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

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1. - E0A08

What does SAR measure?

Select	Answer
A	Synthetic Aperture Ratio of the human body
B	The rate of RF energy reflected from stationary terrain
C	Signal Amplification Rating
D	The rate at which RF energy is absorbed by the body

2. - E1A12

What special operating frequency restrictions are imposed on slow scan TV transmissions?

Select	Answer
A	They are restricted to 7.245 MHz, 14.245 MHz, 21.345 MHz, and 28.945 MHz
B	They are not permitted above 54 MHz
C	None; they are allowed on all amateur frequencies
D	They are restricted to phone band segments

3. - E1B05

What is the National Radio Quiet Zone?

Select	Answer
A	An area in New Mexico surrounding the White Sands Test Area
B	An area in Puerto Rico surrounding the Arecibo Radio Telescope
C	An area surrounding the National Radio Astronomy Observatory
D	An area in Florida surrounding Cape Canaveral

4. - E1C07

At what level below a signal's mean power level is its bandwidth determined according to FCC rules?

Select	Answer
A	3 dB
B	23 dB
C	6 dB
D	26 dB

5. - E1D08

Which VHF amateur bands have frequencies authorized for space stations?

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

6. - E1E06

Who is responsible for the proper conduct and necessary supervision during an amateur operator license examination session?

Select	Answer
A	The FCC
B	The VE session manager
C	The VEC coordinating the session
D	Each administering VE

7. - E1F08

Which of the following types of amateur station communications are prohibited?

Select	Answer
A	Communications transmitted for hire or material compensation, except as otherwise provided in the rules
B	Communications in a language other than English
C	Communications that have religious content
D	Communications that have political content, except as allowed by the Fairness Doctrine

8. - E2A11

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

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

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	Using USB and demodulating the signal with a computer sound card
C	Transmitting on channels shared with cable TV
D	Using converted satellite TV dishes

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

11. - E2D07

What digital protocol is used by APRS?

Select	Answer
A	AX.25
B	802.11
C	AMTOR
D	PACTOR

12. - E2E02

What do the letters FEC mean as they relate to digital operation?

Select	Answer
A	Fatal Error Correction
B	Final Error Correction
C	Forward Error Correction
D	First Error Correction

13. - E3A11

What is a typical range for tropospheric propagation of microwave signals?

Select	Answer
A	10 miles to 50 miles
B	2500 miles
C	100 miles to 300 miles
D	1200 miles

14. - E3B10

Why is chordal hop propagation desirable?

Select	Answer
A	Signals travel faster along ionospheric chords
B	Atmospheric noise is lower in the direction of chordal hop propagation
C	The signal experiences less loss compared to multi-hop using Earth as a reflector
D	The MUF for chordal hop propagation is much lower than for normal skip propagation

15. - E3C15

What might be indicated by a sudden rise in radio background noise across a large portion of the HF spectrum?

Select	Answer
A	A solar flare has occurred
B	Long-path propagation is likely
C	Increased transequatorial propagation is likely
D	A temperature inversion has occurred

16. - E4A10

Which of the following displays multiple digital signal states simultaneously?

Select	Answer
A	Logic analyzer
B	Bit error rate tester
C	Modulation monitor
D	Network analyzer

17. - E4B08

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

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

18. - E4C09

Which of the following choices is a good reason for selecting a high frequency for the design of the IF in a superheterodyne HF or VHF communications receiver?

Select	Answer
A	Easier for front-end circuitry to eliminate image responses
B	Reduced drift
C	Improved receiver noise figure
D	Fewer components in the receiver

19. - E4D10

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

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

20. - E4E06

What is one type of electrical interference that might be caused by a nearby personal computer?

Select	Answer
A	The appearance of unstable modulated or unmodulated signals at specific frequencies
B	A whining type noise that continually pulses off and on
C	A clicking noise at intervals of a few seconds
D	A loud AC hum in the audio output of your station receiver

21. - E5A02

What is resonance in an LC or RLC circuit?

Select	Answer
A	The frequency at which the capacitive reactance equals the inductive reactance
B	The highest frequency that will pass current
C	The lowest frequency that will pass current
D	The frequency at which the reactive impedance equals the resistive impedance

22. - E5B04

What is the time constant of a circuit having two 220-microfarad capacitors and two 1-megohm resistors, all in parallel?

Select	Answer
A	55 seconds
B	110 seconds
C	440 seconds
D	220 seconds

23. - E5C08

What coordinate system is often used to display the phase angle of a circuit containing resistance, inductive and/or capacitive reactance?

