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

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1. - E0A11

Which of the following injuries can result from using high-power UHF or microwave transmitters?

Select	Answer
A	Localized heating of the body from RF exposure in excess of the MPE limits
B	Blood clotting from the intense magnetic field
C	Ingestion of ozone gas from the cooling system
D	Hearing loss caused by high voltage corona discharge

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

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. - 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 there is no control operator
C	Under automatic control the control operator is not required to be present at the control point
D	Under local control a control operator is not required to be present at a control point

5. - E1D11

Which amateur stations are eligible to operate as Earth stations?

Select	Answer
A	Any amateur station whose licensee has filed a pre-space notification with the FCC's International Bureau
B	Only those of General, Advanced or Amateur Extra Class operators
C	Only those of Amateur Extra Class operators
D	Any amateur station, subject to the privileges of the class of operator license held by the control operator

6. - E1E11

What must the VE team do if an examinee scores a passing grade on all examination elements needed for an upgrade or new license?

Select	Answer
A	Photocopy all examination documents and forward them to the FCC for processing
B	Issue the examinee the new or upgrade license
C	Three VEs must certify that the examinee is qualified for the license grant and that they have complied with the administering VE requirements
D	All these choices are correct

7. - E1F08

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

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

8. - E2A06

What are Keplerian elements?

Select	Answer
A	Parameters that define the orbit of a satellite
B	High-emission heater filaments used in magnetron tubes
C	Encrypting codes used for spread spectrum modulation
D	Phase reversing elements in a Yagi antenna

9. - E2B02

How many horizontal lines make up a fast-scan (NTSC) television frame?

Select	Answer
A	30
B	525
C	60
D	1080

10. - E2C02

Which of the following best describes the term self-spotting? in connection with HF contest operating?

Select	Answer
A	An automatic method for rapidly zero beating or tuning to a station's frequency before calling that station
B	A manual technique for rapidly zero beating or tuning to a station's frequency before calling that station
C	The acceptable practice of manually posting the call signs of stations on a spotting network
D	The often-prohibited practice of posting one's own call sign and frequency on a spotting network

11. - E2D02

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

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

12. - E2E13

Which of these digital modes has the fastest data throughput under clear communication conditions?

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

13. - E3A04

What do Hepburn maps predict?

Select	Answer
A	Likelihood of rain scatter along cold or warm fronts
B	Probability of tropospheric propagation
C	Locations of auroral reflecting zones
D	Sporadic E propagation

14. - E3B05

Which amateur bands typically support long-path propagation?

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

15. - E3C13

What type of polarization is best for ground-wave propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Vertical
B	Circular
C	Elliptical
D	Horizontal

16. - E4A08

Which of the following measures SWR?

Select	Answer
A	A Q meter
B	An antenna analyzer
C	An ohmmeter
D	A spectrum analyzer

17. - E4B11

Which of the following can be measured with a vector network analyzer?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	Reflection coefficient
C	Output impedance
D	Input impedance

18. - E4C04

What is the noise figure of a receiver?

Select	Answer
A	The ratio in dB of the noise generated by the receiver to the theoretical minimum noise
B	The ratio of thermal noise to atmospheric noise
C	The ratio of the noise bandwidth in hertz to the theoretical bandwidth of a resistive network
D	The ratio of atmospheric noise to phase noise

19. - E4D06

What is the term for spurious signals generated by the combination of two or more signals in a non-linear device or circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Amplifier desensitization
B	Adjacent channel interference
C	Neutralization
D	Intermodulation

20. - E4E03

Which of the following signals might a receiver noise blanker be able to remove from desired signals?

Select	Answer
A	Signals that have a sharply peaked frequency distribution
B	Signals that appear at one IF but not another
C	Signals that are constant at all IF levels
D	Signals that appear across a wide bandwidth

21. - E5A02

What is resonance in an LC or RLC circuit?

Select	Answer
A	The lowest frequency that will pass current
B	The frequency at which the capacitive reactance equals the inductive reactance
C	The frequency at which the reactive impedance equals the resistive impedance
D	The highest frequency that will pass current

22. - E5B06

What is susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	The ratio of magnetic field to electric field
B	The imaginary part of admittance
C	The magnetic impedance of a circuit
D	A measure of the efficiency of a transformer

23. - E5C01

Which of the following represents capacitive reactance in rectangular notation?

Select	Answer
A	Delta
B	-jX
C	+jX
D	Omega

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	2000 watts
C	80 watts
D	400 watts

25. - E6A06

What is the beta of a bipolar junction transistor?

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

26. - E6B07

What is the failure mechanism when a junction diode fails due to excessive current?

