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

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1. - E0A05

What is one of the potential hazards of operating in the amateur radio microwave bands?

Select	Answer
A	The extremely high frequency energy can damage the joints of antenna structures
B	The high gain antennas commonly used can result in high exposure levels
C	Microwaves are ionizing radiation
D	Microwaves often travel long distances by ionospheric reflection

2. - E1A07

What is the maximum power permitted on the 2200 meter band?

Select	Answer
A	100 watts PEP
B	5 watts EIRP (Equivalent isotropic radiated power)
C	50 watts PEP
D	1 watt EIRP (Equivalent isotropic radiated power)

3. - E1B09

Which amateur stations may be operated under RACES rules?

Select	Answer
A	Any FCC-licensed amateur station participating in the Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS)
B	Only those club stations licensed to Amateur Extra Class operators
C	Any FCC-licensed amateur station except a Technician Class
D	Any FCC-licensed amateur station certified by the responsible civil defense organization for the area served

4. - E1C03

How do the control operator responsibilities of a station under automatic control differ from one under local control?

Select	Answer
A	Under automatic control there is no control operator
B	Under automatic control the control operator is not required to be present at the control point
C	Under local control there is no control operator
D	Under local control a control operator is not required to be present at a control point

5. - E1D12

Which of the following amateur stations may transmit one-way communications?

Select	Answer
A	A space station, beacon station, or telecommand station
B	A local repeater or linked repeater station
C	All these choices are correct
D	A message forwarding station or automatically controlled digital station

6. - E1E10

What must the administering VEs do after the administration of a successful examination for an amateur operator license?

Select	Answer
A	They must collect and submit the documents to the coordinating VEC for grading
B	They must collect and send the documents to the FCC according to instructions
C	They must submit the application document to the coordinating VEC according to the coordinating VEC instructions
D	They must collect and send the documents to the NCVEC for grading

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

8. - E2A02

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

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

9. - E2B09

What hardware, other than a receiver with SSB capability and a suitable computer, is needed to decode SSTV using Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM)?

Select	Answer
A	A special IF converter
B	No other hardware is needed
C	A special front end limiter
D	A special notch filter to remove synchronization pulses

10. - E2C07

What is the Cabrillo format?

Select	Answer
A	The most common set of contest rules
B	A standard for submission of electronic contest logs
C	The rules of order for meetings between contest sponsors
D	A method of exchanging information during a contest QSO

11. - E2D04

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

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

12. - E2E02

What do the letters FEC mean as they relate to digital operation?

Select	Answer
A	First Error Correction
B	Fatal Error Correction
C	Forward Error Correction
D	Final Error Correction

13. - E3A10

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

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

14. - E3B07

What happens to linearly polarized radio waves that split into ordinary and extraordinary waves in the ionosphere?

Select	Answer
A	They become phase locked
B	They become elliptically polarized
C	They are bent toward the magnetic poles
D	They become depolarized

15. - E3C06

By how much does the VHF/UHF radio horizon distance exceed the geometric horizon?

Select	Answer
A	By approximately four times the distance
B	By approximately 15 percent of the distance
C	By approximately twice the distance
D	By approximately 50 percent of the distance

16. - E4A06

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

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

17. - E4B07

What do the subscripts of S parameters represent?

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

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	-148 dBm
B	-164 dBm
C	-174 dBm
D	-155 dBm

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	Neutralization
C	Intermodulation
D	Amplifier desensitization

20. - E4E03

Which of the following signals might a receiver noise blanker be able to remove from desired signals?

Select	Answer
A	Signals that have a sharply peaked frequency distribution
B	Signals that are constant at all IF levels
C	Signals that appear across a wide bandwidth
D	Signals that appear at one IF but not another

21. - E5A12

What is the half-power bandwidth of a resonant circuit that has a resonant frequency of 3.7 MHz and a Q of 118?

Select	Answer
A	436.6 kHz
B	218.3 kHz
C	31.4 kHz
D	15.7 kHz

22. - E5B03

How is impedance in polar form converted to an equivalent admittance?

Select	Answer
A	Square the magnitude and subtract 90 degrees from the angle
B	Take the reciprocal of the angle and change the sign of the magnitude
C	Take the square root of the magnitude and add 180 degrees to the angle
D	Take the reciprocal of the magnitude and change the sign of the angle

23. - E5C11

Which point in Figure E5-1 best represents the impedance of a series circuit consisting of a 300-ohm resistor and an 18-microhenry inductor at 3.505 MHz?

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

24. - E5D13

How many watts are consumed in a circuit consisting of a 100-ohm resistor in series with a 100-ohm inductive reactance drawing 1 ampere?

Select	Answer
A	141.4 watts
B	70.7 watts
C	200 watts
D	100 watts

25. - E6A12

Why do many MOSFET devices have internally connected Zener diodes on the gates?

Select	Answer
A	To provide a voltage reference for the correct amount of reverse-bias gate voltage
B	To protect the substrate from excessive voltages
C	To keep the gate voltage within specifications and prevent the device from overheating
D	To reduce the chance of static damage to the gate

26. - E6B06

Which of the following is a common use of a Schottky diode?

