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	300 kHz to 3 MHz
B	30 to 300 MHz
C	300 to 3000 MHz
D	3 to 30 MHz

2. - E1A12

What special operating frequency restrictions are imposed on slow scan TV transmissions?

Select	Answer
A	None; they are allowed on all amateur frequencies
B	They are restricted to 7.245 MHz, 14.245 MHz, 21.345 MHz, and 28.945 MHz
C	They are restricted to phone band segments
D	They are not permitted above 54 MHz

3. - E1B04

What must be done before placing an amateur station within an officially designated wilderness area or wildlife preserve, or an area listed in the National Register of Historic Places?

Select	Answer
A	An Environmental Assessment must be submitted to the FCC
B	A form FSD-15 must be submitted to the Department of the Interior
C	A letter of intent must be filed with the Environmental Protection Agency
D	A proposal must be submitted to the National Park Service

4. - E1C08

What is the maximum permissible duration of a remotely controlled station's transmissions if its control link malfunctions?

Select	Answer
A	10 minutes
B	3 minutes
C	30 seconds
D	5 minutes

5. - E1D04

Which of the following is required in the identification transmissions from a balloon-borne telemetry station?

Select	Answer
A	The output power of the balloon transmitter
B	The station's six-character Maidenhead grid locator
C	Call sign
D	All these choices are correct

6. - E1E02

Who does Part 97 task with maintaining the pools of questions for all U.S. amateur license examinations?

Select	Answer
A	The FCC
B	The ARRL
C	The VECs
D	The VEs

7. - E1F03

Under what circumstances may a dealer sell an external RF power amplifier capable of operation below 144 MHz if it has not been granted FCC certification?

Select	Answer
A	It was imported from a manufacturer in a country that does not require certification of RF power amplifiers
B	The equipment dealer assembled it from a kit
C	It was imported from a manufacturer in another country and was certificated by that country's government
D	It was purchased in used condition from an amateur operator and is sold to another amateur operator for use at that operator's station

8. - E2A03

How is the signal inverted by an inverting linear transponder?

Select	Answer
A	The signal is passed through a mixer and the difference rather than the sum is transmitted
B	The signal is detected and remodulated on the reverse sideband
C	The signal is passed through a non-linear filter
D	The signal is reduced to I and Q components and the Q component is filtered out

9. - E2B06

What is vestigial sideband modulation?

Select	Answer
A	Amplitude modulation in which one complete sideband and a portion of the other are transmitted
B	A type of modulation in which one sideband is inverted
C	Narrow-band FM modulation achieved by filtering one sideband from the audio before frequency modulating the carrier
D	Spread spectrum modulation achieved by applying FM modulation following single sideband amplitude modulation

10. - E2C11

How should you generally identify your station when attempting to contact a DX station during a contest or in a pileup?

Select	Answer
A	Send your full call sign once or twice
B	Send your full call sign and grid square
C	Send the call sign of the DX station three times, the words this is,then your call sign three times
D	Send only the last two letters of your call sign until you make contact

11. - E2D04

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

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

12. - E2E08

Which of the following HF digital modes can be used to transfer binary files?

Select	Answer
A	Hellschreiber
B	RTTY
C	AMTOR
D	PACTOR

13. - E3A14

What is meant by circularly polarized electromagnetic waves?

Select	Answer
A	Waves with a rotating electric field
B	Waves produced by a loop antenna
C	Waves with an electric field bent into a circular shape
D	Waves that circle the Earth

14. - E3B05

Which amateur bands typically support long-path propagation?

Select	Answer
A	6 meters to 2 meters
B	Only 160 meters to 40 meters
C	Only 30 meters to 10 meters
D	160 meters to 10 meters

15. - E3C05

What orientation of Bz (B sub z) increases the likelihood that incoming particles from the sun will cause disturbed conditions?

Select	Answer
A	Northward
B	Southward
C	Westward
D	Eastward

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

17. - E4B08

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

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

18. - E4C02

Which of the following receiver circuits can be effective in eliminating interference from strong out-of-band signals?

Select	Answer
A	A narrow IF filter
B	A properly adjusted product detector
C	A front-end filter or pre-selector
D	A notch filter

19. - E4D02

Which of the following describes problems caused by poor dynamic range in a receiver?

Select	Answer
A	Oscillator instability and severe audio distortion of all but the strongest received signals
B	Cross-modulation of the desired signal and insufficient audio power to operate the speaker
C	Spurious signals caused by cross-modulation and desensitization from strong adjacent signals
D	Oscillator instability requiring frequent retuning and loss of ability to recover the opposite sideband

20. - E4E11

What could cause local AM broadcast band signals to combine to generate spurious signals in the MF or HF bands?

Select	Answer
A	One or more of the broadcast stations is transmitting an over-modulated signal
B	Nearby corroded metal joints are mixing and re-radiating the broadcast signals
C	Your station receiver IF amplifier stage is defective
D	You are receiving skywave signals from a distant station

21. - E5A10

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

Select	Answer
A	Reactance of either the inductance or capacitance divided by the resistance
B	Reactance of either the inductance or capacitance multiplied by the resistance
C	Resistance divided by the reactance of either the inductance or capacitance
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	220 seconds
C	55 seconds
D	110 seconds

23. - E5C04

What coordinate system is often used to display the resistive, inductive, and/or capacitive reactance components of impedance?

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

24. - E5D01

What is the result of skin effect?

