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

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1. - E0A09

Which insulating material commonly used as a thermal conductor for some types of electronic devices is extremely toxic if broken or crushed and the particles are accidentally inhaled?

Select	Answer
A	Mica
B	Uranium Hexafluoride
C	Beryllium Oxide
D	Zinc oxide

2. - E1A02

When using a transceiver that displays the carrier frequency of phone signals, which of the following displayed frequencies represents the lowest frequency at which a properly adjusted LSB emission will be totally within the band?

Select	Answer
A	3 kHz above the lower band edge
B	The exact lower band edge
C	300 Hz above the lower band edge
D	1 kHz above the lower band edge

3. - E1B07

To what type of regulations does PRB-1 apply?

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

4. - E1C06

Which of the following is required in order to operate in accordance with CEPT rules in foreign countries where permitted?

Select	Answer
A	You must bring a copy of FCC Public Notice DA 16-1048
B	You must append "/CEPT" to your call sign
C	The U.S. embassy must approve of your operation
D	You must identify in the official language of the country in which you are operating

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

6. - E1E08

To which of the following examinees may a VE not administer an examination?

Select	Answer
A	Relatives of the VE as listed in the FCC rules
B	All these choices are correct
C	Employees of the VE
D	Friends of the VE

7. - E1F03

Under what circumstances may a dealer sell an external RF power amplifier capable of operation below 144 MHz if it has not been granted FCC certification?

Select	Answer
A	It was imported from a manufacturer in another country and was certificated by that country's government
B	It was purchased in used condition from an amateur operator and is sold to another amateur operator for use at that operator's station
C	The equipment dealer assembled it from a kit
D	It was imported from a manufacturer in a country that does not require certification of RF power amplifiers

8. - E2A08

Why should effective radiated power to a satellite that uses a linear transponder be limited?

Select	Answer
A	To avoid reducing the downlink power to all other users
B	To prevent creating errors in the satellite telemetry
C	To prevent the satellite from emitting out-of-band signals
D	To avoid interfering with terrestrial QSOs

9. - E2B10

What aspect of an analog slow-scan television signal encodes the brightness of the picture?

Select	Answer
A	Sync amplitude
B	Tone amplitude
C	Sync frequency
D	Tone frequency

10. - E2C07

What is the Cabrillo format?

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

11. - E2D05

What is one advantage of the JT65 mode?

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

12. - E2E07

Which of the following is a possible reason that attempts to initiate contact with a digital station on a clear frequency are unsuccessful?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	Your transmit frequency is incorrect
C	The protocol version you are using is not supported by the digital station
D	Another station you are unable to hear is using the frequency

13. - E3A12

What is the cause of auroral activity?

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

14. - E3B05

Which amateur bands typically support long-path propagation?

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

15. - E3C14

Why does the radio-path horizon distance exceed the geometric horizon?

Select	Answer
A	Due to the Doppler effect
B	E-region skip
C	D-region skip
D	Downward bending due to density variations in the atmosphere

16. - E4A03

Which of the following test instruments is used to display spurious signals and/or intermodulation distortion products generated by an SSB transmitter?

Select	Answer
A	A wattmeter
B	A spectrum analyzer
C	A time-domain reflectometer
D	A logic analyzer

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

19. - E4D07

Which of the following reduces the likelihood of receiver desensitization?

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

20. - E4E06

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

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

21. - E5A04

What is the magnitude of the impedance of a parallel RLC circuit at resonance?

Select	Answer
A	Low compared to the circuit resistance
B	Approximately equal to circuit resistance
C	Approximately equal to inductive reactance
D	High compared to the circuit resistance

22. - E5B12

What is admittance?

Select	Answer
A	The turns ratio of a transformer
B	The term for the gain of a field effect transistor
C	The inverse of impedance
D	The inverse of Q factor

23. - E5C01

Which of the following represents capacitive reactance in rectangular notation?

Select	Answer
A	Omega
B	+jX
C	-jX
D	Delta

24. - E5D03

What is microstrip?

Select	Answer
A	Short lengths of coax mounted on printed circuit boards to minimize time delay between microwave circuits
B	Precision printed circuit conductors above a ground plane that provide constant impedance interconnects at microwave frequencies
C	Lightweight transmission line made of common zip cord
D	Miniature coax used for low power applications

25. - E6A02

Which of the following semiconductor materials contains excess free electrons?

Select	Answer
A	P-type
B	Insulated gate
C	Bipolar
D	N-type

26. - E6B04

What type of semiconductor device is designed for use as a voltage-controlled capacitor?

Select	Answer
A	Silicon-controlled rectifier
B	Varactor diode
C	Tunnel diode
D	Zener diode

27. - E6C07

What best describes a pull-up or pull-down resistor?

Select	Answer
A	A resistor connected to the positive or negative supply line used to establish a voltage when an input or output is an open circuit
B	A resistor in a keying circuit used to reduce key clicks
C	A resistor that ensures that an oscillator frequency does not drift
D	A resistor connected to an op-amp output that prevents signals from exceeding the power supply voltage

28. - E6D13

What is the primary cause of inductor self-resonance?

