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

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1. - E0A01

What is the primary function of an external earth connection or ground rod?

Select	Answer
A	Lightning protection
B	Reduce RFI to telephones and home entertainment systems
C	Reduce received noise
D	Reduce RF current flow between pieces of equipment

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

3. - E1B09

Which amateur stations may be operated under RACES rules?

Select	Answer
A	Any FCC-licensed amateur station certified by the responsible civil defense organization for the area served
B	Any FCC-licensed amateur station except a Technician Class
C	Only those club stations licensed to Amateur Extra Class operators
D	Any FCC-licensed amateur station participating in the Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS)

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	6 dB
D	3 dB

5. - E1D11

Which amateur stations are eligible to operate as Earth stations?

Select	Answer
A	Only those of General, Advanced or Amateur Extra Class operators
B	Any amateur station whose licensee has filed a pre-space notification with the FCC's International Bureau
C	Only those of Amateur Extra Class operators
D	Any amateur station, subject to the privileges of the class of operator license held by the control operator

6. - E1E11

What must the VE team do if an examinee scores a passing grade on all examination elements needed for an upgrade or new license?

Select	Answer
A	Issue the examinee the new or upgrade license
B	Three VEs must certify that the examinee is qualified for the license grant and that they have complied with the administering VE requirements
C	All these choices are correct
D	Photocopy all examination documents and forward them to the FCC for processing

7. - E1F10

Who may be the control operator of an auxiliary station?

Select	Answer
A	Only Amateur Extra Class operators
B	Only Technician, General, Advanced or Amateur Extra Class operators
C	Any licensed amateur operator
D	Only General, Advanced or Amateur Extra Class operators

8. - E2A08

Why should effective radiated power to a satellite that uses a linear transponder be limited?

Select	Answer
A	To avoid interfering with terrestrial QSOs
B	To prevent creating errors in the satellite telemetry
C	To prevent the satellite from emitting out-of-band signals
D	To avoid reducing the downlink power to all other users

9. - E2B01

How many times per second is a new frame transmitted in a fast-scan (NTSC) television system?

Select	Answer
A	120
B	60
C	90
D	30

10. - E2C03

From which of the following bands is amateur radio contesting generally excluded?

Select	Answer
A	33 centimeters
B	6 meters
C	30 meters
D	2 meters

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	All these choices are correct
D	15-second timed transmission sequences with stations alternating based on location

12. - E2E05

Which of these digital modes does not support keyboard-to-keyboard operation?

Select	Answer
A	MFSK
B	PACTOR
C	PSK31
D	RTTY

13. - E3A07

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

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

14. - E3B04

What is meant by the terms "extraordinary" and "ordinary" waves?

Select	Answer
A	Refracted rays and reflected waves
B	Independent waves created in the ionosphere that are elliptically polarized
C	Long-path and short-path waves
D	Extraordinary waves describe rare long-skip propagation compared to ordinary waves, which travel shorter distances

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	Northward
B	Westward
C	Eastward
D	Southward

16. - E4A08

Which of the following measures SWR?

Select	Answer
A	An antenna analyzer
B	An ohmmeter
C	A Q meter
D	A spectrum analyzer

17. - E4B11

Which of the following can be measured with a vector network analyzer?

Select	Answer
A	Input impedance
B	Output impedance
C	All these choices are correct
D	Reflection coefficient

18. - E4C13

How does a narrow-band roofing filter affect receiver performance?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	It improves dynamic range by attenuating strong signals near the receive frequency
C	It improves intelligibility by using low Q circuitry to reduce ringing
D	It improves sensitivity by reducing front end noise

19. - E4D12

What is the term for the reduction in receiver sensitivity caused by a strong signal near the received frequency?

Select	Answer
A	Cross-modulation interference
B	Desensitization
C	Quieting
D	Squelch gain rollback

20. - E4E02

Which of the following types of noise can often be reduced with a digital signal processing noise filter?

Select	Answer
A	Ignition noise
B	Broadband white noise
C	All these choices are correct
D	Power line noise

21. - E5A07

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

Select	Answer
A	L/R
B	R/L
C	Maximum
D	Minimum

22. - E5B03

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

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

23. - E5C07

Where is the impedance of a pure resistance plotted on rectangular coordinates?

Select	Answer
A	On a line through the origin, slanted at 45 degrees
B	On the horizontal axis
C	On the vertical axis
D	On a horizontal line, offset vertically above the horizontal axis

24. - E5D07

How many watts are consumed in a circuit having a power factor of 0.71 if the apparent power is 500VA?

Select	Answer
A	252 W
B	355 W
C	1.42 mW
D	704 W

25. - E6A09

What is a depletion-mode FET?

Select	Answer
A	An FET that has no current flow between source and drain when no gate voltage is applied
B	Any FET without a channel
C	Any FET for which holes are the majority carriers
D	An FET that exhibits a current flow between source and drain when no gate voltage is applied

26. - E6B06

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

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

27. - E6C01

What is the function of hysteresis in a comparator?