Select	Answer
A	As a variable capacitance in an automatic frequency control circuit
B	As a rectifier in high current power supplies
C	As a VHF/UHF mixer or detector
D	As a constant voltage reference in a power supply

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	The input switching threshold is about one-half the power supply voltage
C	The input switching threshold is about two times the power supply voltage
D	Bandwidth is very limited

28. - E6D05

What is one reason for using ferrite cores rather than powdered iron in an inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Ferrite toroids generally require fewer turns to produce a given inductance value
B	Ferrite toroids generally have lower initial permeability
C	Ferrite toroids generally have better temperature stability
D	Ferrite toroids are easier to use with surface mount technology

29. - E6E06

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

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

30. - E6F10

What is the most common type of photovoltaic cell used for electrical power generation?

Select	Answer
A	Selenium
B	Copper oxide
C	Cadmium Sulfide
D	Silicon

31. - E7A04

How many flip-flops are required to divide a signal frequency by 4?

Select	Answer
A	4
B	8
C	2
D	1

32. - E7B03

Which of the following components form the output of a class D amplifier circuit?

Select	Answer
A	A temperature compensating load resistor to improve linearity
B	A low-pass filter to remove switching signal components
C	A matched load resistor to prevent damage by switching transients
D	A high-pass filter to compensate for low gain at low frequencies

33. - E7C04

How does an impedance-matching circuit transform a complex impedance to a resistive impedance?

Select	Answer
A	It introduces negative resistance to cancel the resistive part of impedance
B	It cancels the reactive part of the impedance and changes the resistive part to a desired value
C	It introduces transconductance to cancel the reactive part of impedance
D	Reactive currents are dissipated in matched resistances

34. - E7D12

What is the dropout voltage of an analog voltage regulator?

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

35. - E7E06

Why is de-emphasis commonly used in FM communications receivers?

Select	Answer
A	To reduce impulse noise reception
B	To remove third-order distortion products
C	For compatibility with transmitters using phase modulation
D	For higher efficiency

36. - E7F08

What is the function of decimation?

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

37. - E7G11

What absolute voltage gain can be expected from the circuit in Figure E7-3 when R1 is 3300 ohms and RF is 47 kilohms?

Select	Answer
A	7
B	28
C	0.07
D	14

38. - E7H10

What information is contained in the lookup table of a direct digital synthesizer (DDS)?

Select	Answer
A	Amplitude values that represent the desired waveform
B	The phase relationship between a reference oscillator and the output waveform
C	Frequently used receiver and transmitter frequencies
D	The phase relationship between a voltage-controlled oscillator and the output waveform

39. - E8A11

Which of the following is a measure of the quality of an analog-to-digital converter?

Select	Answer
A	Total harmonic distortion
B	Peak envelope power
C	Reciprocal mixing
D	Power factor

40. - E8B02

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

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

41. - E8C05

What is the approximate bandwidth of a 13-WPM International Morse Code transmission?

Select	Answer
A	26 Hz
B	13 Hz
C	52 Hz
D	104 Hz

42. - E8D11

What is one advantage of using ASCII code for data communications?

Select	Answer
A	It contains fewer information bits per character than any other code
B	It uses one character as a shift code to send numeric and special characters
C	It includes built-in error correction features
D	It is possible to transmit both upper and lower case text

43. - E9A03

What is the radiation resistance of an antenna?

Select	Answer
A	The combined losses of the antenna elements and feed line
B	The resistance in the atmosphere that an antenna must overcome to be able to radiate a signal
C	The specific impedance of the antenna
D	The value of a resistance that would dissipate the same amount of power as that radiated from an antenna

44. - E9B11

What is a disadvantage of decreasing the number of wire segments in an antenna model below 10 segments per half-wavelength?

Select	Answer
A	The antenna will become mechanically unstable
B	The resulting design will favor radiation of harmonic energy
C	Ground conductivity will not be accurately modeled
D	The computed feed point impedance may be incorrect

45. - E9C13

How does the radiation pattern of a horizontally polarized 3-element beam antenna vary with increasing height above ground?

Select	Answer
A	The takeoff angle of the lowest elevation lobe decreases
B	The horizontal beamwidth decreases
C	The horizontal beamwidth increases
D	The takeoff angle of the lowest elevation lobe 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 front-to-back ratio decreases
C	The SWR is reduced
D	The frequency response is widened over the whole frequency band

47. - E9E03

What is the name of the matching system that uses a section of transmission line connected in parallel with the feed line at or near the feed point?

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

48. - E9F01

What is the velocity factor of a transmission line?

Select	Answer
A	The velocity of the wave in the transmission line divided by the velocity of light in a vacuum
B	The velocity of the wave in the transmission line multiplied by the velocity of light in a vacuum
C	The index of shielding for coaxial cable
D	The ratio of the characteristic impedance of the line to the terminating impedance

49. - E9G05

Which of the following is a common use for a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Determine the gain of an antenna given the physical and electrical parameters
B	Determine the length and position of an impedance matching stub
C	Determine the impedance of a transmission line, given the physical dimensions
D	Determine the loss/100 feet of a transmission line, given the velocity factor and conductor materials

50. - E9H04

What is an advantage of placing a grounded electrostatic shield around a small loop direction-finding antenna?

Select	Answer
A	It increases signal strength by providing a better match to the feed line
B	It eliminates unbalanced capacitive coupling to the surroundings, improving the nulls
C	It eliminates tracking errors caused by strong out-of-band signals
D	It adds capacitive loading, increasing the bandwidth of the antenna

Figure E5-1

Figure E7-3