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

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1. - E0A08

What does SAR measure?

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

2. - E1A06

Where must the carrier frequency of a CW signal be set to comply with FCC rules for 60 meter operation?

Select	Answer
A	At the center frequency of the channel
B	At the lowest frequency of the channel
C	On any frequency where the signal's sidebands are within the channel
D	At the highest frequency of the channel

3. - E1B11

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

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

4. - E1C01

What is the maximum bandwidth for a data emission on 60 meters?

Select	Answer
A	1.5 kHz
B	170 Hz
C	2.8 kHz
D	60 Hz

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

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. - E1F08

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

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

8. - E2A05

What do the letters in a satellite's mode designator specify?

Select	Answer
A	Power limits for uplink and downlink transmissions
B	The uplink and downlink frequency ranges
C	The location of the ground control station
D	The polarization of uplink and downlink signals

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 notch filter to remove synchronization pulses
C	A special front end limiter
D	No other hardware is needed

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

11. - E2D04

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

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

12. - E2E02

What do the letters FEC mean as they relate to digital operation?

Select	Answer
A	Fatal Error Correction
B	First Error Correction
C	Final Error Correction
D	Forward Error Correction

13. - E3A02

What characterizes libration fading of an EME signal?

Select	Answer
A	A fluttery irregular fading
B	A gradual loss of signal as the sun rises
C	A slow change in the pitch of the CW signal
D	The returning echo is several hertz lower in frequency than the transmitted signal

14. - E3B12

What is the primary characteristic of chordal hop propagation?

Select	Answer
A	Signals reflected back toward the transmitting station
B	Successive ionospheric refractions without an intermediate reflection from the ground
C	Propagation away from the great circle bearing between stations
D	Propagation across the geomagnetic equator

15. - E3C14

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

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

16. - E4A02

Which of the following parameters does a spectrum analyzer display on the vertical and horizontal axes?

Select	Answer
A	RF amplitude and frequency
B	RF amplitude and time
C	SWR and frequency
D	SWR and time

17. - E4B11

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

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

18. - E4C10

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

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

19. - E4D10

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

Select	Answer
A	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
B	The receiver can tolerate signals up to 40 dB above the noise floor without producing third-order intermodulation products
C	A pair of 1 mW input signals will produce a third-order intermodulation product that is 40 dB stronger than the input signal
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 appear across a wide bandwidth
B	Signals that are constant at all IF levels
C	Signals that appear at one IF but not another
D	Signals that have a sharply peaked frequency distribution

21. - E5A02

What is resonance in an LC or RLC circuit?

Select	Answer
A	The lowest frequency that will pass current
B	The frequency at which the reactive impedance equals the resistive impedance
C	The frequency at which the capacitive reactance equals the inductive reactance
D	The highest frequency that will pass current

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	14 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
C	76 degrees with the voltage leading the current
D	14 degrees with the voltage leading the current

23. - E5C06

What does the impedance 50-j25 represent?

Select	Answer
A	25 ohms resistance in series with 50 ohms inductive reactance
B	25 ohms resistance in series with 50 ohms capacitive reactance
C	50 ohms resistance in series with 25 ohms capacitive reactance
D	50 ohms resistance in series with 25 ohms inductive reactance

24. - E5D10

How can the true power be determined in an AC circuit where the voltage and current are out of phase?

Select	Answer
A	By multiplying the reactive power by the power factor
B	By multiplying the apparent power by the power factor
C	By dividing the apparent power by the power factor
D	By dividing the reactive power by the power factor

25. - E6A11

In Figure E6-1, what is the schematic symbol for a P-channel junction FET?

Select	Answer
A	2
B	6
C	3
D	1

26. - E6B05

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

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

27. - E6C09

What is a Programmable Logic Device (PLD)?

Select	Answer
A	Programmable equipment used for testing digital logic integrated circuits
B	A logic circuit that can be modified during use
C	A type of transistor whose gain can be changed by digital logic circuits
D	A programmable collection of logic gates and circuits in a single integrated circuit

28. - E6D11

Which type of core material decreases inductance when inserted into a coil?

Select	Answer
A	Ferrite
B	Powdered iron
C	Brass
D	Ceramic

29. - E6E06

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

Select	Answer
A	Nearly infinite gain, very high input impedance, and very low output impedance
B	Controlled gain, low noise figure, and constant input and output impedance over the specified frequency range
C	Plate current that is controlled by a control grid
D	The ability to retrieve information from a single signal even in the presence of other strong signals

30. - E6F04

What is the photovoltaic effect?

