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

Logging in (or registering) will help the system to select questions that you need to focus on.

1. - E0A02

When evaluating RF exposure levels from your station at a neighbor's home, what must you do?

Select	Answer
A	Ensure signals from your station are less than the uncontrolled Maximum Permitted Exposure (MPE) limits
B	Ensure signals from your station are less than the uncontrolled Maximum Permitted Emission (MPE) limits
C	Ensure signals from your station are less than the controlled Maximum Permitted Emission (MPE) limits
D	Ensure signals from your station are less than the controlled Maximum Permitted Exposure (MPE) limits

2. - E1A07

What is the maximum power permitted on the 2200 meter band?

Select	Answer
A	5 watts EIRP (Equivalent isotropic radiated power)
B	50 watts PEP
C	100 watts PEP
D	1 watt EIRP (Equivalent isotropic radiated power)

3. - E1B09

Which amateur stations may be operated under RACES rules?

Select	Answer
A	Any FCC-licensed amateur station except a Technician Class
B	Any FCC-licensed amateur station participating in the Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS)
C	Only those club stations licensed to Amateur Extra Class operators
D	Any FCC-licensed amateur station certified by the responsible civil defense organization for the area served

4. - E1C10

What is the permitted mean power of any spurious emission relative to the mean power of the fundamental emission from a station transmitter or external RF amplifier installed after January 1, 2003 and transmitting on a frequency below 30 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	At least 63 dB below
B	At least 53 dB below
C	At least 43 dB below
D	At least 73 dB below

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

6. - E1E06

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

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

7. - E1F10

Who may be the control operator of an auxiliary station?

Select	Answer
A	Only General, Advanced or Amateur Extra Class operators
B	Any licensed amateur operator
C	Only Technician, General, Advanced or Amateur Extra Class operators
D	Only Amateur Extra Class operators

8. - E2A05

What do the letters in a satellite's mode designator specify?

Select	Answer
A	Power limits for uplink and downlink transmissions
B	The polarization of uplink and downlink signals
C	The location of the ground control station
D	The uplink and downlink frequency ranges

9. - E2B01

How many times per second is a new frame transmitted in a fast-scan (NTSC) television system?

Select	Answer
A	90
B	120
C	60
D	30

10. - E2C03

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

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

11. - E2D06

Which of the following describes a method of establishing EME contacts?

Select	Answer
A	High-speed CW identification to avoid fading
B	Time synchronous transmissions alternately from each station
C	Storing and forwarding digital messages
D	Judging optimum transmission times by monitoring beacons reflected from the moon

12. - E2E13

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

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

13. - E3A14

What is meant by circularly polarized electromagnetic waves?

Select	Answer
A	Waves produced by a loop antenna
B	Waves with an electric field bent into a circular shape
C	Waves with a rotating electric field
D	Waves that circle the Earth

14. - E3B10

Why is chordal hop propagation desirable?

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

15. - E3C14

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

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

16. - E4A09

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

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

17. - E4B06

How much power is being absorbed by the load when a directional power meter connected between a transmitter and a terminating load reads 100 watts forward power and 25 watts reflected power?

Select	Answer
A	100 watts
B	75 watts
C	125 watts
D	25 watts

18. - E4C05

What does a receiver noise floor of -174 dBm represent?

Select	Answer
A	The galactic noise contribution to minimum detectable signal
B	The minimum detectable signal as a function of receive frequency
C	The theoretical noise in a 1 Hz bandwidth at the input of a perfect receiver at room temperature
D	The noise figure of a 1 Hz bandwidth receiver

19. - E4D05

What transmitter frequencies would cause an intermodulation-product signal in a receiver tuned to 146.70 MHz when a nearby station transmits on 146.52 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	146.10 MHz and 147.30 MHz
B	146.88 MHz and 146.34 MHz
C	146.34 MHz and 146.61 MHz
D	173.35 MHz and 139.40 MHz

20. - E4E07

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

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

21. - E5A03

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

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

22. - E5B04

What is the time constant of a circuit having two 220-microfarad capacitors and two 1-megohm resistors, all in parallel?

Select	Answer
A	110 seconds
B	55 seconds
C	220 seconds
D	440 seconds

23. - E5C05

What is the name of the diagram used to show the phase relationship between impedances at a given frequency?

Select	Answer
A	Phasor diagram
B	Near field diagram
C	Far field diagram
D	Venn diagram

24. - E5D14

What is reactive power?

Select	Answer
A	Power consumed in circuit Q
B	Wattless, nonproductive power
C	Power lost because of capacitor leakage
D	Power consumed in wire resistance in an inductor

25. - E6A09

What is a depletion-mode FET?

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

26. - E6B06

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

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

27. - E6C04

Which of the following is an advantage of BiCMOS logic?

Select	Answer
A	Its simplicity results in much less expensive devices than standard CMOS
B	It has the high input impedance of CMOS and the low output impedance of bipolar transistors
C	It is immune to electrostatic damage
D	All these choices are correct

28. - E6D02

What is the equivalent circuit of a quartz crystal?

