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

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

3. - E1B03

Within what distance must an amateur station protect an FCC monitoring facility from harmful interference?

Select	Answer
A	1 mile
B	3 miles
C	30 miles
D	10 miles

4. - E1C04

What is meant by IARP?

Select	Answer
A	An international amateur radio permit that allows U.S. amateurs to operate in certain countries of the Americas
B	A forecast of intermittent aurora radio propagation
C	The internal amateur radio practices policy of the FCC
D	An indication of increased antenna reflected power

5. - E1D08

Which VHF amateur bands have frequencies authorized for space stations?

Select	Answer
A	6 meters and 2 meters
B	2 meters
C	6 meters, 2 meters, and 1.25 meters
D	2 meters and 1.25 meters

6. - E1E12

What must the VE team do with the application form if the examinee does not pass the exam?

Select	Answer
A	Return the application document to the examinee
B	Send the application form to the FCC and inform the FCC of the grade
C	Destroy the application form
D	Maintain the application form with the VEC's records

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. - E2A10

What type of satellite appears to stay in one position in the sky?

Select	Answer
A	Geomagnetic
B	Geostationary
C	HEO
D	LEO

9. - E2B10

What aspect of an analog slow-scan television signal encodes the brightness of the picture?

Select	Answer
A	Sync frequency
B	Tone amplitude
C	Tone frequency
D	Sync amplitude

10. - E2C10

Why might a DX station state that they are listening on another frequency?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	To separate the calling stations from the DX station
C	To improve operating efficiency by reducing interference
D	Because the DX station may be transmitting on a frequency that is prohibited to some responding stations

11. - E2D05

What is one advantage of the JT65 mode?

Select	Answer
A	The ability to decode signals which have a very low signal-to-noise ratio
B	Uses only a 65 Hz bandwidth
C	Permits fast-scan TV transmissions over narrow bandwidth
D	Easily copied by ear if necessary

12. - E2E09

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

Select	Answer
A	MT63
B	RTTY
C	PSK31
D	PACTOR

13. - E3A07

Atmospheric ducts capable of propagating microwave signals often form over what geographic feature?

Select	Answer
A	Mountain ranges
B	Bodies of water
C	Urban areas
D	Forests

14. - E3B10

Why is chordal hop propagation desirable?

Select	Answer
A	The signal experiences less loss compared to multi-hop using Earth as a reflector
B	The MUF for chordal hop propagation is much lower than for normal skip propagation
C	Atmospheric noise is lower in the direction of chordal hop propagation
D	Signals travel faster along ionospheric chords

15. - E3C08

What does the space weather term G5 mean?

Select	Answer
A	An extreme geomagnetic storm
B	Moderate solar wind
C	Waning sunspot numbers
D	Very low solar activity

16. - E4A10

Which of the following displays multiple digital signal states simultaneously?

Select	Answer
A	Logic analyzer
B	Modulation monitor
C	Network analyzer
D	Bit error rate tester

17. - E4B11

Which of the following can be measured with a vector network analyzer?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	Input impedance
C	Output impedance
D	Reflection coefficient

18. - E4C10

What is an advantage of having a variety of receiver IF bandwidths from which to select?

Select	Answer
A	The noise figure of the RF amplifier can be adjusted to match the modulation type, thus increasing receiver sensitivity
B	Multiple frequencies can be received simultaneously if desired
C	Receive bandwidth can be set to match the modulation bandwidth, maximizing signal-to-noise ratio and minimizing interference
D	Receiver power consumption can be reduced when wider bandwidth is not required

19. - E4D07

Which of the following reduces the likelihood of receiver desensitization?

Select	Answer
A	Raise the receiver IF frequency
B	Increase the receiver front end gain
C	Decrease the RF bandwidth of the receiver
D	Switch from fast AGC to slow AGC

20. - E4E09

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

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

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. - E5B08

What is the phase angle between the voltage across and the current through a series RLC circuit if XC is 100 ohms, R is 100 ohms, and XL is 75 ohms?

Select	Answer
A	76 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
B	76 degrees with the voltage leading the current
C	14 degrees with the voltage leading the current
D	14 degrees with the voltage lagging the current

23. - E5C12

Which point on Figure E5-1 best represents the impedance of a series circuit consisting of a 300-ohm resistor and a 19-picofarad capacitor at 21.200 MHz?

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

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	0.5
B	1.414
C	1.73
D	0.866

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	Alpha cutoff frequency
B	Corner frequency
C	Alpha rejection frequency
D	Beta cutoff frequency

26. - E6B05

What characteristic of a PIN diode makes it useful as an RF switch?

