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

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1. - E0A08

What does SAR measure?

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

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	14.100 MHz
D	14.349 MHz

3. - E1B01

Which of the following constitutes a spurious emission?

Select	Answer
A	An emission outside the signal's necessary bandwidth that can be reduced or eliminated without affecting the information transmitted
B	Any transmitted signal that unintentionally interferes with another licensed radio station
C	An amateur station transmission made without the proper call sign identification
D	A signal transmitted to prevent its detection by any station other than the intended recipient

4. - E1C04

What is meant by IARP?

Select	Answer
A	A forecast of intermittent aurora radio propagation
B	The internal amateur radio practices policy of the FCC
C	An international amateur radio permit that allows U.S. amateurs to operate in certain countries of the Americas
D	An indication of increased antenna reflected power

5. - E1D01

What is the definition of telemetry?

Select	Answer
A	One-way transmission of measurements at a distance from the measuring instrument
B	Two-way transmissions of data
C	Two-way transmissions in excess of 1000 feet
D	One-way transmission that initiates, modifies, or terminates the functions of a device at a distance

6. - E1E04

Which of the following best describes the Volunteer Examiner accreditation process?

Select	Answer
A	The procedure by which a VEC confirms that the VE applicant meets FCC requirements to serve as an examiner
B	The amateur operator applying must pass a VE examination administered by the FCC Enforcement Bureau
C	Each General, Advanced and Amateur Extra Class operator is automatically accredited as a VE when the license is granted
D	The prospective VE obtains accreditation from the FCC

7. - E1F01

On what frequencies are spread spectrum transmissions permitted?

Select	Answer
A	Only on amateur frequencies above 420 MHz
B	Only on amateur frequencies above 222 MHz
C	Only on amateur frequencies above 144 MHz
D	Only on amateur frequencies above 50 MHz

8. - E2A02

Which of the following occurs when a satellite is using an inverting linear transponder?

Select	Answer
A	Doppler shift is reduced because the uplink and downlink shifts are in opposite directions
B	Signal position in the band is reversed
C	Upper sideband on the uplink becomes lower sideband on the downlink, and vice versa
D	All these choices are correct

9. - E2B10

What aspect of an analog slow-scan television signal encodes the brightness of the picture?

Select	Answer
A	Tone frequency
B	Tone amplitude
C	Sync frequency
D	Sync amplitude

10. - E2C09

What type of equipment is commonly used to implement an amateur radio mesh network?

Select	Answer
A	A wireless router running custom firmware
B	A 2 meter VHF transceiver with a 1200 baud modem
C	An optical cable connection between the USB ports of 2 separate computers
D	A 440 MHz transceiver with a 9600 baud modem

11. - E2D02

Which of the following is a good technique for making meteor scatter contacts?

Select	Answer
A	15-second timed transmission sequences with stations alternating based on location
B	All these choices are correct
C	Use of special digital modes
D	Short transmissions with rapidly repeated call signs and signal reports

12. - E2E11

What is the difference between direct FSK and audio FSK?

Select	Answer
A	Direct FSK applies the data signal to the transmitter VFO, while AFSK transmits tones via phone
B	Direct FSK occupies less bandwidth
C	Only direct FSK can be decoded by computer
D	Direct FSK can transmit faster baud rates

13. - E3A07

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

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

14. - E3B11

At what time of day can sporadic E propagation occur?

Select	Answer
A	Any time
B	Only around sunset and sunrise
C	Only around sunset
D	Only in hours of darkness

15. - E3C04

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

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

16. - E4A02

Which of the following parameters does a spectrum analyzer display on the vertical and horizontal axes?

Select	Answer
A	RF amplitude and frequency
B	SWR and time
C	RF amplitude and time
D	SWR and frequency

17. - E4B03

Which S parameter is equivalent to forward gain?

Select	Answer
A	S21
B	S12
C	S11
D	S22

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

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

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	Use of braided shielding material
C	Low inductance ground connections at both ends of the shield
D	Tying all ground connections to a common point resulting in differential-mode currents in the shield

21. - E5A04

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

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

22. - E5B11

What is the phase angle between the voltage across and the current through a series RLC circuit if XC is 25 ohms, R is 100 ohms, and XL is 50 ohms?

Select	Answer
A	14 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
B	76 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
C	14 degrees with the voltage leading the current
D	76 degrees with the voltage leading the current

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. - E5D05

What is the power factor of an RL circuit having a 30-degree phase angle between the voltage and the current?

Select	Answer
A	1.73
B	0.577
C	0.866
D	0.5

25. - E6A03

Why does a PN-junction diode not conduct current when reverse biased?

Select	Answer
A	Holes in P-type material and electrons in the N-type material are separated by the applied voltage, widening the depletion region
B	Only N-type semiconductor material can conduct current
C	Excess holes in P-type material combine with the electrons in N-type material, converting the entire diode into an insulator
D	Only P-type semiconductor material can conduct current

26. - E6B05

What characteristic of a PIN diode makes it useful as an RF switch?