Select	Answer
A	The skin effect
B	Inter-turn capacitance
C	Inductive kickback
D	Non-linear core hysteresis

29. - E6E01

Why is gallium arsenide (GaAs) useful for semiconductor devices operating at UHF and higher frequencies?

Select	Answer
A	Lower transconductance
B	Higher noise figures
C	Lower junction voltage drop
D	Higher electron mobility

30. - E6F02

What happens to the conductivity of a photoconductive material when light shines on it?

Select	Answer
A	It stays the same
B	It becomes unstable
C	It increases
D	It decreases

31. - E7A02

What is the function of a decade counter?

Select	Answer
A	It decodes a decimal number for display on a seven-segment LED display
B	It produces one output pulse for every 10 input pulses
C	It decodes a binary number for display on a seven-segment LED display
D	It produces 10 output pulses for every input pulse

32. - E7B13

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

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

33. - E7C07

Which describes a Pi-L-network used for matching a vacuum tube final amplifier to a 50-ohm unbalanced output?

Select	Answer
A	A network with only three discrete parts
B	A Pi-network with an additional series inductor on the output
C	A matching network in which all components are isolated from ground
D	A Phase Inverter Load network

34. - E7D14

What is the purpose of connecting equal-value resistors across power supply filter capacitors connected in series?

Select	Answer
A	Equalize the voltage across each capacitor
B	Discharge the capacitors when voltage is removed
C	All these choices are correct
D	Provide a minimum load on the supply

35. - E7E06

Why is de-emphasis commonly used in FM communications receivers?

Select	Answer
A	For higher efficiency
B	To remove third-order distortion products
C	To reduce impulse noise reception
D	For compatibility with transmitters using phase modulation

36. - E7F14

Which of the following would allow a digital signal processing filter to create a sharper filter response?

Select	Answer
A	Higher data rate
B	Complex phasor representations
C	More taps
D	Double-precision math routines

37. - E7G09

What will be the output voltage of the circuit shown in Figure E7-3 if R1 is 1000 ohms, RF is 10,000 ohms, and 0.23 volts DC is applied to the input?

Select	Answer
A	2.3 volts
B	-2.3 volts
C	0.23 volts
D	-0.23 volts

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

39. - E8A10

What is the purpose of a low-pass filter used in conjunction with a digital-to-analog converter?

Select	Answer
A	Remove harmonics from the output caused by the discrete analog levels generated
B	All these choices are correct
C	Improve accuracy by removing out-of-sequence codes from the input
D	Lower the input bandwidth to increase the effective resolution

40. - E8B11

What is digital time division multiplexing?

Select	Answer
A	Two or more signals are quadrature modulated to increase bandwidth efficiency
B	Two or more data streams share the same channel by transmitting time of transmission as the sub-carrier
C	Two or more data streams are assigned to discrete sub-carriers on an FM transmitter
D	Two or more signals are arranged to share discrete time slots of a data transmission

41. - E8C03

Why should phase-shifting of a PSK signal be done at the zero crossing of the RF signal?

Select	Answer
A	To simplify modulation
B	All these choices are correct
C	To improve carrier suppression
D	To minimize bandwidth

42. - E8D01

Why are received spread spectrum signals resistant to interference?

Select	Answer
A	The high power used by a spread spectrum transmitter keeps its signal from being easily overpowered
B	Signals not using the spread spectrum algorithm are suppressed in the receiver
C	If interference is detected by the receiver it will signal the transmitter to change frequencies
D	The receiver is always equipped with a digital blanker

43. - E9A01

What is an isotropic antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A horizontally polarized antenna used to compare Yagi antennas
B	A theoretical, omnidirectional antenna used as a reference for antenna gain
C	A spacecraft antenna used to direct signals toward Earth
D	A grounded antenna used to measure Earth conductivity

44. - E9B07

How does the total amount of radiation emitted by a directional gain antenna compare with the total amount of radiation emitted from a theoretical isotropic antenna, assuming each is driven by the same amount of power?

Select	Answer
A	They are the same
B	The total amount of radiation from the directional antenna is stronger by its front-to-back ratio
C	The radiation from the isotropic antenna is 2.15 dB stronger than that from the directional antenna
D	The total amount of radiation from the directional antenna is increased by the gain of the antenna

45. - E9C11

How is the far-field elevation pattern of a vertically polarized antenna affected by being mounted over seawater versus soil?

Select	Answer
A	Additional higher vertical angle lobes will appear
B	The low-angle radiation increases
C	The low-angle radiation decreases
D	Fewer vertical angle lobes will be present

46. - E9D12

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

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

47. - E9E11

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

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

48. - E9F10

What impedance does a 1/8-wavelength transmission line present to a generator when the line is shorted at the far end?

Select	Answer
A	An inductive reactance
B	Zero
C	The same as the characteristic impedance of the line
D	A capacitive reactance

49. - E9G03

Which of the following is often determined using a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Satellite azimuth and elevation bearings
B	Beam headings and radiation patterns
C	Trigonometric functions
D	Impedance and SWR values in transmission lines

50. - E9H02

Which is generally true for low band (160 meter and 80 meter) receiving antennas?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	They must be erected at least 1/2 wavelength above the ground to attain good directivity
C	Atmospheric noise is so high that gain over a dipole is not important
D	Low loss coax transmission line is essential for good performance

Figure E7-3