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. - E1A13

Who must be in physical control of the station apparatus of an amateur station aboard any vessel or craft that is documented or registered in the United States?

Select	Answer
A	Any person holding an FCC issued amateur license or who is authorized for alien reciprocal operation
B	Any person named in an amateur station license grant or a person holding an unrestricted Radiotelephone Operator Permit
C	Only a person named in an amateur station license grant
D	Only a person with an FCC Marine Radio license grant

3. - E1B07

To what type of regulations does PRB-1 apply?

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

4. - E1C02

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

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

5. - E1D03

What is a space telecommand station?

Select	Answer
A	An amateur station that receives telemetry from a satellite or balloon more than 50 kilometers above the surface of the Earth
B	An amateur station that transmits communications to initiate, modify or terminate functions of a space station
C	An amateur station located on the surface of the Earth for communication with other Earth stations by means of Earth satellites
D	An amateur station located in a satellite or a balloon more than 50 kilometers above the surface of the Earth

6. - E1E07

What should a VE do if a candidate fails to comply with the examiner's instructions during an amateur operator license examination?

Select	Answer
A	Allow the candidate to complete the examination, but invalidate the results
B	Warn the candidate that continued failure to comply will result in termination of the examination
C	Immediately terminate the candidate's examination
D	Immediately terminate everyone's examination and close the session

7. - E1F05

Amateur stations may not transmit in which of the following frequency segments if they are located in the contiguous 48 states and north of Line A?

Select	Answer
A	420 MHz - 430 MHz
B	440 MHz - 450 MHz
C	53 MHz - 54 MHz
D	222 MHz - 223 MHz

8. - E2A04

What is meant by the term mode? as applied to an amateur radio satellite?

Select	Answer
A	The satellite's orientation with respect to the Earth
B	The satellite's uplink and downlink frequency bands
C	Whether the satellite is in a low earth or geostationary orbit
D	Whether the satellite is in a polar or equatorial orbit

9. - E2B04

How is color information sent in analog SSTV?

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

10. - E2C12

What technique do individual nodes use to form a mesh network?

Select	Answer
A	Forward error correction and Viterbi codes
B	Acting as store-and-forward digipeaters
C	Custom code plugs for the local trunking systems
D	Discovery and link establishment protocols

11. - E2D10

How can an APRS station be used to help support a public service communications activity?

Select	Answer
A	An APRS station with a Global Positioning System unit can automatically transmit information to show a mobile station's position during the event
B	All these choices are correct
C	An APRS station with an emergency medical technician can automatically transmit medical data to the nearest hospital
D	APRS stations with General Personnel Scanners can automatically relay the participant numbers and time as they pass the check points

12. - E2E02

What do the letters FEC mean as they relate to digital operation?

Select	Answer
A	First Error Correction
B	Final Error Correction
C	Fatal Error Correction
D	Forward Error Correction

13. - E3A08

When a meteor strikes the Earth's atmosphere, a cylindrical region of free electrons is formed at what layer of the ionosphere?

Select	Answer
A	The F1 layer
B	The D layer
C	The F2 layer
D	The E layer

14. - E3B01

What is transequatorial propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Propagation between points located on the magnetic equator
B	Propagation between two mid-latitude points at approximately the same distance north and south of the magnetic equator
C	Propagation between points at the same latitude
D	Propagation between a point on the equator and its antipodal point

15. - E3C01

What does the radio communication term "ray tracing" describe?

Select	Answer
A	The process in which an electronic display presents a pattern
B	Evaluating high voltage sources for x-rays
C	Determining the radiation pattern from an array of antennas
D	Modeling a radio wave's path through the ionosphere

16. - E4A07

Which of the following is an advantage of using an antenna analyzer compared to an SWR bridge to measure antenna SWR?

Select	Answer
A	Antenna analyzers do not need an external RF source
B	Antenna analyzers display a time-varying representation of the modulation envelope
C	Antenna analyzers automatically tune your antenna for resonance
D	All these choices are correct

17. - E4B05

What three test loads are used to calibrate an RF vector network analyzer?

Select	Answer
A	50 ohms through 1/8 wavelength, 1/4 wavelength, and 1/2 wavelength of coaxial cable
B	50 ohms, 75 ohms, and 90 ohms
C	Short circuit, open circuit, and 50 ohms
D	Short circuit, open circuit, and resonant circuit

18. - E4C02

Which of the following receiver circuits can be effective in eliminating interference from strong out-of-band signals?

Select	Answer
A	A front-end filter or pre-selector
B	A properly adjusted product detector
C	A notch filter
D	A narrow IF filter

19. - E4D01

What is meant by the blocking dynamic range of a receiver?

Select	Answer
A	The difference in dB between the noise floor and the third-order intercept point
B	The minimum difference in dB between the levels of two FM signals that will cause one signal to block the other
C	The minimum difference in dB between two signals which produce third-order intermodulation products greater than the noise floor
D	The difference in dB between the noise floor and the level of an incoming signal that will cause 1 dB of gain compression

20. - E4E06

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

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

21. - E5A15

Which of the following increases Q for inductors and capacitors?

