs are logic 0
D	It produces logic 1 at its output if only one input is logic 1

32. - E7B03

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

Select	Answer
A	A low-pass filter to remove switching signal components
B	A high-pass filter to compensate for low gain at low frequencies
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 power supply filter made with interlaced quartz crystals
B	A filter with narrow bandwidth and steep skirts made using quartz crystals
C	A filter using lattice-shaped quartz crystals for high-Q performance
D	An audio filter made with four quartz crystals that resonate at 1 kHz intervals

34. - E7D03

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

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

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. - E7F07

What function is performed by a Fast Fourier Transform?

Select	Answer
A	Converting 8-bit data to 16-bit data
B	Converting analog signals to digital form
C	Converting digital signals to analog form
D	Converting digital signals from the time domain to the frequency domain

37. - E7G01

What is the typical output impedance of an op-amp?

Select	Answer
A	100 ohms
B	Very low
C	Very high
D	1000 ohms

38. - E7H13

Which of the following is a technique for providing highly accurate and stable oscillators needed for microwave transmission and reception?

Select	Answer
A	Use a GPS signal reference
B	Use a temperature-controlled high Q dielectric resonator
C	Use a rubidium stabilized reference oscillator
D	All these choices are correct

39. - E8A01

What is the name of the process that shows that a square wave is made up of a sine wave plus all its odd harmonics?

Select	Answer
A	Differential analysis
B	Vector analysis
C	Numerical analysis
D	Fourier analysis

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	6000
B	2000
C	1/3
D	3

41. - E8C12

What factors affect the bandwidth of a transmitted CW signal?

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

42. - E8D08

What parameter evaluates distortion of an AFSK signal caused by excessive input audio levels?

Select	Answer
A	Repeat Request Rate (RRR)
B	Intermodulation Distortion (IMD)
C	Signal-to-noise ratio
D	Baud rate

43. - E9A04

Which of the following factors affect the feed point impedance of an antenna?

Select	Answer
A	Antenna height
B	Transmission line length
C	The input power level
D	The settings of an antenna tuner at the transmitter

44. - E9B03

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

Select	Answer
A	14 dB
B	18 dB
C	24 dB
D	12 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 lobes become more perpendicular to the wire
C	The front-to-back ratio decreases
D	The vertical angle increases

46. - E9D09

What is the function of a loading coil used as part of an HF mobile antenna?

Select	Answer
A	To lower the Q
B	To lower the losses
C	To cancel capacitive reactance
D	To increase the SWR bandwidth

47. - E9E08

What is a use for a Wilkinson divider?

Select	Answer
A	It divides the operating frequency of a transmitter signal so it can be used on a lower frequency band
B	It is used to feed low-impedance loads from a high-impedance source
C	It is used to feed high-impedance antennas from a low-impedance source
D	It is used to divide power equally between two 50-ohm loads while maintaining 50-ohm input impedance

48. - E9F03

Why is the physical length of a coaxial cable transmission line shorter than its electrical length?

Select	Answer
A	Skin effect is less pronounced in the coaxial cable
B	The characteristic impedance is higher in a parallel feed line
C	Electrical signals move more slowly in a coaxial cable than in air
D	The surge impedance is higher in a parallel feed line

49. - E9G07

On the Smith chart shown in Figure E9-3, what is the only straight line shown?

Select	Answer
A	The resistance axis
B	The voltage axis
C	The current axis
D	The reactance axis

50. - E9H11

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

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

Figure E5-1

Figure E9-1

Figure E9-3