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

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1. - E0A10

What toxic material may be present in some electronic components such as high voltage capacitors and transformers?

Select	Answer
A	Polymorphic silicon
B	Polyethylene
C	Polychlorinated biphenyls
D	Polytetrafluoroethylene

2. - E1A08

If a station in a message forwarding system inadvertently forwards a message that is in violation of FCC rules, who is primarily accountable for the rules violation?

Select	Answer
A	The control operators of all the stations in the system
B	The control operator of the packet bulletin board station
C	The control operators of all the stations in the system not authenticating the source from which they accept communications
D	The control operator of the originating station

3. - E1B11

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

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

4. - E1C02

Which of the following types of communications may be transmitted to amateur stations in foreign countries?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	Messages intended for users of the maritime satellite service
C	Business-related messages for non-profit organizations
D	Communications incidental to the purpose of the amateur service and remarks of a personal nature

5. - E1D02

Which of the following may transmit special codes intended to obscure the meaning of messages?

Select	Answer
A	Auxiliary relay links carrying repeater audio
B	Binary control characters
C	Data containing personal information
D	Telecommand signals from a space telecommand station

6. - E1E07

What should a VE do if a candidate fails to comply with the examiner's instructions during an amateur operator license examination?

Select	Answer
A	Immediately terminate everyone's examination and close the session
B	Warn the candidate that continued failure to comply will result in termination of the examination
C	Immediately terminate the candidate's examination
D	Allow the candidate to complete the examination, but invalidate the results

7. - E1F06

Under what circumstances might the FCC issue a Special Temporary Authority (STA) to an amateur station?

Select	Answer
A	To allow regular operation on Land Mobile channels
B	To provide additional spectrum for personal use
C	To provide temporary operation while awaiting normal licensing
D	To provide for experimental amateur communications

8. - E2A13

Which of the following techniques is normally used by low Earth orbiting digital satellites to relay messages around the world?

Select	Answer
A	Multi-satellite relaying
B	Store-and-forward
C	Digipeating
D	Node hopping

9. - E2B05

Which of the following describes the use of vestigial sideband in analog fast-scan TV transmissions?

Select	Answer
A	The vestigial sideband contains chroma information
B	The vestigial sideband carries the audio information
C	Vestigial sideband provides high frequency emphasis to sharpen the picture
D	Vestigial sideband reduces bandwidth while allowing for simple video detector circuitry

10. - E2C12

What technique do individual nodes use to form a mesh network?

Select	Answer
A	Discovery and link establishment protocols
B	Forward error correction and Viterbi codes
C	Acting as store-and-forward digipeaters
D	Custom code plugs for the local trunking systems

11. - E2D11

Which of the following data are used by the APRS network to communicate station location?

Select	Answer
A	Time and frequency
B	Polar coordinates
C	Radio direction finding spectrum analysis
D	Latitude and longitude

12. - E2E13

Which of these digital modes has the fastest data throughput under clear communication conditions?

Select	Answer
A	300 baud packet
B	170 Hz shift, 45 baud RTTY
C	PSK31
D	AMTOR

13. - E3A01

What is the approximate maximum separation measured along the surface of the Earth between two stations communicating by EME?

Select	Answer
A	12,000 miles, if the moon is visible by both stations
B	500 miles, if the moon is at perigee
C	5000 miles, if the moon is at perigee
D	2000 miles, if the moon is at apogee

14. - E3B03

What is the best time of day for transequatorial propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Morning
B	Noon
C	Afternoon or early evening
D	Late at night

15. - E3C11

What does VOACAP software model?

Select	Answer
A	HF propagation
B	VHF radio propagation
C	AC voltage and impedance
D	AC current and impedance

16. - E4A09

Which of the following is good practice when using an oscilloscope probe?

Select	Answer
A	Never use a high-impedance probe to measure a low-impedance circuit
B	Keep the signal ground connection of the probe as short as possible
C	All these choices are correct
D	Never use a DC-coupled probe to measure an AC circuit

17. - E4B09

What is indicated if the current reading on an RF ammeter placed in series with the antenna feed line of a transmitter increases as the transmitter is tuned to resonance?

Select	Answer
A	There is an impedance mismatch between the antenna and feed line
B	There is more power going into the antenna
C	The transmitter is not properly neutralized
D	There is possibly a short to ground in the feed line

18. - E4C05

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

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

19. - E4D08

What causes intermodulation in an electronic circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Too little gain
B	Positive feedback
C	Lack of neutralization
D	Nonlinear circuits or devices

20. - E4E10

What might be the cause of a loud roaring or buzzing AC line interference that comes and goes at intervals?

Select	Answer
A	Arcing contacts in a thermostatically controlled device
B	A defective doorbell or doorbell transformer inside a nearby residence
C	All these choices are correct
D	A malfunctioning illuminated advertising display

21. - E5A07

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

Select	Answer
A	Maximum
B	R/L
C	Minimum
D	L/R

22. - E5B02

What letter is commonly used to represent susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	G
B	B
C	Y
D	X

23. - E5C03

Which of the following represents an inductive reactance in polar coordinates?

Select	Answer
A	A negative phase angle
B	A negative magnitude
C	A positive phase angle
D	A positive magnitude

24. - E5D11

What is the power factor of an RL circuit having a 60-degree phase angle between the voltage and the current?

Select	Answer
A	0.866
B	1.414
C	1.73
D	0.5

25. - E6A04

What is the name given to an impurity atom that adds holes to a semiconductor crystal structure?

