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

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1. - E0A06

Why are there separate electric (E) and magnetic (H) field MPE limits?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	The body reacts to electromagnetic radiation from both the E and H fields
C	E field and H field radiation intensity peaks can occur at different locations
D	Ground reflections and scattering make the field strength vary with location

2. - E1A04

With your transceiver displaying the carrier frequency of phone signals, you hear a DX station calling CQ on 3.601 MHz LSB. Is it legal to return the call using lower sideband on the same frequency?

Select	Answer
A	No, U.S. stations are not permitted to use phone emissions below 3.610 MHz
B	Yes, because the displayed frequency is within the 75 meter phone band segment
C	Yes, because the DX station initiated the contact
D	No, the sideband will extend beyond the edge of the phone band segment

3. - E1B03

Within what distance must an amateur station protect an FCC monitoring facility from harmful interference?

Select	Answer
A	10 miles
B	3 miles
C	30 miles
D	1 mile

4. - E1C12

On what portion of the 630 meter band are phone emissions permitted?

Select	Answer
A	Only the bottom 3 kHz
B	Only the top 3 kHz
C	The entire band
D	None

5. - E1D08

Which VHF amateur bands have frequencies authorized for space stations?

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

6. - E1E12

What must the VE team do with the application form if the examinee does not pass the exam?

Select	Answer
A	Maintain the application form with the VEC's records
B	Destroy the application form
C	Return the application document to the examinee
D	Send the application form to the FCC and inform the FCC of the grade

7. - E1F07

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

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

8. - E2A12

What is the purpose of digital store-and-forward functions on an amateur radio satellite?

Select	Answer
A	To upload operational software for the transponder
B	To relay messages between satellites
C	To store digital messages in the satellite for later download by other stations
D	To delay download of telemetry between satellites

9. - E2B12

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

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

10. - E2C01

What indicator is required to be used by U.S.-licensed operators when operating a station via remote control and the remote transmitter is located in the U.S.?

Select	Answer
A	/ followed by the USPS two-letter abbreviation for the state in which the remote station is located
B	No additional indicator is required
C	/R# where # is the district of the remote station
D	/ followed by the ARRL Section of the remote station

11. - E2D05

What is one advantage of the JT65 mode?

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

12. - E2E09

Which of the following HF digital modes uses variable-length coding for bandwidth efficiency?

Select	Answer
A	RTTY
B	MT63
C	PACTOR
D	PSK31

13. - E3A04

What do Hepburn maps predict?

Select	Answer
A	Locations of auroral reflecting zones
B	Probability of tropospheric propagation
C	Likelihood of rain scatter along cold or warm fronts
D	Sporadic E propagation

14. - E3B04

What is meant by the terms "extraordinary" and "ordinary" waves?

Select	Answer
A	Extraordinary waves describe rare long-skip propagation compared to ordinary waves, which travel shorter distances
B	Refracted rays and reflected waves
C	Independent waves created in the ionosphere that are elliptically polarized
D	Long-path and short-path waves

15. - E3C04

What does the value of Bz (B sub Z) represent?

Select	Answer
A	Direction and strength of the interplanetary magnetic field
B	Duration of long-delayed echoes
C	Geomagnetic field stability
D	Critical frequency for vertical transmissions

16. - E4A08

Which of the following measures SWR?

Select	Answer
A	An antenna analyzer
B	A spectrum analyzer
C	An ohmmeter
D	A Q meter

17. - E4B02

What is the significance of voltmeter sensitivity expressed in ohms per volt?

Select	Answer
A	The full scale reading of the voltmeter multiplied by its ohms per volt rating will indicate the input impedance of the voltmeter
B	When used as an ammeter, the full scale reading in amps divided by ohms per volt rating will determine the size of shunt needed
C	When used as an ohmmeter, the reading in ohms divided by the ohms per volt rating will determine the voltage applied to the circuit
D	When used as a galvanometer, the reading in volts multiplied by the ohms per volt rating will determine the power drawn by the device under test

18. - E4C14

What transmit frequency might generate an image response signal in a receiver tuned to 14.300 MHz and that uses a 455 kHz IF frequency?

Select	Answer
A	15.210 MHz
B	13.845 MHz
C	14.445 MHz
D	14.755 MHz

19. - E4D12

What is the term for the reduction in receiver sensitivity caused by a strong signal near the received frequency?

Select	Answer
A	Cross-modulation interference
B	Squelch gain rollback
C	Quieting
D	Desensitization

20. - E4E09

What undesirable effect can occur when using an IF noise blanker?

Select	Answer
A	FM signals can no longer be demodulated
B	Nearby signals may appear to be excessively wide even if they meet emission standards
C	Received audio in the speech range might have an echo effect
D	The audio frequency bandwidth of the received signal might be compressed

21. - E5A05

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

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

22. - E5B09

What is the relationship between the AC current through a capacitor and the voltage across a capacitor?

Select	Answer
A	Current leads voltage by 90 degrees
B	Voltage leads current by 90 degrees
C	Voltage and current are in phase
D	Voltage and current are 180 degrees out of phase

23. - E5C03

Which of the following represents an inductive reactance in polar coordinates?

Select	Answer
A	A positive phase angle
B	A positive magnitude
C	A negative phase angle
D	A negative magnitude

24. - E5D10

How can the true power be determined in an AC circuit where the voltage and current are out of phase?

Select	Answer
A	By multiplying the reactive power by the power factor
B	By multiplying the apparent power by the power factor
C	By dividing the reactive power by the power factor
D	By dividing the apparent power by the power factor

25. - E6A03

Why does a PN-junction diode not conduct current when reverse biased?

