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

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1. - E0A01

What is the primary function of an external earth connection or ground rod?

Select	Answer
A	Reduce RF current flow between pieces of equipment
B	Reduce RFI to telephones and home entertainment systems
C	Reduce received noise
D	Lightning protection

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

3. - E1B12

What must the control operator of a repeater operating in the 70 cm band do if a radiolocation system experiences interference from that repeater?

Select	Answer
A	Cease operation or make changes to the repeater to mitigate the interference
B	All these choices are correct
C	Reduce the repeater antenna HAAT (Height Above Average Terrain)
D	File an FAA NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) with the repeater system's ERP, call sign, and six-character grid locator

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 not operate until a test signal has been transmitted in coordination with the local power company
B	Operators must not operate until approval is received
C	Operations may commence immediately, and may continue unless interference is reported by the UTC
D	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

5. - E1D01

What is the definition of telemetry?

Select	Answer
A	One-way transmission of measurements at a distance from the measuring instrument
B	One-way transmission that initiates, modifies, or terminates the functions of a device at a distance
C	Two-way transmissions in excess of 1000 feet
D	Two-way transmissions of data

6. - E1E12

What must the VE team do with the application form if the examinee does not pass the exam?

Select	Answer
A	Destroy the application form
B	Return the application document to the examinee
C	Send the application form to the FCC and inform the FCC of the grade
D	Maintain the application form with the VEC's records

7. - E1F07

When may an amateur station send a message to a business?

Select	Answer
A	When the control operator is employed by the FCC or another government agency
B	When the total money involved does not exceed $25
C	When transmitting international third-party communications
D	When neither the amateur nor his or her employer has a pecuniary interest in the communications

8. - E2A04

What is meant by the term mode? as applied to an amateur radio satellite?

Select	Answer
A	Whether the satellite is in a polar or equatorial orbit
B	The satellite's uplink and downlink frequency bands
C	Whether the satellite is in a low earth or geostationary orbit
D	The satellite's orientation with respect to the Earth

9. - E2B08

What technique allows commercial analog TV receivers to be used for fast-scan TV operations on the 70 cm band?

Select	Answer
A	Transmitting on channels shared with cable TV
B	Transmitting on the abandoned TV channel 2
C	Using USB and demodulating the signal with a computer sound card
D	Using converted satellite TV dishes

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 USPS two-letter abbreviation for the state in which the remote station is located
C	No additional indicator is required
D	/ followed by the ARRL Section of the remote station

11. - E2D06

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

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

12. - E2E11

What is the difference between direct FSK and audio FSK?

Select	Answer
A	Only direct FSK can be decoded by computer
B	Direct FSK applies the data signal to the transmitter VFO, while AFSK transmits tones via phone
C	Direct FSK can transmit faster baud rates
D	Direct FSK occupies less bandwidth

13. - E3A14

What is meant by circularly polarized electromagnetic waves?

Select	Answer
A	Waves with a rotating electric field
B	Waves with an electric field bent into a circular shape
C	Waves produced by a loop antenna
D	Waves that circle the Earth

14. - E3B09

At what time of year is sporadic E propagation most likely to occur?

Select	Answer
A	Around the solstices, especially the summer solstice
B	Around the equinoxes, especially the spring equinox
C	Around the equinoxes, especially the fall equinox
D	Around the solstices, especially the winter solstice

15. - E3C14

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

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

16. - E4A07

Which of the following is an advantage of using an antenna analyzer compared to an SWR bridge to measure antenna SWR?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	Antenna analyzers automatically tune your antenna for resonance
C	Antenna analyzers do not need an external RF source
D	Antenna analyzers display a time-varying representation of the modulation envelope

17. - E4B07

What do the subscripts of S parameters represent?

Select	Answer
A	Relative quality of the data
B	The relative time between measurements
C	Frequency order of the measurements
D	The port or ports at which measurements are made

18. - E4C14

What transmit frequency might generate an image response signal in a receiver tuned to 14.300 MHz and that uses a 455 kHz IF frequency?

Select	Answer
A	14.445 MHz
B	13.845 MHz
C	14.755 MHz
D	15.210 MHz

19. - E4D07

Which of the following reduces the likelihood of receiver desensitization?

Select	Answer
A	Switch from fast AGC to slow AGC
B	Increase the receiver front end gain
C	Decrease the RF bandwidth of the receiver
D	Raise the receiver IF frequency

20. - E4E03

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

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

21. - E5A01

What can cause the voltage across reactances in a series RLC circuit to be higher than the voltage applied to the entire circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Conductance
B	Resistance
C	Resonance
D	Capacitance

22. - E5B11

What is the phase angle between the voltage across and the current through a series RLC circuit if XC is 25 ohms, R is 100 ohms, and XL is 50 ohms?

Select	Answer
A	76 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
B	76 degrees with the voltage leading the current
C	14 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
D	14 degrees with the voltage leading the current

23. - E5C02

How are impedances described in polar coordinates?

Select	Answer
A	By phase angle and magnitude
B	By real and imaginary parts
C	By Y and G values
D	By X and R values

24. - E5D13

How many watts are consumed in a circuit consisting of a 100-ohm resistor in series with a 100-ohm inductive reactance drawing 1 ampere?

