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

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1. - E0A01

What is the primary function of an external earth connection or ground rod?

Select	Answer
A	Lightning protection
B	Reduce received noise
C	Reduce RFI to telephones and home entertainment systems
D	Reduce RF current flow between pieces of equipment

2. - E1A11

Which of the following describes authorization or licensing required when operating an amateur station aboard a U.S.-registered vessel in international waters?

Select	Answer
A	An unrestricted Radiotelephone Operator Permit
B	Only General Class or higher amateur licenses
C	Any FCC-issued amateur license
D	Any amateur license with an FCC Marine or Aircraft endorsement

3. - E1B01

Which of the following constitutes a spurious emission?

Select	Answer
A	Any transmitted signal that unintentionally interferes with another licensed radio station
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	An emission outside the signal's necessary bandwidth that can be reduced or eliminated without affecting the information transmitted

4. - E1C02

Which of the following types of communications may be transmitted to amateur stations in foreign countries?

Select	Answer
A	Communications incidental to the purpose of the amateur service and remarks of a personal nature
B	Business-related messages for non-profit organizations
C	Messages intended for users of the maritime satellite service
D	All these choices are correct

5. - E1D12

Which of the following amateur stations may transmit one-way communications?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	A space station, beacon station, or telecommand station
C	A local repeater or linked repeater station
D	A message forwarding station or automatically controlled digital station

6. - E1E06

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

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

7. - E1F10

Who may be the control operator of an auxiliary station?

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

8. - E2A03

How is the signal inverted by an inverting linear transponder?

Select	Answer
A	The signal is reduced to I and Q components and the Q component is filtered out
B	The signal is passed through a non-linear filter
C	The signal is passed through a mixer and the difference rather than the sum is transmitted
D	The signal is detected and remodulated on the reverse sideband

9. - E2B12

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

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

10. - E2C05

What is the function of a DX QSL Manager?

Select	Answer
A	To handle the receiving and sending of confirmation cards for a DX station
B	To run a net to allow many stations to contact a rare DX station
C	To relay calls to and from a DX station
D	To allocate frequencies for DXpeditions

11. - E2D03

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

Select	Answer
A	MSK144
B	PACTOR III
C	Olivia
D	JT65

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

13. - E3A05

Tropospheric propagation of microwave signals often occurs in association with what phenomenon?

Select	Answer
A	Lightning discharges
B	Warm and cold fronts
C	Sprites and jets
D	Grayline

14. - E3B05

Which amateur bands typically support long-path propagation?

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

15. - E3C05

What orientation of Bz (B sub z) increases the likelihood that incoming particles from the sun will cause disturbed conditions?

Select	Answer
A	Northward
B	Eastward
C	Westward
D	Southward

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

17. - E4B01

Which of the following factors most affects the accuracy of a frequency counter?

Select	Answer
A	Input attenuator accuracy
B	Decade divider accuracy
C	Temperature coefficient of the logic
D	Time base accuracy

18. - E4C01

What is an effect of excessive phase noise in a receiver's local oscillator?

Select	Answer
A	It decreases receiver third-order intercept point
B	It can combine with strong signals on nearby frequencies to generate interference
C	It limits the receiver's ability to receive strong signals
D	It can affect the receiver's frequency calibration

19. - E4D02

Which of the following describes problems caused by poor dynamic range in a receiver?

Select	Answer
A	Spurious signals caused by cross-modulation and desensitization from strong adjacent signals
B	Oscillator instability and severe audio distortion of all but the strongest received signals
C	Cross-modulation of the desired signal and insufficient audio power to operate the speaker
D	Oscillator instability requiring frequent retuning and loss of ability to recover the opposite sideband

20. - E4E07

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

Select	Answer
A	Use of braided shielding material
B	Common-mode currents on the shield and conductors
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. - E5A11

What is the half-power bandwidth of a resonant circuit that has a resonant frequency of 7.1 MHz and a Q of 150?

Select	Answer
A	157.8 Hz
B	23.67 kHz
C	47.3 kHz
D	315.6 Hz

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	440 seconds
B	110 seconds
C	220 seconds
D	55 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	Near field diagram
B	Venn diagram
C	Far field diagram
D	Phasor diagram

24. - E5D15

What is the power factor of an RL circuit having a 45-degree phase angle between the voltage and the current?

Select	Answer
A	0.866
B	0.707
C	1.0
D	0.5

25. - E6A06

What is the beta of a bipolar junction transistor?

Select	Answer
A	The frequency at which the current gain is reduced to 0.707
B	The switching speed
C	The change in collector current with respect to base current
D	The breakdown voltage of the base to collector junction

26. - E6B11

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

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

27. - E6C09

What is a Programmable Logic Device (PLD)?

Select	Answer
A	A type of transistor whose gain can be changed by digital logic circuits
B	Programmable equipment used for testing digital logic integrated circuits
C	A programmable collection of logic gates and circuits in a single integrated circuit
D	A logic circuit that can be modified during use

28. - E6D05

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

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

29. - E6E07

What type of transmission line is used for connections to MMICs?

Select	Answer
A	Microstrip
B	Parallel wire
C	Circular waveguide
D	Miniature coax

30. - E6F03

What is the most common configuration of an optoisolator or optocoupler?

