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

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1. - E0A03

Over what range of frequencies are the FCC human body RF exposure limits most restrictive?

Select	Answer
A	300 to 3000 MHz
B	30 to 300 MHz
C	300 kHz to 3 MHz
D	3 to 30 MHz

2. - E1A03

What is the maximum legal carrier frequency on the 20 meter band for transmitting USB AFSK digital signals having a 1 kHz bandwidth?

Select	Answer
A	14.070 MHz
B	14.349 MHz
C	14.100 MHz
D	14.149 MHz

3. - E1B09

Which amateur stations may be operated under RACES rules?

Select	Answer
A	Any FCC-licensed amateur station certified by the responsible civil defense organization for the area served
B	Any FCC-licensed amateur station except a Technician Class
C	Any FCC-licensed amateur station participating in the Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS)
D	Only those club stations licensed to Amateur Extra Class operators

4. - E1C08

What is the maximum permissible duration of a remotely controlled station's transmissions if its control link malfunctions?

Select	Answer
A	30 seconds
B	3 minutes
C	10 minutes
D	5 minutes

5. - E1D12

Which of the following amateur stations may transmit one-way communications?

Select	Answer
A	A local repeater or linked repeater station
B	All these choices are correct
C	A space station, beacon station, or telecommand station
D	A message forwarding station or automatically controlled digital station

6. - E1E05

What is the minimum passing score on all amateur operator license examinations?

Select	Answer
A	Minimum passing score of 80%
B	Minimum passing score of 70%
C	Minimum passing score of 74%
D	Minimum passing score of 77%

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

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	The satellite's orientation with respect to the Earth
C	Whether the satellite is in a low earth or geostationary orbit
D	Whether the satellite is in a polar or equatorial orbit

9. - E2B03

How is an interlaced scanning pattern generated in a fast-scan (NTSC) television system?

Select	Answer
A	By scanning each field from bottom to top
B	By scanning lines from left to right in one field and right to left in the next
C	By scanning odd numbered lines in one field and even numbered lines in the next
D	By scanning two fields simultaneously

10. - E2C08

Which of the following contacts may be confirmed through the U.S. QSL bureau system?

Select	Answer
A	Repeater contacts between U.S. club members
B	Contacts between a U.S. station and a non-U.S. station
C	Special event contacts between stations in the U.S.
D	Contacts using tactical call signs

11. - E2D11

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

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

12. - E2E02

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

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

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. - E3B12

What is the primary characteristic of chordal hop propagation?

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

15. - E3C04

What does the value of Bz (B sub Z) represent?

Select	Answer
A	Direction and strength of the interplanetary magnetic field
B	Duration of long-delayed echoes
C	Critical frequency for vertical transmissions
D	Geomagnetic field stability

16. - E4A09

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

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

17. - E4B09

What is indicated if the current reading on an RF ammeter placed in series with the antenna feed line of a transmitter increases as the transmitter is tuned to resonance?

Select	Answer
A	There is more power going into the antenna
B	The transmitter is not properly neutralized
C	There is possibly a short to ground in the feed line
D	There is an impedance mismatch between the antenna and feed line

18. - E4C12

Which of the following has the largest effect on an SDR receiver's dynamic range?

Select	Answer
A	RAM speed used for data storage
B	Anti-aliasing input filter bandwidth
C	Analog-to-digital converter sample width in bits
D	CPU register width in bits

19. - E4D07

Which of the following reduces the likelihood of receiver desensitization?

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

20. - E4E11

What could cause local AM broadcast band signals to combine to generate spurious signals in the MF or HF bands?

Select	Answer
A	You are receiving skywave signals from a distant station
B	Nearby corroded metal joints are mixing and re-radiating the broadcast signals
C	Your station receiver IF amplifier stage is defective
D	One or more of the broadcast stations is transmitting an over-modulated signal

21. - E5A12

What is the half-power bandwidth of a resonant circuit that has a resonant frequency of 3.7 MHz and a Q of 118?

Select	Answer
A	436.6 kHz
B	15.7 kHz
C	31.4 kHz
D	218.3 kHz

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. - E5C07

Where is the impedance of a pure resistance plotted on rectangular coordinates?

Select	Answer
A	On the vertical axis
B	On the horizontal axis
C	On a line through the origin, slanted at 45 degrees
D	On a horizontal line, offset vertically above the horizontal axis

24. - E5D03

What is microstrip?

