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

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1. - E0A09

Which insulating material commonly used as a thermal conductor for some types of electronic devices is extremely toxic if broken or crushed and the particles are accidentally inhaled?

Select	Answer
A	Mica
B	Uranium Hexafluoride
C	Zinc oxide
D	Beryllium Oxide

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	Any FCC-issued amateur license
B	An unrestricted Radiotelephone Operator Permit
C	Only General Class or higher amateur licenses
D	Any amateur license with an FCC Marine or Aircraft endorsement

3. - E1B02

Which of the following is an acceptable bandwidth for Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) based voice or SSTV digital transmissions made on the HF amateur bands?

Select	Answer
A	15 kHz
B	20 kHz
C	10 kHz
D	3 kHz

4. - E1C04

What is meant by IARP?

Select	Answer
A	An indication of increased antenna reflected power
B	A forecast of intermittent aurora radio propagation
C	The internal amateur radio practices policy of the FCC
D	An international amateur radio permit that allows U.S. amateurs to operate in certain countries of the Americas

5. - E1D07

Which HF amateur bands have frequencies authorized for space stations?

Select	Answer
A	Only the 40, 20, 17, 15, 12, and 10 meter bands
B	All HF bands
C	Only the 40, 20, 17, 15, and 10 meter bands
D	Only the 40, 30, 20, 15, 12, and 10 meter bands

6. - E1E09

What may be the penalty for a VE who fraudulently administers or certifies an examination?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	A fine of up to $1000 per occurrence
C	Revocation of the VE's amateur station license grant and the suspension of the VE's amateur operator license grant
D	A sentence of up to one year in prison

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 religious content
C	Communications in a language other than English
D	Communications that have political content, except as allowed by the Fairness Doctrine

8. - E2A09

What do the terms L band and S band specify regarding satellite communications?

Select	Answer
A	The 2 meter and 70 centimeter bands
B	Which sideband to use
C	FM and Digital Store-and-Forward systems
D	The 23 centimeter and 13 centimeter bands

9. - E2B04

How is color information sent in analog SSTV?

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

10. - E2C05

What is the function of a DX QSL Manager?

Select	Answer
A	To allocate frequencies for DXpeditions
B	To handle the receiving and sending of confirmation cards for a DX station
C	To run a net to allow many stations to contact a rare DX station
D	To relay calls to and from a DX station

11. - E2D06

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

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

12. - E2E02

What do the letters FEC mean as they relate to digital operation?

Select	Answer
A	Final Error Correction
B	Forward Error Correction
C	Fatal Error Correction
D	First Error Correction

13. - E3A01

What is the approximate maximum separation measured along the surface of the Earth between two stations communicating by EME?

Select	Answer
A	5000 miles, if the moon is at perigee
B	500 miles, if the moon is at perigee
C	12,000 miles, if the moon is visible by both stations
D	2000 miles, if the moon is at apogee

14. - E3B11

At what time of day can sporadic E propagation occur?

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

15. - E3C13

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

Select	Answer
A	Elliptical
B	Vertical
C	Horizontal
D	Circular

16. - E4A02

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

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

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	Frequency order of the measurements
D	The port or ports at which measurements are made

18. - E4C10

What is an advantage of having a variety of receiver IF bandwidths from which to select?

Select	Answer
A	Multiple frequencies can be received simultaneously if desired
B	Receiver power consumption can be reduced when wider bandwidth is not required
C	Receive bandwidth can be set to match the modulation bandwidth, maximizing signal-to-noise ratio and minimizing interference
D	The noise figure of the RF amplifier can be adjusted to match the modulation type, thus increasing receiver sensitivity

19. - E4D08

What causes intermodulation in an electronic circuit?

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

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

21. - E5A06

What is the magnitude of the circulating current within the components of a parallel LC circuit at resonance?

Select	Answer
A	It equals 2 multiplied by pi, multiplied by frequency, multiplied by inductance
B	It is at a maximum
C	It is at a minimum
D	It equals 1 divided by the quantity 2 times pi, multiplied by the square root of inductance L multiplied by capacitance C

22. - E5B06

What is susceptance?

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

23. - E5C06

What does the impedance 50-j25 represent?

Select	Answer
A	25 ohms resistance in series with 50 ohms capacitive reactance
B	50 ohms resistance in series with 25 ohms capacitive reactance
C	50 ohms resistance in series with 25 ohms inductive reactance
D	25 ohms resistance in series with 50 ohms inductive reactance

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	0.866
B	1.73
C	0.5
D	0.577

25. - E6A03

Why does a PN-junction diode not conduct current when reverse biased?

Select	Answer
A	Excess holes in P-type material combine with the electrons in N-type material, converting the entire diode into an insulator
B	Only N-type semiconductor material can conduct current
C	Only P-type semiconductor material can conduct current
D	Holes in P-type material and electrons in the N-type material are separated by the applied voltage, widening the depletion region

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. - E6C08

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

Select	Answer
A	3
B	1
C	4
D	2

28. - E6D11

Which type of core material decreases inductance when inserted into a coil?

