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

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1. - E0A01

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

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

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. - E1C11

Which of the following operating arrangements allows an FCC-licensed U.S. citizen to operate in many European countries, and alien amateurs from many European countries to operate in the U.S.?

Select	Answer
A	IARP agreement
B	All these choices are correct
C	CEPT agreement
D	ITU reciprocal license

5. - E1D09

Which UHF amateur bands have frequencies authorized for space stations?

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

6. - E1E05

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

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

7. - E1F04

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

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

8. - E2A04

What is meant by the term mode? as applied to an amateur radio satellite?

Select	Answer
A	The satellite's orientation with respect to the Earth
B	Whether the satellite is in a polar or equatorial orbit
C	Whether the satellite is in a low earth or geostationary orbit
D	The satellite's uplink and downlink frequency bands

9. - E2B06

What is vestigial sideband modulation?

Select	Answer
A	Narrow-band FM modulation achieved by filtering one sideband from the audio before frequency modulating the carrier
B	Spread spectrum modulation achieved by applying FM modulation following single sideband amplitude modulation
C	A type of modulation in which one sideband is inverted
D	Amplitude modulation in which one complete sideband and a portion of the other are transmitted

10. - E2C06

During a VHF/UHF contest, in which band segment would you expect to find the highest level of SSB or CW activity?

Select	Answer
A	At the top of each band, usually in a segment reserved for contests
B	In the middle of each band, usually on the national calling frequency
C	In the middle of the band, usually 25 kHz above the national calling frequency
D	In the weak signal segment of the band, with most of the activity near the calling frequency

11. - E2D11

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

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

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. - E3A13

Which of these emission modes is best for auroral propagation?

Select	Answer
A	FM
B	RTTY
C	CW
D	SSB

14. - E3B09

At what time of year is sporadic E propagation most likely to occur?

Select	Answer
A	Around the solstices, especially the summer solstice
B	Around the equinoxes, especially the spring equinox
C	Around the solstices, especially the winter solstice
D	Around the equinoxes, especially the fall equinox

15. - E3C01

What does the radio communication term "ray tracing" describe?

Select	Answer
A	Evaluating high voltage sources for x-rays
B	Determining the radiation pattern from an array of antennas
C	The process in which an electronic display presents a pattern
D	Modeling a radio wave's path through the ionosphere

16. - E4A09

Which of the following is good practice when using an oscilloscope probe?

Select	Answer
A	Never use a DC-coupled probe to measure an AC circuit
B	Never use a high-impedance probe to measure a low-impedance circuit
C	Keep the signal ground connection of the probe as short as possible
D	All these choices are correct

17. - E4B07

What do the subscripts of S parameters represent?

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

18. - E4C01

What is an effect of excessive phase noise in a receiver's local oscillator?

Select	Answer
A	It can combine with strong signals on nearby frequencies to generate interference
B	It decreases receiver third-order intercept point
C	It limits the receiver's ability to receive strong signals
D	It can affect the receiver's frequency calibration

19. - E4D10

What does a third-order intercept level of 40 dBm mean with respect to receiver performance?

Select	Answer
A	A pair of 40 dBm input signals will theoretically generate a third-order intermodulation product that has the same output amplitude as either of the input signals
B	A pair of 1 mW input signals will produce a third-order intermodulation product that is 40 dB stronger than the input signal
C	Signals less than 40 dBm will not generate audible third-order intermodulation products
D	The receiver can tolerate signals up to 40 dB above the noise floor without producing third-order intermodulation products

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 using a ground-fault current interrupter in the circuit used to power the motor
C	By installing a brute-force AC-line filter in series with the motor leads
D	By installing a bypass capacitor in series with the motor leads

21. - E5A07

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

Select	Answer
A	Maximum
B	R/L
C	L/R
D	Minimum

22. - E5B02

What letter is commonly used to represent susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	Y
B	G
C	X
D	B

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 8
B	Point 3
C	Point 1
D	Point 7

24. - E5D10

How can the true power be determined in an AC circuit where the voltage and current are out of phase?

Select	Answer
A	By dividing the reactive power by the power factor
B	By dividing the apparent power by the power factor
C	By multiplying the apparent power by the power factor
D	By multiplying the reactive power by the power factor

25. - E6A08

What term indicates the frequency at which the grounded-base current gain of a transistor has decreased to 0.7 of the gain obtainable at 1 kHz?

Select	Answer
A	Alpha cutoff frequency
B	Alpha rejection frequency
C	Corner frequency
D	Beta cutoff frequency

26. - E6B08

Which of the following is a Schottky barrier diode?

Select	Answer
A	Thermionic emission diode
B	PIN junction
C	Electrolytic rectifier
D	Metal-semiconductor junction

27. - E6C10

In Figure E6-3, what is the schematic symbol for a NOR gate?

Select	Answer
A	4
B	1
C	3
D	2

28. - E6D08

What is one reason for using powdered-iron cores rather than ferrite cores in an inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Powdered-iron cores generally maintain their characteristics at higher currents
B	Powdered-iron cores generally have greater initial permeability
C	Powdered-iron cores use smaller diameter wire for the same inductance
D	Powdered-iron cores generally require fewer turns to produce a given inductance

29. - E6E11

What is a characteristic of DIP packaging used for integrated circuits?

