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

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1. - E0A07

How may dangerous levels of carbon monoxide from an emergency generator be detected?

Select	Answer
A	By the odor
B	By the yellowish appearance of the gas
C	Any ordinary smoke detector can be used
D	Only with a carbon monoxide detector

2. - E1A01

Which of the following carrier frequencies is illegal for LSB AFSK emissions on the 17 meter band RTTY and data segment of 18.068 to 18.110 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	18.110 MHz
B	18.107 MHz
C	18.100 MHz
D	18.068 MHz

3. - E1B10

What frequencies are authorized to an amateur station operating under RACES rules?

Select	Answer
A	All amateur service frequencies authorized to the control operator
B	Specific segments in the amateur service MF, HF, VHF and UHF bands
C	Specific local government channels
D	Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) channels

4. - E1C14

How long must an operator wait after filing a notification with the Utilities Technology Council (UTC) before operating on the 2200 meter or 630 meter band?

Select	Answer
A	Operations may commence immediately, and may continue unless interference is reported by the UTC
B	Operators may operate after 30 days, providing they have not been told that their station is within 1 km of PLC systems using those frequencies
C	Operators may not operate until a test signal has been transmitted in coordination with the local power company
D	Operators must not operate until approval is received

5. - E1D02

Which of the following may transmit special codes intended to obscure the meaning of messages?

Select	Answer
A	Data containing personal information
B	Auxiliary relay links carrying repeater audio
C	Telecommand signals from a space telecommand station
D	Binary control characters

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	A person who has volunteered to prepare amateur operator license examinations
C	The person who has entered into an agreement with the FCC to be the VE session manager
D	A person who has volunteered to administer amateur operator license examinations

7. - E1F07

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

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

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. - E2B11

What is the function of the Vertical Interval Signaling (VIS) code sent as part of an SSTV transmission?

Select	Answer
A	To lock the color burst oscillator in color SSTV images
B	To identify the call sign of the station transmitting
C	To provide vertical synchronization
D	To identify the SSTV mode being used

10. - E2C07

What is the Cabrillo format?

Select	Answer
A	A standard for submission of electronic contest logs
B	The most common set of contest rules
C	The rules of order for meetings between contest sponsors
D	A method of exchanging information during a contest QSO

11. - E2D03

Which of the following digital modes is especially useful for EME communications?

Select	Answer
A	Olivia
B	JT65
C	MSK144
D	PACTOR III

12. - E2E02

What do the letters FEC mean as they relate to digital operation?

Select	Answer
A	Fatal Error Correction
B	First Error Correction
C	Forward Error Correction
D	Final Error Correction

13. - E3A06

What might help to restore contact when DX signals become too weak to copy across an entire HF band a few hours after sunset?

Select	Answer
A	Switch to a lower frequency HF band
B	Switch to a higher frequency HF band
C	Wait 24 hours before attempting another communication on the band
D	Wait 90 minutes or so for the signal degradation to pass

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. - E3C01

What does the radio communication term "ray tracing" describe?

Select	Answer
A	Determining the radiation pattern from an array of antennas
B	The process in which an electronic display presents a pattern
C	Evaluating high voltage sources for x-rays
D	Modeling a radio wave's path through the ionosphere

16. - E4A05

What is the purpose of the prescaler function on a frequency counter?

Select	Answer
A	It amplifies low-level signals for more accurate counting
B	It prevents oscillation in a low-frequency counter circuit
C	It multiplies a higher frequency signal so a low-frequency counter can display the operating frequency
D	It divides a higher frequency signal so a low-frequency counter can display the input frequency

17. - E4B03

Which S parameter is equivalent to forward gain?

Select	Answer
A	S12
B	S11
C	S21
D	S22

18. - E4C08

An SDR receiver is overloaded when input signals exceed what level?

Select	Answer
A	One-half the maximum sample rate
B	One-half the maximum sampling buffer size
C	The maximum count value of the analog-to-digital converter
D	The reference voltage of the analog-to-digital converter

19. - E4D11

Why are odd-order intermodulation products, created within a receiver, of particular interest compared to other products?

Select	Answer
A	Odd-order products of two signals in the band of interest are also likely to be within the band
B	Odd-order products overload the IF filters
C	Odd-order products are an indication of poor image rejection
D	Odd-order intermodulation produces three products for every input signal within the band of interest

20. - E4E03

Which of the following signals might a receiver noise blanker be able to remove from desired signals?

