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

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1. - E0A10

What toxic material may be present in some electronic components such as high voltage capacitors and transformers?

Select	Answer
A	Polymorphic silicon
B	Polychlorinated biphenyls
C	Polytetrafluoroethylene
D	Polyethylene

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

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	20 kHz
B	15 kHz
C	10 kHz
D	3 kHz

4. - E1C05

When may an automatically controlled station originate third party communications?

Select	Answer
A	When agreed upon by the sending or receiving station
B	Never
C	When approved by the National Telecommunication and Information Administration
D	Only when transmitting RTTY or data emissions

5. - E1D03

What is a space telecommand station?

Select	Answer
A	An amateur station located in a satellite or a balloon more than 50 kilometers above the surface of the Earth
B	An amateur station that receives telemetry from a satellite or balloon more than 50 kilometers above the surface of the Earth
C	An amateur station located on the surface of the Earth for communication with other Earth stations by means of Earth satellites
D	An amateur station that transmits communications to initiate, modify or terminate functions of a space station

6. - E1E08

To which of the following examinees may a VE not administer an examination?

Select	Answer
A	Employees of the VE
B	Relatives of the VE as listed in the FCC rules
C	All these choices are correct
D	Friends of the VE

7. - E1F06

Under what circumstances might the FCC issue a Special Temporary Authority (STA) to an amateur station?

Select	Answer
A	To allow regular operation on Land Mobile channels
B	To provide additional spectrum for personal use
C	To provide temporary operation while awaiting normal licensing
D	To provide for experimental amateur communications

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	An isotropic antenna
C	A log-periodic dipole array
D	A linearly polarized antenna

9. - E2B09

What hardware, other than a receiver with SSB capability and a suitable computer, is needed to decode SSTV using Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM)?

Select	Answer
A	A special IF converter
B	No other hardware is needed
C	A special notch filter to remove synchronization pulses
D	A special front end limiter

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

11. - E2D08

What type of packet frame is used to transmit APRS beacon data?

Select	Answer
A	Disconnect
B	Acknowledgement
C	Unnumbered Information
D	Connect

12. - E2E04

What is indicated when one of the ellipses in an FSK crossed-ellipse display suddenly disappears?

Select	Answer
A	Selective fading has occurred
B	The mark and space signal have been inverted
C	One of the signal filters is saturated
D	The receiver has drifted 5 kHz from the desired receive frequency

13. - E3A09

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

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

14. - E3B11

At what time of day can sporadic E propagation occur?

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

15. - E3C10

What does the 304A solar parameter measure?

Select	Answer
A	The solar wind velocity at 304 degrees from the solar equator, correlated to solar activity
B	The ratio of x-ray flux to radio flux, correlated to sunspot number
C	UV emissions at 304 angstroms, correlated to the solar flux index
D	The solar emission at 304 GHz, correlated to x-ray flare levels

16. - E4A09

Which of the following is good practice when using an oscilloscope probe?

Select	Answer
A	Keep the signal ground connection of the probe as short as possible
B	All these choices are correct
C	Never use a high-impedance probe to measure a low-impedance circuit
D	Never use a DC-coupled probe to measure an AC circuit

17. - E4B04

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

Select	Answer
A	S21
B	S12
C	S11
D	S22

18. - E4C15

What is reciprocal mixing?

Select	Answer
A	Local oscillator phase noise mixing with adjacent strong signals to create interference to desired signals
B	Two out-of-band signals mixing to generate an in-band spurious signal
C	In-phase signals cancelling in a mixer resulting in loss of receiver sensitivity
D	Two digital signals combining from alternate time slots

19. - E4D01

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

Select	Answer
A	The minimum difference in dB between the levels of two FM signals that will cause one signal to block the other
B	The minimum difference in dB between two signals which produce third-order intermodulation products greater than the noise floor
C	The difference in dB between the noise floor and the third-order intercept point
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. - E4E02

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

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

21. - E5A06

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

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

22. - E5B07

What is the phase angle between the voltage across and the current through a series RLC circuit if XC is 500 ohms, R is 1 kilohm, and XL is 250 ohms?

