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

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1. - E0A08

What does SAR measure?

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

2. - E1A02

When using a transceiver that displays the carrier frequency of phone signals, which of the following displayed frequencies represents the lowest frequency at which a properly adjusted LSB emission will be totally within the band?

Select	Answer
A	3 kHz above the lower band edge
B	300 Hz above the lower band edge
C	The exact lower band edge
D	1 kHz above the lower band edge

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	Any FCC-licensed amateur station except a Technician Class
D	Only those club stations licensed to Amateur Extra Class operators

4. - E1C08

What is the maximum permissible duration of a remotely controlled station's transmissions if its control link malfunctions?

Select	Answer
A	30 seconds
B	3 minutes
C	10 minutes
D	5 minutes

5. - E1D12

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

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

6. - E1E12

What must the VE team do with the application form if the examinee does not pass the exam?

Select	Answer
A	Return the application document to the examinee
B	Send the application form to the FCC and inform the FCC of the grade
C	Maintain the application form with the VEC's records
D	Destroy the application form

7. - E1F08

Which of the following types of amateur station communications are prohibited?

Select	Answer
A	Communications that have political content, except as allowed by the Fairness Doctrine
B	Communications in a language other than English
C	Communications transmitted for hire or material compensation, except as otherwise provided in the rules
D	Communications that have religious content

8. - E2A08

Why should effective radiated power to a satellite that uses a linear transponder be limited?

Select	Answer
A	To avoid interfering with terrestrial QSOs
B	To prevent the satellite from emitting out-of-band signals
C	To avoid reducing the downlink power to all other users
D	To prevent creating errors in the satellite telemetry

9. - E2B12

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

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

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

11. - E2D06

Which of the following describes a method of establishing EME contacts?

Select	Answer
A	Storing and forwarding digital messages
B	Judging optimum transmission times by monitoring beacons reflected from the moon
C	High-speed CW identification to avoid fading
D	Time synchronous transmissions alternately from each station

12. - E2E02

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

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

13. - E3A10

Which type of atmospheric structure can create a path for microwave propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Wind shear
B	Dust devil
C	Temperature inversion
D	The jet stream

14. - E3B05

Which amateur bands typically support long-path propagation?

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

15. - E3C06

By how much does the VHF/UHF radio horizon distance exceed the geometric horizon?

Select	Answer
A	By approximately twice the distance
B	By approximately four times the distance
C	By approximately 15 percent of the distance
D	By approximately 50 percent of the distance

16. - E4A04

How is the compensation of an oscilloscope probe typically adjusted?

Select	Answer
A	A high frequency sine wave is displayed and the probe is adjusted for maximum amplitude
B	A square wave is displayed and the probe is adjusted until the horizontal portions of the displayed wave are as nearly flat as possible
C	A DC voltage standard is displayed and the probe is adjusted until the displayed voltage is accurate
D	A frequency standard is displayed and the probe is adjusted until the deflection time is accurate

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

18. - E4C03

What is the term for the suppression in an FM receiver of one signal by another stronger signal on the same frequency?

Select	Answer
A	Desensitization
B	Cross-modulation interference
C	Capture effect
D	Frequency discrimination

19. - E4D05

What transmitter frequencies would cause an intermodulation-product signal in a receiver tuned to 146.70 MHz when a nearby station transmits on 146.52 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	173.35 MHz and 139.40 MHz
B	146.88 MHz and 146.34 MHz
C	146.34 MHz and 146.61 MHz
D	146.10 MHz and 147.30 MHz

20. - E4E11

What could cause local AM broadcast band signals to combine to generate spurious signals in the MF or HF bands?

Select	Answer
A	Your station receiver IF amplifier stage is defective
B	Nearby corroded metal joints are mixing and re-radiating the broadcast signals
C	You are receiving skywave signals from a distant station
D	One or more of the broadcast stations is transmitting an over-modulated signal

21. - E5A16

What is the resonant frequency of an RLC circuit if R is 33 ohms, L is 50 microhenries and C is 10 picofarads?

