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

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1. - E0A01

What is the primary function of an external earth connection or ground rod?

Select	Answer
A	Reduce received noise
B	Reduce RFI to telephones and home entertainment systems
C	Lightning protection
D	Reduce RF current flow between pieces of equipment

2. - E1A06

Where must the carrier frequency of a CW signal be set to comply with FCC rules for 60 meter operation?

Select	Answer
A	At the center frequency of the channel
B	At the lowest frequency of the channel
C	On any frequency where the signal's sidebands are within the channel
D	At the highest frequency of the channel

3. - E1B05

What is the National Radio Quiet Zone?

Select	Answer
A	An area in New Mexico surrounding the White Sands Test Area
B	An area in Puerto Rico surrounding the Arecibo Radio Telescope
C	An area surrounding the National Radio Astronomy Observatory
D	An area in Florida surrounding Cape Canaveral

4. - E1C04

What is meant by IARP?

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

5. - E1D11

Which amateur stations are eligible to operate as Earth stations?

Select	Answer
A	Any amateur station, subject to the privileges of the class of operator license held by the control operator
B	Only those of General, Advanced or Amateur Extra Class operators
C	Any amateur station whose licensee has filed a pre-space notification with the FCC's International Bureau
D	Only those of Amateur Extra Class operators

6. - E1E09

What may be the penalty for a VE who fraudulently administers or certifies an examination?

Select	Answer
A	A sentence of up to one year in prison
B	Revocation of the VE's amateur station license grant and the suspension of the VE's amateur operator license grant
C	All these choices are correct
D	A fine of up to $1000 per occurrence

7. - E1F02

What privileges are authorized in the U.S. to persons holding an amateur service license granted by the government of Canada?

Select	Answer
A	All privileges of the Amateur Extra Class license
B	None, they must obtain a U.S. license
C	The operating terms and conditions of the Canadian amateur service license, not to exceed U.S. Amateur Extra Class license privileges
D	Full privileges, up to and including those of the Amateur Extra Class license, on the 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meter bands

8. - E2A10

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

Select	Answer
A	Geostationary
B	Geomagnetic
C	HEO
D	LEO

9. - E2B11

What is the function of the Vertical Interval Signaling (VIS) code sent as part of an SSTV transmission?

Select	Answer
A	To provide vertical synchronization
B	To identify the call sign of the station transmitting
C	To identify the SSTV mode being used
D	To lock the color burst oscillator in color SSTV images

10. - E2C06

During a VHF/UHF contest, in which band segment would you expect to find the highest level of SSB or CW activity?

Select	Answer
A	At the top of each band, usually in a segment reserved for contests
B	In the middle of each band, usually on the national calling frequency
C	In the middle of the band, usually 25 kHz above the national calling frequency
D	In the weak signal segment of the band, with most of the activity near the calling frequency

11. - E2D08

What type of packet frame is used to transmit APRS beacon data?

Select	Answer
A	Acknowledgement
B	Unnumbered Information
C	Connect
D	Disconnect

12. - E2E01

Which of the following types of modulation is common for data emissions below 30 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	FSK
B	Pulse modulation
C	DTMF tones modulating an FM signal
D	Spread spectrum

13. - E3A12

What is the cause of auroral activity?

Select	Answer
A	An extreme low-pressure area in the polar regions
B	Meteor showers concentrated in the extreme northern and southern latitudes
C	The interaction in the F2 layer between the solar wind and the Van Allen belt
D	The interaction in the E layer of charged particles from the Sun with the Earth's magnetic field

14. - E3B02

What is the approximate maximum range for signals using transequatorial propagation?

Select	Answer
A	5000 miles
B	7500 miles
C	2500 miles
D	1000 miles

15. - E3C09

How does the intensity of an X3 flare compare to that of an X2 flare?

Select	Answer
A	50 percent greater
B	Twice as great
C	10 percent greater
D	Four times as great

16. - E4A07

Which of the following is an advantage of using an antenna analyzer compared to an SWR bridge to measure antenna SWR?

Select	Answer
A	Antenna analyzers automatically tune your antenna for resonance
B	Antenna analyzers do not need an external RF source
C	Antenna analyzers display a time-varying representation of the modulation envelope
D	All these choices are correct

17. - E4B04

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

Select	Answer
A	S21
B	S12
C	S22
D	S11

18. - E4C06

A CW receiver with the AGC off has an equivalent input noise power density of -174 dBm/Hz. What would be the level of an unmodulated carrier input to this receiver that would yield an audio output SNR of 0 dB in a 400 Hz noise bandwidth?

Select	Answer
A	-164 dBm
B	-174 dBm
C	-155 dBm
D	-148 dBm

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

20. - E4E01

What problem can occur when using an automatic notch filter (ANF) to remove interfering carriers while receiving CW signals?

Select	Answer
A	Ringing in the DSP filter will completely remove the spaces between the CW characters
B	Any nearby signal passing through the DSP system will overwhelm the desired signal
C	Removal of the CW signal as well as the interfering carrier
D	Received CW signals will appear to be modulated at the DSP clock frequency

21. - E5A09

How is the Q of an RLC parallel resonant circuit calculated?

Select	Answer
A	Resistance divided by the reactance of either the inductance or capacitance
B	Reactance of either the inductance or capacitance divided by the resistance
C	Reactance of either the inductance or capacitance multiplied by the resistance
D	Reactance of the inductance multiplied by the reactance of the capacitance

22. - E5B04

What is the time constant of a circuit having two 220-microfarad capacitors and two 1-megohm resistors, all in parallel?

