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

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1. - E0A08

What does SAR measure?

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

2. - E1A04

With your transceiver displaying the carrier frequency of phone signals, you hear a DX station calling CQ on 3.601 MHz LSB. Is it legal to return the call using lower sideband on the same frequency?

Select	Answer
A	Yes, because the displayed frequency is within the 75 meter phone band segment
B	No, U.S. stations are not permitted to use phone emissions below 3.610 MHz
C	Yes, because the DX station initiated the contact
D	No, the sideband will extend beyond the edge of the phone band segment

3. - E1B08

What limitations may the FCC place on an amateur station if its signal causes interference to domestic broadcast reception, assuming that the receivers involved are of good engineering design?

Select	Answer
A	The amateur station must avoid transmitting during certain hours on frequencies that cause the interference
B	The amateur station must cease operation
C	The amateur station must cease operation on all frequencies below 30 MHz
D	The amateur station must cease operation on all frequencies above 30 MHz

4. - E1C01

What is the maximum bandwidth for a data emission on 60 meters?

Select	Answer
A	1.5 kHz
B	2.8 kHz
C	170 Hz
D	60 Hz

5. - E1D03

What is a space telecommand station?

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

6. - E1E05

What is the minimum passing score on all amateur operator license examinations?

Select	Answer
A	Minimum passing score of 77%
B	Minimum passing score of 74%
C	Minimum passing score of 70%
D	Minimum passing score of 80%

7. - E1F04

Which of the following geographic descriptions approximately describes "Line A"?

Select	Answer
A	A line roughly parallel to and west of the U.S. Atlantic coastline
B	A line roughly parallel to and north of the border between the U.S. and Mexico
C	A line roughly parallel to and east of the U.S. Pacific coastline
D	A line roughly parallel to and south of the border between the U.S. and Canada

8. - E2A13

Which of the following techniques is normally used by low Earth orbiting digital satellites to relay messages around the world?

Select	Answer
A	Digipeating
B	Store-and-forward
C	Multi-satellite relaying
D	Node hopping

9. - E2B01

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

Select	Answer
A	30
B	60
C	90
D	120

10. - E2C02

Which of the following best describes the term self-spotting? in connection with HF contest operating?

Select	Answer
A	A manual technique for rapidly zero beating or tuning to a station's frequency before calling that station
B	An automatic method for rapidly zero beating or tuning to a station's frequency before calling that station
C	The often-prohibited practice of posting one's own call sign and frequency on a spotting network
D	The acceptable practice of manually posting the call signs of stations on a spotting network

11. - E2D04

What technology is used to track, in real time, balloons carrying amateur radio transmitters?

Select	Answer
A	Ultrasonics
B	APRS
C	Doppler shift of beacon signals
D	Bandwidth compressed LORAN

12. - E2E07

Which of the following is a possible reason that attempts to initiate contact with a digital station on a clear frequency are unsuccessful?

Select	Answer
A	Your transmit frequency is incorrect
B	Another station you are unable to hear is using the frequency
C	The protocol version you are using is not supported by the digital station
D	All these choices are correct

13. - E3A06

What might help to restore contact when DX signals become too weak to copy across an entire HF band a few hours after sunset?

Select	Answer
A	Wait 90 minutes or so for the signal degradation to pass
B	Switch to a higher frequency HF band
C	Wait 24 hours before attempting another communication on the band
D	Switch to a lower frequency HF band

14. - E3B10

Why is chordal hop propagation desirable?

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

15. - E3C04

What does the value of Bz (B sub Z) represent?

Select	Answer
A	Geomagnetic field stability
B	Duration of long-delayed echoes
C	Direction and strength of the interplanetary magnetic field
D	Critical frequency for vertical transmissions

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 time-domain reflectometer
B	A spectrum analyzer
C	A wattmeter
D	A logic analyzer

17. - E4B07

What do the subscripts of S parameters represent?

Select	Answer
A	Frequency order of the measurements
B	The port or ports at which measurements are made
C	The relative time between measurements
D	Relative quality of the data

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

19. - E4D06

What is the term for spurious signals generated by the combination of two or more signals in a non-linear device or circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Adjacent channel interference
B	Amplifier desensitization
C	Intermodulation
D	Neutralization

20. - E4E08

What current flows equally on all conductors of an unshielded multi-conductor cable?

Select	Answer
A	Return current
B	Common-mode current
C	Reactive current only
D	Differential-mode current

21. - E5A11

What is the half-power bandwidth of a resonant circuit that has a resonant frequency of 7.1 MHz and a Q of 150?

Select	Answer
A	47.3 kHz
B	157.8 Hz
C	315.6 Hz
D	23.67 kHz

22. - E5B06

What is susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	The imaginary part of admittance
B	A measure of the efficiency of a transformer
C	The ratio of magnetic field to electric field
D	The magnetic impedance of a circuit

23. - E5C05

What is the name of the diagram used to show the phase relationship between impedances at a given frequency?

