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

Logging in (or registering) will help the system to select questions that you need to focus on.

1. - E0A06

Why are there separate electric (E) and magnetic (H) field MPE limits?

Select	Answer
A	Ground reflections and scattering make the field strength vary with location
B	All these choices are correct
C	The body reacts to electromagnetic radiation from both the E and H fields
D	E field and H field radiation intensity peaks can occur at different locations

2. - E1A01

Which of the following carrier frequencies is illegal for LSB AFSK emissions on the 17 meter band RTTY and data segment of 18.068 to 18.110 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	18.107 MHz
B	18.100 MHz
C	18.110 MHz
D	18.068 MHz

3. - E1B10

What frequencies are authorized to an amateur station operating under RACES rules?

Select	Answer
A	Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) channels
B	Specific local government channels
C	Specific segments in the amateur service MF, HF, VHF and UHF bands
D	All amateur service frequencies authorized to the control operator

4. - E1C03

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

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

5. - E1D04

Which of the following is required in the identification transmissions from a balloon-borne telemetry station?

Select	Answer
A	The station's six-character Maidenhead grid locator
B	All these choices are correct
C	Call sign
D	The output power of the balloon transmitter

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 administer amateur operator license examinations
D	A person who has volunteered to prepare amateur operator license examinations

7. - E1F01

On what frequencies are spread spectrum transmissions permitted?

Select	Answer
A	Only on amateur frequencies above 50 MHz
B	Only on amateur frequencies above 144 MHz
C	Only on amateur frequencies above 420 MHz
D	Only on amateur frequencies above 222 MHz

8. - E2A10

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

Select	Answer
A	Geostationary
B	Geomagnetic
C	HEO
D	LEO

9. - E2B10

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

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

10. - E2C06

During a VHF/UHF contest, in which band segment would you expect to find the highest level of SSB or CW activity?

Select	Answer
A	At the top of each band, usually in a segment reserved for contests
B	In the middle of each band, usually on the national calling frequency
C	In the middle of the band, usually 25 kHz above the national calling frequency
D	In the weak signal segment of the band, with most of the activity near the calling frequency

11. - E2D01

Which of the following digital modes is designed for meteor scatter communications?

Select	Answer
A	APRS
B	MSK144
C	WSPR
D	Hellschreiber

12. - E2E04

What is indicated when one of the ellipses in an FSK crossed-ellipse display suddenly disappears?

Select	Answer
A	One of the signal filters is saturated
B	The receiver has drifted 5 kHz from the desired receive frequency
C	The mark and space signal have been inverted
D	Selective fading has occurred

13. - E3A08

When a meteor strikes the Earth's atmosphere, a cylindrical region of free electrons is formed at what layer of the ionosphere?

Select	Answer
A	The F1 layer
B	The D layer
C	The E layer
D	The F2 layer

14. - E3B03

What is the best time of day for transequatorial propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Morning
B	Noon
C	Afternoon or early evening
D	Late at night

15. - E3C11

What does VOACAP software model?

Select	Answer
A	VHF radio propagation
B	AC voltage and impedance
C	AC current and impedance
D	HF propagation

16. - E4A06

What is the effect of aliasing on a digital oscilloscope caused by setting the time base too slow?

Select	Answer
A	Calibration of the vertical scale is no longer valid
B	A false, jittery low-frequency version of the signal is displayed
C	All signals will have a DC offset
D	Excessive blanking occurs, which prevents display of the signal

17. - E4B06

How much power is being absorbed by the load when a directional power meter connected between a transmitter and a terminating load reads 100 watts forward power and 25 watts reflected power?

Select	Answer
A	125 watts
B	100 watts
C	25 watts
D	75 watts

18. - E4C01

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

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

19. - E4D12

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

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

20. - E4E07

Which of the following can cause shielded cables to radiate or receive interference?

Select	Answer
A	Low inductance ground connections at both ends of the shield
B	Tying all ground connections to a common point resulting in differential-mode currents in the shield
C	Use of braided shielding material
D	Common-mode currents on the shield and conductors

21. - E5A05

What is the result of increasing the Q of an impedance-matching circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Matching range is increased
B	Matching bandwidth is increased
C	Matching bandwidth is decreased
D	It has no effect on impedance matching

22. - E5B06

What is susceptance?

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

23. - E5C10

Which point on Figure E5-1 best represents the impedance of a series circuit consisting of a 400-ohm resistor and a 38-picofarad capacitor at 14 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	Point 4
B	Point 2
C	Point 6
D	Point 5

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

25. - E6A07

Which of the following indicates that a silicon NPN junction transistor is biased on?

Select	Answer
A	Base-to-emitter voltage of approximately 6 to 7 volts
B	Base-to-emitter resistance of approximately 6 to 7 ohms
C	Base-to-emitter resistance of approximately 0.6 to 0.7 ohms
D	Base-to-emitter voltage of approximately 0.6 to 0.7 volts

26. - E6B05

What characteristic of a PIN diode makes it useful as an RF switch?