Select	Answer
A	Ceramic
B	Ferrite
C	Powdered iron
D	Brass

29. - E6E07

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

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

30. - E6F06

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

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

31. - E7A06

What is a characteristic of a monostable multivibrator?

Select	Answer
A	It produces a continuous square wave oscillating between 1 and 0
B	It stores one bit of data in either a 0 or 1 state
C	It switches momentarily to the opposite binary state and then returns to its original state after a set time
D	It maintains a constant output voltage, regardless of variations in the input voltage

32. - E7B07

Which of the following is a likely result when a Class C amplifier is used to amplify a single-sideband phone signal?

Select	Answer
A	Signal inversion
B	Signal distortion and excessive bandwidth
C	Reduced intermodulation products
D	Increased overall intelligibility

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

34. - E7D09

What is the main reason to use a charge controller with a solar power system?

Select	Answer
A	Prevention of battery damage due to overcharge
B	Prevention of battery undercharge
C	Control of electrolyte levels during battery discharge
D	Matching of day and night charge rates

35. - E7E08

What are the principal frequencies that appear at the output of a mixer circuit?

Select	Answer
A	The square root of the product of input frequencies
B	1.414 and 0.707 times the input frequency
C	Two and four times the original frequency
D	The two input frequencies along with their sum and difference frequencies

36. - E7F09

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

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

37. - E7G12

What is an operational amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	An amplifier used to increase the average output of frequency modulated amateur signals to the legal limit
B	A RF amplifier used in the UHF and microwave regions
C	A high-gain, direct-coupled differential amplifier with very high input impedance and very low output impedance
D	A digital audio amplifier whose characteristics are determined by components external to the amplifier

38. - E7H13

Which of the following is a technique for providing highly accurate and stable oscillators needed for microwave transmission and reception?

Select	Answer
A	Use a temperature-controlled high Q dielectric resonator
B	Use a rubidium stabilized reference oscillator
C	All these choices are correct
D	Use a GPS signal reference

39. - E8A10

What is the purpose of a low-pass filter used in conjunction with a digital-to-analog converter?

Select	Answer
A	Lower the input bandwidth to increase the effective resolution
B	All these choices are correct
C	Remove harmonics from the output caused by the discrete analog levels generated
D	Improve accuracy by removing out-of-sequence codes from the input

40. - E8B01

What is the modulation index of an FM signal?

Select	Answer
A	The type of modulation used by the transmitter
B	The ratio of frequency deviation to modulating signal frequency
C	The ratio of modulating signal amplitude to frequency deviation
D	The bandwidth of the transmitted signal divided by the modulating signal frequency

41. - E8C02

What is the definition of symbol rate in a digital transmission?

Select	Answer
A	The number of characters carried per second by the station-to-station link
B	The rate at which the waveform changes to convey information
C	The number of control characters in a message packet
D	The duration of each bit in a message sent over the air

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 7 data bits per character, ASCII uses 8; Baudot has no letters/figures shift code, ASCII uses 2 letters/figures shift codes
C	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
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. - E9A02

What is the effective radiated power relative to a dipole of a repeater station with 150 watts transmitter power output, 2 dB feed line loss, 2.2 dB duplexer loss, and 7 dBd antenna gain?

Select	Answer
A	1977 watts
B	78.7 watts
C	420 watts
D	286 watts

44. - E9B10

What is the principle of a Method of Moments analysis?

Select	Answer
A	A wire is modeled as a series of segments, each having a distinct value of voltage across it
B	A wire is modeled as a series of segments, each having a uniform value of current
C	A wire is modeled as a single sine-wave voltage source
D	A wire is modeled as a single sine-wave current generator

45. - E9C09

Which of the following describes a G5RV antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A phased array antenna consisting of multiple loops
B	A wide band dipole using shorted coaxial cable for the radiating elements and fed with a�4:1 balun
C	A multi-band trap antenna
D	A multi-band dipole antenna fed with coax and a balun through a selected length of open wire transmission line

46. - E9D09

What is the function of a loading coil used as part of an HF mobile antenna?

Select	Answer
A	To increase the SWR bandwidth
B	To lower the Q
C	To lower the losses
D	To cancel capacitive reactance

47. - E9E02

What is the name of an antenna matching system that matches an unbalanced feed line to an antenna by feeding the driven element both at the center of the element and at a fraction of a wavelength to one side of center?

Select	Answer
A	The delta match
B	The gamma match
C	The stub match
D	The epsilon match

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

49. - E9G11

How are the wavelength scales on a Smith chart calibrated?

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

50. - E9H10

How can the output voltage of a multiple-turn receiving loop antenna be increased?

Select	Answer
A	By reducing the permeability of the loop shield
B	By utilizing high impedance wire for the coupling loop
C	By increasing the number of turns and/or the area
D	By winding adjacent turns in opposing directions

Figure E6-3