Select	Answer
A	Only P-type semiconductor material can conduct current
B	Only N-type semiconductor material can conduct current
C	Holes in P-type material and electrons in the N-type material are separated by the applied voltage, widening the depletion region
D	Excess holes in P-type material combine with the electrons in N-type material, converting the entire diode into an insulator

26. - E6B11

What is used to control the attenuation of RF signals by a PIN diode?

Select	Answer
A	Reverse voltage larger than the RF signal
B	Capacitance of an RF coupling capacitor
C	A sub-harmonic pump signal
D	Forward DC bias current

27. - E6C02

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

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

28. - E6D05

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

Select	Answer
A	Ferrite toroids generally require fewer turns to produce a given inductance value
B	Ferrite toroids generally have lower initial permeability
C	Ferrite toroids are easier to use with surface mount technology
D	Ferrite toroids generally have better temperature stability

29. - E6E08

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

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

30. - E6F11

What is the approximate open-circuit voltage produced by a fully illuminated silicon photovoltaic cell?

Select	Answer
A	12 V
B	0.5 V
C	0.1 V
D	1.5 V

31. - E7A02

What is the function of a decade counter?

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

32. - E7B17

Why are odd-order rather than even-order intermodulation distortion products of concern in linear power amplifiers?

Select	Answer
A	Because they invert the sidebands causing distortion
B	Because they are relatively close in frequency to the desired signal
C	Because they are relatively far in frequency from the desired signal
D	Because they maintain the sidebands, thus causing multiple duplicate signals

33. - E7C11

Which of the following describes a receiving filter's ability to reject signals occupying an adjacent channel?

Select	Answer
A	Shape factor
B	Passband ripple
C	Noise factor
D	Phase response

34. - E7D02

What is a characteristic of a switching electronic voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	The controlled device's duty cycle is changed to produce a constant average output voltage
B	It gives a ramp voltage at its output
C	It is generally less efficient than a linear regulator
D	The resistance of a control element is varied in direct proportion to the line voltage or load current

35. - E7E09

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

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

36. - E7F09

Why is an anti-aliasing digital filter required in a digital decimator?

Select	Answer
A	It peaks the response of the decimator, improving bandwidth
B	It removes low-frequency signal components to eliminate the need for DC restoration
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. - E7G01

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

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

38. - E7H01

What are three oscillator circuits used in amateur radio equipment?

Select	Answer
A	Colpitts, Hartley and Pierce
B	Taft, Pierce and negative feedback
C	Pierce, Fenner and Beane
D	Taft, Hartley and Pierce

39. - E8A09

How many different input levels can be encoded by an analog-to-digital converter with 8-bit resolution?

Select	Answer
A	256
B	8
C	8 multiplied by the gain of the input amplifier
D	256 divided by the gain of the input amplifier

40. - E8B05

What is the deviation ratio of an FM-phone signal having a maximum frequency swing of plus-or-minus 5 kHz when the maximum modulation frequency is 3 kHz?

Select	Answer
A	1.67
B	60
C	0.167
D	0.6

41. - E8C04

What technique minimizes the bandwidth of a PSK31 signal?

Select	Answer
A	Zero-sum character encoding
B	Reed-Solomon character encoding
C	Use of trapezoidal data pulses
D	Use of sinusoidal data pulses

42. - E8D03

How does the spread spectrum technique of frequency hopping work?

Select	Answer
A	The frequency of the transmitted signal is changed very rapidly according to a pseudorandom sequence also used by the receiving station
B	If interference is detected by the receiver it will signal the transmitter to wait until the frequency is clear
C	A binary bit stream is used to shift the phase of an RF carrier very rapidly in a pseudorandom sequence
D	If interference is detected by the receiver it will signal the transmitter to change frequencies

43. - E9A08

What is antenna bandwidth?

Select	Answer
A	The angle between the half-power radiation points
B	The angle formed between two imaginary lines drawn through the element ends
C	Antenna length divided by the number of elements
D	The frequency range over which an antenna satisfies a performance requirement

44. - E9B03

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

Select	Answer
A	18 dB
B	12 dB
C	24 dB
D	14 dB

45. - E9C06

What is the effect of adding a terminating resistor to a rhombic antenna?

Select	Answer
A	It changes the radiation pattern from horizontal to vertical polarization
B	It reflects the standing waves on the antenna elements back to the transmitter
C	It changes the radiation pattern from bidirectional to unidirectional
D	It decreases the ground loss

46. - E9D04

Why should an HF mobile antenna loading coil have a high ratio of reactance to resistance?

Select	Answer
A	To minimize the Q
B	To lower the radiation angle
C	To minimize losses
D	To swamp out harmonics

47. - E9E04

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

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

48. - E9F02

Which of the following has the biggest effect on the velocity factor of a transmission line?

Select	Answer
A	The center conductor resistivity
B	The termination impedance
C	Dielectric materials used in the line
D	The line length

49. - E9G04

What are the two families of circles and arcs that make up a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Resistance and reactance
B	Resistance and voltage
C	Voltage and impedance
D	Reactance and voltage

50. - E9H09

What is a Pennant antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A stealth antenna built to look like a flagpole
B	A small, vertically oriented receiving antenna consisting of a triangular loop terminated in approximately 900 ohms
C	A form of rhombic antenna terminated in a variable capacitor to provide frequency diversity
D	A four-element, high-gain vertical array invented by George Pennant

Figure E9-1