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

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

3. - E1B07

To what type of regulations does PRB-1 apply?

Select	Answer
A	FAA tower height limits
B	State and local zoning
C	Homeowners associations
D	Use of wireless devices in vehicles

4. - E1C06

Which of the following is required in order to operate in accordance with CEPT rules in foreign countries where permitted?

Select	Answer
A	The U.S. embassy must approve of your operation
B	You must identify in the official language of the country in which you are operating
C	You must bring a copy of FCC Public Notice DA 16-1048
D	You must append "/CEPT" to your call sign

5. - E1D10

Which amateur stations are eligible to be telecommand stations of space stations (subject to the privileges of the class of operator license held by the control operator of the station)?

Select	Answer
A	Any amateur station so designated by the space station licensee
B	All these choices are correct
C	Any amateur station so designated by the ITU
D	Any amateur station designated by NASA

6. - E1E09

What may be the penalty for a VE who fraudulently administers or certifies an examination?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	Revocation of the VE's amateur station license grant and the suspension of the VE's amateur operator license grant
C	A sentence of up to one year in prison
D	A fine of up to $1000 per occurrence

7. - E1F04

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

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

8. - E2A03

How is the signal inverted by an inverting linear transponder?

Select	Answer
A	The signal is passed through a mixer and the difference rather than the sum is transmitted
B	The signal is reduced to I and Q components and the Q component is filtered out
C	The signal is detected and remodulated on the reverse sideband
D	The signal is passed through a non-linear filter

9. - E2B09

What hardware, other than a receiver with SSB capability and a suitable computer, is needed to decode SSTV using Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM)?

Select	Answer
A	A special notch filter to remove synchronization pulses
B	No other hardware is needed
C	A special front end limiter
D	A special IF converter

10. - E2C10

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

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

11. - E2D04

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

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

12. - E2E12

How do ALE stations establish contact?

Select	Answer
A	ALE radios activate when they hear their signal echoed by back scatter
B	ALE radios monitor an internet site for the frequency they are being paged on
C	ALE radios send a constant tone code to establish a frequency for future use
D	ALE constantly scans a list of frequencies, activating the radio when the designated call sign is received

13. - E3A09

Which of the following frequency ranges is most suited for meteor scatter communications?

Select	Answer
A	220 MHz - 450 MHz
B	1.8 MHz - 1.9 MHz
C	10 MHz - 14 MHz
D	28 MHz - 148 MHz

14. - E3B05

Which amateur bands typically support long-path propagation?

Select	Answer
A	6 meters to 2 meters
B	Only 160 meters to 40 meters
C	Only 30 meters to 10 meters
D	160 meters to 10 meters

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. - E4A01

Which of the following limits the highest frequency signal that can be accurately displayed on a digital oscilloscope?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	Q of the circuit
C	Amount of memory
D	Sampling rate of the analog-to-digital converter

17. - E4B04

Which S parameter represents input port return loss or reflection coefficient (equivalent to VSWR)?

Select	Answer
A	S12
B	S11
C	S21
D	S22

18. - E4C01

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

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

19. - E4D01

What is meant by the blocking dynamic range of a receiver?

Select	Answer
A	The minimum difference in dB between the levels of two FM signals that will cause one signal to block the other
B	The difference in dB between the noise floor and the third-order intercept point
C	The difference in dB between the noise floor and the level of an incoming signal that will cause 1 dB of gain compression
D	The minimum difference in dB between two signals which produce third-order intermodulation products greater than the noise floor

20. - E4E08

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

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

21. - E5A07

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

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

22. - E5B10

What is the relationship between the AC current through an inductor and the voltage across an inductor?

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

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 a horizontal line, offset vertically above the horizontal axis
C	On the horizontal axis
D	On the vertical axis

24. - E5D15

What is the power factor of an RL circuit having a 45-degree phase angle between the voltage and the current?

Select	Answer
A	0.707
B	0.866
C	1.0
D	0.5

25. - E6A02

Which of the following semiconductor materials contains excess free electrons?

Select	Answer
A	N-type
B	Bipolar
C	P-type
D	Insulated gate

26. - E6B10

In Figure E6-2, what is the schematic symbol for a light-emitting diode?

Select	Answer
A	6
B	5
C	1
D	7

27. - E6C04

Which of the following is an advantage of BiCMOS logic?

