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	Synthetic Aperture Ratio of the human body
C	The rate of RF energy reflected from stationary terrain
D	The rate at which RF energy is absorbed by the body

2. - E1A10

If an amateur station is installed aboard a ship or aircraft, what condition must be met before the station is operated?

Select	Answer
A	Its operation must be approved by the master of the ship or the pilot in command of the aircraft
B	The amateur station must have a power supply that is completely independent of the main ship or aircraft power supply
C	The amateur operator must have an FCC Marine or Aircraft endorsement on his or her amateur license
D	The amateur station operator must agree not to transmit when the main radio of the ship or aircraft is in use

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	An Environmental Assessment must be submitted to the FCC
C	A form FSD-15 must be submitted to the Department of the Interior
D	A proposal must be submitted to the National Park Service

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 operate after 30 days, providing they have not been told that their station is within 1 km of PLC systems using those frequencies
B	Operators may not operate until a test signal has been transmitted in coordination with the local power company
C	Operators must not operate until approval is received
D	Operations may commence immediately, and may continue unless interference is reported by the UTC

5. - E1D09

Which UHF amateur bands have frequencies authorized for space stations?

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

6. - E1E03

What is a Volunteer Examiner Coordinator?

Select	Answer
A	The person who has entered into an agreement with the FCC to be the VE session manager
B	An organization that has entered into an agreement with the FCC to coordinate, prepare, and administer amateur operator license examinations
C	A person who has volunteered to prepare amateur operator license examinations
D	A person who has volunteered to administer amateur operator license examinations

7. - E1F03

Under what circumstances may a dealer sell an external RF power amplifier capable of operation below 144 MHz if it has not been granted FCC certification?

Select	Answer
A	It was imported from a manufacturer in a country that does not require certification of RF power amplifiers
B	The equipment dealer assembled it from a kit
C	It was purchased in used condition from an amateur operator and is sold to another amateur operator for use at that operator's station
D	It was imported from a manufacturer in another country and was certificated by that country's government

8. - E2A09

What do the terms L band and S band specify regarding satellite communications?

Select	Answer
A	The 23 centimeter and 13 centimeter bands
B	FM and Digital Store-and-Forward systems
C	Which sideband to use
D	The 2 meter and 70 centimeter bands

9. - E2B06

What is vestigial sideband modulation?

Select	Answer
A	Spread spectrum modulation achieved by applying FM modulation following single sideband amplitude modulation
B	A type of modulation in which one sideband is inverted
C	Narrow-band FM modulation achieved by filtering one sideband from the audio before frequency modulating the carrier
D	Amplitude modulation in which one complete sideband and a portion of the other are transmitted

10. - E2C09

What type of equipment is commonly used to implement an amateur radio mesh network?

Select	Answer
A	A 2 meter VHF transceiver with a 1200 baud modem
B	An optical cable connection between the USB ports of 2 separate computers
C	A 440 MHz transceiver with a 9600 baud modem
D	A wireless router running custom firmware

11. - E2D06

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

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

12. - E2E02

What do the letters FEC mean as they relate to digital operation?

Select	Answer
A	Forward Error Correction
B	First Error Correction
C	Final Error Correction
D	Fatal Error Correction

13. - E3A10

Which type of atmospheric structure can create a path for microwave propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Dust devil
B	Wind shear
C	Temperature inversion
D	The jet stream

14. - E3B02

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

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

15. - E3C08

What does the space weather term G5 mean?

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

16. - E4A11

How should an antenna analyzer be connected when measuring antenna resonance and feed point impedance?

Select	Answer
A	Connect the antenna feed line directly to the analyzer's connector
B	Loosely couple the antenna and a dummy load to the analyzer
C	Loosely couple the analyzer near the antenna base
D	Connect the analyzer via a high-impedance transformer to the antenna

17. - E4B02

What is the significance of voltmeter sensitivity expressed in ohms per volt?

Select	Answer
A	When used as an ammeter, the full scale reading in amps divided by ohms per volt rating will determine the size of shunt needed
B	The full scale reading of the voltmeter multiplied by its ohms per volt rating will indicate the input impedance of the voltmeter
C	When used as an ohmmeter, the reading in ohms divided by the ohms per volt rating will determine the voltage applied to the circuit
D	When used as a galvanometer, the reading in volts multiplied by the ohms per volt rating will determine the power drawn by the device under test

18. - E4C15

What is reciprocal mixing?

Select	Answer
A	In-phase signals cancelling in a mixer resulting in loss of receiver sensitivity
B	Two out-of-band signals mixing to generate an in-band spurious signal
C	Two digital signals combining from alternate time slots
D	Local oscillator phase noise mixing with adjacent strong signals to create interference to desired signals

19. - E4D10

What does a third-order intercept level of 40 dBm mean with respect to receiver performance?

