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

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1. - E0A05

What is one of the potential hazards of operating in the amateur radio microwave bands?

Select	Answer
A	The high gain antennas commonly used can result in high exposure levels
B	The extremely high frequency energy can damage the joints of antenna structures
C	Microwaves often travel long distances by ionospheric reflection
D	Microwaves are ionizing radiation

2. - E1A07

What is the maximum power permitted on the 2200 meter band?

Select	Answer
A	100 watts PEP
B	1 watt EIRP (Equivalent isotropic radiated power)
C	50 watts PEP
D	5 watts EIRP (Equivalent isotropic radiated power)

3. - E1B11

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

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

4. - E1C13

What notifications must be given before transmitting on the 630 meter or 2200 meter bands?

Select	Answer
A	Operators must inform the FAA of their intent to operate, giving their call sign and distance to the nearest runway
B	An environmental impact statement must be filed with the Department of the Interior
C	A special endorsement must be requested from the FCC
D	Operators must inform the Utilities Technology Council (UTC) of their call sign and coordinates of the station

5. - E1D07

Which HF amateur bands have frequencies authorized for space stations?

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

6. - E1E12

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

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

7. - E1F04

Which of the following geographic descriptions approximately describes "Line A"?

Select	Answer
A	A line roughly parallel to and east of the U.S. Pacific coastline
B	A line roughly parallel to and west of the U.S. Atlantic coastline
C	A line roughly parallel to and north of the border between the U.S. and Mexico
D	A line roughly parallel to and south of the border between the U.S. and Canada

8. - E2A10

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

Select	Answer
A	Geomagnetic
B	LEO
C	HEO
D	Geostationary

9. - E2B04

How is color information sent in analog SSTV?

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

10. - E2C02

Which of the following best describes the term self-spotting? in connection with HF contest operating?

Select	Answer
A	The often-prohibited practice of posting one's own call sign and frequency on a spotting network
B	A manual technique for rapidly zero beating or tuning to a station's frequency before calling that station
C	The acceptable practice of manually posting the call signs of stations on a spotting network
D	An automatic method for rapidly zero beating or tuning to a station's frequency before calling that station

11. - E2D02

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

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

12. - E2E08

Which of the following HF digital modes can be used to transfer binary files?

Select	Answer
A	RTTY
B	Hellschreiber
C	AMTOR
D	PACTOR

13. - E3A07

Atmospheric ducts capable of propagating microwave signals often form over what geographic feature?

Select	Answer
A	Forests
B	Mountain ranges
C	Urban areas
D	Bodies of water

14. - E3B02

What is the approximate maximum range for signals using transequatorial propagation?

Select	Answer
A	7500 miles
B	1000 miles
C	5000 miles
D	2500 miles

15. - E3C05

What orientation of Bz (B sub z) increases the likelihood that incoming particles from the sun will cause disturbed conditions?

Select	Answer
A	Southward
B	Westward
C	Northward
D	Eastward

16. - E4A09

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

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

17. - E4B03

Which S parameter is equivalent to forward gain?

Select	Answer
A	S21
B	S12
C	S22
D	S11

18. - E4C01

What is an effect of excessive phase noise in a receiver's local oscillator?

Select	Answer
A	It can affect the receiver's frequency calibration
B	It limits the receiver's ability to receive strong signals
C	It decreases receiver third-order intercept point
D	It can combine with strong signals on nearby frequencies to generate interference

19. - E4D02

Which of the following describes problems caused by poor dynamic range in a receiver?

Select	Answer
A	Spurious signals caused by cross-modulation and desensitization from strong adjacent signals
B	Oscillator instability requiring frequent retuning and loss of ability to recover the opposite sideband
C	Cross-modulation of the desired signal and insufficient audio power to operate the speaker
D	Oscillator instability and severe audio distortion of all but the strongest received signals

20. - E4E08

What current flows equally on all conductors of an unshielded multi-conductor cable?

Select	Answer
A	Return current
B	Reactive current only
C	Common-mode current
D	Differential-mode current

21. - E5A04

What is the magnitude of the impedance of a parallel RLC circuit at resonance?

Select	Answer
A	Low compared to the circuit resistance
B	Approximately equal to inductive reactance
C	High compared to the circuit resistance
D	Approximately equal to circuit resistance

22. - E5B09

What is the relationship between the AC current through a capacitor and the voltage across a capacitor?

Select	Answer
A	Current leads voltage by 90 degrees
B	Voltage and current are in phase
C	Voltage leads current by 90 degrees
D	Voltage and current are 180 degrees out of phase

23. - E5C02

How are impedances described in polar coordinates?

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

24. - E5D10

How can the true power be determined in an AC circuit where the voltage and current are out of phase?

Select	Answer
A	By dividing the reactive power by the power factor
B	By multiplying the apparent power by the power factor
C	By multiplying the reactive power by the power factor
D	By dividing the apparent power by the power factor

25. - E6A12

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

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

26. - E6B01

What is the most useful characteristic of a Zener diode?

Select	Answer
A	A constant voltage drop under conditions of varying current
B	An internal capacitance that varies with the applied voltage
C	A constant current drop under conditions of varying voltage
D	A negative resistance region

27. - E6C07

What best describes a pull-up or pull-down resistor?

