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

Logging in (or registering) will help the system to select questions that you need to focus on.

1. - E0A06

Why are there separate electric (E) and magnetic (H) field MPE limits?

Select	Answer
A	The body reacts to electromagnetic radiation from both the E and H fields
B	Ground reflections and scattering make the field strength vary with location
C	E field and H field radiation intensity peaks can occur at different locations
D	All these choices are correct

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

3. - E1B02

Which of the following is an acceptable bandwidth for Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) based voice or SSTV digital transmissions made on the HF amateur bands?

Select	Answer
A	20 kHz
B	10 kHz
C	3 kHz
D	15 kHz

4. - E1C09

What is the highest modulation index permitted at the highest modulation frequency for angle modulation below 29.0 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	3.0
B	0.5
C	1.0
D	2.0

5. - E1D07

Which HF amateur bands have frequencies authorized for space stations?

Select	Answer
A	Only the 40, 20, 17, 15, 12, and 10 meter bands
B	Only the 40, 30, 20, 15, 12, and 10 meter bands
C	All HF bands
D	Only the 40, 20, 17, 15, and 10 meter bands

6. - E1E11

What must the VE team do if an examinee scores a passing grade on all examination elements needed for an upgrade or new license?

Select	Answer
A	Three VEs must certify that the examinee is qualified for the license grant and that they have complied with the administering VE requirements
B	Issue the examinee the new or upgrade license
C	All these choices are correct
D	Photocopy all examination documents and forward them to the FCC for processing

7. - E1F08

Which of the following types of amateur station communications are prohibited?

Select	Answer
A	Communications transmitted for hire or material compensation, except as otherwise provided in the rules
B	Communications that have religious content
C	Communications that have political content, except as allowed by the Fairness Doctrine
D	Communications in a language other than English

8. - E2A04

What is meant by the term mode? as applied to an amateur radio satellite?

Select	Answer
A	The satellite's uplink and downlink frequency bands
B	Whether the satellite is in a low earth or geostationary orbit
C	Whether the satellite is in a polar or equatorial orbit
D	The satellite's orientation with respect to the Earth

9. - E2B09

What hardware, other than a receiver with SSB capability and a suitable computer, is needed to decode SSTV using Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM)?

Select	Answer
A	A special IF converter
B	A special front end limiter
C	No other hardware is needed
D	A special notch filter to remove synchronization pulses

10. - E2C07

What is the Cabrillo format?

Select	Answer
A	A standard for submission of electronic contest logs
B	The most common set of contest rules
C	A method of exchanging information during a contest QSO
D	The rules of order for meetings between contest sponsors

11. - E2D07

What digital protocol is used by APRS?

Select	Answer
A	AMTOR
B	PACTOR
C	802.11
D	AX.25

12. - E2E06

What is the most common data rate used for HF packet?

Select	Answer
A	300 baud
B	48 baud
C	110 baud
D	1200 baud

13. - E3A10

Which type of atmospheric structure can create a path for microwave propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Temperature inversion
B	The jet stream
C	Dust devil
D	Wind shear

14. - E3B01

What is transequatorial propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Propagation between points at the same latitude
B	Propagation between two mid-latitude points at approximately the same distance north and south of the magnetic equator
C	Propagation between a point on the equator and its antipodal point
D	Propagation between points located on the magnetic equator

15. - E3C14

Why does the radio-path horizon distance exceed the geometric horizon?

Select	Answer
A	D-region skip
B	E-region skip
C	Due to the Doppler effect
D	Downward bending due to density variations in the atmosphere

16. - E4A08

Which of the following measures SWR?

Select	Answer
A	An ohmmeter
B	A spectrum analyzer
C	A Q meter
D	An antenna analyzer

17. - E4B04

Which S parameter represents input port return loss or reflection coefficient (equivalent to VSWR)?

Select	Answer
A	S21
B	S12
C	S22
D	S11

18. - E4C15

What is reciprocal mixing?

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

19. - E4D10

What does a third-order intercept level of 40 dBm mean with respect to receiver performance?

Select	Answer
A	A pair of 1 mW input signals will produce a third-order intermodulation product that is 40 dB stronger than the input signal
B	A pair of 40 dBm input signals will theoretically generate a third-order intermodulation product that has the same output amplitude as either of the input signals
C	The receiver can tolerate signals up to 40 dB above the noise floor without producing third-order intermodulation products
D	Signals less than 40 dBm will not generate audible third-order intermodulation products

20. - E4E03

Which of the following signals might a receiver noise blanker be able to remove from desired signals?

Select	Answer
A	Signals that are constant at all IF levels
B	Signals that appear across a wide bandwidth
C	Signals that have a sharply peaked frequency distribution
D	Signals that appear at one IF but not another

21. - E5A11

What is the half-power bandwidth of a resonant circuit that has a resonant frequency of 7.1 MHz and a Q of 150?

Select	Answer
A	23.67 kHz
B	157.8 Hz
C	47.3 kHz
D	315.6 Hz

22. - E5B01

What is the term for the time required for the capacitor in an RC circuit to be charged to 63.2% of the applied voltage or to discharge to 36.8% of its initial voltage?