Select	Answer
A	Lower reactance
B	Lower self-resonant frequency
C	Lower losses
D	Higher self-resonant frequency

22. - E5B07

What is the phase angle between the voltage across and the current through a series RLC circuit if XC is 500 ohms, R is 1 kilohm, and XL is 250 ohms?

Select	Answer
A	14.0 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
B	68.2 degrees with the voltage leading the current
C	14.0 degrees with the voltage leading the current
D	68.2 degrees with the voltage lagging the current

23. - E5C09

When using rectangular coordinates to graph the impedance of a circuit, what do the axes represent?

Select	Answer
A	The X axis represents the reactive component and the Y axis represents the resistive component
B	The X axis represents the resistive component and the Y axis represents the reactive component
C	The X axis represents the magnitude and the Y axis represents the phase angle
D	The X axis represents the phase angle and the Y axis represents the magnitude

24. - E5D02

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

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

25. - E6A08

What term indicates the frequency at which the grounded-base current gain of a transistor has decreased to 0.7 of the gain obtainable at 1 kHz?

Select	Answer
A	Beta cutoff frequency
B	Corner frequency
C	Alpha rejection frequency
D	Alpha cutoff frequency

26. - E6B11

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

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

27. - E6C05

What is an advantage of CMOS logic devices over TTL devices?

Select	Answer
A	Lower distortion
B	Immune to damage from static discharge
C	Differential output capability
D	Lower power consumption

28. - E6D06

What core material property determines the inductance of an inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Reactivity
B	Thermal impedance
C	Resistance
D	Permeability

29. - E6E02

Which of the following device packages is a through-hole type?

Select	Answer
A	Ball grid array
B	DIP
C	SOT
D	PLCC

30. - E6F07

What is a solid-state relay?

Select	Answer
A	A mechanical relay that latches in the on or off state each time it is pulsed
B	A semiconductor passive delay line
C	A device that uses semiconductors to implement the functions of an electromechanical relay
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	Negative logic
C	Reverse Logic
D	Positive Logic

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

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	Phase response
D	Noise factor

34. - E7D08

What type of circuit is shown in Figure E7-2?

Select	Answer
A	Monostable multivibrator
B	Grounded emitter amplifier
C	Linear voltage regulator
D	Switching voltage regulator

35. - E7E03

What is a frequency discriminator stage in a FM receiver?

Select	Answer
A	An automatic band-switching circuit
B	A circuit for filtering two closely adjacent signals
C	A circuit for detecting FM signals
D	An FM generator circuit

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	Double-precision math routines
C	More taps
D	Complex phasor representations

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	94
B	0.21
C	24
D	47

38. - E7H02

What is a microphonic?

Select	Answer
A	Distortion caused by RF pickup on the microphone cable
B	Excess loading of the microphone by an oscillator
C	An IC used for amplifying microphone signals
D	Changes in oscillator frequency due to mechanical vibration

39. - E8A09

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

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

40. - E8B11

What is digital time division multiplexing?

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

41. - E8C05

What is the approximate bandwidth of a 13-WPM International Morse Code transmission?

Select	Answer
A	104 Hz
B	13 Hz
C	26 Hz
D	52 Hz

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 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
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. - E9A05

What is included in the total resistance of an antenna system?

Select	Answer
A	Transmission-line resistance plus radiation resistance
B	Radiation resistance plus space impedance
C	Radiation resistance plus loss resistance
D	Radiation resistance plus transmission resistance

44. - E9B11

What is a disadvantage of decreasing the number of wire segments in an antenna model below 10 segments per half-wavelength?

Select	Answer
A	The resulting design will favor radiation of harmonic energy
B	The antenna will become mechanically unstable
C	Ground conductivity will not be accurately modeled
D	The computed feed point impedance may be incorrect

45. - E9C09

Which of the following describes a G5RV antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A multi-band dipole antenna fed with coax and a balun through a selected length of open wire transmission line
B	A multi-band trap antenna
C	A phased array antenna consisting of multiple loops
D	A wide band dipole using shorted coaxial cable for the radiating elements and fed with a�4:1 balun

46. - E9D08

What happens as the Q of an antenna increases?

Select	Answer
A	More common-mode current is present on the feed line
B	SWR bandwidth decreases
C	SWR bandwidth increases
D	Gain is reduced

47. - E9E09

Which of the following is used to shunt-feed a grounded tower at its base?

Select	Answer
A	Double-bazooka match
B	Hairpin match
C	All these choices are correct
D	Gamma match

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 low impedance
C	The same as the characteristic impedance of the line
D	Very high impedance

49. - E9G11

How are the wavelength scales on a Smith chart calibrated?

Select	Answer
A	In fractions of transmission line electrical wavelength
B	In fractions of antenna electrical wavelength
C	In fractions of antenna electrical frequency
D	In fractions of transmission line electrical frequency

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 E7-2