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

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1. - E0A10

What toxic material may be present in some electronic components such as high voltage capacitors and transformers?

Select	Answer
A	Polymorphic silicon
B	Polytetrafluoroethylene
C	Polychlorinated biphenyls
D	Polyethylene

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	18.100 MHz
B	18.068 MHz
C	18.110 MHz
D	18.107 MHz

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. - E1C13

What notifications must be given before transmitting on the 630 meter or 2200 meter bands?

Select	Answer
A	An environmental impact statement must be filed with the Department of the Interior
B	Operators must inform the FAA of their intent to operate, giving their call sign and distance to the nearest runway
C	A special endorsement must be requested from the FCC
D	Operators must inform the Utilities Technology Council (UTC) of their call sign and coordinates of the station

5. - E1D08

Which VHF amateur bands have frequencies authorized for space stations?

Select	Answer
A	6 meters and 2 meters
B	6 meters, 2 meters, and 1.25 meters
C	2 meters and 1.25 meters
D	2 meters

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. - E1F09

Which of the following conditions apply when transmitting spread spectrum emissions?

Select	Answer
A	The transmission must not be used to obscure the meaning of any communication
B	The transmitting station must be in an area regulated by the FCC or in a country that permits SS emissions
C	All these choices are correct
D	A station transmitting SS emission must not cause harmful interference to other stations employing other authorized emissions

8. - E2A11

What type of antenna can be used to minimize the effects of spin modulation and Faraday rotation?

Select	Answer
A	A log-periodic dipole array
B	A linearly polarized antenna
C	A circularly polarized antenna
D	An isotropic antenna

9. - E2B06

What is vestigial sideband modulation?

Select	Answer
A	Spread spectrum modulation achieved by applying FM modulation following single sideband amplitude modulation
B	Amplitude modulation in which one complete sideband and a portion of the other are transmitted
C	A type of modulation in which one sideband is inverted
D	Narrow-band FM modulation achieved by filtering one sideband from the audio before frequency modulating the carrier

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

11. - E2D08

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

Select	Answer
A	Acknowledgement
B	Connect
C	Disconnect
D	Unnumbered Information

12. - E2E05

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

Select	Answer
A	PSK31
B	RTTY
C	PACTOR
D	MFSK

13. - E3A07

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

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

14. - E3B05

Which amateur bands typically support long-path propagation?

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

15. - E3C08

What does the space weather term G5 mean?

Select	Answer
A	An extreme geomagnetic storm
B	Very low solar activity
C	Moderate solar wind
D	Waning sunspot numbers

16. - E4A08

Which of the following measures SWR?

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

17. - E4B10

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

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

18. - E4C11

Why can an attenuator be used to reduce receiver overload on the lower frequency HF bands with little or no impact on signal-to-noise ratio?

Select	Answer
A	Atmospheric noise is generally greater than internally generated noise even after attenuation
B	The attenuator has a low-pass filter to increase the strength of lower frequency signals
C	Signals are attenuated separately from the noise
D	The attenuator has a noise filter to suppress interference

19. - E4D02

Which of the following describes problems caused by poor dynamic range in a receiver?

Select	Answer
A	Oscillator instability and severe audio distortion of all but the strongest received signals
B	Oscillator instability requiring frequent retuning and loss of ability to recover the opposite sideband
C	Cross-modulation of the desired signal and insufficient audio power to operate the speaker
D	Spurious signals caused by cross-modulation and desensitization from strong adjacent signals

20. - E4E04

How can conducted and radiated noise caused by an automobile alternator be suppressed?

Select	Answer
A	By connecting the radio's power leads directly to the battery and by installing coaxial capacitors in line with the alternator leads
B	By installing filter capacitors in series with the DC power lead and a blocking capacitor in the field lead
C	By installing a high-pass filter in series with the radio's power lead and a low-pass filter in parallel with the field lead
D	By installing a noise suppression resistor and a blocking capacitor in both leads

21. - E5A15

Which of the following increases Q for inductors and capacitors?

Select	Answer
A	Lower losses
B	Lower self-resonant frequency
C	Higher self-resonant frequency
D	Lower reactance

22. - E5B07

What is the phase angle between the voltage across and the current through a series RLC circuit if XC is 500 ohms, R is 1 kilohm, and XL is 250 ohms?

Select	Answer
A	68.2 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
B	68.2 degrees with the voltage leading the current
C	14.0 degrees with the voltage leading the current
D	14.0 degrees with the voltage lagging the current

23. - E5C06

What does the impedance 50-j25 represent?

Select	Answer
A	50 ohms resistance in series with 25 ohms capacitive reactance
B	50 ohms resistance in series with 25 ohms inductive reactance
C	25 ohms resistance in series with 50 ohms capacitive reactance
D	25 ohms resistance in series with 50 ohms inductive reactance

24. - E5D14

What is reactive power?

