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

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1. - E0A07

How may dangerous levels of carbon monoxide from an emergency generator be detected?

Select	Answer
A	Any ordinary smoke detector can be used
B	By the odor
C	Only with a carbon monoxide detector
D	By the yellowish appearance of the gas

2. - E1A07

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

Select	Answer
A	50 watts PEP
B	100 watts PEP
C	5 watts EIRP (Equivalent isotropic radiated power)
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	20 kHz
B	10 kHz
C	3 kHz
D	15 kHz

4. - E1C11

Which of the following operating arrangements allows an FCC-licensed U.S. citizen to operate in many European countries, and alien amateurs from many European countries to operate in the U.S.?

Select	Answer
A	IARP agreement
B	CEPT agreement
C	ITU reciprocal license
D	All these choices are correct

5. - E1D09

Which UHF amateur bands have frequencies authorized for space stations?

Select	Answer
A	70 cm and 13 cm
B	33 cm and 13 cm
C	70 cm and 33 cm
D	70 cm only

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

7. - E1F05

Amateur stations may not transmit in which of the following frequency segments if they are located in the contiguous 48 states and north of Line A?

Select	Answer
A	53 MHz - 54 MHz
B	222 MHz - 223 MHz
C	440 MHz - 450 MHz
D	420 MHz - 430 MHz

8. - E2A10

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

Select	Answer
A	LEO
B	HEO
C	Geomagnetic
D	Geostationary

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

10. - E2C12

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

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

11. - E2D07

What digital protocol is used by APRS?

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

12. - E2E06

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

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

13. - E3A07

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

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

14. - E3B03

What is the best time of day for transequatorial propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Morning
B	Afternoon or early evening
C	Late at night
D	Noon

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	The solar emission at 304 GHz, correlated to x-ray flare levels
C	The ratio of x-ray flux to radio flux, correlated to sunspot number
D	UV emissions at 304 angstroms, correlated to the solar flux index

16. - E4A03

Which of the following test instruments is used to display spurious signals and/or intermodulation distortion products generated by an SSB transmitter?

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

18. - E4C12

Which of the following has the largest effect on an SDR receiver's dynamic range?

Select	Answer
A	RAM speed used for data storage
B	Anti-aliasing input filter bandwidth
C	Analog-to-digital converter sample width in bits
D	CPU register width in bits

19. - E4D04

Which of the following may reduce or eliminate intermodulation interference in a repeater caused by another transmitter operating in close proximity?

Select	Answer
A	Utilizing a Class C final amplifier
B	A properly terminated circulator at the output of the repeater's transmitter
C	Utilizing a Class D final amplifier
D	A band-pass filter in the feed line between the transmitter and receiver

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

21. - E5A02

What is resonance in an LC or RLC circuit?

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

22. - E5B05

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

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

23. - E5C04

What coordinate system is often used to display the resistive, inductive, and/or capacitive reactance components of impedance?

Select	Answer
A	Faraday grid
B	Elliptical coordinates
C	Maidenhead grid
D	Rectangular 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 a circle around the conductor
B	In a direction opposite to the current
C	In the same direction as the current
D	In all directions; omni-directional

25. - E6A01

In what application is gallium arsenide used as a semiconductor material?

Select	Answer
A	In high-current rectifier circuits
B	In microwave circuits
C	In very low-frequency RF circuits
D	In high-power audio circuits

26. - E6B06

Which of the following is a common use of a Schottky diode?

Select	Answer
A	As a VHF/UHF mixer or detector
B	As a rectifier in high current power supplies
C	As a variable capacitance in an automatic frequency control circuit
D	As a constant voltage reference in a power supply

27. - E6C07

What best describes a pull-up or pull-down resistor?

Select	Answer
A	A resistor that ensures that an oscillator frequency does not drift
B	A resistor in a keying circuit used to reduce key clicks
C	A resistor connected to the positive or negative supply line used to establish a voltage when an input or output is an open circuit
D	A resistor connected to an op-amp output that prevents signals from exceeding the power supply voltage

28. - E6D10

What is a primary advantage of using a toroidal core instead of a solenoidal core in an inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Toroidal cores have lower Q characteristics
B	Toroidal cores make it easier to couple the magnetic energy into other components
C	Toroidal cores confine most of the magnetic field within the core material
D	Toroidal cores exhibit greater hysteresis

29. - E6E02

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

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

30. - E6F03

What is the most common configuration of an optoisolator or optocoupler?

