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

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1. - E0A06

Why are there separate electric (E) and magnetic (H) field MPE limits?

Select	Answer
A	Ground reflections and scattering make the field strength vary with location
B	All these choices are correct
C	E field and H field radiation intensity peaks can occur at different locations
D	The body reacts to electromagnetic radiation from both the E and H fields

2. - E1A08

If a station in a message forwarding system inadvertently forwards a message that is in violation of FCC rules, who is primarily accountable for the rules violation?

Select	Answer
A	The control operators of all the stations in the system not authenticating the source from which they accept communications
B	The control operator of the originating station
C	The control operator of the packet bulletin board station
D	The control operators of all the stations in the system

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	30 miles
D	1 mile

4. - E1C14

How long must an operator wait after filing a notification with the Utilities Technology Council (UTC) before operating on the 2200 meter or 630 meter band?

Select	Answer
A	Operators may operate after 30 days, providing they have not been told that their station is within 1 km of PLC systems using those frequencies
B	Operators may not operate until a test signal has been transmitted in coordination with the local power company
C	Operators must not operate until approval is received
D	Operations may commence immediately, and may continue unless interference is reported by the UTC

5. - E1D10

Which amateur stations are eligible to be telecommand stations of space stations (subject to the privileges of the class of operator license held by the control operator of the station)?

Select	Answer
A	Any amateur station designated by NASA
B	Any amateur station so designated by the ITU
C	Any amateur station so designated by the space station licensee
D	All these choices are correct

6. - E1E04

Which of the following best describes the Volunteer Examiner accreditation process?

Select	Answer
A	The prospective VE obtains accreditation from the FCC
B	Each General, Advanced and Amateur Extra Class operator is automatically accredited as a VE when the license is granted
C	The amateur operator applying must pass a VE examination administered by the FCC Enforcement Bureau
D	The procedure by which a VEC confirms that the VE applicant meets FCC requirements to serve as an examiner

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

8. - E2A08

Why should effective radiated power to a satellite that uses a linear transponder be limited?

Select	Answer
A	To prevent the satellite from emitting out-of-band signals
B	To prevent creating errors in the satellite telemetry
C	To avoid reducing the downlink power to all other users
D	To avoid interfering with terrestrial QSOs

9. - E2B12

What signals SSTV receiving software to begin a new picture line?

Select	Answer
A	A two-tone signal
B	Elapsed time
C	Specific tone amplitudes
D	Specific tone frequencies

10. - E2C11

How should you generally identify your station when attempting to contact a DX station during a contest or in a pileup?

Select	Answer
A	Send the call sign of the DX station three times, the words this is,then your call sign three times
B	Send your full call sign and grid square
C	Send your full call sign once or twice
D	Send only the last two letters of your call sign until you make contact

11. - E2D10

How can an APRS station be used to help support a public service communications activity?

Select	Answer
A	An APRS station with a Global Positioning System unit can automatically transmit information to show a mobile station's position during the event
B	APRS stations with General Personnel Scanners can automatically relay the participant numbers and time as they pass the check points
C	All these choices are correct
D	An APRS station with an emergency medical technician can automatically transmit medical data to the nearest hospital

12. - E2E03

How is the timing of FT4 contacts organized?

Select	Answer
A	It depends on the lunar phase
B	By exchanging ACK/NAK packets
C	Alternating transmissions at 7.5 second intervals
D	Stations take turns on alternate days

13. - E3A09

Which of the following frequency ranges is most suited for meteor scatter communications?

Select	Answer
A	10 MHz - 14 MHz
B	28 MHz - 148 MHz
C	1.8 MHz - 1.9 MHz
D	220 MHz - 450 MHz

14. - E3B06

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

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

15. - E3C01

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

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

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 time-domain reflectometer
C	A logic analyzer
D	A wattmeter

17. - E4B04

Which S parameter represents input port return loss or reflection coefficient (equivalent to VSWR)?

Select	Answer
A	S22
B	S21
C	S12
D	S11

18. - E4C12

Which of the following has the largest effect on an SDR receiver's dynamic range?

Select	Answer
A	Anti-aliasing input filter bandwidth
B	CPU register width in bits
C	RAM speed used for data storage
D	Analog-to-digital converter sample width in bits

19. - E4D08

What causes intermodulation in an electronic circuit?

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

20. - E4E02

Which of the following types of noise can often be reduced with a digital signal processing noise filter?

Select	Answer
A	Ignition noise
B	All these choices are correct
C	Power line noise
D	Broadband white noise

21. - E5A12

What is the half-power bandwidth of a resonant circuit that has a resonant frequency of 3.7 MHz and a Q of 118?

Select	Answer
A	218.3 kHz
B	436.6 kHz
C	31.4 kHz
D	15.7 kHz

22. - E5B10

What is the relationship between the AC current through an inductor and the voltage across an inductor?