Select	Answer
A	141.4 watts
B	100 watts
C	200 watts
D	70.7 watts

25. - E6A01

In what application is gallium arsenide used as a semiconductor material?

Select	Answer
A	In high-current rectifier circuits
B	In microwave circuits
C	In very low-frequency RF circuits
D	In high-power audio circuits

26. - E6B08

Which of the following is a Schottky barrier diode?

Select	Answer
A	Thermionic emission diode
B	Electrolytic rectifier
C	Metal-semiconductor junction
D	PIN junction

27. - E6C10

In Figure E6-3, what is the schematic symbol for a NOR gate?

Select	Answer
A	1
B	3
C	4
D	2

28. - E6D04

Which materials are commonly used as a core in an inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Polystyrene and polyethylene
B	Cobalt and aluminum
C	Teflon and Delrin
D	Ferrite and brass

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	Silicon dioxide
C	Silicon nitride
D	Gallium nitride

30. - E6F11

What is the approximate open-circuit voltage produced by a fully illuminated silicon photovoltaic cell?

Select	Answer
A	0.5 V
B	1.5 V
C	0.1 V
D	12 V

31. - E7A09

What logical operation is performed by an exclusive NOR gate?

Select	Answer
A	It produces logic 1 at its output if only one input is logic 1
B	It produces logic 0 at its output if only one input is logic 1
C	It produces logic 0 at its output only if all inputs are logic 0
D	It produces logic 1 at its output only if all inputs are logic 1

32. - E7B12

What type of amplifier circuit is shown in Figure E7-1?

Select	Answer
A	Common base
B	Common emitter
C	Common collector
D	Emitter follower

33. - E7C06

What are the distinguishing features of an elliptical filter?

Select	Answer
A	Extremely sharp cutoff with one or more notches in the stop band
B	Gradual passband rolloff with minimal stop band ripple
C	Extremely flat response over its pass band with gradually rounded stop band corners
D	Gradual passband rolloff with extreme stop band ripple

34. - E7D04

Which of the following types of linear voltage regulator usually make the most efficient use of the primary power source?

Select	Answer
A	A series regulator
B	A shunt current source
C	A shunt regulator
D	A series current source

35. - E7E04

What is one way a single-sideband phone signal can be generated?

Select	Answer
A	By using a loop modulator followed by a mixer
B	By using a balanced modulator followed by a filter
C	By driving a product detector with a DSB signal
D	By using a reactance modulator followed by a mixer

36. - E7F03

What type of digital signal processing filter is used to generate an SSB signal?

Select	Answer
A	A notch filter
B	A Hilbert-transform filter
C	An adaptive filter
D	An elliptical filter

37. - E7G09

What will be the output voltage of the circuit shown in Figure E7-3 if R1 is 1000 ohms, RF is 10,000 ohms, and 0.23 volts DC is applied to the input?

Select	Answer
A	2.3 volts
B	0.23 volts
C	-0.23 volts
D	-2.3 volts

38. - E7H06

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

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

39. - E8A04

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

Select	Answer
A	A small amount of noise added to the input signal to allow more precise representation of a signal over time
B	A method of decimation by randomly skipping samples
C	An abnormal condition where the converter cannot settle on a value to represent the signal
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	0.6
B	60
C	0.167
D	1.67

41. - E8C10

How may data rate be increased without increasing bandwidth?

Select	Answer
A	It is impossible
B	Using forward error correction
C	Using a more efficient digital code
D	Increasing analog-to-digital conversion resolution

42. - E8D11

What is one advantage of using ASCII code for data communications?

Select	Answer
A	It uses one character as a shift code to send numeric and special characters
B	It includes built-in error correction features
C	It is possible to transmit both upper and lower case text
D	It contains fewer information bits per character than any other code

43. - E9A01

What is an isotropic antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A spacecraft antenna used to direct signals toward Earth
B	A horizontally polarized antenna used to compare Yagi antennas
C	A grounded antenna used to measure Earth conductivity
D	A theoretical, omnidirectional antenna used as a reference for antenna gain

44. - E9B09

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

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

45. - E9C02

What is the radiation pattern of two 1/4-wavelength vertical antennas spaced 1/4 wavelength apart and fed 90 degrees out of phase?

Select	Answer
A	A figure-8 broadside to the axis of the array
B	A figure-8 end-fire along the axis of the array
C	Omni-directional
D	Cardioid

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	6 dB
C	2 dB
D	4 dB

47. - E9E05

How must an antenna's driven element be tuned to use a hairpin matching system?

Select	Answer
A	The driven element resonance must be lower than the operating frequency
B	The driven element reactance must be capacitive
C	The driven element reactance must be inductive
D	The driven element radiation resistance must be higher than the characteristic impedance of the transmission line

48. - E9F02

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

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

49. - E9G08

What is the process of normalization with regard to a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Reassigning resistance values with regard to the reactance axis
B	Reassigning prime center with regard to the reactance axis
C	Reassigning reactance values with regard to the resistance axis
D	Reassigning impedance values with regard to the prime center

50. - E9H11

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

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

Figure E6-3

Figure E7-1

Figure E7-3