Select	Answer
A	A frequency modulated helium-neon laser
B	An amplitude modulated helium-neon laser
C	A lens and a photomultiplier
D	An LED and a phototransistor

31. - E7A01

Which circuit is bistable?

Select	Answer
A	An AND gate
B	An OR gate
C	A bipolar amplifier
D	A flip-flop

32. - E7B09

Which of the following describes how the loading and tuning capacitors are to be adjusted when tuning a vacuum tube RF power amplifier that employs a Pi-network output circuit?

Select	Answer
A	The tuning capacitor is set to maximum capacitance and the loading capacitor is adjusted for minimum plate permissible current
B	The loading capacitor is set to maximum capacitance and the tuning capacitor is adjusted for minimum allowable plate current
C	The tuning capacitor is adjusted for minimum plate current, and the loading capacitor is adjusted for maximum permissible plate current
D	The loading capacitor is adjusted to minimum plate current while alternately adjusting the tuning capacitor for maximum allowable plate current

33. - E7C06

What are the distinguishing features of an elliptical filter?

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

34. - E7D13

What is the equation for calculating power dissipated by a series linear voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	Voltage difference from input to output multiplied by output current
B	Output voltage multiplied by output current
C	Input voltage multiplied by input current
D	Input voltage divided by output current

35. - E7E04

What is one way a single-sideband phone signal can be generated?

Select	Answer
A	By using a reactance modulator followed by a mixer
B	By using a balanced modulator followed by a filter
C	By driving a product detector with a DSB signal
D	By using a loop modulator followed by a mixer

36. - E7F13

What is the function of taps in a digital signal processing filter?

Select	Answer
A	Select the point at which baseband signals are generated
B	Provide incremental signal delays for filter algorithms
C	To reduce excess signal pressure levels
D	Provide access for debugging software

37. - E7G12

What is an operational amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	A RF amplifier used in the UHF and microwave regions
B	An amplifier used to increase the average output of frequency modulated amateur signals to the legal limit
C	A high-gain, direct-coupled differential amplifier with very high input impedance and very low output impedance
D	A digital audio amplifier whose characteristics are determined by components external to the amplifier

38. - E7H09

What type of frequency synthesizer circuit uses a phase accumulator, lookup table, digital to analog converter, and a low-pass anti-alias filter?

Select	Answer
A	A diode-switching matrix synthesizer
B	A direct digital synthesizer
C	A phase-locked loop synthesizer
D	A hybrid synthesizer

39. - E8A11

Which of the following is a measure of the quality of an analog-to-digital converter?

Select	Answer
A	Power factor
B	Peak envelope power
C	Reciprocal mixing
D	Total harmonic distortion

40. - E8B07

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing is a technique used for which type of amateur communication?

Select	Answer
A	OFDM signals are not allowed on amateur bands
B	EME
C	High-speed digital modes
D	Extremely low-power contacts

41. - E8C09

Which digital code allows only one bit to change between sequential code values?

Select	Answer
A	Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code
B	Gray code
C	Excess 3 code
D	Binary Coded Decimal Code

42. - E8D04

What is the primary effect of extremely short rise or fall time on a CW signal?

Select	Answer
A	Limits data speed
B	The generation of RF harmonics
C	The generation of key clicks
D	More difficult to copy

43. - E9A02

What is the effective radiated power relative to a dipole of a repeater station with 150 watts transmitter power output, 2 dB feed line loss, 2.2 dB duplexer loss, and 7 dBd antenna gain?

Select	Answer
A	420 watts
B	78.7 watts
C	1977 watts
D	286 watts

44. - E9B06

What is the elevation angle of peak response in the antenna radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-2?

Select	Answer
A	7.5 degrees
B	45 degrees
C	75 degrees
D	25 degrees

45. - E9C14

How does the performance of a horizontally polarized antenna mounted on the side of a hill compare with the same antenna mounted on flat ground?

Select	Answer
A	The main lobe takeoff angle increases in the downhill direction
B	The horizontal beamwidth decreases in the downhill direction
C	The main lobe takeoff angle decreases in the downhill direction
D	The horizontal beamwidth increases in the uphill direction

46. - E9D01

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

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

47. - E9E01

What system matches a higher-impedance transmission line to a lower-impedance antenna by connecting the line to the driven element in two places spaced a fraction of a wavelength each side of element center?

Select	Answer
A	The gamma matching system
B	The stub matching system
C	The delta matching system
D	The omega matching system

48. - E9F09

What is the approximate physical length of a foam polyethylene dielectric coaxial transmission line that is electrically 1/4 wavelength long at 7.2 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	5.2 meters
B	10.4 meters
C	6.9 meters
D	8.3 meters

49. - E9G06

On the Smith chart shown in Figure E9-3, what is the name for the large outer circle on which the reactance arcs terminate?

Select	Answer
A	Reactance axis
B	Prime axis
C	Polar axis
D	Impedance axis

50. - E9H07

Why is RF attenuation used when direction-finding?

Select	Answer
A	To compensate for isotropic directivity and the antenna effect of feed lines
B	To increase receiver sensitivity
C	To narrow the receiver bandwidth
D	To prevent receiver overload which reduces pattern nulls

Figure E9-2

Figure E9-3