Select	Answer
A	Excessive inverse voltage
B	Charge carrier depletion
C	Insufficient forward voltage
D	Excessive junction temperature

27. - E6C07

What best describes a pull-up or pull-down resistor?

Select	Answer
A	A resistor that ensures that an oscillator frequency does not drift
B	A resistor in a keying circuit used to reduce key clicks
C	A resistor connected to an op-amp output that prevents signals from exceeding the power supply voltage
D	A resistor connected to the positive or negative supply line used to establish a voltage when an input or output is an open circuit

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 confine most of the magnetic field within the core material
C	Toroidal cores exhibit greater hysteresis
D	Toroidal cores have lower Q characteristics

29. - E6E07

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

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

30. - E6F08

Why are optoisolators often used in conjunction with solid-state circuits when switching 120 VAC?

Select	Answer
A	Optoisolators provide impedance matching between the control circuit and power circuit
B	Optoisolators provide a very high degree of electrical isolation between a control circuit and the circuit being switched
C	Optoisolators provide a low impedance link between a control circuit and a power circuit
D	Optoisolators eliminate the effects of reflected light in the control circuit

31. - E7A04

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

Select	Answer
A	4
B	8
C	2
D	1

32. - E7B01

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

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

33. - E7C01

How are the capacitors and inductors of a low-pass filter Pi-network arranged between the network's input and output?

Select	Answer
A	A capacitor is connected between the input and ground, another capacitor is connected between the output and ground, and an inductor is connected between input and output
B	Two capacitors are in series between the input and output, and an inductor is connected between the two capacitors and ground
C	Two inductors are in series between the input and output, and a capacitor is connected between the two inductors and ground
D	An inductor is connected between the input and ground, another inductor is connected between the output and ground, and a capacitor is connected between the input and output

34. - E7D06

What is the purpose of Q1 in the circuit shown in Figure E7-2?

Select	Answer
A	It provides D1 with current
B	It provides negative feedback to improve regulation
C	It controls the current supplied to the load
D	It provides a constant load for the voltage source

35. - E7E01

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

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

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 peaks the response of the decimator, improving bandwidth
C	It notches out the sampling frequency to avoid sampling errors
D	It removes low-frequency signal components to eliminate the need for DC restoration

37. - E7G05

How can unwanted ringing and audio instability be prevented in an op-amp RC audio filter circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Restrict gain but increase Q
B	Increase both gain and Q
C	Restrict both gain and Q
D	Restrict Q but increase gain

38. - E7H08

Which of the following components can be used to reduce thermal drift in crystal oscillators?

Select	Answer
A	NP0 capacitors
B	Toroidal inductors
C	Non-inductive resistors
D	Wirewound resistors

39. - E8A04

What is "dither" with respect to analog-to-digital converters?

Select	Answer
A	An abnormal condition where the converter cannot settle on a value to represent the signal
B	A method of decimation by randomly skipping samples
C	A small amount of noise added to the input signal to allow more precise representation of a signal over time
D	An error caused by irregular quantization step size

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	1.67
B	60
C	0.167
D	0.6

41. - E8C06

What is the bandwidth of a 170-hertz shift, 300-baud ASCII transmission?

Select	Answer
A	1.0 kHz
B	0.1 Hz
C	0.3 kHz
D	0.5 kHz

42. - E8D09

What is considered an acceptable maximum IMD level for an idling PSK signal?

Select	Answer
A	+10 dB
B	-30 dB
C	+15 dB
D	-20 dB

43. - E9A07

What is the effective isotropic radiated power of a repeater station with 200 watts transmitter power output, 2 dB feed line loss, 2.8 dB duplexer loss, 1.2 dB circulator loss, and 7 dBi antenna gain?

Select	Answer
A	159 watts
B	632 watts
C	252 watts
D	63.2 watts

44. - E9B01

In the antenna radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-1, what is the beamwidth?

Select	Answer
A	75 degrees
B	25 degrees
C	30 degrees
D	50 degrees

45. - E9C05

Which of the following is a type of OCFD antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A folded dipole center-fed with 300-ohm transmission line
B	A dipole fed approximately 1/3 the way from one end with a 4:1 balun to provide multiband operation
C	A multiband dipole antenna using one-way circular polarization for frequency diversity
D	A remotely tunable dipole antenna using orthogonally controlled frequency diversity

46. - E9D01

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

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

47. - E9E04

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

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

48. - E9F03

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

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

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 current axis
C	The resistance axis
D	The reactance axis

50. - E9H02

Which is generally true for low band (160 meter and 80 meter) receiving antennas?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	Low loss coax transmission line is essential for good performance
C	They must be erected at least 1/2 wavelength above the ground to attain good directivity
D	Atmospheric noise is so high that gain over a dipole is not important

Figure E7-2

Figure E9-1

Figure E9-3