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	30 to 300 MHz
B	3 to 30 MHz
C	300 kHz to 3 MHz
D	300 to 3000 MHz

2. - E1A03

What is the maximum legal carrier frequency on the 20 meter band for transmitting USB AFSK digital signals having a 1 kHz bandwidth?

Select	Answer
A	14.070 MHz
B	14.149 MHz
C	14.349 MHz
D	14.100 MHz

3. - E1B07

To what type of regulations does PRB-1 apply?

Select	Answer
A	Use of wireless devices in vehicles
B	Homeowners associations
C	FAA tower height limits
D	State and local zoning

4. - E1C10

What is the permitted mean power of any spurious emission relative to the mean power of the fundamental emission from a station transmitter or external RF amplifier installed after January 1, 2003 and transmitting on a frequency below 30 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	At least 53 dB below
B	At least 43 dB below
C	At least 73 dB below
D	At least 63 dB below

5. - E1D03

What is a space telecommand station?

Select	Answer
A	An amateur station located on the surface of the Earth for communication with other Earth stations by means of Earth satellites
B	An amateur station that transmits communications to initiate, modify or terminate functions of a space station
C	An amateur station that receives telemetry from a satellite or balloon more than 50 kilometers above the surface of the Earth
D	An amateur station located in a satellite or a balloon more than 50 kilometers above the surface of the Earth

6. - E1E10

What must the administering VEs do after the administration of a successful examination for an amateur operator license?

Select	Answer
A	They must collect and send the documents to the FCC according to instructions
B	They must collect and send the documents to the NCVEC for grading
C	They must submit the application document to the coordinating VEC according to the coordinating VEC instructions
D	They must collect and submit the documents to the coordinating VEC for grading

7. - E1F08

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

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

8. - E2A10

What type of satellite appears to stay in one position in the sky?

Select	Answer
A	LEO
B	Geostationary
C	HEO
D	Geomagnetic

9. - E2B03

How is an interlaced scanning pattern generated in a fast-scan (NTSC) television system?

Select	Answer
A	By scanning lines from left to right in one field and right to left in the next
B	By scanning each field from bottom to top
C	By scanning two fields simultaneously
D	By scanning odd numbered lines in one field and even numbered lines in the next

10. - E2C08

Which of the following contacts may be confirmed through the U.S. QSL bureau system?

Select	Answer
A	Contacts between a U.S. station and a non-U.S. station
B	Repeater contacts between U.S. club members
C	Special event contacts between stations in the U.S.
D	Contacts using tactical call signs

11. - E2D08

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

Select	Answer
A	Acknowledgement
B	Connect
C	Unnumbered Information
D	Disconnect

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. - E3A14

What is meant by circularly polarized electromagnetic waves?

Select	Answer
A	Waves produced by a loop antenna
B	Waves that circle the Earth
C	Waves with an electric field bent into a circular shape
D	Waves with a rotating electric field

14. - E3B12

What is the primary characteristic of chordal hop propagation?

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

15. - E3C10

What does the 304A solar parameter measure?

Select	Answer
A	The solar wind velocity at 304 degrees from the solar equator, correlated to solar activity
B	UV emissions at 304 angstroms, correlated to the solar flux index
C	The solar emission at 304 GHz, correlated to x-ray flare levels
D	The ratio of x-ray flux to radio flux, correlated to sunspot number

16. - E4A06

What is the effect of aliasing on a digital oscilloscope caused by setting the time base too slow?

Select	Answer
A	A false, jittery low-frequency version of the signal is displayed
B	Excessive blanking occurs, which prevents display of the signal
C	Calibration of the vertical scale is no longer valid
D	All signals will have a DC offset

17. - E4B09

What is indicated if the current reading on an RF ammeter placed in series with the antenna feed line of a transmitter increases as the transmitter is tuned to resonance?

Select	Answer
A	There is an impedance mismatch between the antenna and feed line
B	There is possibly a short to ground in the feed line
C	The transmitter is not properly neutralized
D	There is more power going into the antenna

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. - E4D01

What is meant by the blocking dynamic range of a receiver?

Select	Answer
A	The minimum difference in dB between two signals which produce third-order intermodulation products greater than the noise floor
B	The difference in dB between the noise floor and the level of an incoming signal that will cause 1 dB of gain compression
C	The minimum difference in dB between the levels of two FM signals that will cause one signal to block the other
D	The difference in dB between the noise floor and the third-order intercept point

20. - E4E07

Which of the following can cause shielded cables to radiate or receive interference?

Select	Answer
A	Common-mode currents on the shield and conductors
B	Low inductance ground connections at both ends of the shield
C	Tying all ground connections to a common point resulting in differential-mode currents in the shield
D	Use of braided shielding material

21. - E5A12

What is the half-power bandwidth of a resonant circuit that has a resonant frequency of 3.7 MHz and a Q of 118?

Select	Answer
A	31.4 kHz
B	15.7 kHz
C	436.6 kHz
D	218.3 kHz

22. - E5B10

What is the relationship between the AC current through an inductor and the voltage across an inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Voltage leads current by 90 degrees
B	Current leads voltage by 90 degrees
C	Voltage and current are in phase
D	Voltage and current are 180 degrees out of phase

23. - E5C07

Where is the impedance of a pure resistance plotted on rectangular coordinates?

