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

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1. - E0A04

When evaluating a site with multiple transmitters operating at the same time, the operators and licensees of which transmitters are responsible for mitigating over-exposure situations?

Select	Answer
A	Only commercial transmitters
B	Each transmitter operating with a duty cycle greater than 50 percent
C	Each transmitter that produces 5 percent or more of its MPE limit in areas where the total MPE limit is exceeded.
D	Only the most powerful transmitter

2. - E1A08

If a station in a message forwarding system inadvertently forwards a message that is in violation of FCC rules, who is primarily accountable for the rules violation?

Select	Answer
A	The control operator of the originating station
B	The control operators of all the stations in the system
C	The control operators of all the stations in the system not authenticating the source from which they accept communications
D	The control operator of the packet bulletin board station

3. - E1B06

Which of the following additional rules apply if you are installing an amateur station antenna at a site at or near a public use airport?

Select	Answer
A	You must submit engineering drawings to the FAA
B	You must obtain a construction permit from the airport zoning authority
C	You may have to notify the Federal Aviation Administration and register it with the FCC as required by Part 17 of the FCC rules
D	You must file an Environmental Impact Statement with the EPA before construction begins

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 not operate until a test signal has been transmitted in coordination with the local power company
B	Operations may commence immediately, and may continue unless interference is reported by the UTC
C	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
D	Operators must not operate until approval is received

5. - E1D06

What is the maximum permitted transmitter output power when operating a model craft by telecommand?

Select	Answer
A	5 watts
B	1 watt
C	100 watts
D	2 watts

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 FCC
C	The VECs
D	The ARRL

7. - E1F10

Who may be the control operator of an auxiliary station?

Select	Answer
A	Only Technician, General, Advanced or Amateur Extra Class operators
B	Only General, Advanced or Amateur Extra Class operators
C	Any licensed amateur operator
D	Only 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 prevent creating errors in the satellite telemetry
B	To avoid reducing the downlink power to all other users
C	To avoid interfering with terrestrial QSOs
D	To prevent the satellite from emitting out-of-band signals

9. - E2B02

How many horizontal lines make up a fast-scan (NTSC) television frame?

Select	Answer
A	525
B	30
C	1080
D	60

10. - E2C01

What indicator is required to be used by U.S.-licensed operators when operating a station via remote control and the remote transmitter is located in the U.S.?

Select	Answer
A	/ followed by the ARRL Section of the remote station
B	/R# where # is the district of the remote station
C	/ followed by the USPS two-letter abbreviation for the state in which the remote station is located
D	No additional indicator is required

11. - E2D08

What type of packet frame is used to transmit APRS beacon data?

Select	Answer
A	Unnumbered Information
B	Disconnect
C	Connect
D	Acknowledgement

12. - E2E13

Which of these digital modes has the fastest data throughput under clear communication conditions?

Select	Answer
A	300 baud packet
B	PSK31
C	AMTOR
D	170 Hz shift, 45 baud RTTY

13. - E3A02

What characterizes libration fading of an EME signal?

Select	Answer
A	A fluttery irregular fading
B	The returning echo is several hertz lower in frequency than the transmitted signal
C	A gradual loss of signal as the sun rises
D	A slow change in the pitch of the CW signal

14. - E3B12

What is the primary characteristic of chordal hop propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Successive ionospheric refractions without an intermediate reflection from the ground
B	Propagation away from the great circle bearing between stations
C	Signals reflected back toward the transmitting station
D	Propagation across the geomagnetic equator

15. - E3C01

What does the radio communication term "ray tracing" describe?

Select	Answer
A	The process in which an electronic display presents a pattern
B	Modeling a radio wave's path through the ionosphere
C	Evaluating high voltage sources for x-rays
D	Determining the radiation pattern from an array of antennas

16. - E4A07

Which of the following is an advantage of using an antenna analyzer compared to an SWR bridge to measure antenna SWR?

Select	Answer
A	Antenna analyzers automatically tune your antenna for resonance
B	All these choices are correct
C	Antenna analyzers do not need an external RF source
D	Antenna analyzers display a time-varying representation of the modulation envelope

17. - E4B10

Which of the following methods measures intermodulation distortion in an SSB transmitter?

Select	Answer
A	Modulate the transmitter using two RF signals having harmonically related frequencies and observe the RF output with a logic analyzer
B	Modulate the transmitter using two AF signals having harmonically related frequencies and observe the RF output with a peak reading wattmeter
C	Modulate the transmitter using two RF signals having non-harmonically related frequencies and observe the RF output with a spectrum analyzer
D	Modulate the transmitter using two AF signals having non-harmonically related frequencies and observe the RF output with a spectrum analyzer

18. - E4C07

What does the MDS of a receiver represent?

Select	Answer
A	The minimum discernible signal
B	The meter display sensitivity
C	The maximum detectable spectrum
D	The multiplex distortion stability

19. - E4D06

What is the term for spurious signals generated by the combination of two or more signals in a non-linear device or circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Amplifier desensitization
B	Neutralization
C	Adjacent channel interference
D	Intermodulation

20. - E4E05

How can radio frequency interference from an AC motor be suppressed?

