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

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1. - E0A03

Over what range of frequencies are the FCC human body RF exposure limits most restrictive?

Select	Answer
A	30 to 300 MHz
B	300 to 3000 MHz
C	300 kHz to 3 MHz
D	3 to 30 MHz

2. - E1A06

Where must the carrier frequency of a CW signal be set to comply with FCC rules for 60 meter operation?

Select	Answer
A	At the center frequency of the channel
B	On any frequency where the signal's sidebands are within the channel
C	At the lowest frequency of the channel
D	At the highest frequency of the channel

3. - E1B06

Which of the following additional rules apply if you are installing an amateur station antenna at a site at or near a public use airport?

Select	Answer
A	You must file an Environmental Impact Statement with the EPA before construction begins
B	You must submit engineering drawings to the FAA
C	You must obtain a construction permit from the airport zoning authority
D	You may have to notify the Federal Aviation Administration and register it with the FCC as required by Part 17 of the FCC rules

4. - E1C02

Which of the following types of communications may be transmitted to amateur stations in foreign countries?

Select	Answer
A	Messages intended for users of the maritime satellite service
B	Communications incidental to the purpose of the amateur service and remarks of a personal nature
C	Business-related messages for non-profit organizations
D	All these choices are correct

5. - E1D09

Which UHF amateur bands have frequencies authorized for space stations?

Select	Answer
A	70 cm and 13 cm
B	33 cm and 13 cm
C	70 cm only
D	70 cm and 33 cm

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

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 temporary operation while awaiting normal licensing
C	To provide for experimental amateur communications
D	To provide additional spectrum for personal use

8. - E2A10

What type of satellite appears to stay in one position in the sky?

Select	Answer
A	LEO
B	Geomagnetic
C	HEO
D	Geostationary

9. - E2B11

What is the function of the Vertical Interval Signaling (VIS) code sent as part of an SSTV transmission?

Select	Answer
A	To provide vertical synchronization
B	To identify the call sign of the station transmitting
C	To identify the SSTV mode being used
D	To lock the color burst oscillator in color SSTV images

10. - E2C10

Why might a DX station state that they are listening on another frequency?

Select	Answer
A	To separate the calling stations from the DX station
B	To improve operating efficiency by reducing interference
C	Because the DX station may be transmitting on a frequency that is prohibited to some responding stations
D	All these choices are correct

11. - E2D02

Which of the following is a good technique for making meteor scatter contacts?

Select	Answer
A	15-second timed transmission sequences with stations alternating based on location
B	All these choices are correct
C	Use of special digital modes
D	Short transmissions with rapidly repeated call signs and signal reports

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 receiver has drifted 5 kHz from the desired receive frequency
C	One of the signal filters is saturated
D	The mark and space signal have been inverted

13. - E3A12

What is the cause of auroral activity?

Select	Answer
A	The interaction in the F2 layer between the solar wind and the Van Allen belt
B	The interaction in the E layer of charged particles from the Sun with the Earth's magnetic field
C	An extreme low-pressure area in the polar regions
D	Meteor showers concentrated in the extreme northern and southern latitudes

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. - E3C03

Which of the following signal paths is most likely to experience high levels of absorption when the A index or K index is elevated?

Select	Answer
A	NVIS
B	Sporadic E
C	Transequatorial
D	Polar

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 wattmeter
B	A spectrum analyzer
C	A logic analyzer
D	A time-domain reflectometer

17. - E4B06

How much power is being absorbed by the load when a directional power meter connected between a transmitter and a terminating load reads 100 watts forward power and 25 watts reflected power?

Select	Answer
A	100 watts
B	75 watts
C	125 watts
D	25 watts

18. - E4C11

Why can an attenuator be used to reduce receiver overload on the lower frequency HF bands with little or no impact on signal-to-noise ratio?

Select	Answer
A	The attenuator has a noise filter to suppress interference
B	Signals are attenuated separately from the noise
C	Atmospheric noise is generally greater than internally generated noise even after attenuation
D	The attenuator has a low-pass filter to increase the strength of lower frequency signals

19. - E4D05

What transmitter frequencies would cause an intermodulation-product signal in a receiver tuned to 146.70 MHz when a nearby station transmits on 146.52 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	146.34 MHz and 146.61 MHz
B	173.35 MHz and 139.40 MHz
C	146.88 MHz and 146.34 MHz
D	146.10 MHz and 147.30 MHz

20. - E4E05

How can radio frequency interference from an AC motor be suppressed?

Select	Answer
A	By installing a high-pass filter in series with the motor's power leads
B	By installing a brute-force AC-line filter in series with the motor leads
C	By using a ground-fault current interrupter in the circuit used to power the motor
D	By installing a bypass capacitor in series with the motor leads

21. - E5A15

Which of the following increases Q for inductors and capacitors?

Select	Answer
A	Lower losses
B	Lower reactance
C	Higher self-resonant frequency
D	Lower self-resonant frequency

22. - E5B03

How is impedance in polar form converted to an equivalent admittance?

Select	Answer
A	Take the reciprocal of the magnitude and change the sign of the angle
B	Take the square root of the magnitude and add 180 degrees to the angle
C	Square the magnitude and subtract 90 degrees from the angle
D	Take the reciprocal of the angle and change the sign of the magnitude

23. - E5C01

Which of the following represents capacitive reactance in rectangular notation?

Select	Answer
A	-jX
B	Delta
C	Omega
D	+jX

24. - E5D03

What is microstrip?

