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. - E0A07

How may dangerous levels of carbon monoxide from an emergency generator be detected?

Select	Answer
A	Only with a carbon monoxide detector
B	By the odor
C	Any ordinary smoke detector can be used
D	By the yellowish appearance of the gas

2. - E1A05

What is the maximum power output permitted on the 60 meter band?

Select	Answer
A	50 watts PEP effective radiated power relative to an isotropic radiator
B	100 watts PEP effective radiated power relative to an isotropic radiator
C	100 watts PEP effective radiated power relative to the gain of a half-wave dipole
D	50 watts PEP effective radiated power relative to a dipole

3. - E1B01

Which of the following constitutes a spurious emission?

Select	Answer
A	An amateur station transmission made without the proper call sign identification
B	Any transmitted signal that unintentionally interferes with another licensed radio station
C	An emission outside the signal's necessary bandwidth that can be reduced or eliminated without affecting the information transmitted
D	A signal transmitted to prevent its detection by any station other than the intended recipient

4. - E1C06

Which of the following is required in order to operate in accordance with CEPT rules in foreign countries where permitted?

Select	Answer
A	You must bring a copy of FCC Public Notice DA 16-1048
B	The U.S. embassy must approve of your operation
C	You must append "/CEPT" to your call sign
D	You must identify in the official language of the country in which you are operating

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	A local repeater or linked repeater station
C	A message forwarding station or automatically controlled digital 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	Maintain the application form with the VEC's records
B	Return the application document to the examinee
C	Send the application form to the FCC and inform the FCC of the grade
D	Destroy the application form

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

8. - E2A11

What type of antenna can be used to minimize the effects of spin modulation and Faraday rotation?

Select	Answer
A	A circularly polarized antenna
B	A linearly polarized antenna
C	An isotropic antenna
D	A log-periodic dipole array

9. - E2B04

How is color information sent in analog SSTV?

Select	Answer
A	Color is sent in a color burst at the end of each line
B	Color information is sent on a 2.8 kHz subcarrier
C	Color is amplitude modulated on the frequency modulated intensity signal
D	Color lines are sent sequentially

10. - E2C08

Which of the following contacts may be confirmed through the U.S. QSL bureau system?

Select	Answer
A	Contacts using tactical call signs
B	Special event contacts between stations in the U.S.
C	Repeater contacts between U.S. club members
D	Contacts between a U.S. station and a non-U.S. station

11. - E2D07

What digital protocol is used by APRS?

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

12. - E2E01

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

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

13. - E3A10

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

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

14. - E3B06

Which of the following amateur bands most frequently provides long-path propagation?

Select	Answer
A	6 meters
B	10 meters
C	80 meters
D	20 meters

15. - E3C01

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

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

16. - E4A02

Which of the following parameters does a spectrum analyzer display on the vertical and horizontal axes?

Select	Answer
A	RF amplitude and frequency
B	SWR and time
C	SWR and frequency
D	RF amplitude and time

17. - E4B07

What do the subscripts of S parameters represent?

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

18. - E4C05

What does a receiver noise floor of -174 dBm represent?

Select	Answer
A	The theoretical noise in a 1 Hz bandwidth at the input of a perfect receiver at room temperature
B	The galactic noise contribution to minimum detectable signal
C	The minimum detectable signal as a function of receive frequency
D	The noise figure of a 1 Hz bandwidth receiver

19. - E4D01

What is meant by the blocking dynamic range of a receiver?

Select	Answer
A	The minimum difference in dB between two signals which produce third-order intermodulation products greater than the noise floor
B	The difference in dB between the noise floor and the third-order intercept point
C	The minimum difference in dB between the levels of two FM signals that will cause one signal to block the other
D	The difference in dB between the noise floor and the level of an incoming signal that will cause 1 dB of gain compression

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

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	23.5 MHz
B	7.12 kHz
C	23.5 kHz
D	7.12 MHz

22. - E5B09

What is the relationship between the AC current through a capacitor and the voltage across a capacitor?

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

23. - E5C04

What coordinate system is often used to display the resistive, inductive, and/or capacitive reactance components of impedance?

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

24. - E5D05

What is the power factor of an RL circuit having a 30-degree phase angle between the voltage and the current?

Select	Answer
A	1.73
B	0.866
C	0.5
D	0.577

25. - E6A07

Which of the following indicates that a silicon NPN junction transistor is biased on?

Select	Answer
A	Base-to-emitter voltage of approximately 6 to 7 volts
B	Base-to-emitter resistance of approximately 6 to 7 ohms
C	Base-to-emitter voltage of approximately 0.6 to 0.7 volts
D	Base-to-emitter resistance of approximately 0.6 to 0.7 ohms

26. - E6B10

In Figure E6-2, what is the schematic symbol for a light-emitting diode?