Select	Answer
A	Package mounts in a direct inverted position
B	Two chips in each package (Dual In Package)
C	A total of two rows of connecting pins placed on opposite sides of the package (Dual In-line Package)
D	Low leakage doubly insulated package

30. - E6F07

What is a solid-state relay?

Select	Answer
A	A device that uses semiconductors to implement the functions of an electromechanical relay
B	A semiconductor passive delay line
C	A relay using transistors to drive the relay coil
D	A mechanical relay that latches in the on or off state each time it is pulsed

31. - E7A01

Which circuit is bistable?

Select	Answer
A	An AND gate
B	A flip-flop
C	An OR gate
D	A bipolar amplifier

32. - E7B05

What can be done to prevent unwanted oscillations in an RF power amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	Install parasitic suppressors and/or neutralize the stage
B	Tune both the input and output for maximum power
C	Use a phase inverter in the output filter
D	Tune the stage for maximum SWR

33. - E7C07

Which describes a Pi-L-network used for matching a vacuum tube final amplifier to a 50-ohm unbalanced output?

Select	Answer
A	A Pi-network with an additional series inductor on the output
B	A matching network in which all components are isolated from ground
C	A network with only three discrete parts
D	A Phase Inverter Load network

34. - E7D10

What is the primary reason that a high-frequency switching type high-voltage power supply can be both less expensive and lighter in weight than a conventional power supply?

Select	Answer
A	It uses a large power factor compensation capacitor to recover power from the unused portion of the AC cycle
B	It uses a diode bridge rectifier for increased output
C	The high frequency inverter design uses much smaller transformers and filter components for an equivalent power output
D	The inverter design does not require any output filtering

35. - E7E10

How does a diode envelope detector function?

Select	Answer
A	By mixing signals with noise in the transition region of the diode
B	By rectification and filtering of RF signals
C	By breakdown of the Zener voltage
D	By sensing the change of reactance in the diode with respect to frequency

36. - E7F09

Why is an anti-aliasing digital filter required in a digital decimator?

Select	Answer
A	It removes high-frequency signal components that would otherwise be reproduced as lower frequency components
B	It removes low-frequency signal components to eliminate the need for DC restoration
C	It peaks the response of the decimator, improving bandwidth
D	It notches out the sampling frequency to avoid sampling errors

37. - E7G07

What magnitude of voltage gain can be expected from the circuit in Figure E73 when R1 is 10 ohms and RF is 470 ohms?

Select	Answer
A	24
B	94
C	0.21
D	47

38. - E7H05

How is positive feedback supplied in a Pierce oscillator?

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

39. - E8A08

Why would a direct or flash conversion analog-to-digital converter be useful for a software defined radio?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	Very high speed allows digitizing high frequencies
C	Very low power consumption decreases frequency drift
D	Immunity to out-of-sequence coding reduces spurious responses

40. - E8B05

What is the deviation ratio of an FM-phone signal having a maximum frequency swing of plus-or-minus 5 kHz when the maximum modulation frequency is 3 kHz?

Select	Answer
A	0.167
B	60
C	1.67
D	0.6

41. - E8C01

How is Forward Error Correction implemented?

Select	Answer
A	By varying the frequency shift of the transmitted signal according to a predefined algorithm
B	By the receiving station repeating each block of three data characters
C	By transmitting a special algorithm to the receiving station along with the data characters
D	By transmitting extra data that may be used to detect and correct transmission errors

42. - E8D04

What is the primary effect of extremely short rise or fall time on a CW signal?

Select	Answer
A	More difficult to copy
B	The generation of RF harmonics
C	Limits data speed
D	The generation of key clicks

43. - E9A13

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

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

44. - E9B08

What is the far field of an antenna?

Select	Answer
A	The region where radiated field strengths are constant
B	The region where radiated power dissipates over a specified time period
C	The region where the shape of the antenna pattern is independent of distance
D	The region of the ionosphere where radiated power is not refracted

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

46. - E9D06

What happens to the SWR bandwidth when one or more loading coils are used to resonate an electrically short antenna?

Select	Answer
A	It is unchanged if the loading coil is located at a voltage maximum point
B	It is decreased
C	It is increased
D	It is unchanged if the loading coil is located at the feed point

47. - E9E04

What is the purpose of the series capacitor in a gamma-type antenna matching network?

Select	Answer
A	To provide a rejection notch that prevents the radiation of harmonics
B	To provide DC isolation between the feed line and the antenna
C	To transform the antenna impedance to a higher value
D	To cancel the inductive reactance of the matching network

48. - E9F06

What is the approximate physical length of an air-insulated, parallel conductor transmission line that is electrically 1/2 wavelength long at 14.10 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	7.0 meters
B	8.5 meters
C	13.3 meters
D	10.6 meters

49. - E9G11

How are the wavelength scales on a Smith chart calibrated?

Select	Answer
A	In fractions of transmission line electrical wavelength
B	In fractions of antenna electrical wavelength
C	In fractions of antenna electrical frequency
D	In fractions of transmission line electrical frequency

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	Its overall length must not exceed 1/4 wavelength
C	It should be configured as a four-sided loop
D	It should be one or more wavelengths long

Figure E5-1

Figure E6-3