Select	Answer
A	Miniature coax used for low power applications
B	Lightweight transmission line made of common zip cord
C	Precision printed circuit conductors above a ground plane that provide constant impedance interconnects at microwave frequencies
D	Short lengths of coax mounted on printed circuit boards to minimize time delay between microwave circuits

25. - E6A04

What is the name given to an impurity atom that adds holes to a semiconductor crystal structure?

Select	Answer
A	N-type impurity
B	Acceptor impurity
C	Insulator impurity
D	Donor impurity

26. - E6B05

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

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

27. - E6C02

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

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

28. - E6D07

What is current in the primary winding of a transformer called if no load is attached to the secondary?

Select	Answer
A	Magnetizing current
B	Excitation current
C	Direct current
D	Stabilizing current

29. - E6E08

How is power supplied to the most common type of MMIC?

Select	Answer
A	MMICs require no operating bias
B	Through a capacitor and RF choke connected to the amplifier input lead
C	Directly to the bias voltage (VCC IN) lead
D	Through a resistor and/or RF choke connected to the amplifier output lead

30. - E6F01

What absorbs the energy from light falling on a photovoltaic cell?

Select	Answer
A	Holes
B	Photons
C	Electrons
D	Protons

31. - E7A10

What is a truth table?

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

32. - E7B12

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

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

33. - E7C10

Which of the following filters would be the best choice for use in a 2 meter band repeater duplexer?

Select	Answer
A	A cavity filter
B	A DSP filter
C	An L-C filter
D	A crystal filter

34. - E7D14

What is the purpose of connecting equal-value resistors across power supply filter capacitors connected in series?

Select	Answer
A	Equalize the voltage across each capacitor
B	Provide a minimum load on the supply
C	Discharge the capacitors when voltage is removed
D	All these choices are correct

35. - E7E06

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

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

36. - E7F01

What is meant by direct digital conversion as applied to software defined radios?

Select	Answer
A	Software is converted from source code to object code during operation of the receiver
B	Incoming RF is converted to a control voltage for a voltage controlled oscillator
C	A switching mixer is used to generate I and Q signals directly from the RF input
D	Incoming RF is digitized by an analog-to-digital converter without being mixed with a local oscillator signal

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	7
C	0.07
D	28

38. - E7H06

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

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

39. - E8A10

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

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

40. - E8B08

What describes Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing?

Select	Answer
A	A frequency modulation technique that uses non-harmonically related frequencies
B	A bandwidth compression technique using Fourier transforms
C	A digital modulation technique using subcarriers at frequencies chosen to avoid intersymbol interference
D	A digital mode for narrow-band, slow-speed transmissions

41. - E8C10

How may data rate be increased without increasing bandwidth?

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

42. - E8D05

What is the most common method of reducing key clicks?

Select	Answer
A	Low-pass filters at the transmitter output
B	High-pass filters at the transmitter output
C	Increase keying waveform rise and fall times
D	Reduce keying waveform rise and fall times

43. - E9A07

What is the effective isotropic radiated power of a repeater station with 200 watts transmitter power output, 2 dB feed line loss, 2.8 dB duplexer loss, 1.2 dB circulator loss, and 7 dBi antenna gain?

Select	Answer
A	632 watts
B	159 watts
C	252 watts
D	63.2 watts

44. - E9B11

What is a disadvantage of decreasing the number of wire segments in an antenna model below 10 segments per half-wavelength?

Select	Answer
A	Ground conductivity will not be accurately modeled
B	The antenna will become mechanically unstable
C	The resulting design will favor radiation of harmonic energy
D	The computed feed point impedance may be incorrect

45. - E9C14

How does the performance of a horizontally polarized antenna mounted on the side of a hill compare with the same antenna mounted on flat ground?

Select	Answer
A	The horizontal beamwidth decreases in the downhill direction
B	The main lobe takeoff angle decreases in the downhill direction
C	The horizontal beamwidth increases in the uphill direction
D	The main lobe takeoff angle increases in the downhill direction

46. - E9D02

How can linearly polarized Yagi antennas be used to produce circular polarization?

Select	Answer
A	Stack two Yagis fed 90 degrees out of phase to form an array with the respective elements in parallel planes
B	Stack two Yagis fed in phase to form an array with the respective elements in parallel planes
C	Arrange two Yagis collinear to each other with the driven elements fed 180 degrees out of phase
D	Arrange two Yagis perpendicular to each other with the driven elements at the same point on the boom fed 90 degrees out of phase

47. - E9E08

What is a use for a Wilkinson divider?

Select	Answer
A	It is used to divide power equally between two 50-ohm loads while maintaining 50-ohm input impedance
B	It is used to feed high-impedance antennas from a low-impedance source
C	It is used to feed low-impedance loads from a high-impedance source
D	It divides the operating frequency of a transmitter signal so it can be used on a lower frequency band

48. - E9F13

What impedance does a 1/4-wavelength transmission line present to a generator when the line is shorted at the far end?

Select	Answer
A	The same as the characteristic impedance of the transmission line
B	Very high impedance
C	The same as the generator output impedance
D	Very low impedance

49. - E9G01

Which of the following can be calculated using a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Impedance along transmission lines
B	Radio propagation
C	Antenna radiation pattern
D	Radiation resistance

50. - E9H03

What is Receiving Directivity Factor (RDF)?

Select	Answer
A	Relative directivity compared to isotropic
B	Forward gain compared to the gain in the reverse direction
C	Forward gain compared to average gain over the entire hemisphere
D	Relative directivity compared to a dipole

Figure E7-1

Figure E7-3