Select	Answer
A	Near field diagram
B	Venn diagram
C	Phasor diagram
D	Far field diagram

24. - E5D04

Why are short connections used at microwave frequencies?

Select	Answer
A	To increase compensating capacitance
B	To reduce phase shift along the connection
C	To reduce noise figure
D	To increase neutralizing resistance

25. - E6A07

Which of the following indicates that a silicon NPN junction transistor is biased on?

Select	Answer
A	Base-to-emitter resistance of approximately 6 to 7 ohms
B	Base-to-emitter voltage of approximately 0.6 to 0.7 volts
C	Base-to-emitter voltage of approximately 6 to 7 volts
D	Base-to-emitter resistance of approximately 0.6 to 0.7 ohms

26. - E6B08

Which of the following is a Schottky barrier diode?

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

27. - E6C01

What is the function of hysteresis in a comparator?

Select	Answer
A	To cause the output to change states continually
B	To prevent input noise from causing unstable output signals
C	To increase the sensitivity
D	To allow the comparator to be used with AC input signals

28. - E6D13

What is the primary cause of inductor self-resonance?

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

29. - E6E08

How is power supplied to the most common type of MMIC?

Select	Answer
A	Through a capacitor and RF choke connected to the amplifier input lead
B	MMICs require no operating bias
C	Through a resistor and/or RF choke connected to the amplifier output lead
D	Directly to the bias voltage (VCC IN) lead

30. - E6F09

What is the efficiency of a photovoltaic cell?

Select	Answer
A	Cost per kilowatt-hour generated
B	The relative fraction of light that is converted to current
C	The open-circuit voltage divided by the short-circuit current under full illumination
D	The output RF power divided by the input DC power

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 stores one bit of data in either a 0 or 1 state
C	It maintains a constant output voltage, regardless of variations in the input voltage
D	It produces a continuous square wave oscillating between 1 and 0

32. - E7B05

What can be done to prevent unwanted oscillations in an RF power amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	Use a phase inverter in the output filter
B	Tune the stage for maximum SWR
C	Tune both the input and output for maximum power
D	Install parasitic suppressors and/or neutralize the stage

33. - E7C09

What is a crystal lattice filter?

Select	Answer
A	An audio filter made with four quartz crystals that resonate at 1 kHz intervals
B	A power supply filter made with interlaced quartz crystals
C	A filter with narrow bandwidth and steep skirts made using quartz crystals
D	A filter using lattice-shaped quartz crystals for high-Q performance

34. - E7D12

What is the dropout voltage of an analog voltage regulator?

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

35. - E7E10

How does a diode envelope detector function?

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

36. - E7F05

How frequently must an analog signal be sampled by an analog-to-digital converter so that the signal can be accurately reproduced?

Select	Answer
A	At the same rate as the highest frequency component of the signal
B	At four times the rate of the highest frequency component of the signal
C	At least half the rate of the highest frequency component of the signal
D	At least twice the rate of the highest frequency component of the signal

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	38
B	76
C	0.03
D	1

38. - E7H11

What are the major spectral impurity components of direct digital synthesizers?

Select	Answer
A	Digital conversion noise
B	Nyquist limit noise
C	Spurious signals at discrete frequencies
D	Broadband noise

39. - E8A04

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

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

40. - E8B09

What is deviation ratio?

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

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 the receiving station repeating each block of three data characters
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. - E8D01

Why are received spread spectrum signals resistant to interference?

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

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	317 watts
B	2000 watts
C	126 watts
D	300 watts

44. - E9B05

What type of antenna pattern is shown in Figure E9-2?

Select	Answer
A	Azimuth
B	Polarization
C	Elevation
D	Radiation resistance

45. - E9C09

Which of the following describes a G5RV antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A phased array antenna consisting of multiple loops
B	A multi-band dipole antenna fed with coax and a balun through a selected length of open wire transmission line
C	A multi-band trap antenna
D	A wide band dipole using shorted coaxial cable for the radiating elements and fed with a�4:1 balun

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 decreases and the capacitive reactance decreases
C	The radiation resistance increases and the capacitive reactance increases
D	The radiation resistance increases and the capacitive reactance decreases

47. - E9E02

What is the name of an antenna matching system that matches an unbalanced feed line to an antenna by feeding the driven element both at the center of the element and at a fraction of a wavelength to one side of center?

Select	Answer
A	The delta match
B	The gamma match
C	The stub match
D	The epsilon match

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

49. - E9G03

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

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

50. - E9H07

Why is RF attenuation used when direction-finding?

Select	Answer
A	To increase receiver sensitivity
B	To compensate for isotropic directivity and the antenna effect of feed lines
C	To narrow the receiver bandwidth
D	To prevent receiver overload which reduces pattern nulls

Figure E7-3

Figure E9-2