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

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1. - E0A08

What does SAR measure?

Select	Answer
A	The rate at which RF energy is absorbed by the body
B	Synthetic Aperture Ratio of the human body
C	The rate of RF energy reflected from stationary terrain
D	Signal Amplification Rating

2. - E1A11

Which of the following describes authorization or licensing required when operating an amateur station aboard a U.S.-registered vessel in international waters?

Select	Answer
A	Only General Class or higher amateur licenses
B	Any FCC-issued amateur license
C	Any amateur license with an FCC Marine or Aircraft endorsement
D	An unrestricted Radiotelephone Operator Permit

3. - E1B11

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

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

4. - E1C02

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

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

5. - E1D05

What must be posted at the station location of a station being operated by telecommand on or within 50 km of the earth's surface?

Select	Answer
A	A label with the name, address, and telephone number of the control operator
B	A label with the name, address, and telephone number of the station licensee
C	All these choices are correct
D	A photocopy of the station license

6. - E1E08

To which of the following examinees may a VE not administer an examination?

Select	Answer
A	Relatives of the VE as listed in the FCC rules
B	All these choices are correct
C	Friends of the VE
D	Employees of the VE

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

8. - E2A01

What is the direction of an ascending pass for an amateur satellite?

Select	Answer
A	From south to north
B	From east to west
C	From west to east
D	From north to south

9. - E2B02

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

Select	Answer
A	60
B	525
C	1080
D	30

10. - E2C05

What is the function of a DX QSL Manager?

Select	Answer
A	To allocate frequencies for DXpeditions
B	To relay calls to and from a DX station
C	To run a net to allow many stations to contact a rare DX station
D	To handle the receiving and sending of confirmation cards for a DX station

11. - E2D03

Which of the following digital modes is especially useful for EME communications?

Select	Answer
A	PACTOR III
B	Olivia
C	MSK144
D	JT65

12. - E2E13

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

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

13. - E3A09

Which of the following frequency ranges is most suited for meteor scatter communications?

Select	Answer
A	10 MHz - 14 MHz
B	1.8 MHz - 1.9 MHz
C	220 MHz - 450 MHz
D	28 MHz - 148 MHz

14. - E3B06

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

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

15. - E3C12

How does the maximum range of ground-wave propagation change when the signal frequency is increased?

Select	Answer
A	It decreases
B	It increases
C	It peaks at roughly 14 MHz
D	It stays the same

16. - E4A06

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

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

17. - E4B02

What is the significance of voltmeter sensitivity expressed in ohms per volt?

Select	Answer
A	When used as an ammeter, the full scale reading in amps divided by ohms per volt rating will determine the size of shunt needed
B	When used as a galvanometer, the reading in volts multiplied by the ohms per volt rating will determine the power drawn by the device under test
C	When used as an ohmmeter, the reading in ohms divided by the ohms per volt rating will determine the voltage applied to the circuit
D	The full scale reading of the voltmeter multiplied by its ohms per volt rating will indicate the input impedance of the voltmeter

18. - E4C05

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

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

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. - E4E07

Which of the following can cause shielded cables to radiate or receive interference?

Select	Answer
A	Use of braided shielding material
B	Low inductance ground connections at both ends of the shield
C	Common-mode currents on the shield and conductors
D	Tying all ground connections to a common point resulting in differential-mode currents in the shield

21. - E5A16

What is the resonant frequency of an RLC circuit if R is 33 ohms, L is 50 microhenries and C is 10 picofarads?

Select	Answer
A	7.12 MHz
B	23.5 kHz
C	7.12 kHz
D	23.5 MHz

22. - E5B07

What is the phase angle between the voltage across and the current through a series RLC circuit if XC is 500 ohms, R is 1 kilohm, and XL is 250 ohms?

Select	Answer
A	68.2 degrees with the voltage leading the current
B	14.0 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
C	14.0 degrees with the voltage leading the current
D	68.2 degrees with the voltage lagging the current

23. - E5C09

When using rectangular coordinates to graph the impedance of a circuit, what do the axes represent?

Select	Answer
A	The X axis represents the reactive component and the Y axis represents the resistive component
B	The X axis represents the phase angle and the Y axis represents the magnitude
C	The X axis represents the resistive component and the Y axis represents the reactive component
D	The X axis represents the magnitude and the Y axis represents the phase angle

24. - E5D14

What is reactive power?

Select	Answer
A	Power consumed in wire resistance in an inductor
B	Power consumed in circuit Q
C	Wattless, nonproductive power
D	Power lost because of capacitor leakage

25. - E6A08

What term indicates the frequency at which the grounded-base current gain of a transistor has decreased to 0.7 of the gain obtainable at 1 kHz?