Select	Answer
A	Lightweight transmission line made of common zip cord
B	Short lengths of coax mounted on printed circuit boards to minimize time delay between microwave circuits
C	Precision printed circuit conductors above a ground plane that provide constant impedance interconnects at microwave frequencies
D	Miniature coax used for low power applications

25. - E6A01

In what application is gallium arsenide used as a semiconductor material?

Select	Answer
A	In very low-frequency RF circuits
B	In high-current rectifier circuits
C	In microwave circuits
D	In high-power audio circuits

26. - E6B05

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

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

27. - E6C08

In Figure E6-3, what is the schematic symbol for a NAND gate?

Select	Answer
A	1
B	4
C	2
D	3

28. - E6D09

What devices are commonly used as VHF and UHF parasitic suppressors at the input and output terminals of a transistor HF amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	Electrolytic capacitors
B	Butterworth filters
C	Steel-core toroids
D	Ferrite beads

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	The ability to retrieve information from a single signal even in the presence of other strong signals
D	Plate current that is controlled by a control grid

30. - E6F10

What is the most common type of photovoltaic cell used for electrical power generation?

Select	Answer
A	Selenium
B	Silicon
C	Cadmium Sulfide
D	Copper oxide

31. - E7A11

What type of logic defines "1" as a high voltage?

Select	Answer
A	Positive Logic
B	Negative logic
C	Assertive Logic
D	Reverse Logic

32. - E7B01

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

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

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

34. - E7D15

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

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

35. - E7E03

What is a frequency discriminator stage in a FM receiver?

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

36. - E7F01

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

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

37. - E7G08

How does the gain of an ideal operational amplifier vary with frequency?

Select	Answer
A	It decreases linearly with increasing frequency
B	It decreases logarithmically with increasing frequency
C	It does not vary with frequency
D	It increases linearly with increasing frequency

38. - E7H13

Which of the following is a technique for providing highly accurate and stable oscillators needed for microwave transmission and reception?

Select	Answer
A	Use a rubidium stabilized reference oscillator
B	Use a GPS signal reference
C	Use a temperature-controlled high Q dielectric resonator
D	All these choices are correct

39. - E8A02

Which of the following is a type of analog-to-digital conversion?

Select	Answer
A	Phase reversal
B	Harmonic regeneration
C	Level shifting
D	Successive approximation

40. - E8B09

What is deviation ratio?

Select	Answer
A	The ratio of the audio modulating frequency to the center carrier 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 highest audio modulating frequency to the average audio modulating frequency

41. - E8C07

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

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

42. - E8D03

How does the spread spectrum technique of frequency hopping work?

Select	Answer
A	If interference is detected by the receiver it will signal the transmitter to wait until the frequency is clear
B	A binary bit stream is used to shift the phase of an RF carrier very rapidly in a pseudorandom sequence
C	If interference is detected by the receiver it will signal the transmitter to change frequencies
D	The frequency of the transmitted signal is changed very rapidly according to a pseudorandom sequence also used by the receiving station

43. - E9A02

What is the effective radiated power relative to a dipole of a repeater station with 150 watts transmitter power output, 2 dB feed line loss, 2.2 dB duplexer loss, and 7 dBd antenna gain?

Select	Answer
A	1977 watts
B	420 watts
C	286 watts
D	78.7 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	18 dB
C	14 dB
D	24 dB

45. - E9C06

What is the effect of adding a terminating resistor to a rhombic antenna?

Select	Answer
A	It reflects the standing waves on the antenna elements back to the transmitter
B	It changes the radiation pattern from bidirectional to unidirectional
C	It decreases the ground loss
D	It changes the radiation pattern from horizontal to vertical polarization

46. - E9D07

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

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

47. - E9E03

What is the name of the matching system that uses a section of transmission line connected in parallel with the feed line at or near the feed point?

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

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	The characteristic impedance is higher in a parallel feed line
D	Electrical signals move more slowly in a coaxial cable than in air

49. - E9G10

What do the arcs on a Smith chart represent?

Select	Answer
A	Frequency
B	Points with constant resistance
C	SWR
D	Points with constant reactance

50. - E9H06

What is the triangulation method of direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	A fixed receiving station uses three different antennas to plot the location of the signal source
B	Antenna headings from several different receiving locations are used to locate the signal source
C	A fixed receiving station plots three headings to the signal source
D	The geometric angles of sky waves from the source are used to determine its position

Figure E6-3

Figure E9-1