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

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1. - E0A07

How may dangerous levels of carbon monoxide from an emergency generator be detected?

Select	Answer
A	By the odor
B	By the yellowish appearance of the gas
C	Any ordinary smoke detector can be used
D	Only with a carbon monoxide detector

2. - E1A09

What action or actions should you take if your digital message forwarding station inadvertently forwards a communication that violates FCC rules?

Select	Answer
A	Notify the originating station that the communication does not comply with FCC rules
B	Notify the nearest FCC Field Engineers office
C	Discontinue forwarding the communication as soon as you become aware of it
D	All these choices are correct

3. - E1B11

What does PRB-1 require of regulations affecting amateur radio?

Select	Answer
A	No limitations may be placed on antenna size or placement
B	Reasonable accommodations of amateur radio must be made
C	Use of wireless devices in a vehicle is exempt from regulation
D	Amateur radio operations must be permitted in any private residence

4. - E1C07

At what level below a signal's mean power level is its bandwidth determined according to FCC rules?

Select	Answer
A	26 dB
B	23 dB
C	3 dB
D	6 dB

5. - E1D08

Which VHF amateur bands have frequencies authorized for space stations?

Select	Answer
A	2 meters and 1.25 meters
B	6 meters, 2 meters, and 1.25 meters
C	2 meters
D	6 meters and 2 meters

6. - E1E01

For which types of out-of-pocket expenses do the Part 97 rules state that VEs and VECs may be reimbursed?

Select	Answer
A	Teaching an amateur operator license examination preparation course
B	No expenses are authorized for reimbursement
C	Preparing, processing, administering, and coordinating an examination for an amateur radio operator license
D	Providing amateur operator license examination preparation training materials

7. - E1F08

Which of the following types of amateur station communications are prohibited?

Select	Answer
A	Communications that have political content, except as allowed by the Fairness Doctrine
B	Communications that have religious content
C	Communications transmitted for hire or material compensation, except as otherwise provided in the rules
D	Communications in a language other than English

8. - E2A06

What are Keplerian elements?

Select	Answer
A	Phase reversing elements in a Yagi antenna
B	Parameters that define the orbit of a satellite
C	Encrypting codes used for spread spectrum modulation
D	High-emission heater filaments used in magnetron tubes

9. - E2B03

How is an interlaced scanning pattern generated in a fast-scan (NTSC) television system?

Select	Answer
A	By scanning each field from bottom to top
B	By scanning odd numbered lines in one field and even numbered lines in the next
C	By scanning two fields simultaneously
D	By scanning lines from left to right in one field and right to left in the next

10. - E2C08

Which of the following contacts may be confirmed through the U.S. QSL bureau system?

Select	Answer
A	Contacts using tactical call signs
B	Special event contacts between stations in the U.S.
C	Repeater contacts between U.S. club members
D	Contacts between a U.S. station and a non-U.S. station

11. - E2D08

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

Select	Answer
A	Unnumbered Information
B	Connect
C	Disconnect
D	Acknowledgement

12. - E2E04

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

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

13. - E3A11

What is a typical range for tropospheric propagation of microwave signals?

Select	Answer
A	1200 miles
B	100 miles to 300 miles
C	2500 miles
D	10 miles to 50 miles

14. - E3B09

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

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

15. - E3C13

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

Select	Answer
A	Circular
B	Horizontal
C	Vertical
D	Elliptical

16. - E4A02

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

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

17. - E4B01

Which of the following factors most affects the accuracy of a frequency counter?

Select	Answer
A	Time base accuracy
B	Input attenuator accuracy
C	Temperature coefficient of the logic
D	Decade divider accuracy

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 digital signals combining from alternate time slots
C	Two out-of-band signals mixing to generate an in-band spurious signal
D	In-phase signals cancelling in a mixer resulting in loss of receiver sensitivity

19. - E4D11

Why are odd-order intermodulation products, created within a receiver, of particular interest compared to other products?

Select	Answer
A	Odd-order products are an indication of poor image rejection
B	Odd-order products of two signals in the band of interest are also likely to be within the band
C	Odd-order products overload the IF filters
D	Odd-order intermodulation produces three products for every input signal within the band of interest

20. - E4E04

How can conducted and radiated noise caused by an automobile alternator be suppressed?

Select	Answer
A	By connecting the radio's power leads directly to the battery and by installing coaxial capacitors in line with the alternator leads
B	By installing a high-pass filter in series with the radio's power lead and a low-pass filter in parallel with the field lead
C	By installing filter capacitors in series with the DC power lead and a blocking capacitor in the field lead
D	By installing a noise suppression resistor and a blocking capacitor in both leads

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	15.7 kHz
B	218.3 kHz
C	436.6 kHz
D	31.4 kHz

22. - E5B08

What is the phase angle between the voltage across and the current through a series RLC circuit if XC is 100 ohms, R is 100 ohms, and XL is 75 ohms?