Select	Answer
A	Low junction capacitance
B	Reverse bias controls its forward voltage drop
C	Extremely high reverse breakdown voltage
D	Ability to dissipate large amounts of power

27. - E6C01

What is the function of hysteresis in a comparator?

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

28. - E6D02

What is the equivalent circuit of a quartz crystal?

Select	Answer
A	Motional capacitance, motional inductance, and loss resistance in series, all in parallel with a shunt capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance
B	Motional inductance and loss resistance in series, paralleled with motional capacitance and a capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance
C	Motional capacitance, motional inductance, loss resistance, and a capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance all in parallel
D	Motional capacitance, motional inductance, loss resistance, and a capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance all in series

29. - E6E06

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

Select	Answer
A	Controlled gain, low noise figure, and constant input and output impedance over the specified frequency range
B	Plate current that is controlled by a control grid
C	Nearly infinite gain, very high input impedance, and very low output impedance
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	Copper oxide
B	Silicon
C	Cadmium Sulfide
D	Selenium

31. - E7A07

What logical operation does a NAND gate perform?

Select	Answer
A	It produces logic 0 at its output if some but not all inputs are logic 1
B	It produces logic 0 at its output only when all inputs are logic 1
C	It produces logic 0 at its output only when all inputs are logic 0
D	It produces logic 1 at its output only when all inputs are logic 1

32. - E7B01

For what portion of the signal cycle does each active element in a push-pull Class AB amplifier conduct?

Select	Answer
A	Less than 180 degrees
B	The entire cycle
C	More than 180 degrees but less than 360 degrees
D	Exactly 180 degrees

33. - E7C04

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

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

34. - E7D04

Which of the following types of linear voltage regulator usually make the most efficient use of the primary power source?

Select	Answer
A	A series current source
B	A shunt current source
C	A series regulator
D	A shunt regulator

35. - E7E03

What is a frequency discriminator stage in a FM receiver?

Select	Answer
A	An FM generator circuit
B	A circuit for detecting FM signals
C	An automatic band-switching circuit
D	A circuit for filtering two closely adjacent signals

36. - E7F06

What is the minimum number of bits required for an analog-to-digital converter to sample a signal with a range of 1 volt at a resolution of 1 millivolt?

Select	Answer
A	10 bits
B	8 bits
C	6 bits
D	4 bits

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	14
B	0.07
C	28
D	7

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

39. - E8A10

What is the purpose of a low-pass filter used in conjunction with a digital-to-analog converter?

Select	Answer
A	Lower the input bandwidth to increase the effective resolution
B	Improve accuracy by removing out-of-sequence codes from the input
C	Remove harmonics from the output caused by the discrete analog levels generated
D	All these choices are correct

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	1.67
C	0.6
D	0.167

41. - E8C11

What is the relationship between symbol rate and baud?

Select	Answer
A	Baud is twice the symbol rate
B	Baud is only used for RTTY
C	Symbol rate is only used for packet-based modes
D	They are the same

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

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	126 watts
B	2000 watts
C	317 watts
D	300 watts

44. - E9B03

In the antenna radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-1, what is the front-to-side ratio?

Select	Answer
A	24 dB
B	14 dB
C	18 dB
D	12 dB

45. - E9C04

What happens to the radiation pattern of an unterminated long wire antenna as the wire length is increased?

Select	Answer
A	The front-to-back ratio decreases
B	The vertical angle increases
C	The lobes become more perpendicular to the wire
D	The lobes align more in the direction of the wire

46. - E9D07

What is an advantage of using top loading in a shortened HF vertical antenna?

Select	Answer
A	Greater structural strength
B	Lower Q
C	Higher losses
D	Improved radiation efficiency

47. - E9E07

What parameter describes the interactions at the load end of a mismatched transmission line?

Select	Answer
A	Dielectric constant
B	Velocity factor
C	Characteristic impedance
D	Reflection coefficient

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

49. - E9G09

What third family of circles is often added to a Smith chart during the process of solving problems?

Select	Answer
A	Antenna-length circles
B	Radiation-pattern circles
C	Standing wave ratio circles
D	Coaxial-length circles

50. - E9H10

How can the output voltage of a multiple-turn receiving loop antenna be increased?

Select	Answer
A	By reducing the permeability of the loop shield
B	By increasing the number of turns and/or the area
C	By winding adjacent turns in opposing directions
D	By utilizing high impedance wire for the coupling loop

Figure E5-1

Figure E7-3

Figure E9-1