Select	Answer
A	Signals that appear at one IF but not another
B	Signals that have a sharply peaked frequency distribution
C	Signals that appear across a wide bandwidth
D	Signals that are constant at all IF levels

21. - E5A05

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

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

22. - E5B11

What is the phase angle between the voltage across and the current through a series RLC circuit if XC is 25 ohms, R is 100 ohms, and XL is 50 ohms?

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

23. - E5C11

Which point in Figure E5-1 best represents the impedance of a series circuit consisting of a 300-ohm resistor and an 18-microhenry inductor at 3.505 MHz?

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

24. - E5D02

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

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

25. - E6A05

How does DC input impedance at the gate of a field-effect transistor compare with the DC input impedance of a bipolar transistor?

Select	Answer
A	They are both high impedance
B	An FET has higher input impedance
C	An FET has lower input impedance
D	They are both low impedance

26. - E6B03

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

Select	Answer
A	Zero bias
B	Inductive bias
C	Reverse bias
D	Forward 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	The input switching threshold is about two times the power supply voltage
C	The input switching threshold is about one-half the power supply voltage
D	Large bypass capacitance is inherent

28. - E6D09

What devices are commonly used as VHF and UHF parasitic suppressors at the input and output terminals of a transistor HF amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	Steel-core toroids
B	Butterworth filters
C	Electrolytic capacitors
D	Ferrite beads

29. - E6E05

Which of the following noise figure values is typical of a low-noise UHF preamplifier?

Select	Answer
A	-10 dB
B	-20 dBm
C	2 dB
D	44 dBm

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

32. - E7B03

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

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

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 passive op-amp filter
D	A Chebyshev filter

34. - E7D09

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

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

35. - E7E03

What is a frequency discriminator stage in a FM receiver?

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

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 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. - E7G08

How does the gain of an ideal operational amplifier vary with frequency?

Select	Answer
A	It decreases linearly with increasing frequency
B	It decreases logarithmically with increasing frequency
C	It does not vary with frequency
D	It increases linearly with increasing frequency

38. - E7H08

Which of the following components can be used to reduce thermal drift in crystal oscillators?

Select	Answer
A	Non-inductive resistors
B	NP0 capacitors
C	Wirewound resistors
D	Toroidal inductors

39. - E8A07

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

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

40. - E8B01

What is the modulation index of an FM signal?

Select	Answer
A	The type of modulation used by the transmitter
B	The ratio of modulating signal amplitude to frequency deviation
C	The ratio of frequency deviation to modulating signal frequency
D	The bandwidth of the transmitted signal divided by the modulating signal frequency

41. - E8C10

How may data rate be increased without increasing bandwidth?

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

42. - E8D10

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

Select	Answer
A	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
B	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
C	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
D	Baudot uses 7 data bits per character, ASCII uses 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	Effective radiated power
B	Half-power bandwidth
C	Apparent power
D	Power factor

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	18 dB
C	24 dB
D	14 dB

45. - E9C09

Which of the following describes a G5RV antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A phased array antenna consisting of multiple loops
B	A wide band dipole using shorted coaxial cable for the radiating elements and fed with a�4:1 balun
C	A multi-band dipole antenna fed with coax and a balun through a selected length of open wire transmission line
D	A multi-band trap antenna

46. - E9D07

What is an advantage of using top loading in a shortened HF vertical antenna?

Select	Answer
A	Higher losses
B	Greater structural strength
C	Improved radiation efficiency
D	Lower Q

47. - E9E04

What is the purpose of the series capacitor in a gamma-type antenna matching network?

Select	Answer
A	To provide a rejection notch that prevents the radiation of harmonics
B	To provide DC isolation between the feed line and the antenna
C	To transform the antenna impedance to a higher value
D	To cancel the inductive reactance of the matching network

48. - E9F03

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

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

49. - E9G01

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

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

50. - E9H06

What is the triangulation method of direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	The geometric angles of sky waves from the source are used to determine its position
B	Antenna headings from several different receiving locations are used to locate the signal source
C	A fixed receiving station uses three different antennas to plot the location of the signal source
D	A fixed receiving station plots three headings to the signal source

Figure E5-1

Figure E9-1