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

Logging in (or registering) will help the system to select questions that you need to focus on.

1. - E0A01

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

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

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	Any amateur license with an FCC Marine or Aircraft endorsement
C	Any FCC-issued amateur license
D	Only General Class or higher amateur licenses

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	1 mile
D	30 miles

4. - E1C12

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

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

5. - E1D12

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

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

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

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

8. - E2A06

What are Keplerian elements?

Select	Answer
A	High-emission heater filaments used in magnetron tubes
B	Encrypting codes used for spread spectrum modulation
C	Phase reversing elements in a Yagi antenna
D	Parameters that define the orbit of a satellite

9. - E2B05

Which of the following describes the use of vestigial sideband in analog fast-scan TV transmissions?

Select	Answer
A	The vestigial sideband carries the audio information
B	Vestigial sideband provides high frequency emphasis to sharpen the picture
C	Vestigial sideband reduces bandwidth while allowing for simple video detector circuitry
D	The vestigial sideband contains chroma information

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

11. - E2D07

What digital protocol is used by APRS?

Select	Answer
A	AMTOR
B	PACTOR
C	802.11
D	AX.25

12. - E2E08

Which of the following HF digital modes can be used to transfer binary files?

Select	Answer
A	Hellschreiber
B	AMTOR
C	PACTOR
D	RTTY

13. - E3A07

Atmospheric ducts capable of propagating microwave signals often form over what geographic feature?

Select	Answer
A	Forests
B	Bodies of water
C	Mountain ranges
D	Urban areas

14. - E3B12

What is the primary characteristic of chordal hop propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Successive ionospheric refractions without an intermediate reflection from the ground
B	Propagation away from the great circle bearing between stations
C	Signals reflected back toward the transmitting station
D	Propagation across the geomagnetic equator

15. - E3C02

What is indicated by a rising A or K index?

Select	Answer
A	Decreasing disruption of the geomagnetic field
B	Higher levels of solar UV radiation
C	An increase in the critical frequency
D	Increasing disruption of the geomagnetic field

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	Sampling rate of the analog-to-digital converter
C	Amount of memory
D	Q of the circuit

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	Short circuit, open circuit, and 50 ohms
C	50 ohms, 75 ohms, and 90 ohms
D	Short circuit, open circuit, and resonant circuit

18. - E4C12

Which of the following has the largest effect on an SDR receiver's dynamic range?

Select	Answer
A	Analog-to-digital converter sample width in bits
B	RAM speed used for data storage
C	Anti-aliasing input filter bandwidth
D	CPU register width in bits

19. - E4D12

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

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

20. - E4E02

Which of the following types of noise can often be reduced with a digital signal processing noise filter?

Select	Answer
A	Broadband white noise
B	Ignition noise
C	Power line noise
D	All these choices are correct

21. - E5A10

How is the Q of an RLC series resonant circuit calculated?

Select	Answer
A	Resistance divided by the reactance of either the inductance or capacitance
B	Reactance of the inductance multiplied by the reactance of the capacitance
C	Reactance of either the inductance or capacitance multiplied by the resistance
D	Reactance of either the inductance or capacitance divided by the resistance

22. - E5B10

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

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

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

24. - E5D03

What is microstrip?

Select	Answer
A	Lightweight transmission line made of common zip cord
B	Precision printed circuit conductors above a ground plane that provide constant impedance interconnects at microwave frequencies
C	Short lengths of coax mounted on printed circuit boards to minimize time delay between microwave circuits
D	Miniature coax used for low power applications

25. - E6A10

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

Select	Answer
A	6
B	2
C	5
D	4

26. - E6B04

What type of semiconductor device is designed for use as a voltage-controlled capacitor?

Select	Answer
A	Silicon-controlled rectifier
B	Varactor diode
C	Zener diode
D	Tunnel diode

27. - E6C11

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

Select	Answer
A	2
B	6
C	5
D	4

28. - E6D03

Which of the following is an aspect of the piezoelectric effect?

Select	Answer
A	Increased conductivity in the presence of light
B	Mechanical deformation of material by the application of a voltage
C	Mechanical deformation of material by the application of a magnetic field
D	Generation of electrical energy in the presence of light

29. - E6E05

Which of the following noise figure values is typical of a low-noise UHF preamplifier?