Select	Answer
A	Power lost because of capacitor leakage
B	Power consumed in wire resistance in an inductor
C	Power consumed in circuit Q
D	Wattless, nonproductive power

25. - E6A07

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

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

26. - E6B01

What is the most useful characteristic of a Zener diode?

Select	Answer
A	An internal capacitance that varies with the applied voltage
B	A constant voltage drop under conditions of varying current
C	A constant current drop under conditions of varying voltage
D	A negative resistance region

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	Its simplicity results in much less expensive devices than standard CMOS
D	All these choices are correct

28. - E6D09

What devices are commonly used as VHF and UHF parasitic suppressors at the input and output terminals of a transistor HF amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	Ferrite beads
B	Butterworth filters
C	Electrolytic capacitors
D	Steel-core toroids

29. - E6E10

What advantage does surface-mount technology offer at RF compared to using through-hole components?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	Components have less parasitic inductance and capacitance
C	Shorter circuit-board traces
D	Smaller circuit area

30. - E6F08

Why are optoisolators often used in conjunction with solid-state circuits when switching 120 VAC?

Select	Answer
A	Optoisolators provide a low impedance link between a control circuit and a power circuit
B	Optoisolators provide impedance matching between the control circuit and power circuit
C	Optoisolators eliminate the effects of reflected light in the control circuit
D	Optoisolators provide a very high degree of electrical isolation between a control circuit and the circuit being switched

31. - E7A10

What is a truth table?

Select	Answer
A	A table of logic symbols that indicate the high logic states of an op-amp
B	A list of inputs and corresponding outputs for a digital device
C	A table of logic symbols that indicate the logic states of an op-amp
D	A diagram showing logic states when the digital device output is true

32. - E7B07

Which of the following is a likely result when a Class C amplifier is used to amplify a single-sideband phone signal?

Select	Answer
A	Increased overall intelligibility
B	Signal distortion and excessive bandwidth
C	Reduced intermodulation products
D	Signal inversion

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. - E7D01

How does a linear electronic voltage regulator work?

Select	Answer
A	The control element duty cycle is proportional to the line or load conditions
B	It has a ramp voltage as its output
C	It eliminates the need for a pass transistor
D	The conduction of a control element is varied to maintain a constant output voltage

35. - E7E01

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

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

36. - E7F08

What is the function of decimation?

Select	Answer
A	Removing unnecessary significant digits
B	Reducing the effective sample rate by removing samples
C	Attenuating the signal
D	Converting data to binary code decimal form

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 increases linearly with increasing frequency
C	It decreases logarithmically with increasing frequency
D	It decreases linearly with increasing frequency

38. - E7H09

What type of frequency synthesizer circuit uses a phase accumulator, lookup table, digital to analog converter, and a low-pass anti-alias filter?

Select	Answer
A	A hybrid synthesizer
B	A direct digital synthesizer
C	A diode-switching matrix synthesizer
D	A phase-locked loop synthesizer

39. - E8A05

What of the following instruments would be the most accurate for measuring the RMS voltage of a complex waveform?

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

40. - E8B06

What is the deviation ratio of an FM-phone signal having a maximum frequency swing of plus or minus 7.5 kHz when the maximum modulation frequency is 3.5 kHz?

Select	Answer
A	0.214
B	47
C	2.14
D	0.47

41. - E8C10

How may data rate be increased without increasing bandwidth?

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

42. - E8D04

What is the primary effect of extremely short rise or fall time on a CW signal?

Select	Answer
A	The generation of key clicks
B	Limits data speed
C	The generation of RF harmonics
D	More difficult to copy

43. - E9A09

What is antenna efficiency?

Select	Answer
A	Total resistance divided by radiation resistance
B	Radiation resistance divided by transmission resistance
C	Radiation resistance divided by total resistance
D	Effective radiated power divided by transmitter output

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

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

46. - E9D03

Where should a high Q loading coil be placed to minimize losses in a shortened vertical antenna?

Select	Answer
A	As low as possible on the vertical radiator
B	As close to the transmitter as possible
C	At a voltage node
D	Near the center of the vertical radiator

47. - E9E02

What is the name of an antenna matching system that matches an unbalanced feed line to an antenna by feeding the driven element both at the center of the element and at a fraction of a wavelength to one side of center?

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

48. - E9F02

Which of the following has the biggest effect on the velocity factor of a transmission line?

Select	Answer
A	Dielectric materials used in the line
B	The line length
C	The termination impedance
D	The center conductor resistivity

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	Standing wave ratio circles
C	Coaxial-length circles
D	Antenna-length circles

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