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

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1. - E0A09

Which insulating material commonly used as a thermal conductor for some types of electronic devices is extremely toxic if broken or crushed and the particles are accidentally inhaled?

Select	Answer
A	Uranium Hexafluoride
B	Beryllium Oxide
C	Zinc oxide
D	Mica

2. - E1A14

Except in some parts of Alaska, what is the maximum power permitted on the 630 meter band?

Select	Answer
A	100 watts PEP
B	50 watts PEP
C	5 watts EIRP
D	1 watt EIRP

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

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 63 dB below
B	At least 73 dB below
C	At least 53 dB below
D	At least 43 dB below

5. - E1D09

Which UHF amateur bands have frequencies authorized for space stations?

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

6. - E1E05

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

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

7. - E1F04

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

Select	Answer
A	A line roughly parallel to and south of the border between the U.S. and Canada
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 west of the U.S. Atlantic coastline

8. - E2A03

How is the signal inverted by an inverting linear transponder?

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

9. - E2B06

What is vestigial sideband modulation?

Select	Answer
A	Narrow-band FM modulation achieved by filtering one sideband from the audio before frequency modulating the carrier
B	A type of modulation in which one sideband is inverted
C	Amplitude modulation in which one complete sideband and a portion of the other are transmitted
D	Spread spectrum modulation achieved by applying FM modulation following single sideband amplitude modulation

10. - E2C10

Why might a DX station state that they are listening on another frequency?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	To improve operating efficiency by reducing interference
C	Because the DX station may be transmitting on a frequency that is prohibited to some responding stations
D	To separate the calling stations from the DX station

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. - E2E05

Which of these digital modes does not support keyboard-to-keyboard operation?

Select	Answer
A	MFSK
B	PACTOR
C	RTTY
D	PSK31

13. - E3A09

Which of the following frequency ranges is most suited for meteor scatter communications?

Select	Answer
A	10 MHz - 14 MHz
B	1.8 MHz - 1.9 MHz
C	28 MHz - 148 MHz
D	220 MHz - 450 MHz

14. - E3B04

What is meant by the terms "extraordinary" and "ordinary" waves?

Select	Answer
A	Independent waves created in the ionosphere that are elliptically polarized
B	Long-path and short-path waves
C	Extraordinary waves describe rare long-skip propagation compared to ordinary waves, which travel shorter distances
D	Refracted rays and reflected waves

15. - E3C02

What is indicated by a rising A or K index?

Select	Answer
A	Decreasing disruption of the geomagnetic field
B	An increase in the critical frequency
C	Increasing disruption of the geomagnetic field
D	Higher levels of solar UV radiation

16. - E4A08

Which of the following measures SWR?

Select	Answer
A	A Q meter
B	A spectrum analyzer
C	An antenna analyzer
D	An ohmmeter

17. - E4B11

Which of the following can be measured with a vector network analyzer?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	Output impedance
C	Reflection coefficient
D	Input impedance

18. - E4C13

How does a narrow-band roofing filter affect receiver performance?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	It improves intelligibility by using low Q circuitry to reduce ringing
C	It improves dynamic range by attenuating strong signals near the receive frequency
D	It improves sensitivity by reducing front end noise

19. - E4D10

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

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

20. - E4E09

What undesirable effect can occur when using an IF noise blanker?

Select	Answer
A	Received audio in the speech range might have an echo effect
B	The audio frequency bandwidth of the received signal might be compressed
C	FM signals can no longer be demodulated
D	Nearby signals may appear to be excessively wide even if they meet emission standards

21. - E5A04

What is the magnitude of the impedance of a parallel RLC circuit at resonance?

Select	Answer
A	Approximately equal to circuit resistance
B	Low compared to the circuit resistance
C	High compared to the circuit resistance
D	Approximately equal to inductive reactance

22. - E5B07

What is the phase angle between the voltage across and the current through a series RLC circuit if XC is 500 ohms, R is 1 kilohm, and XL is 250 ohms?

Select	Answer
A	14.0 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
B	68.2 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
C	14.0 degrees with the voltage leading the current
D	68.2 degrees with the voltage leading the current

23. - E5C01

Which of the following represents capacitive reactance in rectangular notation?

Select	Answer
A	Delta
B	-jX
C	+jX
D	Omega

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

25. - E6A02

Which of the following semiconductor materials contains excess free electrons?

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

26. - E6B09

What is a common use for point-contact diodes?

