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

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	None; they are allowed on all amateur frequencies
C	They are restricted to phone band segments
D	They are not permitted above 54 MHz

3. - E1B01

Which of the following constitutes a spurious emission?

Select	Answer
A	An emission outside the signal's necessary bandwidth that can be reduced or eliminated without affecting the information transmitted
B	An amateur station transmission made without the proper call sign identification
C	A signal transmitted to prevent its detection by any station other than the intended recipient
D	Any transmitted signal that unintentionally interferes with another licensed radio station

4. - E1C08

What is the maximum permissible duration of a remotely controlled station's transmissions if its control link malfunctions?

Select	Answer
A	5 minutes
B	3 minutes
C	10 minutes
D	30 seconds

5. - E1D08

Which VHF amateur bands have frequencies authorized for space stations?

Select	Answer
A	6 meters, 2 meters, and 1.25 meters
B	2 meters and 1.25 meters
C	6 meters and 2 meters
D	2 meters

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	A sentence of up to one year in prison
C	A fine of up to $1000 per occurrence
D	All these choices are correct

7. - E1F09

Which of the following conditions apply when transmitting spread spectrum emissions?

Select	Answer
A	The transmitting station must be in an area regulated by the FCC or in a country that permits SS emissions
B	A station transmitting SS emission must not cause harmful interference to other stations employing other authorized emissions
C	The transmission must not be used to obscure the meaning of any communication
D	All these choices are correct

8. - E2A11

What type of antenna can be used to minimize the effects of spin modulation and Faraday rotation?

Select	Answer
A	An isotropic antenna
B	A log-periodic dipole array
C	A circularly polarized antenna
D	A linearly polarized antenna

9. - E2B04

How is color information sent in analog SSTV?

Select	Answer
A	Color is sent in a color burst at the end of each line
B	Color lines are sent sequentially
C	Color is amplitude modulated on the frequency modulated intensity signal
D	Color information is sent on a 2.8 kHz subcarrier

10. - E2C04

Which of the following frequencies are sometimes used for amateur radio mesh networks?

Select	Answer
A	Frequencies shared with various unlicensed wireless data services
B	HF frequencies where digital communications are permitted
C	The 60 meter band channel centered on 5373 kHz
D	Cable TV channels 41 through 43

11. - E2D04

What technology is used to track, in real time, balloons carrying amateur radio transmitters?

Select	Answer
A	Ultrasonics
B	Bandwidth compressed LORAN
C	Doppler shift of beacon signals
D	APRS

12. - E2E10

Which of these digital modes has the narrowest bandwidth?

Select	Answer
A	300-baud packet
B	PSK31
C	170 Hz shift, 45-baud RTTY
D	MFSK16

13. - E3A11

What is a typical range for tropospheric propagation of microwave signals?

Select	Answer
A	1200 miles
B	10 miles to 50 miles
C	2500 miles
D	100 miles to 300 miles

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	160 meters to 10 meters
D	6 meters to 2 meters

15. - E3C03

Which of the following signal paths is most likely to experience high levels of absorption when the A index or K index is elevated?

Select	Answer
A	Polar
B	Sporadic E
C	NVIS
D	Transequatorial

16. - E4A05

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

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

17. - E4B07

What do the subscripts of S parameters represent?

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

18. - E4C06

A CW receiver with the AGC off has an equivalent input noise power density of -174 dBm/Hz. What would be the level of an unmodulated carrier input to this receiver that would yield an audio output SNR of 0 dB in a 400 Hz noise bandwidth?

Select	Answer
A	-148 dBm
B	-164 dBm
C	-155 dBm
D	-174 dBm

19. - E4D07

Which of the following reduces the likelihood of receiver desensitization?

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

20. - E4E05

How can radio frequency interference from an AC motor be suppressed?

Select	Answer
A	By using a ground-fault current interrupter in the circuit used to power the motor
B	By installing a bypass capacitor in series with the motor leads
C	By installing a high-pass filter in series with the motor's power leads
D	By installing a brute-force AC-line filter in series with the motor leads

21. - E5A12

What is the half-power bandwidth of a resonant circuit that has a resonant frequency of 3.7 MHz and a Q of 118?

Select	Answer
A	15.7 kHz
B	31.4 kHz
C	218.3 kHz
D	436.6 kHz

22. - E5B02

What letter is commonly used to represent susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	X
B	G
C	B
D	Y

23. - E5C01

Which of the following represents capacitive reactance in rectangular notation?