Select	Answer
A	Corner frequency
B	Alpha rejection frequency
C	Beta cutoff frequency
D	Alpha cutoff frequency

26. - E6B07

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

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

27. - E6C01

What is the function of hysteresis in a comparator?

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

28. - E6D08

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

Select	Answer
A	Powdered-iron cores generally have greater initial permeability
B	Powdered-iron cores generally maintain their characteristics at higher currents
C	Powdered-iron cores use smaller diameter wire for the same inductance
D	Powdered-iron cores generally require fewer turns to produce a given inductance

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	Gallium nitride
C	Silicon nitride
D	Silicon

30. - E6F04

What is the photovoltaic effect?

Select	Answer
A	The conversion of electrical energy to mechanical energy
B	The conversion of voltage to current when exposed to light
C	The conversion of light to electrical energy
D	The tendency of a battery to discharge when exposed to light

31. - E7A08

What logical operation does an OR gate perform?

Select	Answer
A	It produces logic 0 at its output if all inputs are logic 1
B	It only produces logic 0 at its output when all inputs are logic 1
C	It produces logic 1 at its output if all inputs are logic 0
D	It produces logic 1 at its output if any or all inputs are logic 1

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	Switching amplifiers operate at higher voltages
C	Switching amplifiers use push-pull circuits
D	The power transistor is at saturation or cutoff most of the time

33. - E7C08

Which of the following factors has the greatest effect on the bandwidth and response shape of a crystal ladder filter?

Select	Answer
A	The DC voltage applied to the quartz crystal
B	The gain of the RF stage preceding the filter
C	The amplitude of the signals passing through the filter
D	The relative frequencies of the individual crystals

34. - E7D15

What is the purpose of a step-start circuit in a high-voltage power supply?

Select	Answer
A	To allow the filter capacitors to charge gradually
B	To provide a dual-voltage output for reduced power applications
C	To allow for remote control of the power supply
D	To compensate for variations of the incoming line voltage

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 balanced modulator followed by a filter
D	By using a reactance modulator followed by a mixer

36. - E7F11

What sets the minimum detectable signal level for a direct-sampling SDR receiver in the absence of atmospheric or thermal noise?

Select	Answer
A	Sample clock phase noise
B	Reference voltage level and sample width in bits
C	Data storage transfer rate
D	Missing codes and jitter

37. - E7G01

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

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

38. - E7H10

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

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

39. - E8A01

What is the name of the process that shows that a square wave is made up of a sine wave plus all its odd harmonics?

Select	Answer
A	Differential analysis
B	Numerical analysis
C	Vector analysis
D	Fourier analysis

40. - E8B09

What is deviation ratio?

Select	Answer
A	The ratio of the highest audio modulating frequency to the average audio modulating frequency
B	The ratio of the maximum carrier frequency deviation to the highest audio modulating frequency
C	The ratio of the carrier center frequency to the audio modulating frequency
D	The ratio of the audio modulating frequency to the center carrier frequency

41. - E8C08

How does ARQ accomplish error correction?

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

42. - E8D09

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

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

43. - E9A06

What is the effective radiated power relative to a dipole of a repeater station with 200 watts transmitter power output, 4 dB feed line loss, 3.2 dB duplexer loss, 0.8 dB circulator loss, and 10 dBd antenna gain?

Select	Answer
A	2000 watts
B	317 watts
C	126 watts
D	300 watts

44. - E9B09

What type of computer program technique is commonly used for modeling antennas?

Select	Answer
A	Mutual impedance analysis
B	Method of Moments
C	Calculus differentiation with respect to physical properties
D	Graphical analysis

45. - E9C05

Which of the following is a type of OCFD antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A remotely tunable dipole antenna using orthogonally controlled frequency diversity
B	A folded dipole center-fed with 300-ohm transmission line
C	A multiband dipole antenna using one-way circular polarization for frequency diversity
D	A dipole fed approximately 1/3 the way from one end with a 4:1 balun to provide multiband operation

46. - E9D04

Why should an HF mobile antenna loading coil have a high ratio of reactance to resistance?

Select	Answer
A	To minimize losses
B	To lower the radiation angle
C	To minimize the Q
D	To swamp out harmonics

47. - E9E02

What is the name of an antenna matching system that matches an unbalanced feed line to an antenna by feeding the driven element both at the center of the element and at a fraction of a wavelength to one side of center?

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

48. - E9F13

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

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

49. - E9G11

How are the wavelength scales on a Smith chart calibrated?

Select	Answer
A	In fractions of transmission line electrical wavelength
B	In fractions of transmission line electrical frequency
C	In fractions of antenna electrical wavelength
D	In fractions of antenna electrical frequency

50. - E9H05

What is the main drawback of a small wire-loop antenna for direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	It has a bidirectional pattern
C	It has no clearly defined null
D	It is practical for use only on VHF and higher bands