Select	Answer
A	It is immune to electrostatic damage
B	It has the high input impedance of CMOS and the low output impedance of bipolar transistors
C	All these choices are correct
D	Its simplicity results in much less expensive devices than standard CMOS

28. - E6D04

Which materials are commonly used as a core in an inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Cobalt and aluminum
B	Teflon and Delrin
C	Polystyrene and polyethylene
D	Ferrite and brass

29. - E6E01

Why is gallium arsenide (GaAs) useful for semiconductor devices operating at UHF and higher frequencies?

Select	Answer
A	Higher electron mobility
B	Higher noise figures
C	Lower transconductance
D	Lower junction voltage drop

30. - E6F03

What is the most common configuration of an optoisolator or optocoupler?

Select	Answer
A	An LED and a phototransistor
B	A lens and a photomultiplier
C	A frequency modulated helium-neon laser
D	An amplitude modulated helium-neon laser

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 if some but not all inputs are logic 1
D	It produces logic 0 at its output only when all inputs are logic 1

32. - E7B15

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

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

33. - E7C09

What is a crystal lattice filter?

Select	Answer
A	An audio filter made with four quartz crystals that resonate at 1 kHz intervals
B	A power supply filter made with interlaced quartz crystals
C	A filter using lattice-shaped quartz crystals for high-Q performance
D	A filter with narrow bandwidth and steep skirts made using quartz crystals

34. - E7D12

What is the dropout voltage of an analog voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	Maximum that the output voltage may decrease at rated load
B	Minimum input voltage for rated power dissipation
C	Maximum output voltage drops when the input voltage is varied over its specified range
D	Minimum input-to-output voltage required to maintain regulation

35. - E7E08

What are the principal frequencies that appear at the output of a mixer circuit?

Select	Answer
A	The two input frequencies along with their sum and difference frequencies
B	1.414 and 0.707 times the input frequency
C	The square root of the product of input frequencies
D	Two and four times the original frequency

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	Higher data rate
C	More taps
D	Complex phasor representations

37. - E7G02

What is ringing in a filter?

Select	Answer
A	An echo caused by a long time delay
B	A reduction in high frequency response
C	Partial cancellation of the signal over a range of frequencies
D	Undesired oscillations added to the desired signal

38. - E7H12

Which of the following must be done to ensure that a crystal oscillator provides the frequency specified by the crystal manufacturer?

Select	Answer
A	Bias the crystal at a specified voltage
B	Provide the crystal with a specified parallel capacitance
C	Bias the crystal at a specified current
D	Provide the crystal with a specified parallel inductance

39. - E8A02

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

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

40. - E8B03

What is the modulation index of an FM-phone signal having a maximum frequency deviation of 3000 Hz either side of the carrier frequency when the modulating frequency is 1000 Hz?

Select	Answer
A	0.3
B	3
C	3000
D	1000

41. - E8C10

How may data rate be increased without increasing bandwidth?

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

42. - E8D01

Why are received spread spectrum signals resistant to interference?

Select	Answer
A	If interference is detected by the receiver it will signal the transmitter to change frequencies
B	The high power used by a spread spectrum transmitter keeps its signal from being easily overpowered
C	The receiver is always equipped with a digital blanker
D	Signals not using the spread spectrum algorithm are suppressed in the receiver

43. - E9A06

What is the effective radiated power relative to a dipole of a repeater station with 200 watts transmitter power output, 4 dB feed line loss, 3.2 dB duplexer loss, 0.8 dB circulator loss, and 10 dBd antenna gain?

Select	Answer
A	300 watts
B	2000 watts
C	126 watts
D	317 watts

44. - E9B01

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

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

45. - E9C06

What is the effect of adding a terminating resistor to a rhombic antenna?

Select	Answer
A	It changes the radiation pattern from horizontal to vertical polarization
B	It decreases the ground loss
C	It changes the radiation pattern from bidirectional to unidirectional
D	It reflects the standing waves on the antenna elements back to the transmitter

46. - E9D10

What happens to feed-point impedance at the base of a fixed length HF mobile antenna when operated below its resonant frequency?

Select	Answer
A	The radiation resistance decreases and the capacitive reactance increases
B	The radiation resistance decreases and the capacitive reactance decreases
C	The radiation resistance increases and the capacitive reactance decreases
D	The radiation resistance increases and the capacitive reactance increases

47. - E9E04

What is the purpose of the series capacitor in a gamma-type antenna matching network?

Select	Answer
A	To provide DC isolation between the feed line and the antenna
B	To transform the antenna impedance to a higher value
C	To provide a rejection notch that prevents the radiation of harmonics
D	To cancel the inductive reactance of the matching network

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

49. - E9G03

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

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

50. - E9H03

What is Receiving Directivity Factor (RDF)?

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

Figure E6-2

Figure E9-1