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

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1. - E0A08

What does SAR measure?

Select	Answer
A	The rate at which RF energy is absorbed by the body
B	Synthetic Aperture Ratio of the human body
C	Signal Amplification Rating
D	The rate of RF energy reflected from stationary terrain

2. - E1A07

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

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

3. - E1B02

Which of the following is an acceptable bandwidth for Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) based voice or SSTV digital transmissions made on the HF amateur bands?

Select	Answer
A	10 kHz
B	20 kHz
C	3 kHz
D	15 kHz

4. - E1C14

How long must an operator wait after filing a notification with the Utilities Technology Council (UTC) before operating on the 2200 meter or 630 meter band?

Select	Answer
A	Operators may operate after 30 days, providing they have not been told that their station is within 1 km of PLC systems using those frequencies
B	Operations may commence immediately, and may continue unless interference is reported by the UTC
C	Operators may not operate until a test signal has been transmitted in coordination with the local power company
D	Operators must not operate until approval is received

5. - E1D12

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

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

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

7. - E1F04

Which of the following geographic descriptions approximately describes "Line A"?

Select	Answer
A	A line roughly parallel to and west of the U.S. Atlantic coastline
B	A line roughly parallel to and south of the border between the U.S. and Canada
C	A line roughly parallel to and north of the border between the U.S. and Mexico
D	A line roughly parallel to and east of the U.S. Pacific coastline

8. - E2A01

What is the direction of an ascending pass for an amateur satellite?

Select	Answer
A	From west to east
B	From east to west
C	From south to north
D	From north to south

9. - E2B02

How many horizontal lines make up a fast-scan (NTSC) television frame?

Select	Answer
A	1080
B	525
C	60
D	30

10. - E2C11

How should you generally identify your station when attempting to contact a DX station during a contest or in a pileup?

Select	Answer
A	Send your full call sign once or twice
B	Send only the last two letters of your call sign until you make contact
C	Send the call sign of the DX station three times, the words this is,then your call sign three times
D	Send your full call sign and grid square

11. - E2D11

Which of the following data are used by the APRS network to communicate station location?

Select	Answer
A	Polar coordinates
B	Radio direction finding spectrum analysis
C	Latitude and longitude
D	Time and frequency

12. - E2E02

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

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

13. - E3A14

What is meant by circularly polarized electromagnetic waves?

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

14. - E3B05

Which amateur bands typically support long-path propagation?

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

15. - E3C11

What does VOACAP software model?

Select	Answer
A	VHF radio propagation
B	AC voltage and impedance
C	HF propagation
D	AC current and impedance

16. - E4A01

Which of the following limits the highest frequency signal that can be accurately displayed on a digital oscilloscope?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	Amount of memory
C	Q of the circuit
D	Sampling rate of the analog-to-digital converter

17. - E4B07

What do the subscripts of S parameters represent?

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

18. - E4C09

Which of the following choices is a good reason for selecting a high frequency for the design of the IF in a superheterodyne HF or VHF communications receiver?

Select	Answer
A	Fewer components in the receiver
B	Reduced drift
C	Improved receiver noise figure
D	Easier for front-end circuitry to eliminate image responses

19. - E4D11

Why are odd-order intermodulation products, created within a receiver, of particular interest compared to other products?

Select	Answer
A	Odd-order intermodulation produces three products for every input signal within the band of interest
B	Odd-order products of two signals in the band of interest are also likely to be within the band
C	Odd-order products overload the IF filters
D	Odd-order products are an indication of poor image rejection

20. - E4E07

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

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

21. - E5A04

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

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

22. - E5B10

What is the relationship between the AC current through an inductor and the voltage across an inductor?

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

23. - E5C06

What does the impedance 50-j25 represent?

Select	Answer
A	25 ohms resistance in series with 50 ohms inductive reactance
B	50 ohms resistance in series with 25 ohms capacitive reactance
C	50 ohms resistance in series with 25 ohms inductive reactance
D	25 ohms resistance in series with 50 ohms capacitive reactance

24. - E5D08

How many watts are consumed in a circuit having a power factor of 0.6 if the input is 200VAC at 5 amperes?

Select	Answer
A	1600 watts
B	1000 watts
C	200 watts
D	600 watts

25. - E6A10

In Figure E6-1, what is the schematic symbol for an N-channel dual-gate MOSFET?

Select	Answer
A	4
B	2
C	6
D	5

26. - E6B05

What characteristic of a PIN diode makes it useful as an RF switch?

Select	Answer
A	Low junction capacitance
B	Extremely high reverse breakdown voltage
C	Reverse bias controls its forward voltage drop
D	Ability to dissipate large amounts of power

27. - E6C11

In Figure E6-3, what is the schematic symbol for the NOT operation (inverter)?

Select	Answer
A	5
B	2
C	4
D	6

28. - E6D01

Why should core saturation of an impedance matching transformer be avoided?

Select	Answer
A	Harmonics and distortion could result
B	Temporary changes of the core permeability could result
C	RF susceptance would increase
D	Magnetic flux would increase with frequency

29. - E6E12

Why are DIP through-hole package ICs not typically used at UHF and higher frequencies?