Select	Answer
A	Polar coordinates
B	Faraday grid
C	Maidenhead grid
D	Elliptical coordinates

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

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 0.6 to 0.7 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 6 to 7 volts

26. - E6B07

What is the failure mechanism when a junction diode fails due to excessive current?

Select	Answer
A	Excessive inverse voltage
B	Charge carrier depletion
C	Insufficient forward voltage
D	Excessive junction temperature

27. - E6C06

Why do CMOS digital integrated circuits have high immunity to noise on the input signal or power supply?

Select	Answer
A	The input switching threshold is about two times the power supply voltage
B	Bandwidth is very limited
C	The input switching threshold is about one-half the power supply voltage
D	Large bypass capacitance is inherent

28. - E6D13

What is the primary cause of inductor self-resonance?

Select	Answer
A	Non-linear core hysteresis
B	Inductive kickback
C	Inter-turn capacitance
D	The skin effect

29. - E6E07

What type of transmission line is used for connections to MMICs?

Select	Answer
A	Microstrip
B	Miniature coax
C	Parallel wire
D	Circular waveguide

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. - E7A05

Which of the following is a circuit that continuously alternates between two states without an external clock?

Select	Answer
A	T flip-flop
B	Astable multivibrator
C	Monostable multivibrator
D	J-K flip-flop

32. - E7B06

Which of the following amplifier types reduces even-order harmonics?

Select	Answer
A	Class AB
B	Class C
C	Push-push
D	Push-pull

33. - E7C10

Which of the following filters would be the best choice for use in a 2 meter band repeater duplexer?

Select	Answer
A	An L-C filter
B	A crystal filter
C	A DSP filter
D	A cavity filter

34. - E7D13

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

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

35. - E7E10

How does a diode envelope detector function?

Select	Answer
A	By sensing the change of reactance in the diode with respect to frequency
B	By breakdown of the Zener voltage
C	By rectification and filtering of RF signals
D	By mixing signals with noise in the transition region of the diode

36. - E7F12

Which of the following is an advantage of a Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filter vs an Infinite Impulse Response (IIR) digital filter?

Select	Answer
A	FIR filters can delay all frequency components of the signal by the same amount
B	FIR filters can respond faster to impulses
C	FIR filters are easier to implement for a given set of passband rolloff requirements
D	All these choices are correct

37. - E7G02

What is ringing in a filter?

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

38. - E7H06

Which of the following oscillator circuits are commonly used in VFOs?

Select	Answer
A	Negative feedback and balanced feedback
B	Colpitts and Hartley
C	Pierce and Zener
D	Armstrong and deForest

39. - E8A04

What is "dither" with respect to analog-to-digital converters?

Select	Answer
A	A small amount of noise added to the input signal to allow more precise representation of a signal over time
B	A method of decimation by randomly skipping samples
C	An abnormal condition where the converter cannot settle on a value to represent the signal
D	An error caused by irregular quantization step size

40. - E8B09

What is deviation ratio?

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

41. - E8C08

How does ARQ accomplish error correction?

Select	Answer
A	If errors are detected, redundant data is substituted
B	If errors are detected, a retransmission is requested
C	Special polynomial codes provide automatic correction
D	Special binary codes provide automatic correction

42. - E8D01

Why are received spread spectrum signals resistant to interference?

Select	Answer
A	Signals not using the spread spectrum algorithm are suppressed in the receiver
B	The receiver is always equipped with a digital blanker
C	If interference is detected by the receiver it will signal the transmitter to change frequencies
D	The high power used by a spread spectrum transmitter keeps its signal from being easily overpowered

43. - E9A09

What is antenna efficiency?

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

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	14 dB
C	36 dB
D	24 dB

45. - E9C02

What is the radiation pattern of two 1/4-wavelength vertical antennas spaced 1/4 wavelength apart and fed 90 degrees out of phase?

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

46. - E9D09

What is the function of a loading coil used as part of an HF mobile antenna?

Select	Answer
A	To lower the losses
B	To lower the Q
C	To cancel capacitive reactance
D	To increase the SWR bandwidth

47. - E9E11

What is the primary purpose of phasing lines when used with an antenna having multiple driven elements?

Select	Answer
A	It creates a low-angle radiation pattern
B	It prevents reflected power from traveling back down the feed line and causing harmonic radiation from the transmitter
C	It allows single-band antennas to operate on other bands
D	It ensures that each driven element operates in concert with the others to create the desired antenna pattern

48. - E9F12

What impedance does a 1/4-wavelength transmission line present to a generator when the line is open at the far end?

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

49. - E9G09

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

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

50. - E9H11

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

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

Figure E9-1