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

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1. - E0A08

What does SAR measure?

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

2. - E1A13

Who must be in physical control of the station apparatus of an amateur station aboard any vessel or craft that is documented or registered in the United States?

Select	Answer
A	Any person holding an FCC issued amateur license or who is authorized for alien reciprocal operation
B	Only a person named in an amateur station license grant
C	Any person named in an amateur station license grant or a person holding an unrestricted Radiotelephone Operator Permit
D	Only a person with an FCC Marine Radio license grant

3. - E1B03

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

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

4. - E1C02

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

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

5. - E1D11

Which amateur stations are eligible to operate as Earth stations?

Select	Answer
A	Any amateur station whose licensee has filed a pre-space notification with the FCC's International Bureau
B	Only those of Amateur Extra Class operators
C	Only those of General, Advanced or Amateur Extra Class operators
D	Any amateur station, subject to the privileges of the class of operator license held by the control operator

6. - E1E07

What should a VE do if a candidate fails to comply with the examiner's instructions during an amateur operator license examination?

Select	Answer
A	Immediately terminate everyone's examination and close the session
B	Allow the candidate to complete the examination, but invalidate the results
C	Warn the candidate that continued failure to comply will result in termination of the examination
D	Immediately terminate the candidate's examination

7. - E1F10

Who may be the control operator of an auxiliary station?

Select	Answer
A	Only Amateur Extra Class operators
B	Any licensed amateur operator
C	Only Technician, General, Advanced or Amateur Extra Class operators
D	Only General, Advanced or Amateur Extra Class operators

8. - E2A02

Which of the following occurs when a satellite is using an inverting linear transponder?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	Upper sideband on the uplink becomes lower sideband on the downlink, and vice versa
C	Doppler shift is reduced because the uplink and downlink shifts are in opposite directions
D	Signal position in the band is reversed

9. - E2B05

Which of the following describes the use of vestigial sideband in analog fast-scan TV transmissions?

Select	Answer
A	The vestigial sideband carries the audio information
B	Vestigial sideband reduces bandwidth while allowing for simple video detector circuitry
C	The vestigial sideband contains chroma information
D	Vestigial sideband provides high frequency emphasis to sharpen the picture

10. - E2C01

What indicator is required to be used by U.S.-licensed operators when operating a station via remote control and the remote transmitter is located in the U.S.?

Select	Answer
A	/ followed by the USPS two-letter abbreviation for the state in which the remote station is located
B	No additional indicator is required
C	/R# where # is the district of the remote station
D	/ followed by the ARRL Section of the remote station

11. - E2D11

Which of the following data are used by the APRS network to communicate station location?

Select	Answer
A	Time and frequency
B	Polar coordinates
C	Latitude and longitude
D	Radio direction finding spectrum analysis

12. - E2E11

What is the difference between direct FSK and audio FSK?

Select	Answer
A	Only direct FSK can be decoded by computer
B	Direct FSK occupies less bandwidth
C	Direct FSK applies the data signal to the transmitter VFO, while AFSK transmits tones via phone
D	Direct FSK can transmit faster baud rates

13. - E3A14

What is meant by circularly polarized electromagnetic waves?

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

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

16. - E4A09

Which of the following is good practice when using an oscilloscope probe?

Select	Answer
A	Never use a high-impedance probe to measure a low-impedance circuit
B	All these choices are correct
C	Keep the signal ground connection of the probe as short as possible
D	Never use a DC-coupled probe to measure an AC circuit

17. - E4B07

What do the subscripts of S parameters represent?

Select	Answer
A	Frequency order of the measurements
B	Relative quality of the data
C	The port or ports at which measurements are made
D	The relative time between measurements

18. - E4C09

Which of the following choices is a good reason for selecting a high frequency for the design of the IF in a superheterodyne HF or VHF communications receiver?

Select	Answer
A	Fewer components in the receiver
B	Reduced drift
C	Easier for front-end circuitry to eliminate image responses
D	Improved receiver noise figure

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	Spurious signals caused by cross-modulation and desensitization from strong adjacent signals
C	Cross-modulation of the desired signal and insufficient audio power to operate the speaker
D	Oscillator instability requiring frequent retuning and loss of ability to recover the opposite sideband

20. - E4E02

Which of the following types of noise can often be reduced with a digital signal processing noise filter?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	Power line noise
C	Ignition noise
D	Broadband white noise

21. - E5A06

What is the magnitude of the circulating current within the components of a parallel LC circuit at resonance?

