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

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1. - E0A07

How may dangerous levels of carbon monoxide from an emergency generator be detected?

Select	Answer
A	By the yellowish appearance of the gas
B	By the odor
C	Only with a carbon monoxide detector
D	Any ordinary smoke detector can be used

2. - E1A03

What is the maximum legal carrier frequency on the 20 meter band for transmitting USB AFSK digital signals having a 1 kHz bandwidth?

Select	Answer
A	14.149 MHz
B	14.349 MHz
C	14.100 MHz
D	14.070 MHz

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 form FSD-15 must be submitted to the Department of the Interior
C	A proposal must be submitted to the National Park Service
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 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 local control there is no control operator
D	Under automatic control there is no control operator

5. - E1D02

Which of the following may transmit special codes intended to obscure the meaning of messages?

Select	Answer
A	Auxiliary relay links carrying repeater audio
B	Binary control characters
C	Data containing personal information
D	Telecommand signals from a space telecommand station

6. - E1E02

Who does Part 97 task with maintaining the pools of questions for all U.S. amateur license examinations?

Select	Answer
A	The VEs
B	The VECs
C	The FCC
D	The ARRL

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 be capable of external RF switching between its input and output networks
B	It must satisfy the FCC's spurious emission standards when operated at the lesser of 1500 watts or its full output power
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. - E2A05

What do the letters in a satellite's mode designator specify?

Select	Answer
A	The polarization of uplink and downlink signals
B	Power limits for uplink and downlink transmissions
C	The uplink and downlink frequency ranges
D	The location of the ground control station

9. - E2B05

Which of the following describes the use of vestigial sideband in analog fast-scan TV transmissions?

Select	Answer
A	The vestigial sideband contains chroma information
B	The vestigial sideband carries the audio information
C	Vestigial sideband reduces bandwidth while allowing for simple video detector circuitry
D	Vestigial sideband provides high frequency emphasis to sharpen the picture

10. - E2C05

What is the function of a DX QSL Manager?

Select	Answer
A	To relay calls to and from a DX station
B	To run a net to allow many stations to contact a rare DX station
C	To allocate frequencies for DXpeditions
D	To handle the receiving and sending of confirmation cards for a DX station

11. - E2D03

Which of the following digital modes is especially useful for EME communications?

Select	Answer
A	PACTOR III
B	MSK144
C	Olivia
D	JT65

12. - E2E11

What is the difference between direct FSK and audio FSK?

Select	Answer
A	Direct FSK applies the data signal to the transmitter VFO, while AFSK transmits tones via phone
B	Only direct FSK can be decoded by computer
C	Direct FSK occupies less bandwidth
D	Direct FSK can transmit faster baud rates

13. - E3A10

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

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

14. - E3B06

Which of the following amateur bands most frequently provides long-path propagation?

Select	Answer
A	10 meters
B	20 meters
C	6 meters
D	80 meters

15. - E3C06

By how much does the VHF/UHF radio horizon distance exceed the geometric horizon?

Select	Answer
A	By approximately 15 percent of the distance
B	By approximately four times the distance
C	By approximately twice the distance
D	By approximately 50 percent of the distance

16. - E4A06

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

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

17. - E4B04

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

Select	Answer
A	S22
B	S12
C	S11
D	S21

18. - E4C01

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

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

19. - E4D05

What transmitter frequencies would cause an intermodulation-product signal in a receiver tuned to 146.70 MHz when a nearby station transmits on 146.52 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	146.10 MHz and 147.30 MHz
B	146.34 MHz and 146.61 MHz
C	146.88 MHz and 146.34 MHz
D	173.35 MHz and 139.40 MHz

20. - E4E11

What could cause local AM broadcast band signals to combine to generate spurious signals in the MF or HF bands?

Select	Answer
A	You are receiving skywave signals from a distant station
B	One or more of the broadcast stations is transmitting an over-modulated signal
C	Nearby corroded metal joints are mixing and re-radiating the broadcast signals
D	Your station receiver IF amplifier stage is defective

21. - E5A12

What is the half-power bandwidth of a resonant circuit that has a resonant frequency of 3.7 MHz and a Q of 118?

Select	Answer
A	218.3 kHz
B	31.4 kHz
C	436.6 kHz
D	15.7 kHz

22. - E5B11

What is the phase angle between the voltage across and the current through a series RLC circuit if XC is 25 ohms, R is 100 ohms, and XL is 50 ohms?

Select	Answer
A	14 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
B	14 degrees with the voltage leading the current
C	76 degrees with the voltage leading the current
D	76 degrees with the voltage lagging the current

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 5
B	Point 4
C	Point 6
D	Point 2

24. - E5D06

In what direction is the magnetic field oriented about a conductor in relation to the direction of electron flow?

Select	Answer
A	In the same direction as the current
B	In all directions; omni-directional
C	In a circle around the conductor
D	In a direction opposite to the current

25. - E6A06

What is the beta of a bipolar junction transistor?