Select	Answer
A	On the horizontal axis
B	On a horizontal line, offset vertically above the horizontal axis
C	On a line through the origin, slanted at 45 degrees
D	On the vertical axis

24. - E5D02

Why is it important to keep lead lengths short for components used in circuits for VHF and above?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	To increase the thermal time constant
C	To maintain component lifetime
D	To avoid unwanted inductive reactance

25. - E6A02

Which of the following semiconductor materials contains excess free electrons?

Select	Answer
A	N-type
B	P-type
C	Bipolar
D	Insulated gate

26. - E6B08

Which of the following is a Schottky barrier diode?

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

27. - E6C11

In Figure E6-3, what is the schematic symbol for the NOT operation (inverter)?

Select	Answer
A	6
B	2
C	5
D	4

28. - E6D11

Which type of core material decreases inductance when inserted into a coil?

Select	Answer
A	Ferrite
B	Brass
C	Ceramic
D	Powdered iron

29. - E6E02

Which of the following device packages is a through-hole type?

Select	Answer
A	DIP
B	Ball grid array
C	PLCC
D	SOT

30. - E6F05

Which describes an optical shaft encoder?

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

31. - E7A09

What logical operation is performed by an exclusive NOR gate?

Select	Answer
A	It produces logic 1 at its output if only one input is logic 1
B	It produces logic 1 at its output only if all inputs are logic 1
C	It produces logic 0 at its output if only one input is logic 1
D	It produces logic 0 at its output only if all inputs are logic 0

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

33. - E7C11

Which of the following describes a receiving filter's ability to reject signals occupying an adjacent channel?

Select	Answer
A	Passband ripple
B	Shape factor
C	Noise factor
D	Phase response

34. - E7D01

How does a linear electronic voltage regulator work?

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

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. - E7F01

What is meant by direct digital conversion as applied to software defined radios?

Select	Answer
A	Incoming RF is digitized by an analog-to-digital converter without being mixed with a local oscillator signal
B	A switching mixer is used to generate I and Q signals directly from the RF input
C	Incoming RF is converted to a control voltage for a voltage controlled oscillator
D	Software is converted from source code to object code during operation of the receiver

37. - E7G10

What absolute voltage gain can be expected from the circuit in Figure E7-3 when R1 is 1800 ohms and RF is 68 kilohms?

Select	Answer
A	1
B	38
C	76
D	0.03

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

39. - E8A06

What is the approximate ratio of PEP-to-average power in a typical single-sideband phone signal?

Select	Answer
A	2.5 to 1
B	25 to 1
C	100 to 1
D	1 to 1

40. - E8B11

What is digital time division multiplexing?

Select	Answer
A	Two or more signals are arranged to share discrete time slots of a data transmission
B	Two or more data streams share the same channel by transmitting time of transmission as the sub-carrier
C	Two or more data streams are assigned to discrete sub-carriers on an FM transmitter
D	Two or more signals are quadrature modulated to increase bandwidth efficiency

41. - E8C12

What factors affect the bandwidth of a transmitted CW signal?

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

42. - E8D02

What spread spectrum communications technique uses a high-speed binary bit stream to shift the phase of an RF carrier?

Select	Answer
A	Phase compandored spread spectrum
B	Binary phase-shift keying
C	Frequency hopping
D	Direct sequence

43. - E9A13

What term describes station output, taking into account all gains and losses?

Select	Answer
A	Apparent power
B	Half-power bandwidth
C	Effective radiated power
D	Power factor

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	Mutual impedance analysis
C	Graphical analysis
D	Method of Moments

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	A dipole constructed from zip cord
C	An end-fed dipole antenna
D	An omni-directional antenna commonly used for satellite communications

46. - E9D06

What happens to the SWR bandwidth when one or more loading coils are used to resonate an electrically short antenna?

Select	Answer
A	It is unchanged if the loading coil is located at a voltage maximum point
B	It is decreased
C	It is increased
D	It is unchanged if the loading coil is located at the feed point

47. - E9E08

What is a use for a Wilkinson divider?

Select	Answer
A	It is used to feed low-impedance loads from a high-impedance source
B	It is used to feed high-impedance antennas from a low-impedance source
C	It is used to divide power equally between two 50-ohm loads while maintaining 50-ohm input impedance
D	It divides the operating frequency of a transmitter signal so it can be used on a lower frequency band

48. - E9F13

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

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

49. - E9G06

On the Smith chart shown in Figure E9-3, what is the name for the large outer circle on which the reactance arcs terminate?

Select	Answer
A	Impedance axis
B	Reactance axis
C	Polar axis
D	Prime axis

50. - E9H04

What is an advantage of placing a grounded electrostatic shield around a small loop direction-finding antenna?

Select	Answer
A	It eliminates unbalanced capacitive coupling to the surroundings, improving the nulls
B	It increases signal strength by providing a better match to the feed line
C	It adds capacitive loading, increasing the bandwidth of the antenna
D	It eliminates tracking errors caused by strong out-of-band signals

Figure E6-3

Figure E7-3

Figure E9-3