Select	Answer
A	-20 dBm
B	2 dB
C	-10 dB
D	44 dBm

30. - E6F05

Which describes an optical shaft encoder?

Select	Answer
A	A device for generating RTTY signals by means of a rotating light source
B	A device that measures the strength of a beam of light using analog to digital conversion
C	A device that detects rotation of a control by interrupting a light source with a patterned wheel
D	A digital encryption device often used to encrypt spacecraft control signals

31. - E7A07

What logical operation does a NAND gate perform?

Select	Answer
A	It produces logic 0 at its output only when all inputs are logic 0
B	It produces logic 1 at its output only when all inputs are logic 1
C	It produces logic 0 at its output only when all inputs are logic 1
D	It produces logic 0 at its output if some but not all inputs are logic 1

32. - E7B14

Why are switching amplifiers more efficient than linear amplifiers?

Select	Answer
A	Linear amplifiers have high gain resulting in higher harmonic content
B	Switching amplifiers operate at higher voltages
C	The power transistor is at saturation or cutoff most of the time
D	Switching amplifiers use push-pull circuits

33. - E7C09

What is a crystal lattice filter?

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

34. - E7D01

How does a linear electronic voltage regulator work?

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

35. - E7E02

What is the function of a reactance modulator?

Select	Answer
A	To produce AM signals by using an electrically variable inductance or capacitance
B	To produce PM or FM signals by using an electrically variable inductance or capacitance
C	To produce PM signals by using an electrically variable resistance
D	To produce AM signals by using an electrically variable resistance

36. - E7F12

Which of the following is an advantage of a Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filter vs an Infinite Impulse Response (IIR) digital filter?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	FIR filters can delay all frequency components of the signal by the same amount
C	FIR filters are easier to implement for a given set of passband rolloff requirements
D	FIR filters can respond faster to impulses

37. - E7G10

What absolute voltage gain can be expected from the circuit in Figure E7-3 when R1 is 1800 ohms and RF is 68 kilohms?

Select	Answer
A	38
B	76
C	0.03
D	1

38. - E7H11

What are the major spectral impurity components of direct digital synthesizers?

Select	Answer
A	Nyquist limit noise
B	Spurious signals at discrete frequencies
C	Broadband noise
D	Digital conversion noise

39. - E8A10

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

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

40. - E8B08

What describes Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing?

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

41. - E8C05

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

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

42. - E8D11

What is one advantage of using ASCII code for data communications?

Select	Answer
A	It uses one character as a shift code to send numeric and special characters
B	It includes built-in error correction features
C	It contains fewer information bits per character than any other code
D	It is possible to transmit both upper and lower case text

43. - E9A10

Which of the following improves the efficiency of a ground-mounted quarter-wave vertical antenna?

Select	Answer
A	Isolating the coax shield from ground
B	All these choices are correct
C	Installing a radial system
D	Shortening the radiating element

44. - E9B09

What type of computer program technique is commonly used for modeling antennas?

Select	Answer
A	Method of Moments
B	Calculus differentiation with respect to physical properties
C	Graphical analysis
D	Mutual impedance analysis

45. - E9C03

What is the radiation pattern of two 1/4-wavelength vertical antennas spaced 1/2-wavelength apart and fed in phase?

Select	Answer
A	A Figure-8 end-fire along the axis of the array
B	Omni-directional
C	A Figure-8 broadside to the axis of the array
D	Cardioid

46. - E9D03

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

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

47. - E9E05

How must an antenna's driven element be tuned to use a hairpin matching system?

Select	Answer
A	The driven element reactance must be inductive
B	The driven element radiation resistance must be higher than the characteristic impedance of the transmission line
C	The driven element reactance must be capacitive
D	The driven element resonance must be lower than the operating frequency

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

49. - E9G02

What type of coordinate system is used in a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Voltage circles and current arcs
B	Voltage lines and current chords
C	Resistance circles and reactance arcs
D	Resistance lines and reactance chords

50. - E9H09

What is a Pennant antenna?

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

Figure E6-1

Figure E6-3

Figure E7-3