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

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1. - E0A05

What is one of the potential hazards of operating in the amateur radio microwave bands?

Select	Answer
A	Microwaves often travel long distances by ionospheric reflection
B	The high gain antennas commonly used can result in high exposure levels
C	The extremely high frequency energy can damage the joints of antenna structures
D	Microwaves are ionizing radiation

2. - E1A07

What is the maximum power permitted on the 2200 meter band?

Select	Answer
A	100 watts PEP
B	1 watt EIRP (Equivalent isotropic radiated power)
C	50 watts PEP
D	5 watts EIRP (Equivalent isotropic radiated power)

3. - E1B05

What is the National Radio Quiet Zone?

Select	Answer
A	An area surrounding the National Radio Astronomy Observatory
B	An area in Puerto Rico surrounding the Arecibo Radio Telescope
C	An area in New Mexico surrounding the White Sands Test Area
D	An area in Florida surrounding Cape Canaveral

4. - E1C01

What is the maximum bandwidth for a data emission on 60 meters?

Select	Answer
A	1.5 kHz
B	60 Hz
C	170 Hz
D	2.8 kHz

5. - E1D04

Which of the following is required in the identification transmissions from a balloon-borne telemetry station?

Select	Answer
A	The station's six-character Maidenhead grid locator
B	Call sign
C	All these choices are correct
D	The output power of the balloon transmitter

6. - E1E07

What should a VE do if a candidate fails to comply with the examiner's instructions during an amateur operator license examination?

Select	Answer
A	Warn the candidate that continued failure to comply will result in termination of the examination
B	Immediately terminate everyone's examination and close the session
C	Immediately terminate the candidate's examination
D	Allow the candidate to complete the examination, but invalidate the results

7. - E1F10

Who may be the control operator of an auxiliary station?

Select	Answer
A	Any licensed amateur operator
B	Only Technician, General, Advanced or Amateur Extra Class operators
C	Only Amateur Extra Class operators
D	Only General, Advanced or Amateur Extra Class operators

8. - E2A07

Which of the following types of signals can be relayed through a linear transponder?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	SSB and SSTV
C	FM and CW
D	PSK and packet

9. - E2B05

Which of the following describes the use of vestigial sideband in analog fast-scan TV transmissions?

Select	Answer
A	Vestigial sideband reduces bandwidth while allowing for simple video detector circuitry
B	Vestigial sideband provides high frequency emphasis to sharpen the picture
C	The vestigial sideband contains chroma information
D	The vestigial sideband carries the audio information

10. - E2C01

What indicator is required to be used by U.S.-licensed operators when operating a station via remote control and the remote transmitter is located in the U.S.?

Select	Answer
A	/R# where # is the district of the remote station
B	/ followed by the ARRL Section of the remote station
C	/ followed by the USPS two-letter abbreviation for the state in which the remote station is located
D	No additional indicator is required

11. - E2D06

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

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

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	Pulse modulation
D	FSK

13. - E3A05

Tropospheric propagation of microwave signals often occurs in association with what phenomenon?

Select	Answer
A	Grayline
B	Sprites and jets
C	Warm and cold fronts
D	Lightning discharges

14. - E3B11

At what time of day can sporadic E propagation occur?

Select	Answer
A	Only in hours of darkness
B	Only around sunset
C	Only around sunset and sunrise
D	Any time

15. - E3C14

Why does the radio-path horizon distance exceed the geometric horizon?

Select	Answer
A	E-region skip
B	D-region skip
C	Due to the Doppler effect
D	Downward bending due to density variations in the atmosphere

16. - E4A11

How should an antenna analyzer be connected when measuring antenna resonance and feed point impedance?

Select	Answer
A	Connect the antenna feed line directly to the analyzer's connector
B	Loosely couple the antenna and a dummy load to the analyzer
C	Connect the analyzer via a high-impedance transformer to the antenna
D	Loosely couple the analyzer near the antenna base

17. - E4B03

Which S parameter is equivalent to forward gain?

Select	Answer
A	S11
B	S22
C	S21
D	S12

18. - E4C09

Which of the following choices is a good reason for selecting a high frequency for the design of the IF in a superheterodyne HF or VHF communications receiver?

Select	Answer
A	Reduced drift
B	Improved receiver noise figure
C	Fewer components in the receiver
D	Easier for front-end circuitry to eliminate image responses

19. - E4D02

Which of the following describes problems caused by poor dynamic range in a receiver?

Select	Answer
A	Cross-modulation of the desired signal and insufficient audio power to operate the speaker
B	Oscillator instability requiring frequent retuning and loss of ability to recover the opposite sideband
C	Spurious signals caused by cross-modulation and desensitization from strong adjacent signals
D	Oscillator instability and severe audio distortion of all but the strongest received signals

20. - E4E01

What problem can occur when using an automatic notch filter (ANF) to remove interfering carriers while receiving CW signals?

Select	Answer
A	Ringing in the DSP filter will completely remove the spaces between the CW characters
B	Any nearby signal passing through the DSP system will overwhelm the desired signal
C	Removal of the CW signal as well as the interfering carrier
D	Received CW signals will appear to be modulated at the DSP clock frequency

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 MHz
D	23.5 kHz

22. - E5B04

What is the time constant of a circuit having two 220-microfarad capacitors and two 1-megohm resistors, all in parallel?