Select	Answer
A	By installing a high-pass filter in series with the motor's power leads
B	By using a ground-fault current interrupter in the circuit used to power the motor
C	By installing a brute-force AC-line filter in series with the motor leads
D	By installing a bypass capacitor in series with the motor leads

21. - E5A07

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

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

22. - E5B08

What is the phase angle between the voltage across and the current through a series RLC circuit if XC is 100 ohms, R is 100 ohms, and XL is 75 ohms?

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

23. - E5C12

Which point on Figure E5-1 best represents the impedance of a series circuit consisting of a 300-ohm resistor and a 19-picofarad capacitor at 21.200 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	Point 7
B	Point 1
C	Point 3
D	Point 8

24. - E5D03

What is microstrip?

Select	Answer
A	Precision printed circuit conductors above a ground plane that provide constant impedance interconnects at microwave frequencies
B	Short lengths of coax mounted on printed circuit boards to minimize time delay between microwave circuits
C	Lightweight transmission line made of common zip cord
D	Miniature coax used for low power applications

25. - E6A11

In Figure E6-1, what is the schematic symbol for a P-channel junction FET?

Select	Answer
A	1
B	6
C	2
D	3

26. - E6B03

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

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

27. - E6C10

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

Select	Answer
A	3
B	2
C	4
D	1

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

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 junction voltage drop
D	Lower transconductance

30. - E6F05

Which describes an optical shaft encoder?

Select	Answer
A	A device that measures the strength of a beam of light using analog to digital conversion
B	A device for generating RTTY signals by means of a rotating light source
C	A digital encryption device often used to encrypt spacecraft control signals
D	A device that detects rotation of a control by interrupting a light source with a patterned wheel

31. - E7A01

Which circuit is bistable?

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

32. - E7B15

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

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

33. - E7C12

What is one advantage of a Pi-matching network over an L-matching network consisting of a single inductor and a single capacitor?

Select	Answer
A	L-networks cannot perform impedance transformation
B	Pi-networks are more stable
C	The Q of Pi-networks can be controlled
D	Pi-networks provide balanced input and output

34. - E7D13

What is the equation for calculating power dissipated by a series linear voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	Input voltage divided by output current
B	Input voltage multiplied by input current
C	Output voltage multiplied by output current
D	Voltage difference from input to output multiplied by output current

35. - E7E09

What occurs when an excessive amount of signal energy reaches a mixer circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Spurious mixer products are generated
B	Mixer blanking occurs
C	A beat frequency is generated
D	Automatic limiting occurs

36. - E7F09

Why is an anti-aliasing digital filter required in a digital decimator?

Select	Answer
A	It notches out the sampling frequency to avoid sampling errors
B	It removes low-frequency signal components to eliminate the need for DC restoration
C	It removes high-frequency signal components that would otherwise be reproduced as lower frequency components
D	It peaks the response of the decimator, improving bandwidth

37. - E7G02

What is ringing in a filter?

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

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

39. - E8A03

What type of wave does a Fourier analysis show to be made up of sine waves of a given fundamental frequency plus all its harmonics?

Select	Answer
A	A sine wave
B	A cosine wave
C	A sawtooth wave
D	A square wave

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	3
B	0.3
C	3000
D	1000

41. - E8C02

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

Select	Answer
A	The rate at which the waveform changes to convey information
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 number of control characters in a message packet

42. - E8D08

What parameter evaluates distortion of an AFSK signal caused by excessive input audio levels?

Select	Answer
A	Intermodulation Distortion (IMD)
B	Baud rate
C	Repeat Request Rate (RRR)
D	Signal-to-noise ratio

43. - E9A05

What is included in the total resistance of an antenna system?

Select	Answer
A	Radiation resistance plus space impedance
B	Radiation resistance plus transmission resistance
C	Radiation resistance plus loss resistance
D	Transmission-line resistance plus radiation resistance

44. - E9B09

What type of computer program technique is commonly used for modeling antennas?

Select	Answer
A	Calculus differentiation with respect to physical properties
B	Graphical analysis
C	Method of Moments
D	Mutual impedance analysis

45. - E9C13

How does the radiation pattern of a horizontally polarized 3-element beam antenna vary with increasing height above ground?

Select	Answer
A	The horizontal beamwidth decreases
B	The takeoff angle of the lowest elevation lobe decreases
C	The takeoff angle of the lowest elevation lobe increases
D	The horizontal beamwidth increases

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 front-to-back ratio decreases
C	The front-to-back ratio increases
D	The SWR is reduced

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

48. - E9F04

What impedance does a 1/2-wavelength transmission line present to a generator when the line is shorted at the far end?

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

49. - E9G04

What are the two families of circles and arcs that make up a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Resistance and reactance
B	Resistance and voltage
C	Reactance and voltage
D	Voltage and impedance

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 adds capacitive loading, increasing the bandwidth of the antenna
C	It eliminates unbalanced capacitive coupling to the surroundings, improving the nulls
D	It eliminates tracking errors caused by strong out-of-band signals

Figure E5-1

Figure E6-1

Figure E6-3