Select	Answer
A	A frequency modulated helium-neon laser
B	An LED and a phototransistor
C	A lens and a photomultiplier
D	An amplitude modulated helium-neon laser

31. - E7A06

What is a characteristic of a monostable multivibrator?

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

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

33. - E7C06

What are the distinguishing features of an elliptical filter?

Select	Answer
A	Gradual passband rolloff with minimal stop band ripple
B	Extremely flat response over its pass band with gradually rounded stop band corners
C	Gradual passband rolloff with extreme stop band ripple
D	Extremely sharp cutoff with one or more notches in the stop band

34. - E7D14

What is the purpose of connecting equal-value resistors across power supply filter capacitors connected in series?

Select	Answer
A	Provide a minimum load on the supply
B	Discharge the capacitors when voltage is removed
C	All these choices are correct
D	Equalize the voltage across each capacitor

35. - E7E10

How does a diode envelope detector function?

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

36. - E7F04

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

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

37. - E7G03

What is the typical input impedance of an op-amp?

Select	Answer
A	Very high
B	100 ohms
C	1000 ohms
D	Very low

38. - E7H07

How can an oscillator's microphonic responses be reduced?

Select	Answer
A	Increase the bias voltage
B	Use NP0 capacitors
C	Reduce noise on the oscillator's power supply
D	Mechanically isolate the oscillator circuitry from its enclosure

39. - E8A10

What is the purpose of a low-pass filter used in conjunction with a digital-to-analog converter?

Select	Answer
A	Improve accuracy by removing out-of-sequence codes from the input
B	Remove harmonics from the output caused by the discrete analog levels generated
C	All these choices are correct
D	Lower the input bandwidth to increase the effective resolution

40. - E8B10

What is frequency division multiplexing?

Select	Answer
A	The transmitted signal jumps from band to band at a predetermined rate
B	The transmitted signal is divided into packets of information
C	Two or more information streams are merged into a baseband, which then modulates the transmitter
D	Two or more information streams are merged into a digital combiner, which then pulse position modulates the transmitter

41. - E8C01

How is Forward Error Correction implemented?

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

42. - E8D06

What is the advantage of including parity bits in ASCII characters?

Select	Answer
A	The signal can overpower interfering signals
B	Faster transmission rate
C	Some types of errors can be detected
D	Foreign language characters can be sent

43. - E9A06

What is the effective radiated power relative to a dipole of a repeater station with 200 watts transmitter power output, 4 dB feed line loss, 3.2 dB duplexer loss, 0.8 dB circulator loss, and 10 dBd antenna gain?

Select	Answer
A	126 watts
B	300 watts
C	2000 watts
D	317 watts

44. - E9B03

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

Select	Answer
A	14 dB
B	18 dB
C	24 dB
D	12 dB

45. - E9C07

What is the approximate feed point impedance at the center of a two-wire folded dipole antenna?

Select	Answer
A	72 ohms
B	50 ohms
C	300 ohms
D	450 ohms

46. - E9D10

What happens to feed-point impedance at the base of a fixed length HF mobile antenna when operated below its resonant frequency?

Select	Answer
A	The radiation resistance decreases and the capacitive reactance increases
B	The radiation resistance increases and the capacitive reactance increases
C	The radiation resistance increases and the capacitive reactance decreases
D	The radiation resistance decreases and the capacitive reactance decreases

47. - E9E08

What is a use for a Wilkinson divider?

Select	Answer
A	It divides the operating frequency of a transmitter signal so it can be used on a lower frequency band
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 is used to feed low-impedance loads from a high-impedance source

48. - E9F06

What is the approximate physical length of an air-insulated, parallel conductor transmission line that is electrically 1/2 wavelength long at 14.10 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	10.6 meters
B	13.3 meters
C	7.0 meters
D	8.5 meters

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	Polar axis
B	Impedance axis
C	Prime axis
D	Reactance axis

50. - E9H05

What is the main drawback of a small wire-loop antenna for direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	It has no clearly defined null
B	All these choices are correct
C	It is practical for use only on VHF and higher bands
D	It has a bidirectional pattern

Figure E9-1

Figure E9-3