Select	Answer
A	One time constant
B	An exponential rate of one
C	A time factor of one
D	One exponential period

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 8
B	Point 1
C	Point 7
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	0.866
B	0.5
C	1.414
D	1.73

25. - E6A04

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

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

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

27. - E6C02

What happens when the level of a comparator's input signal crosses the threshold?

Select	Answer
A	The feedback loop becomes unstable
B	The comparator enters latch-up
C	The IC input can be damaged
D	The comparator changes its output state

28. - E6D04

Which materials are commonly used as a core in an inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Polystyrene and polyethylene
B	Teflon and Delrin
C	Cobalt and aluminum
D	Ferrite and brass

29. - E6E08

How is power supplied to the most common type of MMIC?

Select	Answer
A	Through a capacitor and RF choke connected to the amplifier input lead
B	Directly to the bias voltage (VCC IN) lead
C	Through a resistor and/or RF choke connected to the amplifier output lead
D	MMICs require no operating bias

30. - E6F09

What is the efficiency of a photovoltaic cell?

Select	Answer
A	The relative fraction of light that is converted to current
B	The output RF power divided by the input DC power
C	The open-circuit voltage divided by the short-circuit current under full illumination
D	Cost per kilowatt-hour generated

31. - E7A02

What is the function of a decade counter?

Select	Answer
A	It decodes a decimal number for display on a seven-segment LED display
B	It produces 10 output pulses for every input pulse
C	It produces one output pulse for every 10 input pulses
D	It decodes a binary number for display on a seven-segment LED display

32. - E7B18

What is a characteristic of a grounded-grid amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	High power gain
B	Low input impedance
C	Low bandwidth
D	High filament voltage

33. - E7C11

Which of the following describes a receiving filter's ability to reject signals occupying an adjacent channel?

Select	Answer
A	Phase response
B	Passband ripple
C	Shape factor
D	Noise factor

34. - E7D11

What is the function of the pass transistor in a linear voltage regulator circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Permits a wide range of output voltage settings
B	Maintains nearly constant output impedance over a wide range of load current
C	Provides a stable input impedance over a wide range of source voltage
D	Maintains nearly constant output voltage over a wide range of load current

35. - E7E06

Why is de-emphasis commonly used in FM communications receivers?

Select	Answer
A	For higher efficiency
B	To reduce impulse noise reception
C	To remove third-order distortion products
D	For compatibility with transmitters using phase modulation

36. - E7F08

What is the function of decimation?

Select	Answer
A	Attenuating the signal
B	Converting data to binary code decimal form
C	Reducing the effective sample rate by removing samples
D	Removing unnecessary significant digits

37. - E7G06

What is the gain-bandwidth of an operational amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	The frequency at which the amplifier's offset voltage is zero
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 maximum frequency for a filter circuit using that type of amplifier

38. - E7H11

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

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

39. - E8A08

Why would a direct or flash conversion analog-to-digital converter be useful for a software defined radio?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	Very high speed allows digitizing high frequencies
C	Immunity to out-of-sequence coding reduces spurious responses
D	Very low power consumption decreases frequency drift

40. - E8B01

What is the modulation index of an FM signal?

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

41. - E8C11

What is the relationship between symbol rate and baud?

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

42. - E8D06

What is the advantage of including parity bits in ASCII characters?

Select	Answer
A	The signal can overpower interfering signals
B	Some types of errors can be detected
C	Faster transmission rate
D	Foreign language characters can be sent

43. - E9A13

What term describes station output, taking into account all gains and losses?

Select	Answer
A	Effective radiated power
B	Power factor
C	Apparent power
D	Half-power bandwidth

44. - E9B03

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

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

45. - E9C02

What is the radiation pattern of two 1/4-wavelength vertical antennas spaced 1/4 wavelength apart and fed 90 degrees out of phase?

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

46. - E9D01

How much does the gain of an ideal parabolic dish antenna change when the operating frequency is doubled?

Select	Answer
A	6 dB
B	4 dB
C	3 dB
D	2 dB

47. - E9E09

Which of the following is used to shunt-feed a grounded tower at its base?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	Hairpin match
C	Gamma match
D	Double-bazooka match

48. - E9F03

Why is the physical length of a coaxial cable transmission line shorter than its electrical length?

Select	Answer
A	The characteristic impedance is higher in a parallel feed line
B	Electrical signals move more slowly in a coaxial cable than in air
C	Skin effect is less pronounced in the coaxial cable
D	The surge impedance is higher in a parallel feed line

49. - E9G08

What is the process of normalization with regard to a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Reassigning impedance values with regard to the prime center
B	Reassigning reactance values with regard to the resistance axis
C	Reassigning prime center with regard to the reactance axis
D	Reassigning resistance values with regard to the reactance axis

50. - E9H09

What is a Pennant antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A form of rhombic antenna terminated in a variable capacitor to provide frequency diversity
B	A stealth antenna built to look like a flagpole
C	A small, vertically oriented receiving antenna consisting of a triangular loop terminated in approximately 900 ohms
D	A four-element, high-gain vertical array invented by George Pennant

Figure E5-1

Figure E9-1