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

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1. - E0A03

Over what range of frequencies are the FCC human body RF exposure limits most restrictive?

Select	Answer
A	300 to 3000 MHz
B	300 kHz to 3 MHz
C	3 to 30 MHz
D	30 to 300 MHz

2. - E1A07

What is the maximum power permitted on the 2200 meter band?

Select	Answer
A	5 watts EIRP (Equivalent isotropic radiated power)
B	100 watts PEP
C	50 watts PEP
D	1 watt EIRP (Equivalent isotropic radiated power)

3. - E1B02

Which of the following is an acceptable bandwidth for Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) based voice or SSTV digital transmissions made on the HF amateur bands?

Select	Answer
A	3 kHz
B	10 kHz
C	20 kHz
D	15 kHz

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

5. - E1D05

What must be posted at the station location of a station being operated by telecommand on or within 50 km of the earth's surface?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	A label with the name, address, and telephone number of the control operator
C	A label with the name, address, and telephone number of the station licensee
D	A photocopy of the station license

6. - E1E12

What must the VE team do with the application form if the examinee does not pass the exam?

Select	Answer
A	Maintain the application form with the VEC's records
B	Send the application form to the FCC and inform the FCC of the grade
C	Return the application document to the examinee
D	Destroy the application form

7. - E1F06

Under what circumstances might the FCC issue a Special Temporary Authority (STA) to an amateur station?

Select	Answer
A	To allow regular operation on Land Mobile channels
B	To provide additional spectrum for personal use
C	To provide for experimental amateur communications
D	To provide temporary operation while awaiting normal licensing

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 prevent the satellite from emitting out-of-band signals
C	To avoid interfering with terrestrial QSOs
D	To avoid reducing the downlink power to all other users

9. - E2B08

What technique allows commercial analog TV receivers to be used for fast-scan TV operations on the 70 cm band?

Select	Answer
A	Transmitting on the abandoned TV channel 2
B	Transmitting on channels shared with cable TV
C	Using USB and demodulating the signal with a computer sound card
D	Using converted satellite TV dishes

10. - E2C04

Which of the following frequencies are sometimes used for amateur radio mesh networks?

Select	Answer
A	The 60 meter band channel centered on 5373 kHz
B	Frequencies shared with various unlicensed wireless data services
C	Cable TV channels 41 through 43
D	HF frequencies where digital communications are permitted

11. - E2D06

Which of the following describes a method of establishing EME contacts?

Select	Answer
A	Storing and forwarding digital messages
B	Time synchronous transmissions alternately from each station
C	High-speed CW identification to avoid fading
D	Judging optimum transmission times by monitoring beacons reflected from the moon

12. - E2E01

Which of the following types of modulation is common for data emissions below 30 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	Pulse modulation
B	FSK
C	DTMF tones modulating an FM signal
D	Spread spectrum

13. - E3A04

What do Hepburn maps predict?

Select	Answer
A	Locations of auroral reflecting zones
B	Sporadic E propagation
C	Probability of tropospheric propagation
D	Likelihood of rain scatter along cold or warm fronts

14. - E3B01

What is transequatorial propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Propagation between points at the same latitude
B	Propagation between a point on the equator and its antipodal point
C	Propagation between points located on the magnetic equator
D	Propagation between two mid-latitude points at approximately the same distance north and south of the magnetic equator

15. - E3C07

Which of the following descriptors indicates the greatest solar flare intensity?

Select	Answer
A	Class M
B	Class X
C	Class A
D	Class B

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	Sampling rate of the analog-to-digital converter
C	Q of the circuit
D	Amount of memory

17. - E4B08

Which of the following can be used to measure the Q of a series-tuned circuit?

Select	Answer
A	The resonant frequency of the circuit
B	The bandwidth of the circuit's frequency response
C	The frequency shift
D	The inductance to capacitance ratio

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

19. - E4D10

What does a third-order intercept level of 40 dBm mean with respect to receiver performance?