Select	Answer
A	A pair of 40 dBm input signals will theoretically generate a third-order intermodulation product that has the same output amplitude as either of the input signals
B	Signals less than 40 dBm will not generate audible third-order intermodulation products
C	A pair of 1 mW input signals will produce a third-order intermodulation product that is 40 dB stronger than the input signal
D	The receiver can tolerate signals up to 40 dB above the noise floor without producing third-order intermodulation products

20. - E4E10

What might be the cause of a loud roaring or buzzing AC line interference that comes and goes at intervals?

Select	Answer
A	A defective doorbell or doorbell transformer inside a nearby residence
B	A malfunctioning illuminated advertising display
C	Arcing contacts in a thermostatically controlled device
D	All these choices are correct

21. - E5A13

What is an effect of increasing Q in a series resonant circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Parasitic effects are minimized
B	Fewer components are needed for the same performance
C	Phase shift can become uncontrolled
D	Internal voltages increase

22. - E5B12

What is admittance?

Select	Answer
A	The turns ratio of a transformer
B	The term for the gain of a field effect transistor
C	The inverse of impedance
D	The inverse of Q factor

23. - E5C01

Which of the following represents capacitive reactance in rectangular notation?

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

24. - E5D02

Why is it important to keep lead lengths short for components used in circuits for VHF and above?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	To avoid unwanted inductive reactance
C	To increase the thermal time constant
D	To maintain component lifetime

25. - E6A05

How does DC input impedance at the gate of a field-effect transistor compare with the DC input impedance of a bipolar transistor?

Select	Answer
A	They are both low impedance
B	They are both high impedance
C	An FET has higher input impedance
D	An FET has lower input impedance

26. - E6B03

What type of bias is required for an LED to emit light?

Select	Answer
A	Reverse bias
B	Zero bias
C	Forward bias
D	Inductive bias

27. - E6C05

What is an advantage of CMOS logic devices over TTL devices?

Select	Answer
A	Lower distortion
B	Immune to damage from static discharge
C	Lower power consumption
D	Differential output capability

28. - E6D13

What is the primary cause of inductor self-resonance?

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

29. - E6E10

What advantage does surface-mount technology offer at RF compared to using through-hole components?

Select	Answer
A	Components have less parasitic inductance and capacitance
B	Smaller circuit area
C	Shorter circuit-board traces
D	All these choices are correct

30. - E6F01

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

Select	Answer
A	Photons
B	Protons
C	Electrons
D	Holes

31. - E7A07

What logical operation does a NAND gate perform?

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

32. - E7B07

Which of the following is a likely result when a Class C amplifier is used to amplify a single-sideband phone signal?

Select	Answer
A	Signal distortion and excessive bandwidth
B	Increased overall intelligibility
C	Reduced intermodulation products
D	Signal inversion

33. - E7C05

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

Select	Answer
A	An active LC filter
B	A Butterworth filter
C	A passive op-amp 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 inverter design does not require any output filtering
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 high frequency inverter design uses much smaller transformers and filter components for an equivalent power output

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 reactance modulator followed by a mixer
C	By using a balanced modulator followed by a filter
D	By driving a product detector with a DSB signal

36. - E7F14

Which of the following would allow a digital signal processing filter to create a sharper filter response?

Select	Answer
A	Double-precision math routines
B	Complex phasor representations
C	Higher data rate
D	More taps

37. - E7G01

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

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

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 diode-switching matrix synthesizer
B	A hybrid synthesizer
C	A phase-locked loop synthesizer
D	A direct digital 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 true-RMS calculating meter
B	A D'Arsonval meter
C	A grid dip meter
D	An absorption wave meter

40. - E8B11

What is digital time division multiplexing?

Select	Answer
A	Two or more data streams share the same channel by transmitting time of transmission as the sub-carrier
B	Two or more signals are arranged to share discrete time slots of a data transmission
C	Two or more signals are quadrature modulated to increase bandwidth efficiency
D	Two or more data streams are assigned to discrete sub-carriers on an FM transmitter

41. - E8C02

What is the definition of symbol rate in a digital transmission?

Select	Answer
A	The number of control characters in a message packet
B	The duration of each bit in a message sent over the air
C	The number of characters carried per second by the station-to-station link
D	The rate at which the waveform changes to convey information

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	Foreign language characters can be sent
D	Some types of errors can be detected

43. - E9A02

What is the effective radiated power relative to a dipole of a repeater station with 150 watts transmitter power output, 2 dB feed line loss, 2.2 dB duplexer loss, and 7 dBd antenna gain?

Select	Answer
A	1977 watts
B	78.7 watts
C	420 watts
D	286 watts

44. - E9B01

In the antenna radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-1, what is the beamwidth?

Select	Answer
A	75 degrees
B	30 degrees
C	50 degrees
D	25 degrees

45. - E9C03

What is the radiation pattern of two 1/4-wavelength vertical antennas spaced 1/2-wavelength apart and fed in phase?

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

46. - E9D12

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

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

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 omega matching system
B	The delta matching system
C	The gamma matching system
D	The stub matching system

48. - E9F11

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

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

49. - E9G03

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

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

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 provides diversity reception that cancels multipath signals
C	It allows DF antennas to receive signals at different vertical angles
D	It increases the sensitivity of a DF antenna array

Figure E9-1