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

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1. - E0A03

Over what range of frequencies are the FCC human body RF exposure limits most restrictive?

Select	Answer
A	30 to 300 MHz
B	3 to 30 MHz
C	300 to 3000 MHz
D	300 kHz to 3 MHz

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	14.149 MHz
B	14.100 MHz
C	14.070 MHz
D	14.349 MHz

3. - E1B09

Which amateur stations may be operated under RACES rules?

Select	Answer
A	Only those club stations licensed to Amateur Extra Class operators
B	Any FCC-licensed amateur station participating in the Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS)
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. - 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 43 dB below
C	At least 73 dB below
D	At least 53 dB below

5. - E1D09

Which UHF amateur bands have frequencies authorized for space stations?

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

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

7. - E1F05

Amateur stations may not transmit in which of the following frequency segments if they are located in the contiguous 48 states and north of Line A?

Select	Answer
A	222 MHz - 223 MHz
B	420 MHz - 430 MHz
C	53 MHz - 54 MHz
D	440 MHz - 450 MHz

8. - E2A08

Why should effective radiated power to a satellite that uses a linear transponder be limited?

Select	Answer
A	To avoid reducing the downlink power to all other users
B	To avoid interfering with terrestrial QSOs
C	To prevent the satellite from emitting out-of-band signals
D	To prevent creating errors in the satellite telemetry

9. - E2B02

How many horizontal lines make up a fast-scan (NTSC) television frame?

Select	Answer
A	60
B	1080
C	30
D	525

10. - E2C08

Which of the following contacts may be confirmed through the U.S. QSL bureau system?

Select	Answer
A	Contacts between a U.S. station and a non-U.S. station
B	Special event contacts between stations in the U.S.
C	Repeater contacts between U.S. club members
D	Contacts using tactical call signs

11. - E2D02

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

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

12. - E2E09

Which of the following HF digital modes uses variable-length coding for bandwidth efficiency?

Select	Answer
A	PACTOR
B	PSK31
C	MT63
D	RTTY

13. - E3A12

What is the cause of auroral activity?

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

14. - E3B06

Which of the following amateur bands most frequently provides long-path propagation?

Select	Answer
A	10 meters
B	80 meters
C	20 meters
D	6 meters

15. - E3C06

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

Select	Answer
A	By approximately 15 percent of the distance
B	By approximately 50 percent of the distance
C	By approximately twice the distance
D	By approximately four times 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	Calibration of the vertical scale is no longer valid
B	A false, jittery low-frequency version of the signal is displayed
C	Excessive blanking occurs, which prevents display of the signal
D	All signals will have a DC offset

17. - E4B08

Which of the following can be used to measure the Q of a series-tuned circuit?

Select	Answer
A	The bandwidth of the circuit's frequency response
B	The inductance to capacitance ratio
C	The frequency shift
D	The resonant frequency of the circuit

18. - E4C15

What is reciprocal mixing?

Select	Answer
A	Local oscillator phase noise mixing with adjacent strong signals to create interference to desired signals
B	In-phase signals cancelling in a mixer resulting in loss of receiver sensitivity
C	Two digital signals combining from alternate time slots
D	Two out-of-band signals mixing to generate an in-band spurious signal

19. - E4D03

How can intermodulation interference between two repeaters occur?

Select	Answer
A	When the signals from the transmitters are reflected out of phase from airplanes passing overhead
B	When the signals from the transmitters are reflected in phase from airplanes passing overhead
C	When the repeaters are in close proximity and the signals mix in the final amplifier of one or both transmitters
D	When the repeaters are in close proximity and the signals cause feedback in the final amplifier of one or both transmitters

20. - E4E09

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

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

21. - E5A10

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

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

22. - E5B09

What is the relationship between the AC current through a capacitor and the voltage across a capacitor?

Select	Answer
A	Voltage and current are 180 degrees out of phase
B	Voltage and current are in phase
C	Voltage leads current by 90 degrees
D	Current leads voltage by 90 degrees

23. - E5C08

What coordinate system is often used to display the phase angle of a circuit containing resistance, inductive and/or capacitive reactance?

Select	Answer
A	Polar coordinates
B	Faraday grid
C	Maidenhead grid
D	Elliptical coordinates

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	0.866
B	1.73
C	0.5
D	0.577

25. - E6A03

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

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

26. - E6B07

What is the failure mechanism when a junction diode fails due to excessive current?

Select	Answer
A	Insufficient forward voltage
B	Excessive inverse voltage
C	Excessive junction temperature
D	Charge carrier depletion

27. - E6C06

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

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

28. - E6D05

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

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

29. - E6E03

Which of the following materials is likely to provide the highest frequency of operation when used in MMICs?

Select	Answer
A	Silicon dioxide
B	Silicon
C	Gallium nitride
D	Silicon nitride

30. - E6F05

Which describes an optical shaft encoder?