Select	Answer
A	Excessive lead length
B	Unsuitable for combining analog and digital signals
C	Epoxy coating is conductive above 300 MHz
D	Too many pins

30. - E6F04

What is the photovoltaic effect?

Select	Answer
A	The tendency of a battery to discharge when exposed to light
B	The conversion of voltage to current when exposed to light
C	The conversion of light to electrical energy
D	The conversion of electrical energy to mechanical energy

31. - E7A04

How many flip-flops are required to divide a signal frequency by 4?

Select	Answer
A	1
B	4
C	2
D	8

32. - E7B15

What is one way to prevent thermal runaway in a bipolar transistor amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	Neutralization
B	All these choices are correct
C	Use a resistor in series with the emitter
D	Select transistors with high beta

33. - E7C09

What is a crystal lattice filter?

Select	Answer
A	An audio filter made with four quartz crystals that resonate at 1 kHz intervals
B	A filter with narrow bandwidth and steep skirts made using quartz crystals
C	A filter using lattice-shaped quartz crystals for high-Q performance
D	A power supply filter made with interlaced quartz crystals

34. - E7D04

Which of the following types of linear voltage regulator usually make the most efficient use of the primary power source?

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

35. - E7E03

What is a frequency discriminator stage in a FM receiver?

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

36. - E7F04

What is a common method of generating an SSB signal using digital signal processing?

Select	Answer
A	Mixing products are converted to voltages and subtracted by adder circuits
B	Signals are combined in quadrature phase relationship
C	Varying quartz crystal characteristics emulated in digital form
D	A frequency synthesizer removes the unwanted sidebands

37. - E7G05

How can unwanted ringing and audio instability be prevented in an op-amp RC audio filter circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Restrict gain but increase Q
B	Restrict both gain and Q
C	Restrict Q but increase gain
D	Increase both gain and Q

38. - E7H05

How is positive feedback supplied in a Pierce oscillator?

Select	Answer
A	Through a tapped coil
B	Through a quartz crystal
C	Through link coupling
D	Through a neutralizing capacitor

39. - E8A10

What is the purpose of a low-pass filter used in conjunction with a digital-to-analog converter?

Select	Answer
A	Remove harmonics from the output caused by the discrete analog levels generated
B	Lower the input bandwidth to increase the effective resolution
C	All these choices are correct
D	Improve accuracy by removing out-of-sequence codes from the input

40. - E8B08

What describes Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing?

Select	Answer
A	A digital modulation technique using subcarriers at frequencies chosen to avoid intersymbol interference
B	A digital mode for narrow-band, slow-speed transmissions
C	A bandwidth compression technique using Fourier transforms
D	A frequency modulation technique that uses non-harmonically related frequencies

41. - E8C03

Why should phase-shifting of a PSK signal be done at the zero crossing of the RF signal?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	To minimize bandwidth
C	To improve carrier suppression
D	To simplify modulation

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 6 data bits per character, ASCII uses 7 or 8; Baudot has no letters/figures shift code, ASCII uses 2 letters/figures shift codes
C	Baudot uses 7 data bits per character, ASCII uses 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	Radiation resistance plus transmission resistance
B	Radiation resistance plus loss resistance
C	Transmission-line resistance plus radiation resistance
D	Radiation resistance plus space impedance

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

45. - E9C12

Which of the following describes an Extended Double Zepp antenna?

Select	Answer
A	An end-fed folded dipole antenna
B	A center-fed 1.25-wavelength antenna (two 5/8-wave elements in phase)
C	A portable antenna erected using two push support poles
D	A wideband vertical antenna constructed from precisely tapered aluminum tubing

46. - E9D03

Where should a high Q loading coil be placed to minimize losses in a shortened vertical antenna?

Select	Answer
A	At a voltage node
B	As close to the transmitter as possible
C	Near the center of the vertical radiator
D	As low as possible on the vertical radiator

47. - E9E10

Which of these choices is an effective way to match an antenna with a 100-ohm feed point impedance to a 50-ohm coaxial cable feed line?

Select	Answer
A	Insert a 1/2 wavelength piece of 300-ohm twinlead in series between the antenna terminals and the 50-ohm feed cable
B	Connect a 1/2 wavelength shorted stub of 75-ohm cable in parallel with the 50-ohm cable where it attaches to the antenna
C	Connect a 1/4-wavelength open stub of 300-ohm twinlead in parallel with the coaxial feed line where it connects to the antenna
D	Insert a 1/4-wavelength piece of 75-ohm coaxial cable transmission line in series between the antenna terminals and the 50-ohm feed cable

48. - E9F11

What impedance does a 1/8-wavelength transmission line present to a generator when the line is open at the far end?

Select	Answer
A	The same as the characteristic impedance of the line
B	An inductive reactance
C	Infinite
D	A capacitive reactance

49. - E9G03

Which of the following is often determined using a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Satellite azimuth and elevation bearings
B	Trigonometric functions
C	Beam headings and radiation patterns
D	Impedance and SWR values in transmission lines

50. - E9H10

How can the output voltage of a multiple-turn receiving loop antenna be increased?

Select	Answer
A	By reducing the permeability of the loop shield
B	By utilizing high impedance wire for the coupling loop
C	By increasing the number of turns and/or the area
D	By winding adjacent turns in opposing directions

Figure E6-1

Figure E6-3