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

Logging in (or registering) will help the system to select questions that you need to focus on.

1. - E0A11

Which of the following injuries can result from using high-power UHF or microwave transmitters?

Select	Answer
A	Blood clotting from the intense magnetic field
B	Hearing loss caused by high voltage corona discharge
C	Ingestion of ozone gas from the cooling system
D	Localized heating of the body from RF exposure in excess of the MPE limits

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

3. - E1B11

What does PRB-1 require of regulations affecting amateur radio?

Select	Answer
A	Amateur radio operations must be permitted in any private residence
B	Use of wireless devices in a vehicle is exempt from regulation
C	No limitations may be placed on antenna size or placement
D	Reasonable accommodations of amateur radio must be made

4. - E1C12

On what portion of the 630 meter band are phone emissions permitted?

Select	Answer
A	None
B	The entire band
C	Only the bottom 3 kHz
D	Only the top 3 kHz

5. - E1D07

Which HF amateur bands have frequencies authorized for space stations?

Select	Answer
A	All HF bands
B	Only the 40, 30, 20, 15, 12, and 10 meter bands
C	Only the 40, 20, 17, 15, and 10 meter bands
D	Only the 40, 20, 17, 15, 12, and 10 meter bands

6. - E1E11

What must the VE team do if an examinee scores a passing grade on all examination elements needed for an upgrade or new license?

Select	Answer
A	Issue the examinee the new or upgrade license
B	Photocopy all examination documents and forward them to the FCC for processing
C	Three VEs must certify that the examinee is qualified for the license grant and that they have complied with the administering VE requirements
D	All these choices are correct

7. - E1F07

When may an amateur station send a message to a business?

Select	Answer
A	When neither the amateur nor his or her employer has a pecuniary interest in the communications
B	When the control operator is employed by the FCC or another government agency
C	When the total money involved does not exceed $25
D	When transmitting international third-party communications

8. - E2A09

What do the terms L band and S band specify regarding satellite communications?

Select	Answer
A	FM and Digital Store-and-Forward systems
B	The 23 centimeter and 13 centimeter bands
C	The 2 meter and 70 centimeter bands
D	Which sideband to use

9. - E2B12

What signals SSTV receiving software to begin a new picture line?

Select	Answer
A	Specific tone amplitudes
B	Specific tone frequencies
C	A two-tone signal
D	Elapsed time

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 separate the calling stations from the DX station
C	To improve operating efficiency by reducing interference
D	Because the DX station may be transmitting on a frequency that is prohibited to some responding stations

11. - E2D03

Which of the following digital modes is especially useful for EME communications?

Select	Answer
A	MSK144
B	Olivia
C	PACTOR III
D	JT65

12. - E2E05

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

Select	Answer
A	PACTOR
B	PSK31
C	MFSK
D	RTTY

13. - E3A10

Which type of atmospheric structure can create a path for microwave propagation?

Select	Answer
A	The jet stream
B	Wind shear
C	Dust devil
D	Temperature inversion

14. - E3B01

What is transequatorial propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Propagation between two mid-latitude points at approximately the same distance north and south of the magnetic equator
B	Propagation between a point on the equator and its antipodal point
C	Propagation between points at the same latitude
D	Propagation between points located on the magnetic equator

15. - E3C05

What orientation of Bz (B sub z) increases the likelihood that incoming particles from the sun will cause disturbed conditions?

Select	Answer
A	Westward
B	Southward
C	Northward
D	Eastward

16. - E4A06

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

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

17. - E4B04

Which S parameter represents input port return loss or reflection coefficient (equivalent to VSWR)?

Select	Answer
A	S11
B	S21
C	S12
D	S22

18. - E4C05

What does a receiver noise floor of -174 dBm represent?

Select	Answer
A	The noise figure of a 1 Hz bandwidth receiver
B	The theoretical noise in a 1 Hz bandwidth at the input of a perfect receiver at room temperature
C	The galactic noise contribution to minimum detectable signal
D	The minimum detectable signal as a function of receive frequency

19. - E4D05

What transmitter frequencies would cause an intermodulation-product signal in a receiver tuned to 146.70 MHz when a nearby station transmits on 146.52 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	146.34 MHz and 146.61 MHz
B	146.10 MHz and 147.30 MHz
C	173.35 MHz and 139.40 MHz
D	146.88 MHz and 146.34 MHz

20. - E4E05

How can radio frequency interference from an AC motor be suppressed?

Select	Answer
A	By installing a bypass capacitor in series with the motor leads
B	By using a ground-fault current interrupter in the circuit used to power the motor
C	By installing a high-pass filter in series with the motor's power leads
D	By installing a brute-force AC-line filter in series with the motor leads

21. - E5A03

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

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

22. - E5B02

What letter is commonly used to represent susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	B
B	G
C	Y
D	X

23. - E5C09

When using rectangular coordinates to graph the impedance of a circuit, what do the axes represent?

Select	Answer
A	The X axis represents the resistive component and the Y axis represents the reactive component
B	The X axis represents the phase angle and the Y axis represents the magnitude
C	The X axis represents the magnitude and the Y axis represents the phase angle
D	The X axis represents the reactive component and the Y axis represents the resistive component

24. - E5D04

Why are short connections used at microwave frequencies?

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

25. - E6A09

What is a depletion-mode FET?