Select	Answer
A	The breakdown voltage of the base to collector junction
B	The change in collector current with respect to base current
C	The frequency at which the current gain is reduced to 0.707
D	The switching speed

26. - E6B08

Which of the following is a Schottky barrier diode?

Select	Answer
A	Metal-semiconductor junction
B	PIN junction
C	Thermionic emission diode
D	Electrolytic rectifier

27. - E6C10

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

Select	Answer
A	1
B	2
C	4
D	3

28. - E6D07

What is current in the primary winding of a transformer called if no load is attached to the secondary?

Select	Answer
A	Direct current
B	Stabilizing current
C	Excitation current
D	Magnetizing current

29. - E6E04

Which is the most common input and output impedance of circuits that use MMICs?

Select	Answer
A	300 ohms
B	10 ohms
C	50 ohms
D	450 ohms

30. - E6F07

What is a solid-state relay?

Select	Answer
A	A semiconductor passive delay line
B	A device that uses semiconductors to implement the functions of an electromechanical relay
C	A relay using transistors to drive the relay coil
D	A mechanical relay that latches in the on or off state each time it is pulsed

31. - E7A01

Which circuit is bistable?

Select	Answer
A	An AND gate
B	An OR gate
C	A flip-flop
D	A bipolar amplifier

32. - E7B03

Which of the following components form the output of a class D amplifier circuit?

Select	Answer
A	A high-pass filter to compensate for low gain at low frequencies
B	A low-pass filter to remove switching signal components
C	A matched load resistor to prevent damage by switching transients
D	A temperature compensating load resistor to improve linearity

33. - E7C11

Which of the following describes a receiving filter's ability to reject signals occupying an adjacent channel?

Select	Answer
A	Passband ripple
B	Noise factor
C	Phase response
D	Shape factor

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 high frequency inverter design uses much smaller transformers and filter components for an equivalent power output
B	It uses a large power factor compensation capacitor to recover power from the unused portion of the AC cycle
C	The inverter design does not require any output filtering
D	It uses a diode bridge rectifier for increased output

35. - E7E01

Which of the following can be used to generate FM phone emissions?

Select	Answer
A	A balanced modulator on the oscillator
B	A reactance modulator on the oscillator
C	A reactance modulator on the final amplifier
D	A balanced modulator on the audio amplifier

36. - E7F06

What is the minimum number of bits required for an analog-to-digital converter to sample a signal with a range of 1 volt at a resolution of 1 millivolt?

Select	Answer
A	8 bits
B	4 bits
C	10 bits
D	6 bits

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	Undesired oscillations added to the desired signal
D	Partial cancellation of the signal over a range of frequencies

38. - E7H15

Which of these functions can be performed by a phase-locked loop?

Select	Answer
A	Comparison of two digital input signals, digital pulse counter
B	Photovoltaic conversion, optical coupling
C	Wide-band AF and RF power amplification
D	Frequency synthesis, FM demodulation

39. - E8A01

What is the name of the process that shows that a square wave is made up of a sine wave plus all its odd harmonics?

Select	Answer
A	Differential analysis
B	Numerical analysis
C	Vector analysis
D	Fourier analysis

40. - E8B01

What is the modulation index of an FM signal?

Select	Answer
A	The bandwidth of the transmitted signal divided by the modulating signal frequency
B	The ratio of frequency deviation to modulating signal frequency
C	The type of modulation used by the transmitter
D	The ratio of modulating signal amplitude to frequency deviation

41. - E8C10

How may data rate be increased without increasing bandwidth?

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

42. - E8D10

What are some of the differences between the Baudot digital code and ASCII?

Select	Answer
A	Baudot uses 7 data bits per character, ASCII uses 8; Baudot has no letters/figures shift code, ASCII uses 2 letters/figures shift codes
B	Baudot uses 6 data bits per character, ASCII uses 7 or 8; Baudot has no letters/figures shift code, ASCII uses 2 letters/figures shift codes
C	Baudot uses 5 data bits per character, ASCII uses 7 or 8; Baudot uses 2 characters as letters/figures shift codes, ASCII has no letters/figures shift code
D	Baudot uses 4 data bits per character, ASCII uses 7 or 8; Baudot uses 1 character as a letters/figures shift code, ASCII has no letters/figures code

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	2000 watts
B	317 watts
C	300 watts
D	126 watts

44. - E9B02

In the antenna radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-1, what is the front-to-back ratio?

Select	Answer
A	18 dB
B	24 dB
C	14 dB
D	36 dB

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

46. - E9D07

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

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

47. - E9E08

What is a use for a Wilkinson divider?

Select	Answer
A	It is used to feed high-impedance antennas from a low-impedance source
B	It is used to feed low-impedance loads from a high-impedance source
C	It divides the operating frequency of a transmitter signal so it can be used on a lower frequency band
D	It is used to divide power equally between two 50-ohm loads while maintaining 50-ohm input impedance

48. - E9F10

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

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

49. - E9G09

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

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

50. - E9H11

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

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

Figure E5-1

Figure E6-3

Figure E9-1