Select	Answer
A	76 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
B	14 degrees with the voltage leading the current
C	14 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
D	76 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 5
B	Point 4
C	Point 2
D	Point 6

24. - E5D12

How many watts are consumed in a circuit having a power factor of 0.2 if the input is 100 VAC at 4 amperes?

Select	Answer
A	80 watts
B	2000 watts
C	400 watts
D	50 watts

25. - E6A12

Why do many MOSFET devices have internally connected Zener diodes on the gates?

Select	Answer
A	To provide a voltage reference for the correct amount of reverse-bias gate voltage
B	To protect the substrate from excessive voltages
C	To reduce the chance of static damage to the gate
D	To keep the gate voltage within specifications and prevent the device from overheating

26. - E6B04

What type of semiconductor device is designed for use as a voltage-controlled capacitor?

Select	Answer
A	Silicon-controlled rectifier
B	Varactor diode
C	Tunnel diode
D	Zener diode

27. - E6C10

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

Select	Answer
A	1
B	4
C	2
D	3

28. - E6D13

What is the primary cause of inductor self-resonance?

Select	Answer
A	Inter-turn capacitance
B	Inductive kickback
C	The skin effect
D	Non-linear core hysteresis

29. - E6E01

Why is gallium arsenide (GaAs) useful for semiconductor devices operating at UHF and higher frequencies?

Select	Answer
A	Higher noise figures
B	Lower junction voltage drop
C	Higher electron mobility
D	Lower transconductance

30. - E6F04

What is the photovoltaic effect?

Select	Answer
A	The tendency of a battery to discharge when exposed to light
B	The conversion of electrical energy to mechanical energy
C	The conversion of voltage to current when exposed to light
D	The conversion of light to electrical energy

31. - E7A07

What logical operation does a NAND gate perform?

Select	Answer
A	It produces logic 0 at its output if some but not all inputs are logic 1
B	It produces logic 0 at its output only when all inputs are logic 0
C	It produces logic 1 at its output only when all inputs are logic 1
D	It produces logic 0 at its output only when all inputs are logic 1

32. - E7B13

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

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

33. - E7C05

Which filter type is described as having ripple in the passband and a sharp cutoff?

Select	Answer
A	A passive op-amp filter
B	A Butterworth filter
C	An active LC filter
D	A Chebyshev filter

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

35. - E7E11

Which type of detector circuit is used for demodulating SSB signals?

Select	Answer
A	Discriminator
B	Phase detector
C	Product detector
D	Phase comparator

36. - E7F11

What sets the minimum detectable signal level for a direct-sampling SDR receiver in the absence of atmospheric or thermal noise?

Select	Answer
A	Reference voltage level and sample width in bits
B	Missing codes and jitter
C	Sample clock phase noise
D	Data storage transfer rate

37. - E7G08

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

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

38. - E7H09

What type of frequency synthesizer circuit uses a phase accumulator, lookup table, digital to analog converter, and a low-pass anti-alias filter?

Select	Answer
A	A hybrid synthesizer
B	A direct digital synthesizer
C	A phase-locked loop synthesizer
D	A diode-switching matrix synthesizer

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

40. - E8B10

What is frequency division multiplexing?

Select	Answer
A	Two or more information streams are merged into a digital combiner, which then pulse position modulates the transmitter
B	The transmitted signal is divided into packets of information
C	The transmitted signal jumps from band to band at a predetermined rate
D	Two or more information streams are merged into a baseband, which then modulates the transmitter

41. - E8C10

How may data rate be increased without increasing bandwidth?

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

42. - E8D04

What is the primary effect of extremely short rise or fall time on a CW signal?

Select	Answer
A	The generation of key clicks
B	The generation of RF harmonics
C	More difficult to copy
D	Limits data speed

43. - E9A13

What term describes station output, taking into account all gains and losses?

Select	Answer
A	Apparent power
B	Effective radiated power
C	Power factor
D	Half-power bandwidth

44. - E9B08

What is the far field of an antenna?

Select	Answer
A	The region where the shape of the antenna pattern is independent of distance
B	The region where radiated field strengths are constant
C	The region where radiated power dissipates over a specified time period
D	The region of the ionosphere where radiated power is not refracted

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

46. - E9D12

Which of the following would provide the best RF ground for your station?

Select	Answer
A	A 50-ohm resistor connected to ground
B	An electrically short connection to 3 or 4 interconnected ground rods via a series RF choke
C	An electrically short connection to 3 or 4 interconnected ground rods driven into the Earth
D	An electrically short connection to a metal water pipe

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

48. - E9F10

What impedance does a 1/8-wavelength transmission line present to a generator when the line is shorted at the far end?

Select	Answer
A	Zero
B	An inductive reactance
C	The same as the characteristic impedance of the line
D	A capacitive reactance

49. - E9G08

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

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

50. - E9H06

What is the triangulation method of direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	A fixed receiving station plots three headings to the signal source
B	A fixed receiving station uses three different antennas to plot the location of the signal source
C	Antenna headings from several different receiving locations are used to locate the signal source
D	The geometric angles of sky waves from the source are used to determine its position

Figure E5-1

Figure E6-3