Select	Answer
A	Motional capacitance, motional inductance, loss resistance, and a capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance all in parallel
B	Motional capacitance, motional inductance, and loss resistance in series, all in parallel with a shunt capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance
C	Motional inductance and loss resistance in series, paralleled with motional capacitance and a capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance
D	Motional capacitance, motional inductance, loss resistance, and a capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance all in series

29. - E6E08

How is power supplied to the most common type of MMIC?

Select	Answer
A	MMICs require no operating bias
B	Through a resistor and/or RF choke connected to the amplifier output lead
C	Through a capacitor and RF choke connected to the amplifier input lead
D	Directly to the bias voltage (VCC IN) lead

30. - E6F07

What is a solid-state relay?

Select	Answer
A	A semiconductor passive delay line
B	A relay using transistors to drive the relay coil
C	A device that uses semiconductors to implement the functions of an electromechanical relay
D	A mechanical relay that latches in the on or off state each time it is pulsed

31. - E7A05

Which of the following is a circuit that continuously alternates between two states without an external clock?

Select	Answer
A	Astable multivibrator
B	J-K flip-flop
C	Monostable multivibrator
D	T flip-flop

32. - E7B14

Why are switching amplifiers more efficient than linear amplifiers?

Select	Answer
A	Switching amplifiers operate at higher voltages
B	The power transistor is at saturation or cutoff most of the time
C	Switching amplifiers use push-pull circuits
D	Linear amplifiers have high gain resulting in higher harmonic content

33. - E7C05

Which filter type is described as having ripple in the passband and a sharp cutoff?

Select	Answer
A	A passive op-amp filter
B	A Butterworth filter
C	A Chebyshev filter
D	An active LC filter

34. - E7D05

Which of the following types of linear voltage regulator places a constant load on the unregulated voltage source?

Select	Answer
A	A series regulator
B	A constant current source
C	A shunt regulator
D	A shunt current source

35. - E7E09

What occurs when an excessive amount of signal energy reaches a mixer circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Automatic limiting occurs
B	Spurious mixer products are generated
C	Mixer blanking occurs
D	A beat frequency is generated

36. - E7F06

What is the minimum number of bits required for an analog-to-digital converter to sample a signal with a range of 1 volt at a resolution of 1 millivolt?

Select	Answer
A	6 bits
B	8 bits
C	4 bits
D	10 bits

37. - E7G10

What absolute voltage gain can be expected from the circuit in Figure E7-3 when R1 is 1800 ohms and RF is 68 kilohms?

Select	Answer
A	1
B	38
C	0.03
D	76

38. - E7H10

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

Select	Answer
A	The phase relationship between a voltage-controlled oscillator and the output waveform
B	Frequently used receiver and transmitter frequencies
C	The phase relationship between a reference oscillator and the output waveform
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	All these choices are correct
B	Very low power consumption decreases frequency drift
C	Immunity to out-of-sequence coding reduces spurious responses
D	Very high speed allows digitizing high frequencies

40. - E8B01

What is the modulation index of an FM signal?

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

41. - E8C02

What is the definition of symbol rate in a digital transmission?

Select	Answer
A	The number of control characters in a message packet
B	The rate at which the waveform changes to convey information
C	The number of characters carried per second by the station-to-station link
D	The duration of each bit in a message sent over the air

42. - E8D10

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

Select	Answer
A	Baudot uses 7 data bits per character, ASCII uses 8; Baudot has no letters/figures shift code, ASCII uses 2 letters/figures shift codes
B	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
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 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

43. - E9A13

What term describes station output, taking into account all gains and losses?

Select	Answer
A	Effective radiated power
B	Power factor
C	Half-power bandwidth
D	Apparent power

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

45. - E9C10

Which of the following describes a Zepp antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A dipole constructed from zip cord
B	An end-fed dipole antenna
C	A vertical array capable of quickly changing the direction of maximum radiation by changing phasing lines
D	An omni-directional antenna commonly used for satellite communications

46. - E9D01

How much does the gain of an ideal parabolic dish antenna change when the operating frequency is doubled?

Select	Answer
A	4 dB
B	3 dB
C	2 dB
D	6 dB

47. - E9E07

What parameter describes the interactions at the load end of a mismatched transmission line?

Select	Answer
A	Velocity factor
B	Reflection coefficient
C	Characteristic impedance
D	Dielectric constant

48. - E9F04

What impedance does a 1/2-wavelength transmission line present to a generator when the line is shorted at the far end?

Select	Answer
A	The same as the output impedance of the generator
B	Very high impedance
C	The same as the characteristic impedance of the line
D	Very low impedance

49. - E9G10

What do the arcs on a Smith chart represent?

Select	Answer
A	Points with constant resistance
B	Frequency
C	SWR
D	Points with constant reactance

50. - E9H04

What is an advantage of placing a grounded electrostatic shield around a small loop direction-finding antenna?

Select	Answer
A	It eliminates unbalanced capacitive coupling to the surroundings, improving the nulls
B	It increases signal strength by providing a better match to the feed line
C	It adds capacitive loading, increasing the bandwidth of the antenna
D	It eliminates tracking errors caused by strong out-of-band signals

Figure E7-3