Select	Answer
A	68.2 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
B	14.0 degrees with the voltage leading the current
C	14.0 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
D	68.2 degrees with the voltage leading the current

23. - E5C10

Which point on Figure E5-1 best represents the impedance of a series circuit consisting of a 400-ohm resistor and a 38-picofarad capacitor at 14 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	Point 2
B	Point 6
C	Point 4
D	Point 5

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	0.707
B	1.0
C	0.866
D	0.5

25. - E6A05

How does DC input impedance at the gate of a field-effect transistor compare with the DC input impedance of a bipolar transistor?

Select	Answer
A	They are both high impedance
B	An FET has higher input impedance
C	They are both low impedance
D	An FET has lower input impedance

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	Extremely high reverse breakdown voltage
C	Ability to dissipate large amounts of power
D	Low junction capacitance

27. - E6C02

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

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

28. - E6D02

What is the equivalent circuit of a quartz crystal?

Select	Answer
A	Motional inductance and loss resistance in series, paralleled with motional capacitance and a capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance
B	Motional capacitance, motional inductance, loss resistance, and a capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance all in series
C	Motional capacitance, motional inductance, loss resistance, and a capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance all in parallel
D	Motional capacitance, motional inductance, and loss resistance in series, all in parallel with a shunt capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance

29. - E6E11

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

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

30. - E6F08

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

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

31. - E7A11

What type of logic defines "1" as a high voltage?

Select	Answer
A	Reverse Logic
B	Positive Logic
C	Negative logic
D	Assertive Logic

32. - E7B13

Which of the following describes an emitter follower (or common collector) amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	An amplifier with a low impedance output that follows the base input voltage
B	A two-transistor amplifier with the emitters sharing a common bias resistor
C	A differential amplifier with both inputs fed to the emitter of the input transistor
D	An OR circuit with only one emitter used for output

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

34. - E7D12

What is the dropout voltage of an analog voltage regulator?

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

35. - E7E05

What circuit is added to an FM transmitter to boost the higher audio frequencies?

Select	Answer
A	A de-emphasis network
B	A heterodyne suppressor
C	A pre-emphasis network
D	A heterodyne enhancer

36. - E7F02

What kind of digital signal processing audio filter is used to remove unwanted noise from a received SSB signal?

Select	Answer
A	A crystal-lattice filter
B	An adaptive filter
C	A Hilbert-transform filter
D	A phase-inverting filter

37. - E7G03

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

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

38. - E7H06

Which of the following oscillator circuits are commonly used in VFOs?

Select	Answer
A	Colpitts and Hartley
B	Armstrong and deForest
C	Negative feedback and balanced feedback
D	Pierce and Zener

39. - E8A11

Which of the following is a measure of the quality of an analog-to-digital converter?

Select	Answer
A	Peak envelope power
B	Reciprocal mixing
C	Power factor
D	Total harmonic distortion

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	6000
B	1/3
C	2000
D	3

41. - E8C12

What factors affect the bandwidth of a transmitted CW signal?

Select	Answer
A	Keying speed and shape factor (rise and fall time)
B	IF bandwidth and Q
C	All these choices are correct
D	Modulation index and output power

42. - E8D08

What parameter evaluates distortion of an AFSK signal caused by excessive input audio levels?

Select	Answer
A	Signal-to-noise ratio
B	Repeat Request Rate (RRR)
C	Intermodulation Distortion (IMD)
D	Baud rate

43. - E9A12

How much gain does an antenna have compared to a 1/2-wavelength dipole when it has 6 dB gain over an isotropic antenna?

Select	Answer
A	2.79 dB
B	8.15 dB
C	3.85 dB
D	6.0 dB

44. - E9B09

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

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

45. - E9C09

Which of the following describes a G5RV antenna?

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

46. - E9D09

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

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

47. - E9E03

What is the name of the matching system that uses a section of transmission line connected in parallel with the feed line at or near the feed point?

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

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 line length
D	The termination impedance

49. - E9G07

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

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

50. - E9H10

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

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

Figure E5-1

Figure E9-3