Select	Answer
A	As frequency decreases, RF current flows in a thinner layer of the conductor, closer to the surface
B	As frequency increases, RF current flows in a thinner layer of the conductor, closer to the surface
C	Thermal effects on the surface of the conductor increase the impedance
D	Thermal effects on the surface of the conductor decrease the impedance

25. - E6A03

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

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

26. - E6B02

What is an important characteristic of a Schottky diode as compared to an ordinary silicon diode when used as a power supply rectifier?

Select	Answer
A	Much higher reverse voltage breakdown
B	Less forward voltage drop
C	Longer carrier retention time
D	More constant reverse avalanche voltage

27. - E6C05

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

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

28. - E6D05

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

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

29. - E6E05

Which of the following noise figure values is typical of a low-noise UHF preamplifier?

Select	Answer
A	-10 dB
B	-20 dBm
C	2 dB
D	44 dBm

30. - E6F08

Why are optoisolators often used in conjunction with solid-state circuits when switching 120 VAC?

Select	Answer
A	Optoisolators provide a very high degree of electrical isolation between a control circuit and the circuit being switched
B	Optoisolators provide a low impedance link between a control circuit and a power circuit
C	Optoisolators eliminate the effects of reflected light in the control circuit
D	Optoisolators provide impedance matching between the control circuit and power circuit

31. - E7A03

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

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

32. - E7B02

What is a Class D amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	A frequency doubling amplifier
B	An amplifier that uses drift-mode FETs for high efficiency
C	A low power amplifier that uses a differential amplifier for improved linearity
D	A type of amplifier that uses switching technology to achieve high efficiency

33. - E7C12

What is one advantage of a Pi-matching network over an L-matching network consisting of a single inductor and a single capacitor?

Select	Answer
A	L-networks cannot perform impedance transformation
B	Pi-networks are more stable
C	Pi-networks provide balanced input and output
D	The Q of Pi-networks can be controlled

34. - E7D14

What is the purpose of connecting equal-value resistors across power supply filter capacitors connected in series?

Select	Answer
A	Discharge the capacitors when voltage is removed
B	All these choices are correct
C	Equalize the voltage across each capacitor
D	Provide a minimum load on the supply

35. - E7E09

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

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

36. - E7F05

How frequently must an analog signal be sampled by an analog-to-digital converter so that the signal can be accurately reproduced?

Select	Answer
A	At least twice the rate of the highest frequency component of the signal
B	At four times the rate of the highest frequency component of the signal
C	At least half the rate of the highest frequency component of the signal
D	At the same rate as the highest frequency component of the signal

37. - E7G06

What is the gain-bandwidth of an operational amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	The maximum frequency for a filter circuit using that type of amplifier
B	The gain of the amplifier at a filter's cutoff frequency
C	The frequency at which the open-loop gain of the amplifier equals one
D	The frequency at which the amplifier's offset voltage is zero

38. - E7H11

What are the major spectral impurity components of direct digital synthesizers?

Select	Answer
A	Nyquist limit noise
B	Broadband noise
C	Digital conversion noise
D	Spurious signals at discrete frequencies

39. - E8A04

What is "dither" with respect to analog-to-digital converters?

Select	Answer
A	An error caused by irregular quantization step size
B	A method of decimation by randomly skipping samples
C	An abnormal condition where the converter cannot settle on a value to represent the signal
D	A small amount of noise added to the input signal to allow more precise representation of a signal over time

40. - E8B10

What is frequency division multiplexing?

Select	Answer
A	The transmitted signal jumps from band to band at a predetermined rate
B	Two or more information streams are merged into a digital combiner, which then pulse position modulates the transmitter
C	Two or more information streams are merged into a baseband, which then modulates the transmitter
D	The transmitted signal is divided into packets of information

41. - E8C08

How does ARQ accomplish error correction?

Select	Answer
A	If errors are detected, redundant data is substituted
B	Special polynomial codes provide automatic correction
C	If errors are detected, a retransmission is requested
D	Special binary codes provide automatic correction

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	Binary phase-shift keying
D	Frequency hopping

43. - E9A02

What is the effective radiated power relative to a dipole of a repeater station with 150 watts transmitter power output, 2 dB feed line loss, 2.2 dB duplexer loss, and 7 dBd antenna gain?

Select	Answer
A	286 watts
B	1977 watts
C	420 watts
D	78.7 watts

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

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

46. - E9D11

Which of the following conductors would be best for minimizing losses in a station's RF ground system?

Select	Answer
A	Wide flat copper strap
B	Solid wire
C	Stranded wire
D	Resistive wire, such as spark plug wire

47. - E9E05

How must an antenna's driven element be tuned to use a hairpin matching system?

Select	Answer
A	The driven element resonance must be lower than the operating frequency
B	The driven element radiation resistance must be higher than the characteristic impedance of the transmission line
C	The driven element reactance must be capacitive
D	The driven element reactance must be inductive

48. - E9F10

What impedance does a 1/8-wavelength transmission line present to a generator when the line is shorted at the far end?

Select	Answer
A	An inductive reactance
B	The same as the characteristic impedance of the line
C	A capacitive reactance
D	Zero

49. - E9G06

On the Smith chart shown in Figure E9-3, what is the name for the large outer circle on which the reactance arcs terminate?

Select	Answer
A	Impedance axis
B	Polar axis
C	Reactance axis
D	Prime axis

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 adds capacitive loading, increasing the bandwidth of the antenna
C	It eliminates unbalanced capacitive coupling to the surroundings, improving the nulls
D	It eliminates tracking errors caused by strong out-of-band signals

Figure E9-3