Select	Answer
A	N-type impurity
B	Donor impurity
C	Insulator impurity
D	Acceptor impurity

26. - E6B11

What is used to control the attenuation of RF signals by a PIN diode?

Select	Answer
A	Forward DC bias current
B	Capacitance of an RF coupling capacitor
C	A sub-harmonic pump signal
D	Reverse voltage larger than the RF signal

27. - E6C07

What best describes a pull-up or pull-down resistor?

Select	Answer
A	A resistor connected to the positive or negative supply line used to establish a voltage when an input or output is an open circuit
B	A resistor in a keying circuit used to reduce key clicks
C	A resistor that ensures that an oscillator frequency does not drift
D	A resistor connected to an op-amp output that prevents signals from exceeding the power supply voltage

28. - E6D12

What is inductor saturation?

Select	Answer
A	Adjacent inductors become over-coupled
B	The inductor windings are over-coupled
C	The inductor's voltage rating is exceeded causing a flashover
D	The ability of the inductor's core to store magnetic energy has been exceeded

29. - E6E12

Why are DIP through-hole package ICs not typically used at UHF and higher frequencies?

Select	Answer
A	Epoxy coating is conductive above 300 MHz
B	Too many pins
C	Unsuitable for combining analog and digital signals
D	Excessive lead length

30. - E6F06

Which of these materials is most commonly used to create photoconductive devices?

Select	Answer
A	A heavy metal
B	A crystalline semiconductor
C	An ordinary metal
D	A liquid semiconductor

31. - E7A04

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

Select	Answer
A	1
B	4
C	8
D	2

32. - E7B14

Why are switching amplifiers more efficient than linear amplifiers?

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

33. - E7C01

How are the capacitors and inductors of a low-pass filter Pi-network arranged between the network's input and output?

Select	Answer
A	Two capacitors are in series between the input and output, and an inductor is connected between the two capacitors and ground
B	An inductor is connected between the input and ground, another inductor is connected between the output and ground, and a capacitor is connected between the input and output
C	A capacitor is connected between the input and ground, another capacitor is connected between the output and ground, and an inductor is connected between input and output
D	Two inductors are in series between the input and output, and a capacitor is connected between the two inductors and ground

34. - E7D09

What is the main reason to use a charge controller with a solar power system?

Select	Answer
A	Control of electrolyte levels during battery discharge
B	Matching of day and night charge rates
C	Prevention of battery damage due to overcharge
D	Prevention of battery undercharge

35. - E7E04

What is one way a single-sideband phone signal can be generated?

Select	Answer
A	By driving a product detector with a DSB signal
B	By using a loop modulator followed by a mixer
C	By using a reactance modulator followed by a mixer
D	By using a balanced modulator followed by a filter

36. - E7F12

Which of the following is an advantage of a Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filter vs an Infinite Impulse Response (IIR) digital filter?

Select	Answer
A	FIR filters can respond faster to impulses
B	FIR filters can delay all frequency components of the signal by the same amount
C	All these choices are correct
D	FIR filters are easier to implement for a given set of passband rolloff requirements

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	94
B	0.21
C	47
D	24

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

39. - E8A02

Which of the following is a type of analog-to-digital conversion?

Select	Answer
A	Successive approximation
B	Level shifting
C	Phase reversal
D	Harmonic regeneration

40. - E8B01

What is the modulation index of an FM signal?

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

41. - E8C01

How is Forward Error Correction implemented?

Select	Answer
A	By varying the frequency shift of the transmitted signal according to a predefined algorithm
B	By transmitting extra data that may be used to detect and correct transmission errors
C	By the receiving station repeating each block of three data characters
D	By transmitting a special algorithm to the receiving station along with the data characters

42. - E8D02

What spread spectrum communications technique uses a high-speed binary bit stream to shift the phase of an RF carrier?

Select	Answer
A	Direct sequence
B	Phase compandored spread spectrum
C	Frequency hopping
D	Binary phase-shift keying

43. - E9A12

How much gain does an antenna have compared to a 1/2-wavelength dipole when it has 6 dB gain over an isotropic antenna?

Select	Answer
A	3.85 dB
B	2.79 dB
C	6.0 dB
D	8.15 dB

44. - E9B07

How does the total amount of radiation emitted by a directional gain antenna compare with the total amount of radiation emitted from a theoretical isotropic antenna, assuming each is driven by the same amount of power?

Select	Answer
A	The radiation from the isotropic antenna is 2.15 dB stronger than that from the directional antenna
B	The total amount of radiation from the directional antenna is stronger by its front-to-back ratio
C	The total amount of radiation from the directional antenna is increased by the gain of the antenna
D	They are the same

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

46. - E9D08

What happens as the Q of an antenna increases?

Select	Answer
A	SWR bandwidth decreases
B	More common-mode current is present on the feed line
C	Gain is reduced
D	SWR bandwidth increases

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 provide DC isolation between the feed line and the antenna
C	To cancel the inductive reactance of the matching network
D	To provide a rejection notch that prevents the radiation of harmonics

48. - E9F02

Which of the following has the biggest effect on the velocity factor of a transmission line?

Select	Answer
A	Dielectric materials used in the line
B	The termination impedance
C	The center conductor resistivity
D	The line length

49. - E9G04

What are the two families of circles and arcs that make up a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Resistance and voltage
B	Reactance and voltage
C	Resistance and reactance
D	Voltage and impedance

50. - E9H07

Why is RF attenuation used when direction-finding?

Select	Answer
A	To increase receiver sensitivity
B	To narrow the receiver bandwidth
C	To compensate for isotropic directivity and the antenna effect of feed lines
D	To prevent receiver overload which reduces pattern nulls