Select	Answer
A	5
B	7
C	1
D	6

27. - E6C08

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

Select	Answer
A	1
B	2
C	4
D	3

28. - E6D10

What is a primary advantage of using a toroidal core instead of a solenoidal core in an inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Toroidal cores make it easier to couple the magnetic energy into other components
B	Toroidal cores have lower Q characteristics
C	Toroidal cores exhibit greater hysteresis
D	Toroidal cores confine most of the magnetic field within the core material

29. - E6E06

What characteristics of the MMIC make it a popular choice for VHF through microwave circuits?

Select	Answer
A	Nearly infinite gain, very high input impedance, and very low output impedance
B	Controlled gain, low noise figure, and constant input and output impedance over the specified frequency range
C	Plate current that is controlled by a control grid
D	The ability to retrieve information from a single signal even in the presence of other strong signals

30. - E6F06

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

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

31. - E7A05

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

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

32. - E7B01

For what portion of the signal cycle does each active element in a push-pull Class AB amplifier conduct?

Select	Answer
A	More than 180 degrees but less than 360 degrees
B	The entire cycle
C	Less than 180 degrees
D	Exactly 180 degrees

33. - E7C09

What is a crystal lattice filter?

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

34. - E7D12

What is the dropout voltage of an analog voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	Minimum input-to-output voltage required to maintain regulation
B	Maximum output voltage drops when the input voltage is varied over its specified range
C	Minimum input voltage for rated power dissipation
D	Maximum that the output voltage may decrease at rated load

35. - E7E07

What is meant by the term "baseband" in radio communications?

Select	Answer
A	The unmodulated bandwidth of the transmitted signal
B	The basic oscillator frequency in an FM transmitter that is multiplied to increase the deviation and carrier frequency
C	The lowest frequency band that the transmitter or receiver covers
D	The frequency range occupied by a message signal prior to modulation

36. - E7F05

How frequently must an analog signal be sampled by an analog-to-digital converter so that the signal can be accurately reproduced?

Select	Answer
A	At least half the rate of the highest frequency component of the signal
B	At four times the rate of the highest frequency component of the signal
C	At the same rate as the highest frequency component of the signal
D	At least twice the rate of the highest frequency component of the signal

37. - E7G03

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

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

38. - E7H14

What is a phase-locked loop circuit?

Select	Answer
A	An electronic servo loop consisting of a phase detector, a low-pass filter, a voltage-controlled oscillator, and a stable reference oscillator
B	An electronic circuit also known as a monostable multivibrator
C	An electronic circuit consisting of a precision push-pull amplifier with a differential input
D	An electronic servo loop consisting of a ratio detector, reactance modulator, and voltage-controlled oscillator

39. - E8A02

Which of the following is a type of analog-to-digital conversion?

Select	Answer
A	Successive approximation
B	Harmonic regeneration
C	Phase reversal
D	Level shifting

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	1/3
B	2000
C	3
D	6000

41. - E8C09

Which digital code allows only one bit to change between sequential code values?

Select	Answer
A	Excess 3 code
B	Binary Coded Decimal Code
C	Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code
D	Gray code

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 is possible to transmit both upper and lower case text
D	It contains fewer information bits per character than any other code

43. - E9A06

What is the effective radiated power relative to a dipole of a repeater station with 200 watts transmitter power output, 4 dB feed line loss, 3.2 dB duplexer loss, 0.8 dB circulator loss, and 10 dBd antenna gain?

Select	Answer
A	317 watts
B	2000 watts
C	300 watts
D	126 watts

44. - E9B03

In the antenna radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-1, what is the front-to-side ratio?

Select	Answer
A	18 dB
B	24 dB
C	12 dB
D	14 dB

45. - E9C04

What happens to the radiation pattern of an unterminated long wire antenna as the wire length is increased?

Select	Answer
A	The lobes align more in the direction of the wire
B	The front-to-back ratio decreases
C	The vertical angle increases
D	The lobes become more perpendicular to the wire

46. - E9D01

How much does the gain of an ideal parabolic dish antenna change when the operating frequency is doubled?

Select	Answer
A	4 dB
B	2 dB
C	6 dB
D	3 dB

47. - E9E07

What parameter describes the interactions at the load end of a mismatched transmission line?

Select	Answer
A	Characteristic impedance
B	Dielectric constant
C	Reflection coefficient
D	Velocity factor

48. - E9F08

Which of the following is a significant difference between foam dielectric coaxial cable and solid dielectric cable, assuming all other parameters are the same?

Select	Answer
A	Foam dielectric has higher velocity factor
B	Foam dielectric has lower loss per unit of length
C	All these choices are correct
D	Foam dielectric has lower safe operating voltage limits

49. - E9G07

On the Smith chart shown in Figure E9-3, what is the only straight line shown?

Select	Answer
A	The voltage axis
B	The resistance axis
C	The reactance axis
D	The current axis

50. - E9H07

Why is RF attenuation used when direction-finding?

Select	Answer
A	To compensate for isotropic directivity and the antenna effect of feed lines
B	To prevent receiver overload which reduces pattern nulls
C	To increase receiver sensitivity
D	To narrow the receiver bandwidth

Figure E6-2

Figure E6-3

Figure E9-1

Figure E9-3