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	The high gain antennas commonly used can result in high exposure levels
C	The extremely high frequency energy can damage the joints of antenna structures
D	Microwaves are ionizing radiation

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

3. - E1B09

Which amateur stations may be operated under RACES rules?

Select	Answer
A	Any FCC-licensed amateur station participating in the Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS)
B	Any FCC-licensed amateur station certified by the responsible civil defense organization for the area served
C	Only those club stations licensed to Amateur Extra Class operators
D	Any FCC-licensed amateur station except a Technician Class

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	All these choices are correct
D	Communications incidental to the purpose of the amateur service and remarks of a personal nature

5. - E1D09

Which UHF amateur bands have frequencies authorized for space stations?

Select	Answer
A	70 cm and 33 cm
B	70 cm only
C	33 cm and 13 cm
D	70 cm and 13 cm

6. - E1E05

What is the minimum passing score on all amateur operator license examinations?

Select	Answer
A	Minimum passing score of 70%
B	Minimum passing score of 80%
C	Minimum passing score of 77%
D	Minimum passing score of 74%

7. - E1F07

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

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

8. - E2A01

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

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

9. - E2B11

What is the function of the Vertical Interval Signaling (VIS) code sent as part of an SSTV transmission?

Select	Answer
A	To identify the call sign of the station transmitting
B	To provide vertical synchronization
C	To lock the color burst oscillator in color SSTV images
D	To identify the SSTV mode being used

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 and grid square
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 once or twice

11. - E2D02

Which of the following is a good technique for making meteor scatter contacts?

Select	Answer
A	Use of special digital modes
B	Short transmissions with rapidly repeated call signs and signal reports
C	All these choices are correct
D	15-second timed transmission sequences with stations alternating based on location

12. - E2E10

Which of these digital modes has the narrowest bandwidth?

Select	Answer
A	PSK31
B	300-baud packet
C	MFSK16
D	170 Hz shift, 45-baud RTTY

13. - E3A06

What might help to restore contact when DX signals become too weak to copy across an entire HF band a few hours after sunset?

Select	Answer
A	Wait 24 hours before attempting another communication on the band
B	Switch to a lower frequency HF band
C	Wait 90 minutes or so for the signal degradation to pass
D	Switch to a higher frequency HF band

14. - E3B03

What is the best time of day for transequatorial propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Afternoon or early evening
B	Morning
C	Noon
D	Late at night

15. - E3C03

Which of the following signal paths is most likely to experience high levels of absorption when the A index or K index is elevated?

Select	Answer
A	Sporadic E
B	NVIS
C	Transequatorial
D	Polar

16. - E4A06

What is the effect of aliasing on a digital oscilloscope caused by setting the time base too slow?

Select	Answer
A	All signals will have a DC offset
B	Excessive blanking occurs, which prevents display of the signal
C	Calibration of the vertical scale is no longer valid
D	A false, jittery low-frequency version of the signal is displayed

17. - E4B08

Which of the following can be used to measure the Q of a series-tuned circuit?

Select	Answer
A	The frequency shift
B	The inductance to capacitance ratio
C	The resonant frequency of the circuit
D	The bandwidth of the circuit's frequency response

18. - E4C11

Why can an attenuator be used to reduce receiver overload on the lower frequency HF bands with little or no impact on signal-to-noise ratio?

Select	Answer
A	Atmospheric noise is generally greater than internally generated noise even after attenuation
B	The attenuator has a low-pass filter to increase the strength of lower frequency signals
C	The attenuator has a noise filter to suppress interference
D	Signals are attenuated separately from the noise

19. - E4D08

What causes intermodulation in an electronic circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Lack of neutralization
B	Too little gain
C	Nonlinear circuits or devices
D	Positive feedback

20. - E4E05

How can radio frequency interference from an AC motor be suppressed?

Select	Answer
A	By installing a high-pass filter in series with the motor's power leads
B	By installing a brute-force AC-line filter in series with the motor leads
C	By installing a bypass capacitor in series with the motor leads
D	By using a ground-fault current interrupter in the circuit used to power the motor

21. - E5A15

Which of the following increases Q for inductors and capacitors?

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

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

23. - E5C08

What coordinate system is often used to display the phase angle of a circuit containing resistance, inductive and/or capacitive reactance?

Select	Answer
A	Faraday grid
B	Maidenhead grid
C	Elliptical coordinates
D	Polar coordinates

24. - E5D13

How many watts are consumed in a circuit consisting of a 100-ohm resistor in series with a 100-ohm inductive reactance drawing 1 ampere?

Select	Answer
A	70.7 watts
B	141.4 watts
C	100 watts
D	200 watts

25. - E6A05

How does DC input impedance at the gate of a field-effect transistor compare with the DC input impedance of a bipolar transistor?

