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

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1. - E0A08

What does SAR measure?

Select	Answer
A	Signal Amplification Rating
B	The rate at which RF energy is absorbed by the body
C	Synthetic Aperture Ratio of the human body
D	The rate of RF energy reflected from stationary terrain

2. - E1A08

If a station in a message forwarding system inadvertently forwards a message that is in violation of FCC rules, who is primarily accountable for the rules violation?

Select	Answer
A	The control operators of all the stations in the system not authenticating the source from which they accept communications
B	The control operator of the packet bulletin board station
C	The control operators of all the stations in the system
D	The control operator of the originating station

3. - E1B04

What must be done before placing an amateur station within an officially designated wilderness area or wildlife preserve, or an area listed in the National Register of Historic Places?

Select	Answer
A	A letter of intent must be filed with the Environmental Protection Agency
B	A proposal must be submitted to the National Park Service
C	A form FSD-15 must be submitted to the Department of the Interior
D	An Environmental Assessment must be submitted to the FCC

4. - E1C03

How do the control operator responsibilities of a station under automatic control differ from one under local control?

Select	Answer
A	Under local control a control operator is not required to be present at a control point
B	Under local control there is no control operator
C	Under automatic control the control operator is not required to be present at the control point
D	Under automatic control there is no control operator

5. - E1D12

Which of the following amateur stations may transmit one-way communications?

Select	Answer
A	A local repeater or linked repeater station
B	All these choices are correct
C	A space station, beacon station, or telecommand station
D	A message forwarding station or automatically controlled digital station

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	Providing amateur operator license examination preparation training materials
C	Teaching an amateur operator license examination preparation course
D	No expenses are authorized for reimbursement

7. - E1F11

Which of the following best describes one of the standards that must be met by an external RF power amplifier if it is to qualify for a grant of FCC certification?

Select	Answer
A	It must satisfy the FCC's spurious emission standards when operated at the lesser of 1500 watts or its full output power
B	It must be capable of external RF switching between its input and output networks
C	It must exhibit a gain of 0 dB or less over its full output range
D	It must produce full legal output when driven by not more than 5 watts of mean RF input power

8. - E2A10

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

Select	Answer
A	HEO
B	LEO
C	Geostationary
D	Geomagnetic

9. - E2B10

What aspect of an analog slow-scan television signal encodes the brightness of the picture?

Select	Answer
A	Sync amplitude
B	Tone amplitude
C	Tone frequency
D	Sync frequency

10. - E2C08

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

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

11. - E2D04

What technology is used to track, in real time, balloons carrying amateur radio transmitters?

Select	Answer
A	APRS
B	Doppler shift of beacon signals
C	Bandwidth compressed LORAN
D	Ultrasonics

12. - E2E09

Which of the following HF digital modes uses variable-length coding for bandwidth efficiency?

Select	Answer
A	PSK31
B	PACTOR
C	MT63
D	RTTY

13. - E3A07

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

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

14. - E3B09

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

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

15. - E3C08

What does the space weather term G5 mean?

Select	Answer
A	An extreme geomagnetic storm
B	Moderate solar wind
C	Very low solar activity
D	Waning sunspot numbers

16. - E4A09

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

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

17. - E4B10

Which of the following methods measures intermodulation distortion in an SSB transmitter?

Select	Answer
A	Modulate the transmitter using two RF signals having non-harmonically related frequencies and observe the RF output with a spectrum analyzer
B	Modulate the transmitter using two RF signals having harmonically related frequencies and observe the RF output with a logic analyzer
C	Modulate the transmitter using two AF signals having harmonically related frequencies and observe the RF output with a peak reading wattmeter
D	Modulate the transmitter using two AF signals having non-harmonically related frequencies and observe the RF output with a spectrum analyzer

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. - E4D06

What is the term for spurious signals generated by the combination of two or more signals in a non-linear device or circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Amplifier desensitization
B	Intermodulation
C	Neutralization
D	Adjacent channel interference

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 across a wide bandwidth
D	Signals that appear at one IF but not another

21. - E5A10

How is the Q of an RLC series resonant circuit calculated?

Select	Answer
A	Reactance of either the inductance or capacitance divided by the resistance
B	Reactance of either the inductance or capacitance multiplied by the resistance
C	Resistance divided by the reactance of either the inductance or capacitance
D	Reactance of the inductance multiplied by the reactance of the capacitance

22. - E5B06

What is susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	The ratio of magnetic field to electric field
B	The magnetic impedance of a circuit
C	A measure of the efficiency of a transformer
D	The imaginary part of admittance

23. - E5C01

Which of the following represents capacitive reactance in rectangular notation?

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

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	50 watts
C	400 watts
D	2000 watts

25. - E6A01

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

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

26. - E6B06

Which of the following is a common use of a Schottky diode?

Select	Answer
A	As a constant voltage reference in a power supply
B	As a variable capacitance in an automatic frequency control circuit
C	As a rectifier in high current power supplies
D	As a VHF/UHF mixer or detector

27. - E6C10

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

Select	Answer
A	2
B	4
C	3
D	1

28. - E6D01

Why should core saturation of an impedance matching transformer be avoided?

