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

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1. - E0A10

What toxic material may be present in some electronic components such as high voltage capacitors and transformers?

Select	Answer
A	Polytetrafluoroethylene
B	Polychlorinated biphenyls
C	Polymorphic silicon
D	Polyethylene

2. - E1A12

What special operating frequency restrictions are imposed on slow scan TV transmissions?

Select	Answer
A	They are restricted to phone band segments
B	They are restricted to 7.245 MHz, 14.245 MHz, 21.345 MHz, and 28.945 MHz
C	None; they are allowed on all amateur frequencies
D	They are not permitted above 54 MHz

3. - E1B03

Within what distance must an amateur station protect an FCC monitoring facility from harmful interference?

Select	Answer
A	30 miles
B	10 miles
C	1 mile
D	3 miles

4. - E1C03

How do the control operator responsibilities of a station under automatic control differ from one under local control?

Select	Answer
A	Under automatic control there is no control operator
B	Under local control a control operator is not required to be present at a control point
C	Under automatic control the control operator is not required to be present at the control point
D	Under local control there is no control operator

5. - E1D01

What is the definition of telemetry?

Select	Answer
A	One-way transmission that initiates, modifies, or terminates the functions of a device at a distance
B	One-way transmission of measurements at a distance from the measuring instrument
C	Two-way transmissions of data
D	Two-way transmissions in excess of 1000 feet

6. - E1E09

What may be the penalty for a VE who fraudulently administers or certifies an examination?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	Revocation of the VE's amateur station license grant and the suspension of the VE's amateur operator license grant
C	A fine of up to $1000 per occurrence
D	A sentence of up to one year in prison

7. - E1F11

Which of the following best describes one of the standards that must be met by an external RF power amplifier if it is to qualify for a grant of FCC certification?

Select	Answer
A	It must be capable of external RF switching between its input and output networks
B	It must satisfy the FCC's spurious emission standards when operated at the lesser of 1500 watts or its full output power
C	It must exhibit a gain of 0 dB or less over its full output range
D	It must produce full legal output when driven by not more than 5 watts of mean RF input power

8. - E2A05

What do the letters in a satellite's mode designator specify?

Select	Answer
A	The uplink and downlink frequency ranges
B	The location of the ground control station
C	Power limits for uplink and downlink transmissions
D	The polarization of uplink and downlink signals

9. - E2B01

How many times per second is a new frame transmitted in a fast-scan (NTSC) television system?

Select	Answer
A	30
B	90
C	60
D	120

10. - E2C07

What is the Cabrillo format?

Select	Answer
A	The most common set of contest rules
B	A standard for submission of electronic contest logs
C	A method of exchanging information during a contest QSO
D	The rules of order for meetings between contest sponsors

11. - E2D08

What type of packet frame is used to transmit APRS beacon data?

Select	Answer
A	Unnumbered Information
B	Disconnect
C	Connect
D	Acknowledgement

12. - E2E01

Which of the following types of modulation is common for data emissions below 30 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	Spread spectrum
B	DTMF tones modulating an FM signal
C	FSK
D	Pulse modulation

13. - E3A14

What is meant by circularly polarized electromagnetic waves?

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

14. - E3B10

Why is chordal hop propagation desirable?

Select	Answer
A	Signals travel faster along ionospheric chords
B	Atmospheric noise is lower in the direction of chordal hop propagation
C	The signal experiences less loss compared to multi-hop using Earth as a reflector
D	The MUF for chordal hop propagation is much lower than for normal skip propagation

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 15 percent of the distance
C	By approximately four times the distance
D	By approximately 50 percent of the distance

16. - E4A03

Which of the following test instruments is used to display spurious signals and/or intermodulation distortion products generated by an SSB transmitter?

Select	Answer
A	A spectrum analyzer
B	A logic analyzer
C	A time-domain reflectometer
D	A wattmeter

17. - E4B06

How much power is being absorbed by the load when a directional power meter connected between a transmitter and a terminating load reads 100 watts forward power and 25 watts reflected power?

Select	Answer
A	125 watts
B	25 watts
C	100 watts
D	75 watts

18. - E4C02

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

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

19. - E4D08

What causes intermodulation in an electronic circuit?

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

20. - E4E10

What might be the cause of a loud roaring or buzzing AC line interference that comes and goes at intervals?

Select	Answer
A	Arcing contacts in a thermostatically controlled device
B	All these choices are correct
C	A defective doorbell or doorbell transformer inside a nearby residence
D	A malfunctioning illuminated advertising display

21. - E5A11

What is the half-power bandwidth of a resonant circuit that has a resonant frequency of 7.1 MHz and a Q of 150?

Select	Answer
A	315.6 Hz
B	47.3 kHz
C	157.8 Hz
D	23.67 kHz

22. - E5B08

What is the phase angle between the voltage across and the current through a series RLC circuit if XC is 100 ohms, R is 100 ohms, and XL is 75 ohms?

Select	Answer
A	76 degrees with the voltage leading the current
B	14 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
C	76 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
D	14 degrees with the voltage leading the current

23. - E5C03

Which of the following represents an inductive reactance in polar coordinates?

