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

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1. - E0A01

What is the primary function of an external earth connection or ground rod?

Select	Answer
A	Reduce RFI to telephones and home entertainment systems
B	Reduce received noise
C	Lightning protection
D	Reduce RF current flow between pieces of equipment

2. - E1A13

Who must be in physical control of the station apparatus of an amateur station aboard any vessel or craft that is documented or registered in the United States?

Select	Answer
A	Any person holding an FCC issued amateur license or who is authorized for alien reciprocal operation
B	Any person named in an amateur station license grant or a person holding an unrestricted Radiotelephone Operator Permit
C	Only a person with an FCC Marine Radio license grant
D	Only a person named in an amateur station license grant

3. - E1B05

What is the National Radio Quiet Zone?

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

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	Operations may commence immediately, and may continue unless interference is reported by the UTC
B	Operators may not operate until a test signal has been transmitted in coordination with the local power company
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	2 watts
B	100 watts
C	5 watts
D	1 watt

6. - E1E07

What should a VE do if a candidate fails to comply with the examiner's instructions during an amateur operator license examination?

Select	Answer
A	Allow the candidate to complete the examination, but invalidate the results
B	Immediately terminate everyone's examination and close the session
C	Immediately terminate the candidate's examination
D	Warn the candidate that continued failure to comply will result in termination of the examination

7. - E1F06

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

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

8. - E2A03

How is the signal inverted by an inverting linear transponder?

Select	Answer
A	The signal is reduced to I and Q components and the Q component is filtered out
B	The signal is detected and remodulated on the reverse sideband
C	The signal is passed through a mixer and the difference rather than the sum is transmitted
D	The signal is passed through a non-linear filter

9. - E2B01

How many times per second is a new frame transmitted in a fast-scan (NTSC) television system?

Select	Answer
A	30
B	90
C	120
D	60

10. - E2C12

What technique do individual nodes use to form a mesh network?

Select	Answer
A	Discovery and link establishment protocols
B	Forward error correction and Viterbi codes
C	Acting as store-and-forward digipeaters
D	Custom code plugs for the local trunking systems

11. - E2D07

What digital protocol is used by APRS?

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

12. - E2E06

What is the most common data rate used for HF packet?

Select	Answer
A	110 baud
B	300 baud
C	1200 baud
D	48 baud

13. - E3A08

When a meteor strikes the Earth's atmosphere, a cylindrical region of free electrons is formed at what layer of the ionosphere?

Select	Answer
A	The D layer
B	The F1 layer
C	The E layer
D	The F2 layer

14. - E3B09

At what time of year is sporadic E propagation most likely to occur?

Select	Answer
A	Around the equinoxes, especially the fall equinox
B	Around the solstices, especially the summer solstice
C	Around the solstices, especially the winter solstice
D	Around the equinoxes, especially the spring equinox

15. - E3C13

What type of polarization is best for ground-wave propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Horizontal
B	Vertical
C	Elliptical
D	Circular

16. - E4A11

How should an antenna analyzer be connected when measuring antenna resonance and feed point impedance?

Select	Answer
A	Connect the analyzer via a high-impedance transformer to the antenna
B	Loosely couple the antenna and a dummy load to the analyzer
C	Loosely couple the analyzer near the antenna base
D	Connect the antenna feed line directly to the analyzer's connector

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	The attenuator has a noise filter to suppress interference
D	Signals are attenuated separately from the noise

19. - E4D07

Which of the following reduces the likelihood of receiver desensitization?

Select	Answer
A	Decrease the RF bandwidth of the receiver
B	Switch from fast AGC to slow AGC
C	Raise the receiver IF frequency
D	Increase the receiver front end gain

20. - E4E03

Which of the following signals might a receiver noise blanker be able to remove from desired signals?

Select	Answer
A	Signals that have a sharply peaked frequency distribution
B	Signals that are constant at all IF levels
C	Signals that appear at one IF but not another
D	Signals that appear across a wide bandwidth

21. - E5A02

What is resonance in an LC or RLC circuit?