Select	Answer
A	A pair of 40 dBm input signals will theoretically generate a third-order intermodulation product that has the same output amplitude as either of the input signals
B	The receiver can tolerate signals up to 40 dB above the noise floor without producing third-order intermodulation products
C	A pair of 1 mW input signals will produce a third-order intermodulation product that is 40 dB stronger than the input signal
D	Signals less than 40 dBm will not generate audible third-order intermodulation products

20. - E4E10

What might be the cause of a loud roaring or buzzing AC line interference that comes and goes at intervals?

Select	Answer
A	Arcing contacts in a thermostatically controlled device
B	All these choices are correct
C	A defective doorbell or doorbell transformer inside a nearby residence
D	A malfunctioning illuminated advertising display

21. - E5A03

What is the magnitude of the impedance of a series RLC circuit at resonance?

Select	Answer
A	Approximately equal to circuit resistance
B	High, as compared to the circuit resistance
C	Approximately equal to inductive reactance
D	Approximately equal to capacitive reactance

22. - E5B02

What letter is commonly used to represent susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	G
B	B
C	X
D	Y

23. - E5C02

How are impedances described in polar coordinates?

Select	Answer
A	By X and R values
B	By Y and G values
C	By real and imaginary parts
D	By phase angle and magnitude

24. - E5D09

What happens to reactive power in an AC circuit that has both ideal inductors and ideal capacitors?

Select	Answer
A	It is repeatedly exchanged between the associated magnetic and electric fields, but is not dissipated
B	It is dissipated as heat in the circuit
C	It is dissipated as kinetic energy in the circuit
D	It is dissipated in the formation of inductive and capacitive fields

25. - E6A10

In Figure E6-1, what is the schematic symbol for an N-channel dual-gate MOSFET?

Select	Answer
A	4
B	6
C	2
D	5

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	Reverse bias controls its forward voltage drop
D	Ability to dissipate large amounts of power

27. - E6C05

What is an advantage of CMOS logic devices over TTL devices?

Select	Answer
A	Lower distortion
B	Lower power consumption
C	Differential output capability
D	Immune to damage from static discharge

28. - E6D05

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

Select	Answer
A	Ferrite toroids are easier to use with surface mount technology
B	Ferrite toroids generally have better temperature stability
C	Ferrite toroids generally have lower initial permeability
D	Ferrite toroids generally require fewer turns to produce a given inductance value

29. - E6E12

Why are DIP through-hole package ICs not typically used at UHF and higher frequencies?

Select	Answer
A	Too many pins
B	Epoxy coating is conductive above 300 MHz
C	Excessive lead length
D	Unsuitable for combining analog and digital signals

30. - E6F07

What is a solid-state relay?

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

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

32. - E7B09

Which of the following describes how the loading and tuning capacitors are to be adjusted when tuning a vacuum tube RF power amplifier that employs a Pi-network output circuit?

Select	Answer
A	The tuning capacitor is set to maximum capacitance and the loading capacitor is adjusted for minimum plate permissible current
B	The loading capacitor is set to maximum capacitance and the tuning capacitor is adjusted for minimum allowable plate current
C	The tuning capacitor is adjusted for minimum plate current, and the loading capacitor is adjusted for maximum permissible plate current
D	The loading capacitor is adjusted to minimum plate current while alternately adjusting the tuning capacitor for maximum allowable plate current

33. - E7C04

How does an impedance-matching circuit transform a complex impedance to a resistive impedance?

Select	Answer
A	It introduces negative resistance to cancel the resistive part of impedance
B	It introduces transconductance to cancel the reactive part of impedance
C	It cancels the reactive part of the impedance and changes the resistive part to a desired value
D	Reactive currents are dissipated in matched resistances

34. - E7D11

What is the function of the pass transistor in a linear voltage regulator circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Maintains nearly constant output impedance over a wide range of load current
B	Provides a stable input impedance over a wide range of source voltage
C	Permits a wide range of output voltage settings
D	Maintains nearly constant output voltage over a wide range of load current

35. - E7E07

What is meant by the term "baseband" in radio communications?