Select	Answer
A	Any FET without a channel
B	Any FET for which holes are the majority carriers
C	An FET that exhibits a current flow between source and drain when no gate voltage is applied
D	An FET that has no current flow between source and drain when no gate voltage is applied

26. - E6B08

Which of the following is a Schottky barrier diode?

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

27. - E6C06

Why do CMOS digital integrated circuits have high immunity to noise on the input signal or power supply?

Select	Answer
A	Large bypass capacitance is inherent
B	Bandwidth is very limited
C	The input switching threshold is about one-half the power supply voltage
D	The input switching threshold is about two times the power supply voltage

28. - E6D11

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

Select	Answer
A	Ceramic
B	Ferrite
C	Powdered iron
D	Brass

29. - E6E06

What characteristics of the MMIC make it a popular choice for VHF through microwave circuits?

Select	Answer
A	The ability to retrieve information from a single signal even in the presence of other strong signals
B	Plate current that is controlled by a control grid
C	Nearly infinite gain, very high input impedance, and very low output impedance
D	Controlled gain, low noise figure, and constant input and output impedance over the specified frequency range

30. - E6F09

What is the efficiency of a photovoltaic cell?

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

31. - E7A02

What is the function of a decade counter?

Select	Answer
A	It decodes a binary number for display on a seven-segment LED display
B	It produces one output pulse for every 10 input pulses
C	It decodes a decimal number for display on a seven-segment LED display
D	It produces 10 output pulses for every input pulse

32. - E7B14

Why are switching amplifiers more efficient than linear amplifiers?

Select	Answer
A	Switching amplifiers use push-pull circuits
B	The power transistor is at saturation or cutoff most of the time
C	Switching amplifiers operate at higher voltages
D	Linear amplifiers have high gain resulting in higher harmonic content

33. - E7C03

What advantage does a series-L Pi-L-network have over a series-L Pi-network for impedance matching between the final amplifier of a vacuum-tube transmitter and an antenna?

Select	Answer
A	Greater harmonic suppression
B	Greater transformation range
C	Does not require a capacitor
D	Higher efficiency

34. - E7D11

What is the function of the pass transistor in a linear voltage regulator circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Permits a wide range of output voltage settings
B	Maintains nearly constant output impedance over a wide range of load current
C	Maintains nearly constant output voltage over a wide range of load current
D	Provides a stable input impedance over a wide range of source voltage

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	1.414 and 0.707 times the input frequency
C	The two input frequencies along with their sum and difference frequencies
D	Two and four times the original frequency

36. - E7F08

What is the function of decimation?

Select	Answer
A	Removing unnecessary significant digits
B	Attenuating the signal
C	Reducing the effective sample rate by removing samples
D	Converting data to binary code decimal form

37. - E7G06

What is the gain-bandwidth of an operational amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	The frequency at which the amplifier's offset voltage is zero
B	The gain of the amplifier at a filter's cutoff frequency
C	The maximum frequency for a filter circuit using that type of amplifier
D	The frequency at which the open-loop gain of the amplifier equals one

38. - E7H09

What type of frequency synthesizer circuit uses a phase accumulator, lookup table, digital to analog converter, and a low-pass anti-alias filter?

Select	Answer
A	A hybrid synthesizer
B	A diode-switching matrix synthesizer
C	A direct digital synthesizer
D	A phase-locked loop synthesizer

39. - E8A05

What of the following instruments would be the most accurate for measuring the RMS voltage of a complex waveform?

Select	Answer
A	A D'Arsonval meter
B	An absorption wave meter
C	A grid dip meter
D	A true-RMS calculating meter

40. - E8B01

What is the modulation index of an FM signal?

Select	Answer
A	The bandwidth of the transmitted signal divided by the modulating signal frequency
B	The ratio of modulating signal amplitude to frequency deviation
C	The type of modulation used by the transmitter
D	The ratio of frequency deviation to modulating signal frequency

41. - E8C07

What is the bandwidth of a 4800-Hz frequency shift, 9600-baud ASCII FM transmission?

Select	Answer
A	15.36 kHz
B	4.8 kHz
C	9.6 kHz
D	5.76 kHz

42. - E8D07

What is a common cause of overmodulation of AFSK signals?

Select	Answer
A	Ground loops
B	Excessive numbers of retries
C	Bit errors in the modem
D	Excessive transmit audio levels

43. - E9A01

What is an isotropic antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A grounded antenna used to measure Earth conductivity
B	A theoretical, omnidirectional antenna used as a reference for antenna gain
C	A spacecraft antenna used to direct signals toward Earth
D	A horizontally polarized antenna used to compare Yagi antennas

44. - E9B02

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

Select	Answer
A	24 dB
B	18 dB
C	14 dB
D	36 dB

45. - E9C10

Which of the following describes a Zepp antenna?

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

46. - E9D01

How much does the gain of an ideal parabolic dish antenna change when the operating frequency is doubled?

Select	Answer
A	2 dB
B	3 dB
C	6 dB
D	4 dB

47. - E9E04

What is the purpose of the series capacitor in a gamma-type antenna matching network?

Select	Answer
A	To transform the antenna impedance to a higher value
B	To cancel the inductive reactance of the matching network
C	To provide DC isolation between the feed line and the antenna
D	To provide a rejection notch that prevents the radiation of harmonics

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	8.5 meters
B	13.3 meters
C	10.6 meters
D	7.0 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	Impedance axis
B	Reactance axis
C	Prime axis
D	Polar axis

50. - E9H05

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

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

Figure E9-1

Figure E9-3