Select	Answer
A	RF susceptance would increase
B	Harmonics and distortion could result
C	Magnetic flux would increase with frequency
D	Temporary changes of the core permeability could result

29. - E6E03

Which of the following materials is likely to provide the highest frequency of operation when used in MMICs?

Select	Answer
A	Silicon nitride
B	Gallium nitride
C	Silicon
D	Silicon dioxide

30. - E6F01

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

Select	Answer
A	Holes
B	Electrons
C	Protons
D	Photons

31. - E7A09

What logical operation is performed by an exclusive NOR gate?

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

32. - E7B01

For what portion of the signal cycle does each active element in a push-pull Class AB amplifier conduct?

Select	Answer
A	Exactly 180 degrees
B	Less than 180 degrees
C	The entire cycle
D	More than 180 degrees but less than 360 degrees

33. - E7C08

Which of the following factors has the greatest effect on the bandwidth and response shape of a crystal ladder filter?

Select	Answer
A	The relative frequencies of the individual crystals
B	The gain of the RF stage preceding the filter
C	The amplitude of the signals passing through the filter
D	The DC voltage applied to the quartz crystal

34. - E7D08

What type of circuit is shown in Figure E7-2?

Select	Answer
A	Grounded emitter amplifier
B	Monostable multivibrator
C	Linear voltage regulator
D	Switching voltage regulator

35. - E7E03

What is a frequency discriminator stage in a FM receiver?

Select	Answer
A	A circuit for detecting FM signals
B	An automatic band-switching circuit
C	A circuit for filtering two closely adjacent signals
D	An FM generator circuit

36. - E7F09

Why is an anti-aliasing digital filter required in a digital decimator?

Select	Answer
A	It peaks the response of the decimator, improving bandwidth
B	It notches out the sampling frequency to avoid sampling errors
C	It removes low-frequency signal components to eliminate the need for DC restoration
D	It removes high-frequency signal components that would otherwise be reproduced as lower frequency components

37. - E7G01

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

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

38. - E7H03

How is positive feedback supplied in a Hartley oscillator?

Select	Answer
A	Through a tapped coil
B	Through link coupling
C	Through a neutralizing capacitor
D	Through a capacitive divider

39. - E8A04

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

Select	Answer
A	A method of decimation by randomly skipping samples
B	An abnormal condition where the converter cannot settle on a value to represent the signal
C	An error caused by irregular quantization step size
D	A small amount of noise added to the input signal to allow more precise representation of a signal over time

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	60
B	1.67
C	0.167
D	0.6

41. - E8C07

What is the bandwidth of a 4800-Hz frequency shift, 9600-baud ASCII FM transmission?

Select	Answer
A	9.6 kHz
B	4.8 kHz
C	15.36 kHz
D	5.76 kHz

42. - E8D02

What spread spectrum communications technique uses a high-speed binary bit stream to shift the phase of an RF carrier?

Select	Answer
A	Binary phase-shift keying
B	Direct sequence
C	Phase compandored spread spectrum
D	Frequency hopping

43. - E9A08

What is antenna bandwidth?

Select	Answer
A	The angle between the half-power radiation points
B	The frequency range over which an antenna satisfies a performance requirement
C	Antenna length divided by the number of elements
D	The angle formed between two imaginary lines drawn through the element ends

44. - E9B06

What is the elevation angle of peak response in the antenna radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-2?

Select	Answer
A	25 degrees
B	75 degrees
C	45 degrees
D	7.5 degrees

45. - E9C08

What is a folded dipole antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A dipole configured to provide forward gain
B	A half-wave dipole with an additional parallel wire connecting its two ends
C	A dipole one-quarter wavelength long
D	A type of ground-plane antenna

46. - E9D03

Where should a high Q loading coil be placed to minimize losses in a shortened vertical antenna?

Select	Answer
A	Near the center of the vertical radiator
B	At a voltage node
C	As close to the transmitter as possible
D	As low as possible on the vertical radiator

47. - E9E10

Which of these choices is an effective way to match an antenna with a 100-ohm feed point impedance to a 50-ohm coaxial cable feed line?

Select	Answer
A	Insert a 1/4-wavelength piece of 75-ohm coaxial cable transmission line in series between the antenna terminals and the 50-ohm feed cable
B	Connect a 1/4-wavelength open stub of 300-ohm twinlead in parallel with the coaxial feed line where it connects to the antenna
C	Insert a 1/2 wavelength piece of 300-ohm twinlead in series between the antenna terminals and the 50-ohm feed cable
D	Connect a 1/2 wavelength shorted stub of 75-ohm cable in parallel with the 50-ohm cable where it attaches to the antenna

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

49. - E9G02

What type of coordinate system is used in a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Voltage lines and current chords
B	Resistance circles and reactance arcs
C	Voltage circles and current arcs
D	Resistance lines and reactance chords

50. - E9H11

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

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

Figure E6-3

Figure E7-2

Figure E9-2