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

23. - E5C12

Which point on Figure E5-1 best represents the impedance of a series circuit consisting of a 300-ohm resistor and a 19-picofarad capacitor at 21.200 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	Point 7
B	Point 1
C	Point 3
D	Point 8

24. - E5D15

What is the power factor of an RL circuit having a 45-degree phase angle between the voltage and the current?

Select	Answer
A	0.866
B	0.707
C	1.0
D	0.5

25. - E6A07

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

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

26. - E6B05

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

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

27. - E6C02

What happens when the level of a comparator's input signal crosses the threshold?

Select	Answer
A	The comparator enters latch-up
B	The comparator changes its output state
C	The IC input can be damaged
D	The feedback loop becomes unstable

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

29. - E6E03

Which of the following materials is likely to provide the highest frequency of operation when used in MMICs?

Select	Answer
A	Silicon
B	Gallium nitride
C	Silicon nitride
D	Silicon dioxide

30. - E6F07

What is a solid-state relay?

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

31. - E7A10

What is a truth table?

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

32. - E7B11

In Figure E7-1, what is the purpose of R3?

Select	Answer
A	Fixed bias
B	Emitter bypass
C	Self bias
D	Output load resistor

33. - E7C12

What is one advantage of a Pi-matching network over an L-matching network consisting of a single inductor and a single capacitor?

Select	Answer
A	L-networks cannot perform impedance transformation
B	The Q of Pi-networks can be controlled
C	Pi-networks provide balanced input and output
D	Pi-networks are more stable

34. - E7D07

What is the purpose of C2 in the circuit shown in Figure E7-2?

Select	Answer
A	It bypasses rectifier output ripple around D1
B	To provide fixed DC bias for Q1
C	It is a brute force filter for the output
D	To self-resonate at the hum frequency

35. - E7E06

Why is de-emphasis commonly used in FM communications receivers?

Select	Answer
A	For compatibility with transmitters using phase modulation
B	To remove third-order distortion products
C	To reduce impulse noise reception
D	For higher efficiency

36. - E7F07

What function is performed by a Fast Fourier Transform?

Select	Answer
A	Converting digital signals from the time domain to the frequency domain
B	Converting analog signals to digital form
C	Converting digital signals to analog form
D	Converting 8-bit data to 16-bit data

37. - E7G11

What absolute voltage gain can be expected from the circuit in Figure E7-3 when R1 is 3300 ohms and RF is 47 kilohms?

Select	Answer
A	14
B	28
C	7
D	0.07

38. - E7H01

What are three oscillator circuits used in amateur radio equipment?

Select	Answer
A	Taft, Hartley and Pierce
B	Pierce, Fenner and Beane
C	Taft, Pierce and negative feedback
D	Colpitts, Hartley and Pierce

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. - E8B02

How does the modulation index of a phase-modulated emission vary with RF carrier frequency?

Select	Answer
A	It decreases as the RF carrier frequency increases
B	It increases as the RF carrier frequency increases
C	It varies with the square root of the RF carrier frequency
D	It does not depend on the RF carrier frequency

41. - E8C06

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

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

42. - E8D10

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

Select	Answer
A	Baudot uses 7 data bits per character, ASCII uses 8; Baudot has no letters/figures shift code, ASCII uses 2 letters/figures shift codes
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 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
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. - 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	2000 watts
B	126 watts
C	317 watts
D	300 watts

44. - E9B09

What type of computer program technique is commonly used for modeling antennas?

Select	Answer
A	Graphical analysis
B	Method of Moments
C	Calculus differentiation with respect to physical properties
D	Mutual impedance analysis

45. - E9C11

How is the far-field elevation pattern of a vertically polarized antenna affected by being mounted over seawater versus soil?

Select	Answer
A	The low-angle radiation decreases
B	Additional higher vertical angle lobes will appear
C	Fewer vertical angle lobes will be present
D	The low-angle radiation increases

46. - E9D01

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

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

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 cancel the inductive reactance of the matching network
C	To transform the antenna impedance to a higher value
D	To provide DC isolation between the feed line and the antenna

48. - E9F01

What is the velocity factor of a transmission line?

Select	Answer
A	The index of shielding for coaxial cable
B	The velocity of the wave in the transmission line divided by the velocity of light in a vacuum
C	The ratio of the characteristic impedance of the line to the terminating impedance
D	The velocity of the wave in the transmission line multiplied by the velocity of light in a vacuum

49. - E9G03

Which of the following is often determined using a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Trigonometric functions
B	Satellite azimuth and elevation bearings
C	Beam headings and radiation patterns
D	Impedance and SWR values in transmission lines

50. - E9H05

What is the main drawback of a small wire-loop antenna for direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	It has no clearly defined null
B	It is practical for use only on VHF and higher bands
C	All these choices are correct
D	It has a bidirectional pattern

Figure E5-1

Figure E7-1

Figure E7-2

Figure E7-3