Select	Answer
A	A resistor connected to the positive or negative supply line used to establish a voltage when an input or output is an open circuit
B	A resistor connected to an op-amp output that prevents signals from exceeding the power supply voltage
C	A resistor in a keying circuit used to reduce key clicks
D	A resistor that ensures that an oscillator frequency does not drift

28. - E6D07

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

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

29. - E6E06

What characteristics of the MMIC make it a popular choice for VHF through microwave circuits?

Select	Answer
A	Controlled gain, low noise figure, and constant input and output impedance over the specified frequency range
B	Nearly infinite gain, very high input impedance, and very low output impedance
C	The ability to retrieve information from a single signal even in the presence of other strong signals
D	Plate current that is controlled by a control grid

30. - E6F07

What is a solid-state relay?

Select	Answer
A	A relay using transistors to drive the relay coil
B	A mechanical relay that latches in the on or off state each time it is pulsed
C	A semiconductor passive delay line
D	A device that uses semiconductors to implement the functions of an electromechanical relay

31. - E7A10

What is a truth table?

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

32. - E7B09

Which of the following describes how the loading and tuning capacitors are to be adjusted when tuning a vacuum tube RF power amplifier that employs a Pi-network output circuit?

Select	Answer
A	The loading capacitor is set to maximum capacitance and the tuning capacitor is adjusted for minimum allowable plate current
B	The tuning capacitor is adjusted for minimum plate current, and the loading capacitor is adjusted for maximum permissible plate current
C	The loading capacitor is adjusted to minimum plate current while alternately adjusting the tuning capacitor for maximum allowable plate current
D	The tuning capacitor is set to maximum capacitance and the loading capacitor is adjusted for minimum plate permissible current

33. - E7C02

Which of the following is a property of a T-network with series capacitors and a parallel shunt inductor?

Select	Answer
A	It is a notch filter
B	It is a low-pass filter
C	It is a band-pass filter
D	It is a high-pass filter

34. - E7D14

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

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

35. - E7E06

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

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

36. - E7F12

Which of the following is an advantage of a Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filter vs an Infinite Impulse Response (IIR) digital filter?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	FIR filters are easier to implement for a given set of passband rolloff requirements
C	FIR filters can delay all frequency components of the signal by the same amount
D	FIR filters can respond faster to impulses

37. - E7G05

How can unwanted ringing and audio instability be prevented in an op-amp RC audio filter circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Restrict both gain and Q
B	Restrict Q but increase gain
C	Increase both gain and Q
D	Restrict gain but increase Q

38. - E7H01

What are three oscillator circuits used in amateur radio equipment?

Select	Answer
A	Pierce, Fenner and Beane
B	Taft, Pierce and negative feedback
C	Colpitts, Hartley and Pierce
D	Taft, Hartley and Pierce

39. - E8A09

How many different input levels can be encoded by an analog-to-digital converter with 8-bit resolution?

Select	Answer
A	8
B	8 multiplied by the gain of the input amplifier
C	256
D	256 divided by the gain of the input amplifier

40. - E8B01

What is the modulation index of an FM signal?

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

41. - E8C04

What technique minimizes the bandwidth of a PSK31 signal?

Select	Answer
A	Zero-sum character encoding
B	Use of trapezoidal data pulses
C	Use of sinusoidal data pulses
D	Reed-Solomon character encoding

42. - E8D06

What is the advantage of including parity bits in ASCII characters?

Select	Answer
A	The signal can overpower interfering signals
B	Faster transmission rate
C	Some types of errors can be detected
D	Foreign language characters can be sent

43. - E9A13

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

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

44. - E9B05

What type of antenna pattern is shown in Figure E9-2?

Select	Answer
A	Elevation
B	Radiation resistance
C	Azimuth
D	Polarization

45. - E9C11

How is the far-field elevation pattern of a vertically polarized antenna affected by being mounted over seawater versus soil?

Select	Answer
A	The low-angle radiation decreases
B	Additional higher vertical angle lobes will appear
C	The low-angle radiation increases
D	Fewer vertical angle lobes will be present

46. - E9D04

Why should an HF mobile antenna loading coil have a high ratio of reactance to resistance?

Select	Answer
A	To minimize losses
B	To lower the radiation angle
C	To swamp out harmonics
D	To minimize the Q

47. - E9E01

What system matches a higher-impedance transmission line to a lower-impedance antenna by connecting the line to the driven element in two places spaced a fraction of a wavelength each side of element center?

Select	Answer
A	The delta matching system
B	The gamma matching system
C	The omega matching system
D	The stub matching system

48. - E9F12

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

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

49. - E9G03

Which of the following is often determined using a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Impedance and SWR values in transmission lines
B	Beam headings and radiation patterns
C	Trigonometric functions
D	Satellite azimuth and elevation bearings

50. - E9H08

What is the function of a sense antenna?

Select	Answer
A	It modifies the pattern of a DF antenna array to provide a null in one direction
B	It increases the sensitivity of a DF antenna array
C	It allows DF antennas to receive signals at different vertical angles
D	It provides diversity reception that cancels multipath signals

Figure E9-2