Select	Answer
A	440 seconds
B	110 seconds
C	55 seconds
D	220 seconds

23. - E5C12

Which point on Figure E5-1 best represents the impedance of a series circuit consisting of a 300-ohm resistor and a 19-picofarad capacitor at 21.200 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	Point 7
B	Point 1
C	Point 3
D	Point 8

24. - E5D04

Why are short connections used at microwave frequencies?

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

25. - E6A09

What is a depletion-mode FET?

Select	Answer
A	Any FET for which holes are the majority carriers
B	An FET that has no current flow between source and drain when no gate voltage is applied
C	Any FET without a channel
D	An FET that exhibits a 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	Electrolytic rectifier
B	Metal-semiconductor junction
C	PIN junction
D	Thermionic emission diode

27. - E6C01

What is the function of hysteresis in a comparator?

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

28. - E6D07

What is current in the primary winding of a transformer called if no load is attached to the secondary?

Select	Answer
A	Magnetizing current
B	Stabilizing current
C	Excitation current
D	Direct current

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	Through a capacitor and RF choke connected to the amplifier input lead
C	MMICs require no operating bias
D	Through a resistor and/or RF choke connected to the amplifier output lead

30. - E6F11

What is the approximate open-circuit voltage produced by a fully illuminated silicon photovoltaic cell?

Select	Answer
A	0.5 V
B	12 V
C	1.5 V
D	0.1 V

31. - E7A11

What type of logic defines "1" as a high voltage?

Select	Answer
A	Reverse Logic
B	Negative logic
C	Assertive Logic
D	Positive Logic

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	Increased overall intelligibility
C	Signal inversion
D	Reduced intermodulation products

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

34. - E7D01

How does a linear electronic voltage regulator work?

Select	Answer
A	It eliminates the need for a pass transistor
B	The conduction of a control element is varied to maintain a constant output voltage
C	The control element duty cycle is proportional to the line or load conditions
D	It has a ramp voltage as its output

35. - E7E09

What occurs when an excessive amount of signal energy reaches a mixer circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Mixer blanking occurs
B	Automatic limiting occurs
C	Spurious mixer products are generated
D	A beat frequency is generated

36. - E7F13

What is the function of taps in a digital signal processing filter?

Select	Answer
A	Select the point at which baseband signals are generated
B	To reduce excess signal pressure levels
C	Provide incremental signal delays for filter algorithms
D	Provide access for debugging software

37. - E7G03

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

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

38. - E7H13

Which of the following is a technique for providing highly accurate and stable oscillators needed for microwave transmission and reception?

Select	Answer
A	Use a rubidium stabilized reference oscillator
B	Use a temperature-controlled high Q dielectric resonator
C	Use a GPS signal reference
D	All these choices are correct

39. - E8A09

How many different input levels can be encoded by an analog-to-digital converter with 8-bit resolution?

Select	Answer
A	8 multiplied by the gain of the input amplifier
B	256 divided by the gain of the input amplifier
C	8
D	256

40. - E8B06

What is the deviation ratio of an FM-phone signal having a maximum frequency swing of plus or minus 7.5 kHz when the maximum modulation frequency is 3.5 kHz?

Select	Answer
A	47
B	0.214
C	2.14
D	0.47

41. - E8C11

What is the relationship between symbol rate and baud?

Select	Answer
A	Baud is twice the symbol rate
B	Baud is only used for RTTY
C	Symbol rate is only used for packet-based modes
D	They are the same

42. - E8D09

What is considered an acceptable maximum IMD level for an idling PSK signal?

Select	Answer
A	-20 dB
B	-30 dB
C	+15 dB
D	+10 dB

43. - E9A07

What is the effective isotropic radiated power of a repeater station with 200 watts transmitter power output, 2 dB feed line loss, 2.8 dB duplexer loss, 1.2 dB circulator loss, and 7 dBi antenna gain?

Select	Answer
A	63.2 watts
B	632 watts
C	252 watts
D	159 watts

44. - E9B06

What is the elevation angle of peak response in the antenna radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-2?

Select	Answer
A	75 degrees
B	25 degrees
C	7.5 degrees
D	45 degrees

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

46. - E9D05

What usually occurs if a Yagi antenna is designed solely for maximum forward gain?

Select	Answer
A	The front-to-back ratio increases
B	The frequency response is widened over the whole frequency band
C	The SWR is reduced
D	The front-to-back ratio decreases

47. - E9E08

What is a use for a Wilkinson divider?

Select	Answer
A	It is used to feed high-impedance antennas from a low-impedance source
B	It divides the operating frequency of a transmitter signal so it can be used on a lower frequency band
C	It is used to feed low-impedance loads from a high-impedance source
D	It is used to divide power equally between two 50-ohm loads while maintaining 50-ohm input impedance

48. - E9F12

What impedance does a 1/4-wavelength transmission line present to a generator when the line is open at the far end?

Select	Answer
A	Very high impedance
B	The same as the characteristic impedance of the line
C	The same as the input impedance to the generator
D	Very low impedance

49. - E9G03

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

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

50. - E9H06

What is the triangulation method of direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	A fixed receiving station plots three headings to the signal source
B	The geometric angles of sky waves from the source are used to determine its position
C	A fixed receiving station uses three different antennas to plot the location of the signal source
D	Antenna headings from several different receiving locations are used to locate the signal source

Figure E5-1

Figure E9-2