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

24. - E5D02

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

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

25. - E6A02

Which of the following semiconductor materials contains excess free electrons?

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

26. - E6B06

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

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

27. - E6C07

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

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

28. - E6D10

What is a primary advantage of using a toroidal core instead of a solenoidal core in an inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Toroidal cores make it easier to couple the magnetic energy into other components
B	Toroidal cores exhibit greater hysteresis
C	Toroidal cores have lower Q characteristics
D	Toroidal cores confine most of the magnetic field within the core material

29. - E6E10

What advantage does surface-mount technology offer at RF compared to using through-hole components?

Select	Answer
A	Components have less parasitic inductance and capacitance
B	Smaller circuit area
C	Shorter circuit-board traces
D	All these choices are correct

30. - E6F07

What is a solid-state relay?

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

31. - E7A11

What type of logic defines "1" as a high voltage?

Select	Answer
A	Assertive Logic
B	Positive Logic
C	Negative logic
D	Reverse Logic

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

33. - E7C06

What are the distinguishing features of an elliptical filter?

Select	Answer
A	Gradual passband rolloff with extreme stop band ripple
B	Extremely flat response over its pass band with gradually rounded stop band corners
C	Extremely sharp cutoff with one or more notches in the stop band
D	Gradual passband rolloff with minimal stop band ripple

34. - E7D01

How does a linear electronic voltage regulator work?

Select	Answer
A	The control element duty cycle is proportional to the line or load conditions
B	The conduction of a control element is varied to maintain a constant output voltage
C	It has a ramp voltage as its output
D	It eliminates the need for a pass transistor

35. - E7E08

What are the principal frequencies that appear at the output of a mixer circuit?

Select	Answer
A	The square root of the product of input frequencies
B	1.414 and 0.707 times the input frequency
C	Two and four times the original frequency
D	The two input frequencies along with their sum and difference frequencies

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 removes high-frequency signal components that would otherwise be reproduced as lower frequency components
D	It notches out the sampling frequency to avoid sampling errors

37. - E7G07

What magnitude of voltage gain can be expected from the circuit in Figure E73 when R1 is 10 ohms and RF is 470 ohms?

Select	Answer
A	0.21
B	94
C	24
D	47

38. - E7H14

What is a phase-locked loop circuit?

Select	Answer
A	An electronic circuit also known as a monostable multivibrator
B	An electronic servo loop consisting of a phase detector, a low-pass filter, a voltage-controlled oscillator, and a stable reference oscillator
C	An electronic servo loop consisting of a ratio detector, reactance modulator, and voltage-controlled oscillator
D	An electronic circuit consisting of a precision push-pull amplifier with a differential input

39. - E8A02

Which of the following is a type of analog-to-digital conversion?

Select	Answer
A	Successive approximation
B	Phase reversal
C	Harmonic regeneration
D	Level shifting

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

41. - E8C10

How may data rate be increased without increasing bandwidth?

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

42. - E8D10

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

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

43. - E9A12

How much gain does an antenna have compared to a 1/2-wavelength dipole when it has 6 dB gain over an isotropic antenna?

Select	Answer
A	2.79 dB
B	8.15 dB
C	6.0 dB
D	3.85 dB

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

45. - E9C07

What is the approximate feed point impedance at the center of a two-wire folded dipole antenna?

Select	Answer
A	50 ohms
B	450 ohms
C	72 ohms
D	300 ohms

46. - E9D11

Which of the following conductors would be best for minimizing losses in a station's RF ground system?

Select	Answer
A	Solid wire
B	Wide flat copper strap
C	Stranded wire
D	Resistive wire, such as spark plug wire

47. - E9E03

What is the name of the matching system that uses a section of transmission line connected in parallel with the feed line at or near the feed point?

Select	Answer
A	The gamma match
B	The delta match
C	The stub match
D	The omega match

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	10.6 meters
B	5.3 meters
C	3.5 meters
D	4.3 meters

49. - E9G08

What is the process of normalization with regard to a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Reassigning reactance values with regard to the resistance axis
B	Reassigning resistance values with regard to the reactance axis
C	Reassigning prime center with regard to the reactance axis
D	Reassigning impedance values with regard to the prime center

50. - E9H11

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

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