Select	Answer
A	220 seconds
B	440 seconds
C	110 seconds
D	55 seconds

23. - E5C03

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

Select	Answer
A	A positive magnitude
B	A positive phase angle
C	A negative phase angle
D	A negative magnitude

24. - E5D04

Why are short connections used at microwave frequencies?

Select	Answer
A	To reduce phase shift along the connection
B	To increase neutralizing resistance
C	To reduce noise figure
D	To increase compensating capacitance

25. - E6A09

What is a depletion-mode FET?

Select	Answer
A	Any FET for which holes are the majority carriers
B	An FET that has no current flow between source and drain when no gate voltage is applied
C	Any FET without a channel
D	An FET that exhibits a current flow between source and drain when no gate voltage is applied

26. - E6B05

What characteristic of a PIN diode makes it useful as an RF switch?

Select	Answer
A	Reverse bias controls its forward voltage drop
B	Low junction capacitance
C	Ability to dissipate large amounts of power
D	Extremely high reverse breakdown voltage

27. - E6C05

What is an advantage of CMOS logic devices over TTL devices?

Select	Answer
A	Lower power consumption
B	Differential output capability
C	Lower distortion
D	Immune to damage from static discharge

28. - E6D07

What is current in the primary winding of a transformer called if no load is attached to the secondary?

Select	Answer
A	Excitation current
B	Stabilizing current
C	Direct current
D	Magnetizing current

29. - E6E11

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

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

30. - E6F10

What is the most common type of photovoltaic cell used for electrical power generation?

Select	Answer
A	Silicon
B	Copper oxide
C	Selenium
D	Cadmium Sulfide

31. - E7A10

What is a truth table?

Select	Answer
A	A diagram showing logic states when the digital device output is true
B	A table of logic symbols that indicate the logic states of an op-amp
C	A table of logic symbols that indicate the high logic states of an op-amp
D	A list of inputs and corresponding outputs for a digital device

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	Exactly 180 degrees
D	Less than 180 degrees

33. - E7C09

What is a crystal lattice filter?

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

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

35. - E7E07

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

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

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	8 bits
B	6 bits
C	4 bits
D	10 bits

37. - E7G08

How does the gain of an ideal operational amplifier vary with frequency?

Select	Answer
A	It decreases logarithmically with increasing frequency
B	It does not vary with frequency
C	It increases linearly with increasing frequency
D	It decreases linearly with increasing frequency

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 consisting of a precision push-pull amplifier with a differential input
C	An electronic circuit also known as a monostable multivibrator
D	An electronic servo loop consisting of a ratio detector, reactance modulator, and voltage-controlled oscillator

39. - E8A05

What of the following instruments would be the most accurate for measuring the RMS voltage of a complex waveform?

Select	Answer
A	A grid dip meter
B	A true-RMS calculating meter
C	A D'Arsonval meter
D	An absorption wave meter

40. - E8B06

What is the deviation ratio of an FM-phone signal having a maximum frequency swing of plus or minus 7.5 kHz when the maximum modulation frequency is 3.5 kHz?

Select	Answer
A	0.47
B	0.214
C	2.14
D	47

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. - E8D10

What are some of the differences between the Baudot digital code and ASCII?

Select	Answer
A	Baudot uses 4 data bits per character, ASCII uses 7 or 8; Baudot uses 1 character as a letters/figures shift code, ASCII has no letters/figures code
B	Baudot uses 6 data bits per character, ASCII uses 7 or 8; Baudot has no letters/figures shift code, ASCII uses 2 letters/figures shift codes
C	Baudot uses 7 data bits per character, ASCII uses 8; Baudot has no letters/figures shift code, ASCII uses 2 letters/figures shift codes
D	Baudot uses 5 data bits per character, ASCII uses 7 or 8; Baudot uses 2 characters as letters/figures shift codes, ASCII has no letters/figures shift code

43. - E9A05

What is included in the total resistance of an antenna system?

Select	Answer
A	Transmission-line resistance plus radiation resistance
B	Radiation resistance plus space impedance
C	Radiation resistance plus transmission resistance
D	Radiation resistance plus loss resistance

44. - E9B11

What is a disadvantage of decreasing the number of wire segments in an antenna model below 10 segments per half-wavelength?

Select	Answer
A	The antenna will become mechanically unstable
B	Ground conductivity will not be accurately modeled
C	The computed feed point impedance may be incorrect
D	The resulting design will favor radiation of harmonic energy

45. - E9C12

Which of the following describes an Extended Double Zepp antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A wideband vertical antenna constructed from precisely tapered aluminum tubing
B	A portable antenna erected using two push support poles
C	An end-fed folded dipole antenna
D	A center-fed 1.25-wavelength antenna (two 5/8-wave elements in phase)

46. - E9D11

Which of the following conductors would be best for minimizing losses in a station's RF ground system?

Select	Answer
A	Solid wire
B	Stranded wire
C	Resistive wire, such as spark plug wire
D	Wide flat copper strap

47. - E9E07

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

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

48. - E9F02

Which of the following has the biggest effect on the velocity factor of a transmission line?

Select	Answer
A	Dielectric materials used in the line
B	The center conductor resistivity
C	The termination impedance
D	The line length

49. - E9G02

What type of coordinate system is used in a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Resistance lines and reactance chords
B	Resistance circles and reactance arcs
C	Voltage lines and current chords
D	Voltage circles and current arcs

50. - E9H11

What feature of a cardioid pattern antenna makes it useful for direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	High radiation angle
B	A very sharp single null
C	A very sharp peak
D	Broadband response