Select	Answer
A	To increase the sensitivity
B	To cause the output to change states continually
C	To prevent input noise from causing unstable output signals
D	To allow the comparator to be used with AC input signals

28. - E6D10

What is a primary advantage of using a toroidal core instead of a solenoidal core in an inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Toroidal cores confine most of the magnetic field within the core material
B	Toroidal cores make it easier to couple the magnetic energy into other components
C	Toroidal cores have lower Q characteristics
D	Toroidal cores exhibit greater hysteresis

29. - E6E12

Why are DIP through-hole package ICs not typically used at UHF and higher frequencies?

Select	Answer
A	Epoxy coating is conductive above 300 MHz
B	Unsuitable for combining analog and digital signals
C	Excessive lead length
D	Too many pins

30. - E6F06

Which of these materials is most commonly used to create photoconductive devices?

Select	Answer
A	A liquid semiconductor
B	A heavy metal
C	An ordinary metal
D	A crystalline semiconductor

31. - E7A11

What type of logic defines "1" as a high voltage?

Select	Answer
A	Assertive Logic
B	Positive Logic
C	Reverse Logic
D	Negative logic

32. - E7B15

What is one way to prevent thermal runaway in a bipolar transistor amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	Select transistors with high beta
B	All these choices are correct
C	Use a resistor in series with the emitter
D	Neutralization

33. - E7C01

How are the capacitors and inductors of a low-pass filter Pi-network arranged between the network's input and output?

Select	Answer
A	Two inductors are in series between the input and output, and a capacitor is connected between the two inductors and ground
B	An inductor is connected between the input and ground, another inductor is connected between the output and ground, and a capacitor is connected between the input and output
C	Two capacitors are in series between the input and output, and an inductor is connected between the two capacitors and ground
D	A capacitor is connected between the input and ground, another capacitor is connected between the output and ground, and an inductor is connected between input and output

34. - E7D08

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

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

35. - E7E07

What is meant by the term "baseband" in radio communications?

Select	Answer
A	The frequency range occupied by a message signal prior to modulation
B	The basic oscillator frequency in an FM transmitter that is multiplied to increase the deviation and carrier frequency
C	The lowest frequency band that the transmitter or receiver covers
D	The unmodulated bandwidth of the transmitted signal

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 can delay all frequency components of the signal by the same amount
C	FIR filters are easier to implement for a given set of passband rolloff requirements
D	FIR filters can respond faster to impulses

37. - E7G06

What is the gain-bandwidth of an operational amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	The frequency at which the open-loop gain of the amplifier equals one
B	The gain of the amplifier at a filter's cutoff frequency
C	The frequency at which the amplifier's offset voltage is zero
D	The maximum frequency for a filter circuit using that type of amplifier

38. - E7H07

How can an oscillator's microphonic responses be reduced?

Select	Answer
A	Use NP0 capacitors
B	Mechanically isolate the oscillator circuitry from its enclosure
C	Reduce noise on the oscillator's power supply
D	Increase the bias voltage

39. - E8A02

Which of the following is a type of analog-to-digital conversion?

Select	Answer
A	Harmonic regeneration
B	Phase reversal
C	Level shifting
D	Successive approximation

40. - E8B11

What is digital time division multiplexing?

Select	Answer
A	Two or more data streams are assigned to discrete sub-carriers on an FM transmitter
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 share the same channel by transmitting time of transmission as the sub-carrier

41. - E8C01

How is Forward Error Correction implemented?

Select	Answer
A	By transmitting a special algorithm to the receiving station along with the data characters
B	By transmitting extra data that may be used to detect and correct transmission errors
C	By the receiving station repeating each block of three data characters
D	By varying the frequency shift of the transmitted signal according to a predefined algorithm

42. - E8D06

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

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

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	159 watts
B	252 watts
C	63.2 watts
D	632 watts

44. - E9B10

What is the principle of a Method of Moments analysis?

Select	Answer
A	A wire is modeled as a single sine-wave current generator
B	A wire is modeled as a series of segments, each having a uniform value of current
C	A wire is modeled as a series of segments, each having a distinct value of voltage across it
D	A wire is modeled as a single sine-wave voltage source

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

46. - E9D05

What usually occurs if a Yagi antenna is designed solely for maximum forward gain?

Select	Answer
A	The frequency response is widened over the whole frequency band
B	The SWR is reduced
C	The front-to-back ratio decreases
D	The front-to-back ratio increases

47. - E9E06

Which of these feed line impedances would be suitable for constructing a quarter-wave Q-section for matching a 100-ohm loop to 50-ohm feed line?

Select	Answer
A	75 ohms
B	50 ohms
C	62 ohms
D	450 ohms

48. - E9F06

What is the approximate physical length of an air-insulated, parallel conductor transmission line that is electrically 1/2 wavelength long at 14.10 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	7.0 meters
B	8.5 meters
C	13.3 meters
D	10.6 meters

49. - E9G09

What third family of circles is often added to a Smith chart during the process of solving problems?

Select	Answer
A	Antenna-length circles
B	Coaxial-length circles
C	Standing wave ratio circles
D	Radiation-pattern circles

50. - E9H04

What is an advantage of placing a grounded electrostatic shield around a small loop direction-finding antenna?

Select	Answer
A	It increases signal strength by providing a better match to the feed line
B	It eliminates tracking errors caused by strong out-of-band signals
C	It eliminates unbalanced capacitive coupling to the surroundings, improving the nulls
D	It adds capacitive loading, increasing the bandwidth of the antenna

Figure E7-2