Select	Answer
A	Ability to dissipate large amounts of power
B	Low junction capacitance
C	Extremely high reverse breakdown voltage
D	Reverse bias controls its forward voltage drop

27. - E6C05

What is an advantage of CMOS logic devices over TTL devices?

Select	Answer
A	Lower distortion
B	Differential output capability
C	Immune to damage from static discharge
D	Lower power consumption

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

29. - E6E08

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

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

30. - E6F01

What absorbs the energy from light falling on a photovoltaic cell?

Select	Answer
A	Electrons
B	Holes
C	Photons
D	Protons

31. - E7A10

What is a truth table?

Select	Answer
A	A list of inputs and corresponding outputs for a digital device
B	A diagram showing logic states when the digital device output is true
C	A table of logic symbols that indicate the logic states of an op-amp
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	The entire cycle
B	More than 180 degrees but less than 360 degrees
C	Less than 180 degrees
D	Exactly 180 degrees

33. - E7C10

Which of the following filters would be the best choice for use in a 2 meter band repeater duplexer?

Select	Answer
A	A cavity filter
B	A DSP filter
C	A crystal filter
D	An L-C filter

34. - E7D06

What is the purpose of Q1 in the circuit shown in Figure E7-2?

Select	Answer
A	It provides negative feedback to improve regulation
B	It provides a constant load for the voltage source
C	It controls the current supplied to the load
D	It provides D1 with current

35. - E7E08

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

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

36. - E7F11

What sets the minimum detectable signal level for a direct-sampling SDR receiver in the absence of atmospheric or thermal noise?

Select	Answer
A	Reference voltage level and sample width in bits
B	Data storage transfer rate
C	Sample clock phase noise
D	Missing codes and jitter

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	0.03
B	38
C	1
D	76

38. - E7H06

Which of the following oscillator circuits are commonly used in VFOs?

Select	Answer
A	Pierce and Zener
B	Colpitts and Hartley
C	Armstrong and deForest
D	Negative feedback and balanced feedback

39. - E8A03

What type of wave does a Fourier analysis show to be made up of sine waves of a given fundamental frequency plus all its harmonics?

Select	Answer
A	A sawtooth wave
B	A sine wave
C	A cosine wave
D	A square wave

40. - E8B02

How does the modulation index of a phase-modulated emission vary with RF carrier frequency?

Select	Answer
A	It does not depend on the RF carrier frequency
B	It increases as the RF carrier frequency increases
C	It varies with the square root of the RF carrier frequency
D	It decreases as the RF carrier frequency increases

41. - E8C04

What technique minimizes the bandwidth of a PSK31 signal?

Select	Answer
A	Zero-sum character encoding
B	Reed-Solomon character encoding
C	Use of sinusoidal data pulses
D	Use of trapezoidal data pulses

42. - E8D04

What is the primary effect of extremely short rise or fall time on a CW signal?

Select	Answer
A	The generation of RF harmonics
B	The generation of key clicks
C	Limits data speed
D	More difficult to copy

43. - E9A08

What is antenna bandwidth?

Select	Answer
A	The frequency range over which an antenna satisfies a performance requirement
B	The angle formed between two imaginary lines drawn through the element ends
C	Antenna length divided by the number of elements
D	The angle between the half-power radiation points

44. - E9B10

What is the principle of a Method of Moments analysis?

Select	Answer
A	A wire is modeled as a series of segments, each having a uniform value of current
B	A wire is modeled as a single sine-wave current generator
C	A wire is modeled as a single sine-wave voltage source
D	A wire is modeled as a series of segments, each having a distinct value of voltage across it

45. - E9C03

What is the radiation pattern of two 1/4-wavelength vertical antennas spaced 1/2-wavelength apart and fed in phase?

Select	Answer
A	A Figure-8 broadside to the axis of the array
B	Omni-directional
C	A Figure-8 end-fire along the axis of the array
D	Cardioid

46. - E9D02

How can linearly polarized Yagi antennas be used to produce circular polarization?

Select	Answer
A	Arrange two Yagis perpendicular to each other with the driven elements at the same point on the boom fed 90 degrees out of phase
B	Stack two Yagis fed 90 degrees out of phase to form an array with the respective elements in parallel planes
C	Stack two Yagis fed in phase to form an array with the respective elements in parallel planes
D	Arrange two Yagis collinear to each other with the driven elements fed 180 degrees out of phase

47. - E9E01

What system matches a higher-impedance transmission line to a lower-impedance antenna by connecting the line to the driven element in two places spaced a fraction of a wavelength each side of element center?

Select	Answer
A	The stub matching system
B	The gamma matching system
C	The delta matching system
D	The omega matching system

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

49. - E9G02

What type of coordinate system is used in a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Voltage lines and current chords
B	Resistance circles and reactance arcs
C	Resistance lines and reactance chords
D	Voltage circles and current arcs

50. - E9H02

Which is generally true for low band (160 meter and 80 meter) receiving antennas?

Select	Answer
A	Low loss coax transmission line is essential for good performance
B	Atmospheric noise is so high that gain over a dipole is not important
C	They must be erected at least 1/2 wavelength above the ground to attain good directivity
D	All these choices are correct

Figure E7-2

Figure E7-3