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

22. - E5B05

What happens to the magnitude of a pure reactance when it is converted to a susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	It is unchanged
B	It becomes the reciprocal
C	The sign is reversed
D	It is shifted by 90 degrees

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 2
B	Point 4
C	Point 5
D	Point 6

24. - E5D14

What is reactive power?

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

25. - E6A08

What term indicates the frequency at which the grounded-base current gain of a transistor has decreased to 0.7 of the gain obtainable at 1 kHz?

Select	Answer
A	Corner frequency
B	Alpha rejection frequency
C	Beta cutoff frequency
D	Alpha cutoff frequency

26. - E6B08

Which of the following is a Schottky barrier diode?

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

27. - E6C02

What happens when the level of a comparator's input signal crosses the threshold?

Select	Answer
A	The feedback loop becomes unstable
B	The IC input can be damaged
C	The comparator changes its output state
D	The comparator enters latch-up

28. - E6D04

Which materials are commonly used as a core in an inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Polystyrene and polyethylene
B	Teflon and Delrin
C	Cobalt and aluminum
D	Ferrite and brass

29. - E6E04

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

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

30. - E6F08

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

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

31. - E7A06

What is a characteristic of a monostable multivibrator?

Select	Answer
A	It switches momentarily to the opposite binary state and then returns to its original state after a set time
B	It produces a continuous square wave oscillating between 1 and 0
C	It stores one bit of data in either a 0 or 1 state
D	It maintains a constant output voltage, regardless of variations in the input voltage

32. - E7B04

Where on the load line of a Class A common emitter amplifier would bias normally be set?

Select	Answer
A	Where the load line intersects the voltage axis
B	At a point where the bias resistor equals the load resistor
C	At a point where the load line intersects the zero bias current curve
D	Approximately halfway between saturation and cutoff

33. - E7C05

Which filter type is described as having ripple in the passband and a sharp cutoff?

Select	Answer
A	An active LC filter
B	A Chebyshev filter
C	A passive op-amp filter
D	A Butterworth filter

34. - E7D12

What is the dropout voltage of an analog voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	Maximum output voltage drops when the input voltage is varied over its specified range
B	Minimum input-to-output voltage required to maintain regulation
C	Maximum that the output voltage may decrease at rated load
D	Minimum input voltage for rated power dissipation

35. - E7E09

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

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

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	6 bits
C	10 bits
D	4 bits

37. - E7G04

What is meant by the "op-amp input offset voltage"?

Select	Answer
A	The difference between the output voltage of the op-amp and the input voltage required in the immediately following stage
B	The output voltage of the op-amp minus its input voltage
C	The potential between the amplifier input terminals of the op-amp in an open loop condition
D	The differential input voltage needed to bring the open loop output voltage to zero

38. - E7H15

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

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

39. - E8A02

Which of the following is a type of analog-to-digital conversion?

Select	Answer
A	Harmonic regeneration
B	Level shifting
C	Phase reversal
D	Successive approximation

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	0.47
B	47
C	2.14
D	0.214

41. - E8C01

How is Forward Error Correction implemented?

Select	Answer
A	By the receiving station repeating each block of three data characters
B	By varying the frequency shift of the transmitted signal according to a predefined algorithm
C	By transmitting a special algorithm to the receiving station along with the data characters
D	By transmitting extra data that may be used to detect and correct transmission errors

42. - E8D09

What is considered an acceptable maximum IMD level for an idling PSK signal?

Select	Answer
A	-30 dB
B	+10 dB
C	-20 dB
D	+15 dB

43. - E9A03

What is the radiation resistance of an antenna?

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

44. - E9B10

What is the principle of a Method of Moments analysis?

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

45. - E9C10

Which of the following describes a Zepp antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A vertical array capable of quickly changing the direction of maximum radiation by changing phasing lines
B	An end-fed dipole antenna
C	An omni-directional antenna commonly used for satellite communications
D	A dipole constructed from zip cord

46. - E9D09

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

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

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

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

49. - E9G03

Which of the following is often determined using a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Beam headings and radiation patterns
B	Trigonometric functions
C	Satellite azimuth and elevation bearings
D	Impedance and SWR values in transmission lines

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 peak
C	Broadband response
D	A very sharp single null

Figure E5-1