Select	Answer
A	A negative phase angle
B	A negative magnitude
C	A positive phase angle
D	A positive 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	All these choices are correct
C	To avoid unwanted inductive reactance
D	To increase the thermal time constant

25. - E6A03

Why does a PN-junction diode not conduct current when reverse biased?

Select	Answer
A	Only P-type semiconductor material can conduct current
B	Holes in P-type material and electrons in the N-type material are separated by the applied voltage, widening the depletion region
C	Only N-type semiconductor material can conduct current
D	Excess holes in P-type material combine with the electrons in N-type material, converting the entire diode into an insulator

26. - E6B01

What is the most useful characteristic of a Zener diode?

Select	Answer
A	A negative resistance region
B	A constant current drop under conditions of varying voltage
C	An internal capacitance that varies with the applied voltage
D	A constant voltage drop under conditions of varying current

27. - E6C08

In Figure E6-3, what is the schematic symbol for a NAND gate?

Select	Answer
A	1
B	3
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	Cobalt and aluminum
D	Polystyrene and polyethylene

29. - E6E07

What type of transmission line is used for connections to MMICs?

Select	Answer
A	Miniature coax
B	Parallel wire
C	Circular waveguide
D	Microstrip

30. - E6F02

What happens to the conductivity of a photoconductive material when light shines on it?

Select	Answer
A	It decreases
B	It stays the same
C	It increases
D	It becomes unstable

31. - E7A05

Which of the following is a circuit that continuously alternates between two states without an external clock?

Select	Answer
A	Astable multivibrator
B	T flip-flop
C	Monostable multivibrator
D	J-K flip-flop

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

33. - E7C02

Which of the following is a property of a T-network with series capacitors and a parallel shunt inductor?

Select	Answer
A	It is a notch filter
B	It is a high-pass filter
C	It is a band-pass filter
D	It is a low-pass filter

34. - E7D02

What is a characteristic of a switching electronic voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	The controlled device's duty cycle is changed to produce a constant average output voltage
B	The resistance of a control element is varied in direct proportion to the line voltage or load current
C	It is generally less efficient than a linear regulator
D	It gives a ramp voltage at its output

35. - E7E03

What is a frequency discriminator stage in a FM receiver?

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

36. - E7F03

What type of digital signal processing filter is used to generate an SSB signal?

Select	Answer
A	An adaptive filter
B	A Hilbert-transform filter
C	An elliptical filter
D	A notch filter

37. - E7G01

What is the typical output impedance of an op-amp?

Select	Answer
A	1000 ohms
B	Very low
C	100 ohms
D	Very high

38. - E7H09

What type of frequency synthesizer circuit uses a phase accumulator, lookup table, digital to analog converter, and a low-pass anti-alias filter?

Select	Answer
A	A direct digital synthesizer
B	A phase-locked loop synthesizer
C	A diode-switching matrix synthesizer
D	A hybrid synthesizer

39. - E8A06

What is the approximate ratio of PEP-to-average power in a typical single-sideband phone signal?

Select	Answer
A	25 to 1
B	2.5 to 1
C	100 to 1
D	1 to 1

40. - E8B03

What is the modulation index of an FM-phone signal having a maximum frequency deviation of 3000 Hz either side of the carrier frequency when the modulating frequency is 1000 Hz?

Select	Answer
A	1000
B	3000
C	0.3
D	3

41. - E8C12

What factors affect the bandwidth of a transmitted CW signal?

Select	Answer
A	Modulation index and output power
B	IF bandwidth and Q
C	All these choices are correct
D	Keying speed and shape factor (rise and fall time)

42. - E8D03

How does the spread spectrum technique of frequency hopping work?

Select	Answer
A	If interference is detected by the receiver it will signal the transmitter to wait until the frequency is clear
B	A binary bit stream is used to shift the phase of an RF carrier very rapidly in a pseudorandom sequence
C	The frequency of the transmitted signal is changed very rapidly according to a pseudorandom sequence also used by the receiving station
D	If interference is detected by the receiver it will signal the transmitter to change frequencies

43. - E9A13

What term describes station output, taking into account all gains and losses?

Select	Answer
A	Half-power bandwidth
B	Power factor
C	Apparent power
D	Effective radiated power

44. - E9B05

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

Select	Answer
A	Radiation resistance
B	Elevation
C	Polarization
D	Azimuth

45. - E9C01

What is the radiation pattern of two 1/4-wavelength vertical antennas spaced 1/2-wavelength apart and fed 180 degrees out of phase?

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

46. - E9D05

What usually occurs if a Yagi antenna is designed solely for maximum forward gain?

Select	Answer
A	The frequency response is widened over the whole frequency band
B	The SWR is reduced
C	The front-to-back ratio increases
D	The front-to-back ratio decreases

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

48. - E9F10

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

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

49. - E9G06

On the Smith chart shown in Figure E9-3, what is the name for the large outer circle on which the reactance arcs terminate?

Select	Answer
A	Impedance axis
B	Reactance axis
C	Prime axis
D	Polar axis

50. - E9H01

When constructing a Beverage antenna, which of the following factors should be included in the design to achieve good performance at the desired frequency?

Select	Answer
A	It must be mounted more than 1 wavelength above ground
B	It should be one or more wavelengths long
C	Its overall length must not exceed 1/4 wavelength
D	It should be configured as a four-sided loop

Figure E6-3

Figure E9-2

Figure E9-3