Select	Answer
A	7.12 MHz
B	7.12 kHz
C	23.5 kHz
D	23.5 MHz

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	68.2 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	14.0 degrees with the voltage lagging the current

23. - E5C11

Which point in Figure E5-1 best represents the impedance of a series circuit consisting of a 300-ohm resistor and an 18-microhenry inductor at 3.505 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	Point 1
B	Point 3
C	Point 8
D	Point 7

24. - E5D12

How many watts are consumed in a circuit having a power factor of 0.2 if the input is 100 VAC at 4 amperes?

Select	Answer
A	50 watts
B	400 watts
C	2000 watts
D	80 watts

25. - E6A06

What is the beta of a bipolar junction transistor?

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

26. - E6B09

What is a common use for point-contact diodes?

Select	Answer
A	As a high-voltage rectifier
B	As an RF detector
C	As a constant current source
D	As a constant voltage source

27. - E6C11

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

Select	Answer
A	6
B	5
C	4
D	2

28. - E6D04

Which materials are commonly used as a core in an inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Ferrite and brass
B	Teflon and Delrin
C	Polystyrene and polyethylene
D	Cobalt and aluminum

29. - E6E08

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

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

30. - E6F01

What absorbs the energy from light falling on a photovoltaic cell?

Select	Answer
A	Electrons
B	Holes
C	Photons
D	Protons

31. - E7A04

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

Select	Answer
A	4
B	2
C	8
D	1

32. - E7B14

Why are switching amplifiers more efficient than linear amplifiers?

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

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	A DSP filter
C	A crystal filter
D	An L-C filter

34. - E7D08

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

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

35. - E7E01

Which of the following can be used to generate FM phone emissions?

Select	Answer
A	A reactance modulator on the oscillator
B	A balanced modulator on the audio amplifier
C	A reactance modulator on the final amplifier
D	A balanced modulator on the oscillator

36. - E7F06

What is the minimum number of bits required for an analog-to-digital converter to sample a signal with a range of 1 volt at a resolution of 1 millivolt?

Select	Answer
A	4 bits
B	10 bits
C	8 bits
D	6 bits

37. - E7G12

What is an operational amplifier?

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

38. - E7H15

Which of these functions can be performed by a phase-locked loop?

Select	Answer
A	Comparison of two digital input signals, digital pulse counter
B	Frequency synthesis, FM demodulation
C	Wide-band AF and RF power amplification
D	Photovoltaic conversion, optical coupling

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. - E8B07

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

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

41. - E8C08

How does ARQ accomplish error correction?

Select	Answer
A	If errors are detected, redundant data is substituted
B	Special polynomial codes provide automatic correction
C	If errors are detected, a retransmission is requested
D	Special binary codes provide automatic correction

42. - E8D02

What spread spectrum communications technique uses a high-speed binary bit stream to shift the phase of an RF carrier?

Select	Answer
A	Phase compandored spread spectrum
B	Direct sequence
C	Frequency hopping
D	Binary phase-shift keying

43. - E9A08

What is antenna bandwidth?

Select	Answer
A	The frequency range over which an antenna satisfies a performance requirement
B	Antenna length divided by the number of elements
C	The angle between the half-power radiation points
D	The angle formed between two imaginary lines drawn through the element ends

44. - E9B05

What type of antenna pattern is shown in Figure E9-2?

Select	Answer
A	Azimuth
B	Elevation
C	Radiation resistance
D	Polarization

45. - E9C02

What is the radiation pattern of two 1/4-wavelength vertical antennas spaced 1/4 wavelength apart and fed 90 degrees out of phase?

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

46. - E9D08

What happens as the Q of an antenna increases?

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

47. - E9E08

What is a use for a Wilkinson divider?

Select	Answer
A	It is used to feed high-impedance antennas from a low-impedance source
B	It is used to divide power equally between two 50-ohm loads while maintaining 50-ohm input impedance
C	It is used to feed low-impedance loads from a high-impedance source
D	It divides the operating frequency of a transmitter signal so it can be used on a lower frequency band

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	10.4 meters
B	8.3 meters
C	6.9 meters
D	5.2 meters

49. - E9G03

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

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

50. - E9H06

What is the triangulation method of direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	A fixed receiving station uses three different antennas to plot the location of the signal source
B	A fixed receiving station plots three headings to the signal source
C	The geometric angles of sky waves from the source are used to determine its position
D	Antenna headings from several different receiving locations are used to locate the signal source

Figure E5-1

Figure E6-3

Figure E7-2

Figure E9-2