Select	Answer
A	Low junction capacitance
B	Extremely high reverse breakdown voltage
C	Ability to dissipate large amounts of power
D	Reverse bias controls its forward voltage drop

27. - E6C08

In Figure E6-3, what is the schematic symbol for a NAND gate?

Select	Answer
A	3
B	1
C	4
D	2

28. - E6D08

What is one reason for using powdered-iron cores rather than ferrite cores in an inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Powdered-iron cores use smaller diameter wire for the same inductance
B	Powdered-iron cores generally maintain their characteristics at higher currents
C	Powdered-iron cores generally require fewer turns to produce a given inductance
D	Powdered-iron cores generally have greater initial permeability

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	Silicon
C	Gallium nitride
D	Silicon dioxide

30. - E6F11

What is the approximate open-circuit voltage produced by a fully illuminated silicon photovoltaic cell?

Select	Answer
A	0.1 V
B	1.5 V
C	0.5 V
D	12 V

31. - E7A11

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

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

32. - E7B04

Where on the load line of a Class A common emitter amplifier would bias normally be set?

Select	Answer
A	Approximately halfway between saturation and cutoff
B	At a point where the bias resistor equals the load resistor
C	At a point where the load line intersects the zero bias current curve
D	Where the load line intersects the voltage axis

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 with narrow bandwidth and steep skirts made using quartz crystals
D	A filter using lattice-shaped quartz crystals for high-Q performance

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	The high frequency inverter design uses much smaller transformers and filter components for an equivalent power output
D	It uses a large power factor compensation capacitor to recover power from the unused portion of the AC cycle

35. - E7E06

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

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

36. - E7F11

What sets the minimum detectable signal level for a direct-sampling SDR receiver in the absence of atmospheric or thermal noise?

Select	Answer
A	Sample clock phase noise
B	Data storage transfer rate
C	Missing codes and jitter
D	Reference voltage level and sample width in bits

37. - E7G08

How does the gain of an ideal operational amplifier vary with frequency?

Select	Answer
A	It does not vary with frequency
B	It decreases logarithmically with increasing frequency
C	It increases linearly with increasing frequency
D	It decreases linearly with increasing frequency

38. - E7H08

Which of the following components can be used to reduce thermal drift in crystal oscillators?

Select	Answer
A	Wirewound resistors
B	Non-inductive resistors
C	NP0 capacitors
D	Toroidal inductors

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 D'Arsonval meter
B	An absorption wave meter
C	A true-RMS calculating meter
D	A grid dip meter

40. - E8B09

What is deviation ratio?

Select	Answer
A	The ratio of the maximum carrier frequency deviation to the highest audio modulating frequency
B	The ratio of the audio modulating frequency to the center carrier frequency
C	The ratio of the highest audio modulating frequency to the average audio modulating frequency
D	The ratio of the carrier center frequency to the audio modulating frequency

41. - E8C10

How may data rate be increased without increasing bandwidth?

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

42. - E8D11

What is one advantage of using ASCII code for data communications?

Select	Answer
A	It contains fewer information bits per character than any other code
B	It includes built-in error correction features
C	It uses one character as a shift code to send numeric and special characters
D	It is possible to transmit both upper and lower case text

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. - E9B11

What is a disadvantage of decreasing the number of wire segments in an antenna model below 10 segments per half-wavelength?

Select	Answer
A	The computed feed point impedance may be incorrect
B	Ground conductivity will not be accurately modeled
C	The resulting design will favor radiation of harmonic energy
D	The antenna will become mechanically unstable

45. - E9C04

What happens to the radiation pattern of an unterminated long wire antenna as the wire length is increased?

Select	Answer
A	The vertical angle increases
B	The lobes align more in the direction of the wire
C	The front-to-back ratio decreases
D	The lobes become more perpendicular to the wire

46. - E9D07

What is an advantage of using top loading in a shortened HF vertical antenna?

Select	Answer
A	Higher losses
B	Lower Q
C	Greater structural strength
D	Improved radiation efficiency

47. - E9E03

What is the name of the matching system that uses a section of transmission line connected in parallel with the feed line at or near the feed point?

Select	Answer
A	The stub match
B	The gamma match
C	The delta match
D	The omega match

48. - E9F05

What is the approximate physical length of a solid polyethylene dielectric coaxial transmission line that is electrically 1/4 wavelength long at 14.1 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	3.5 meters
B	5.3 meters
C	4.3 meters
D	10.6 meters

49. - E9G01

Which of the following can be calculated using a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Antenna radiation pattern
B	Radio propagation
C	Impedance along transmission lines
D	Radiation resistance

50. - E9H04

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

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

Figure E5-1

Figure E6-3