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

31. - E7A07

What logical operation does a NAND gate perform?

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

32. - E7B15

What is one way to prevent thermal runaway in a bipolar transistor amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	Neutralization
B	Select transistors with high beta
C	Use a resistor in series with the emitter
D	All these choices are correct

33. - E7C07

Which describes a Pi-L-network used for matching a vacuum tube final amplifier to a 50-ohm unbalanced output?

Select	Answer
A	A network with only three discrete parts
B	A Phase Inverter Load network
C	A Pi-network with an additional series inductor on the output
D	A matching network in which all components are isolated from ground

34. - E7D14

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

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

35. - E7E05

What circuit is added to an FM transmitter to boost the higher audio frequencies?

Select	Answer
A	A heterodyne enhancer
B	A de-emphasis network
C	A pre-emphasis network
D	A heterodyne suppressor

36. - E7F01

What is meant by direct digital conversion as applied to software defined radios?

Select	Answer
A	Software is converted from source code to object code during operation of the receiver
B	Incoming RF is digitized by an analog-to-digital converter without being mixed with a local oscillator signal
C	A switching mixer is used to generate I and Q signals directly from the RF input
D	Incoming RF is converted to a control voltage for a voltage controlled oscillator

37. - E7G02

What is ringing in a filter?

Select	Answer
A	Partial cancellation of the signal over a range of frequencies
B	A reduction in high frequency response
C	Undesired oscillations added to the desired signal
D	An echo caused by a long time delay

38. - E7H12

Which of the following must be done to ensure that a crystal oscillator provides the frequency specified by the crystal manufacturer?

Select	Answer
A	Provide the crystal with a specified parallel capacitance
B	Bias the crystal at a specified current
C	Provide the crystal with a specified parallel inductance
D	Bias the crystal at a specified voltage

39. - E8A09

How many different input levels can be encoded by an analog-to-digital converter with 8-bit resolution?

Select	Answer
A	8 multiplied by the gain of the input amplifier
B	8
C	256 divided by the gain of the input amplifier
D	256

40. - E8B04

What is the modulation index of an FM-phone signal having a maximum carrier deviation of plus or minus 6 kHz when modulated with a 2 kHz modulating frequency?

Select	Answer
A	1/3
B	2000
C	6000
D	3

41. - E8C07

What is the bandwidth of a 4800-Hz frequency shift, 9600-baud ASCII FM transmission?

Select	Answer
A	5.76 kHz
B	15.36 kHz
C	4.8 kHz
D	9.6 kHz

42. - E8D10

What are some of the differences between the Baudot digital code and ASCII?

Select	Answer
A	Baudot uses 4 data bits per character, ASCII uses 7 or 8; Baudot uses 1 character as a letters/figures shift code, ASCII has no letters/figures code
B	Baudot uses 5 data bits per character, ASCII uses 7 or 8; Baudot uses 2 characters as letters/figures shift codes, ASCII has no letters/figures shift code
C	Baudot uses 7 data bits per character, ASCII uses 8; Baudot has no letters/figures shift code, ASCII uses 2 letters/figures shift codes
D	Baudot uses 6 data bits per character, ASCII uses 7 or 8; Baudot has no letters/figures shift code, ASCII uses 2 letters/figures shift codes

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	317 watts
B	2000 watts
C	126 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	12 dB
B	14 dB
C	24 dB
D	18 dB

45. - E9C05

Which of the following is a type of OCFD antenna?

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

46. - E9D11

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

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

47. - E9E11

What is the primary purpose of phasing lines when used with an antenna having multiple driven elements?

Select	Answer
A	It prevents reflected power from traveling back down the feed line and causing harmonic radiation from the transmitter
B	It creates a low-angle radiation pattern
C	It allows single-band antennas to operate on other bands
D	It ensures that each driven element operates in concert with the others to create the desired antenna pattern

48. - E9F03

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

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

49. - E9G02

What type of coordinate system is used in a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Voltage lines and current chords
B	Resistance circles and reactance arcs
C	Resistance lines and reactance chords
D	Voltage circles and current arcs

50. - E9H05

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

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

Figure E6-1

Figure E9-1