Select	Answer
A	As an RF detector
B	As a high-voltage rectifier
C	As a constant current source
D	As a constant voltage source

27. - E6C09

What is a Programmable Logic Device (PLD)?

Select	Answer
A	A programmable collection of logic gates and circuits in a single integrated circuit
B	Programmable equipment used for testing digital logic integrated circuits
C	A logic circuit that can be modified during use
D	A type of transistor whose gain can be changed by digital logic circuits

28. - E6D03

Which of the following is an aspect of the piezoelectric effect?

Select	Answer
A	Mechanical deformation of material by the application of a magnetic field
B	Generation of electrical energy in the presence of light
C	Mechanical deformation of material by the application of a voltage
D	Increased conductivity in the presence of light

29. - E6E01

Why is gallium arsenide (GaAs) useful for semiconductor devices operating at UHF and higher frequencies?

Select	Answer
A	Lower transconductance
B	Higher electron mobility
C	Higher noise figures
D	Lower junction voltage drop

30. - E6F02

What happens to the conductivity of a photoconductive material when light shines on it?

Select	Answer
A	It decreases
B	It stays the same
C	It increases
D	It becomes unstable

31. - E7A10

What is a truth table?

Select	Answer
A	A table of logic symbols that indicate the logic states of an op-amp
B	A list of inputs and corresponding outputs for a digital device
C	A diagram showing logic states when the digital device output is true
D	A table of logic symbols that indicate the high logic states of an op-amp

32. - E7B01

For what portion of the signal cycle does each active element in a push-pull Class AB amplifier conduct?

Select	Answer
A	Exactly 180 degrees
B	The entire cycle
C	Less than 180 degrees
D	More than 180 degrees but less than 360 degrees

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 filter using lattice-shaped quartz crystals for high-Q performance
C	A filter with narrow bandwidth and steep skirts made using quartz crystals
D	A power supply filter made with interlaced quartz crystals

34. - E7D04

Which of the following types of linear voltage regulator usually make the most efficient use of the primary power source?

Select	Answer
A	A shunt current source
B	A series current source
C	A shunt regulator
D	A series regulator

35. - E7E08

What are the principal frequencies that appear at the output of a mixer circuit?

Select	Answer
A	The square root of the product of input frequencies
B	The two input frequencies along with their sum and difference frequencies
C	Two and four times the original frequency
D	1.414 and 0.707 times the input frequency

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

37. - E7G03

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

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

38. - E7H05

How is positive feedback supplied in a Pierce oscillator?

Select	Answer
A	Through link coupling
B	Through a neutralizing capacitor
C	Through a quartz crystal
D	Through a tapped coil

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	An error caused by irregular quantization step size
C	An abnormal condition where the converter cannot settle on a value to represent the signal
D	A method of decimation by randomly skipping samples

40. - E8B03

What is the modulation index of an FM-phone signal having a maximum frequency deviation of 3000 Hz either side of the carrier frequency when the modulating frequency is 1000 Hz?

Select	Answer
A	1000
B	3
C	0.3
D	3000

41. - E8C08

How does ARQ accomplish error correction?

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

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. - E9A11

Which of the following factors determines ground losses for a ground-mounted vertical antenna operating in the 3 MHz to 30 MHz range?

Select	Answer
A	The standing wave ratio
B	Take-off angle
C	Distance from the transmitter
D	Soil conductivity

44. - E9B03

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

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

45. - E9C11

How is the far-field elevation pattern of a vertically polarized antenna affected by being mounted over seawater versus soil?

Select	Answer
A	Additional higher vertical angle lobes will appear
B	The low-angle radiation increases
C	The low-angle radiation decreases
D	Fewer vertical angle lobes will be present

46. - E9D12

Which of the following would provide the best RF ground for your station?

Select	Answer
A	A 50-ohm resistor connected to ground
B	An electrically short connection to 3 or 4 interconnected ground rods via a series RF choke
C	An electrically short connection to 3 or 4 interconnected ground rods driven into the Earth
D	An electrically short connection to a metal water pipe

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

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. - E9G09

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

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

50. - E9H10

How can the output voltage of a multiple-turn receiving loop antenna be increased?

Select	Answer
A	By winding adjacent turns in opposing directions
B	By utilizing high impedance wire for the coupling loop
C	By increasing the number of turns and/or the area
D	By reducing the permeability of the loop shield

Figure E9-1