Select	Answer
A	A device that measures the strength of a beam of light using analog to digital conversion
B	A device for generating RTTY signals by means of a rotating light source
C	A digital encryption device often used to encrypt spacecraft control signals
D	A device that detects rotation of a control by interrupting a light source with a patterned wheel

31. - E7A03

Which of the following can divide the frequency of a pulse train by 2?

Select	Answer
A	An OR gate
B	An XOR gate
C	A multiplexer
D	A flip-flop

32. - E7B09

Which of the following describes how the loading and tuning capacitors are to be adjusted when tuning a vacuum tube RF power amplifier that employs a Pi-network output circuit?

Select	Answer
A	The loading capacitor is adjusted to minimum plate current while alternately adjusting the tuning capacitor for maximum allowable plate current
B	The loading capacitor is set to maximum capacitance and the tuning capacitor is adjusted for minimum allowable plate current
C	The tuning capacitor is set to maximum capacitance and the loading capacitor is adjusted for minimum plate permissible current
D	The tuning capacitor is adjusted for minimum plate current, and the loading capacitor is adjusted for maximum permissible plate current

33. - E7C07

Which describes a Pi-L-network used for matching a vacuum tube final amplifier to a 50-ohm unbalanced output?

Select	Answer
A	A matching network in which all components are isolated from ground
B	A Phase Inverter Load network
C	A Pi-network with an additional series inductor on the output
D	A network with only three discrete parts

34. - E7D01

How does a linear electronic voltage regulator work?

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

35. - E7E05

What circuit is added to an FM transmitter to boost the higher audio frequencies?

Select	Answer
A	A de-emphasis network
B	A heterodyne enhancer
C	A heterodyne suppressor
D	A pre-emphasis network

36. - E7F04

What is a common method of generating an SSB signal using digital signal processing?

Select	Answer
A	A frequency synthesizer removes the unwanted sidebands
B	Varying quartz crystal characteristics emulated in digital form
C	Mixing products are converted to voltages and subtracted by adder circuits
D	Signals are combined in quadrature phase relationship

37. - E7G07

What magnitude of voltage gain can be expected from the circuit in Figure E73 when R1 is 10 ohms and RF is 470 ohms?

Select	Answer
A	24
B	47
C	94
D	0.21

38. - E7H01

What are three oscillator circuits used in amateur radio equipment?

Select	Answer
A	Taft, Hartley and Pierce
B	Pierce, Fenner and Beane
C	Taft, Pierce and negative feedback
D	Colpitts, Hartley and Pierce

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

40. - E8B05

What is the deviation ratio of an FM-phone signal having a maximum frequency swing of plus-or-minus 5 kHz when the maximum modulation frequency is 3 kHz?

Select	Answer
A	60
B	0.167
C	1.67
D	0.6

41. - E8C05

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

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

42. - E8D10

What are some of the differences between the Baudot digital code and ASCII?

Select	Answer
A	Baudot uses 7 data bits per character, ASCII uses 8; Baudot has no letters/figures shift code, ASCII uses 2 letters/figures shift codes
B	Baudot uses 5 data bits per character, ASCII uses 7 or 8; Baudot uses 2 characters as letters/figures shift codes, ASCII has no letters/figures shift code
C	Baudot uses 4 data bits per character, ASCII uses 7 or 8; Baudot uses 1 character as a letters/figures shift code, ASCII has no letters/figures code
D	Baudot uses 6 data bits per character, ASCII uses 7 or 8; Baudot has no letters/figures shift code, ASCII uses 2 letters/figures shift codes

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	159 watts
B	63.2 watts
C	252 watts
D	632 watts

44. - E9B01

In the antenna radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-1, what is the beamwidth?

Select	Answer
A	25 degrees
B	50 degrees
C	75 degrees
D	30 degrees

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 increases
B	The horizontal beamwidth decreases
C	The horizontal beamwidth increases
D	The takeoff angle of the lowest elevation lobe decreases

46. - E9D10

What happens to feed-point impedance at the base of a fixed length HF mobile antenna when operated below its resonant frequency?

Select	Answer
A	The radiation resistance increases and the capacitive reactance increases
B	The radiation resistance decreases and the capacitive reactance decreases
C	The radiation resistance decreases and the capacitive reactance increases
D	The radiation resistance increases and the capacitive reactance decreases

47. - E9E04

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

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

48. - E9F09

What is the approximate physical length of a foam polyethylene dielectric coaxial transmission line that is electrically 1/4 wavelength long at 7.2 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	5.2 meters
B	10.4 meters
C	8.3 meters
D	6.9 meters

49. - E9G10

What do the arcs on a Smith chart represent?

Select	Answer
A	Frequency
B	SWR
C	Points with constant reactance
D	Points with constant resistance

50. - E9H06

What is the triangulation method of direction finding?

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

Figure E9-1