Select	Answer
A	It is at a maximum
B	It is at a minimum
C	It equals 2 multiplied by pi, multiplied by frequency, multiplied by inductance
D	It equals 1 divided by the quantity 2 times pi, multiplied by the square root of inductance L multiplied by capacitance C

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	220 seconds
B	55 seconds
C	440 seconds
D	110 seconds

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. - E5D01

What is the result of skin effect?

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

25. - E6A11

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

Select	Answer
A	6
B	1
C	3
D	2

26. - E6B09

What is a common use for point-contact diodes?

Select	Answer
A	As a high-voltage rectifier
B	As an RF detector
C	As a constant voltage source
D	As a constant current source

27. - E6C04

Which of the following is an advantage of BiCMOS logic?

Select	Answer
A	Its simplicity results in much less expensive devices than standard CMOS
B	It is immune to electrostatic damage
C	It has the high input impedance of CMOS and the low output impedance of bipolar transistors
D	All these choices are correct

28. - E6D07

What is current in the primary winding of a transformer called if no load is attached to the secondary?

Select	Answer
A	Direct current
B	Stabilizing current
C	Magnetizing current
D	Excitation current

29. - E6E12

Why are DIP through-hole package ICs not typically used at UHF and higher frequencies?

Select	Answer
A	Epoxy coating is conductive above 300 MHz
B	Too many pins
C	Excessive lead length
D	Unsuitable for combining analog and digital signals

30. - E6F09

What is the efficiency of a photovoltaic cell?

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

31. - E7A01

Which circuit is bistable?

Select	Answer
A	A bipolar amplifier
B	A flip-flop
C	An AND gate
D	An OR gate

32. - E7B12

What type of amplifier circuit is shown in Figure E7-1?

Select	Answer
A	Common base
B	Common emitter
C	Common collector
D	Emitter follower

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

34. - E7D14

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

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

35. - E7E02

What is the function of a reactance modulator?

Select	Answer
A	To produce AM signals by using an electrically variable inductance or capacitance
B	To produce PM signals by using an electrically variable resistance
C	To produce PM or FM signals by using an electrically variable inductance or capacitance
D	To produce AM signals by using an electrically variable resistance

36. - E7F09

Why is an anti-aliasing digital filter required in a digital decimator?

Select	Answer
A	It notches out the sampling frequency to avoid sampling errors
B	It removes low-frequency signal components to eliminate the need for DC restoration
C	It removes high-frequency signal components that would otherwise be reproduced as lower frequency components
D	It peaks the response of the decimator, improving bandwidth

37. - E7G09

What will be the output voltage of the circuit shown in Figure E7-3 if R1 is 1000 ohms, RF is 10,000 ohms, and 0.23 volts DC is applied to the input?

Select	Answer
A	2.3 volts
B	-0.23 volts
C	0.23 volts
D	-2.3 volts

38. - E7H10

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

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

39. - E8A03

What type of wave does a Fourier analysis show to be made up of sine waves of a given fundamental frequency plus all its harmonics?

Select	Answer
A	A sawtooth wave
B	A cosine wave
C	A square wave
D	A sine wave

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	1.67
B	0.167
C	0.6
D	60

41. - E8C04

What technique minimizes the bandwidth of a PSK31 signal?

Select	Answer
A	Use of trapezoidal data pulses
B	Zero-sum character encoding
C	Use of sinusoidal data pulses
D	Reed-Solomon character encoding

42. - E8D06

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

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

43. - E9A01

What is an isotropic antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A grounded antenna used to measure Earth conductivity
B	A horizontally polarized antenna used to compare Yagi antennas
C	A theoretical, omnidirectional antenna used as a reference for antenna gain
D	A spacecraft antenna used to direct signals toward Earth

44. - E9B09

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

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

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

46. - E9D04

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

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

47. - E9E09

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

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

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

49. - E9G05

Which of the following is a common use for a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Determine the loss/100 feet of a transmission line, given the velocity factor and conductor materials
B	Determine the length and position of an impedance matching stub
C	Determine the impedance of a transmission line, given the physical dimensions
D	Determine the gain of an antenna given the physical and electrical parameters

50. - E9H08

What is the function of a sense antenna?

Select	Answer
A	It increases the sensitivity of a DF antenna array
B	It provides diversity reception that cancels multipath signals
C	It allows DF antennas to receive signals at different vertical angles
D	It modifies the pattern of a DF antenna array to provide a null in one direction

Figure E6-1

Figure E7-1

Figure E7-3