Select	Answer
A	The basic oscillator frequency in an FM transmitter that is multiplied to increase the deviation and carrier frequency
B	The unmodulated bandwidth of the transmitted signal
C	The frequency range occupied by a message signal prior to modulation
D	The lowest frequency band that the transmitter or receiver covers

36. - E7F04

What is a common method of generating an SSB signal using digital signal processing?

Select	Answer
A	Mixing products are converted to voltages and subtracted by adder circuits
B	A frequency synthesizer removes the unwanted sidebands
C	Signals are combined in quadrature phase relationship
D	Varying quartz crystal characteristics emulated in digital form

37. - E7G08

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

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

38. - E7H04

How is positive feedback supplied in a Colpitts oscillator?

Select	Answer
A	Through link coupling
B	Through a tapped coil
C	Through a neutralizing capacitor
D	Through a capacitive divider

39. - E8A07

What determines the PEP-to-average power ratio of a single-sideband phone signal?

Select	Answer
A	Amplifier gain
B	The degree of carrier suppression
C	Speech characteristics
D	The frequency of the modulating signal

40. - E8B05

What is the deviation ratio of an FM-phone signal having a maximum frequency swing of plus-or-minus 5 kHz when the maximum modulation frequency is 3 kHz?

Select	Answer
A	0.167
B	0.6
C	60
D	1.67

41. - E8C12

What factors affect the bandwidth of a transmitted CW signal?

Select	Answer
A	Modulation index and output power
B	Keying speed and shape factor (rise and fall time)
C	IF bandwidth and Q
D	All these choices are correct

42. - E8D10

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

Select	Answer
A	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
B	Baudot uses 7 data bits per character, ASCII uses 8; Baudot has no letters/figures shift code, ASCII uses 2 letters/figures shift codes
C	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
D	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

43. - E9A03

What is the radiation resistance of an antenna?

Select	Answer
A	The specific impedance of the antenna
B	The value of a resistance that would dissipate the same amount of power as that radiated from an antenna
C	The resistance in the atmosphere that an antenna must overcome to be able to radiate a signal
D	The combined losses of the antenna elements and feed line

44. - E9B02

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

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

45. - E9C08

What is a folded dipole antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A type of ground-plane antenna
B	A half-wave dipole with an additional parallel wire connecting its two ends
C	A dipole configured to provide forward gain
D	A dipole one-quarter wavelength long

46. - E9D12

Which of the following would provide the best RF ground for your station?

Select	Answer
A	An electrically short connection to a metal water pipe
B	An electrically short connection to 3 or 4 interconnected ground rods driven into the Earth
C	An electrically short connection to 3 or 4 interconnected ground rods via a series RF choke
D	A 50-ohm resistor connected to ground

47. - E9E10

Which of these choices is an effective way to match an antenna with a 100-ohm feed point impedance to a 50-ohm coaxial cable feed line?

Select	Answer
A	Connect a 1/2 wavelength shorted stub of 75-ohm cable in parallel with the 50-ohm cable where it attaches to the antenna
B	Connect a 1/4-wavelength open stub of 300-ohm twinlead in parallel with the coaxial feed line where it connects to the antenna
C	Insert a 1/4-wavelength piece of 75-ohm coaxial cable transmission line in series between the antenna terminals and the 50-ohm feed cable
D	Insert a 1/2 wavelength piece of 300-ohm twinlead in series between the antenna terminals and the 50-ohm feed cable

48. - E9F08

Which of the following is a significant difference between foam dielectric coaxial cable and solid dielectric cable, assuming all other parameters are the same?

Select	Answer
A	Foam dielectric has lower loss per unit of length
B	Foam dielectric has higher velocity factor
C	All these choices are correct
D	Foam dielectric has lower safe operating voltage limits

49. - E9G04

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

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

50. - E9H03

What is Receiving Directivity Factor (RDF)?

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

Figure E6-1

Figure E9-1