Select	Answer
A	An FET has higher input impedance
B	They are both low impedance
C	An FET has lower input impedance
D	They are both high impedance

26. - E6B05

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

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

27. - E6C11

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

Select	Answer
A	2
B	6
C	4
D	5

28. - E6D09

What devices are commonly used as VHF and UHF parasitic suppressors at the input and output terminals of a transistor HF amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	Ferrite beads
B	Butterworth filters
C	Electrolytic capacitors
D	Steel-core toroids

29. - E6E08

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

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

30. - E6F06

Which of these materials is most commonly used to create photoconductive devices?

Select	Answer
A	An ordinary metal
B	A crystalline semiconductor
C	A liquid semiconductor
D	A heavy metal

31. - E7A02

What is the function of a decade counter?

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

32. - E7B18

What is a characteristic of a grounded-grid amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	High filament voltage
B	Low bandwidth
C	Low input impedance
D	High power gain

33. - E7C10

Which of the following filters would be the best choice for use in a 2 meter band repeater duplexer?

Select	Answer
A	A cavity filter
B	An L-C filter
C	A crystal filter
D	A DSP filter

34. - E7D14

What is the purpose of connecting equal-value resistors across power supply filter capacitors connected in series?

Select	Answer
A	Provide a minimum load on the supply
B	Equalize the voltage across each capacitor
C	All these choices are correct
D	Discharge the capacitors when voltage is removed

35. - E7E11

Which type of detector circuit is used for demodulating SSB signals?

Select	Answer
A	Phase comparator
B	Discriminator
C	Phase detector
D	Product detector

36. - E7F14

Which of the following would allow a digital signal processing filter to create a sharper filter response?

Select	Answer
A	Complex phasor representations
B	Higher data rate
C	Double-precision math routines
D	More taps

37. - E7G04

What is meant by the "op-amp input offset voltage"?

Select	Answer
A	The differential input voltage needed to bring the open loop output voltage to zero
B	The difference between the output voltage of the op-amp and the input voltage required in the immediately following stage
C	The potential between the amplifier input terminals of the op-amp in an open loop condition
D	The output voltage of the op-amp minus its input voltage

38. - E7H07

How can an oscillator's microphonic responses be reduced?

Select	Answer
A	Mechanically isolate the oscillator circuitry from its enclosure
B	Use NP0 capacitors
C	Increase the bias voltage
D	Reduce noise on the oscillator's power supply

39. - E8A07

What determines the PEP-to-average power ratio of a single-sideband phone signal?

Select	Answer
A	Speech characteristics
B	Amplifier gain
C	The degree of carrier suppression
D	The frequency of the modulating signal

40. - E8B04

What is the modulation index of an FM-phone signal having a maximum carrier deviation of plus or minus 6 kHz when modulated with a 2 kHz modulating frequency?

Select	Answer
A	6000
B	3
C	1/3
D	2000

41. - E8C03

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

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

42. - E8D06

What is the advantage of including parity bits in ASCII characters?

Select	Answer
A	Some types of errors can be detected
B	Faster transmission rate
C	Foreign language characters can be sent
D	The signal can overpower interfering signals

43. - E9A11

Which of the following factors determines ground losses for a ground-mounted vertical antenna operating in the 3 MHz to 30 MHz range?

Select	Answer
A	Distance from the transmitter
B	Take-off angle
C	The standing wave ratio
D	Soil conductivity

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

45. - E9C06

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

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

46. - E9D12

Which of the following would provide the best RF ground for your station?

Select	Answer
A	An electrically short connection to a metal water pipe
B	An electrically short connection to 3 or 4 interconnected ground rods driven into the Earth
C	A 50-ohm resistor connected to ground
D	An electrically short connection to 3 or 4 interconnected ground rods via a series RF choke

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 provide a rejection notch that prevents the radiation of harmonics
C	To cancel the inductive reactance of the matching network
D	To transform the antenna impedance to a higher value

48. - E9F03

Why is the physical length of a coaxial cable transmission line shorter than its electrical length?

Select	Answer
A	Skin effect is less pronounced in the coaxial cable
B	Electrical signals move more slowly in a coaxial cable than in air
C	The characteristic impedance is higher in a parallel feed line
D	The surge impedance is higher in a parallel feed line

49. - E9G10

What do the arcs on a Smith chart represent?

Select	Answer
A	Frequency
B	SWR
C	Points with constant resistance
D	Points with constant reactance

50. - E9H04

What is an advantage of placing a grounded electrostatic shield around a small loop direction-finding antenna?

Select	Answer
A	It eliminates tracking errors caused by strong out-of-band signals
B	It adds capacitive loading, increasing the bandwidth of the antenna
C	It eliminates unbalanced capacitive coupling to the surroundings, improving the nulls
D	It increases signal strength by providing a better match to the feed line

Figure E6-3