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

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1. - E0A11

Which of the following injuries can result from using high-power UHF or microwave transmitters?

Select	Answer
A	Blood clotting from the intense magnetic field
B	Hearing loss caused by high voltage corona discharge
C	Localized heating of the body from RF exposure in excess of the MPE limits
D	Ingestion of ozone gas from the cooling system

2. - E1A10

If an amateur station is installed aboard a ship or aircraft, what condition must be met before the station is operated?

Select	Answer
A	The amateur station operator must agree not to transmit when the main radio of the ship or aircraft is in use
B	Its operation must be approved by the master of the ship or the pilot in command of the aircraft
C	The amateur operator must have an FCC Marine or Aircraft endorsement on his or her amateur license
D	The amateur station must have a power supply that is completely independent of the main ship or aircraft power supply

3. - E1B05

What is the National Radio Quiet Zone?

Select	Answer
A	An area in Florida surrounding Cape Canaveral
B	An area in Puerto Rico surrounding the Arecibo Radio Telescope
C	An area surrounding the National Radio Astronomy Observatory
D	An area in New Mexico surrounding the White Sands Test Area

4. - E1C13

What notifications must be given before transmitting on the 630 meter or 2200 meter bands?

Select	Answer
A	Operators must inform the Utilities Technology Council (UTC) of their call sign and coordinates of the station
B	An environmental impact statement must be filed with the Department of the Interior
C	A special endorsement must be requested from the FCC
D	Operators must inform the FAA of their intent to operate, giving their call sign and distance to the nearest runway

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

6. - E1E09

What may be the penalty for a VE who fraudulently administers or certifies an examination?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	A fine of up to $1000 per occurrence
C	Revocation of the VE's amateur station license grant and the suspension of the VE's amateur operator license grant
D	A sentence of up to one year in prison

7. - E1F07

When may an amateur station send a message to a business?

Select	Answer
A	When the control operator is employed by the FCC or another government agency
B	When the total money involved does not exceed $25
C	When neither the amateur nor his or her employer has a pecuniary interest in the communications
D	When transmitting international third-party communications

8. - E2A06

What are Keplerian elements?

Select	Answer
A	High-emission heater filaments used in magnetron tubes
B	Parameters that define the orbit of a satellite
C	Encrypting codes used for spread spectrum modulation
D	Phase reversing elements in a Yagi antenna

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. - E2C04

Which of the following frequencies are sometimes used for amateur radio mesh networks?

Select	Answer
A	The 60 meter band channel centered on 5373 kHz
B	Cable TV channels 41 through 43
C	HF frequencies where digital communications are permitted
D	Frequencies shared with various unlicensed wireless data services

11. - E2D08

What type of packet frame is used to transmit APRS beacon data?

Select	Answer
A	Connect
B	Unnumbered Information
C	Acknowledgement
D	Disconnect

12. - E2E04

What is indicated when one of the ellipses in an FSK crossed-ellipse display suddenly disappears?

Select	Answer
A	The receiver has drifted 5 kHz from the desired receive frequency
B	The mark and space signal have been inverted
C	One of the signal filters is saturated
D	Selective fading has occurred

13. - E3A13

Which of these emission modes is best for auroral propagation?

Select	Answer
A	FM
B	SSB
C	CW
D	RTTY

14. - E3B12

What is the primary characteristic of chordal hop propagation?

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

15. - E3C06

By how much does the VHF/UHF radio horizon distance exceed the geometric horizon?

Select	Answer
A	By approximately 50 percent of the distance
B	By approximately twice the distance
C	By approximately 15 percent of the distance
D	By approximately four times the distance

16. - E4A03

Which of the following test instruments is used to display spurious signals and/or intermodulation distortion products generated by an SSB transmitter?

Select	Answer
A	A time-domain reflectometer
B	A wattmeter
C	A spectrum analyzer
D	A logic analyzer

17. - E4B10

Which of the following methods measures intermodulation distortion in an SSB transmitter?

Select	Answer
A	Modulate the transmitter using two AF signals having non-harmonically related frequencies and observe the RF output with a spectrum analyzer
B	Modulate the transmitter using two AF signals having harmonically related frequencies and observe the RF output with a peak reading wattmeter
C	Modulate the transmitter using two RF signals having harmonically related frequencies and observe the RF output with a logic analyzer
D	Modulate the transmitter using two RF signals having non-harmonically related frequencies and observe the RF output with a spectrum analyzer

18. - E4C13

How does a narrow-band roofing filter affect receiver performance?

Select	Answer
A	It improves intelligibility by using low Q circuitry to reduce ringing
B	All these choices are correct
C	It improves sensitivity by reducing front end noise
D	It improves dynamic range by attenuating strong signals near the receive frequency

19. - E4D02

Which of the following describes problems caused by poor dynamic range in a receiver?

Select	Answer
A	Oscillator instability requiring frequent retuning and loss of ability to recover the opposite sideband
B	Spurious signals caused by cross-modulation and desensitization from strong adjacent signals
C	Oscillator instability and severe audio distortion of all but the strongest received signals
D	Cross-modulation of the desired signal and insufficient audio power to operate the speaker

20. - E4E08

What current flows equally on all conductors of an unshielded multi-conductor cable?

Select	Answer
A	Reactive current only
B	Differential-mode current
C	Return current
D	Common-mode current

21. - E5A09

How is the Q of an RLC parallel resonant circuit calculated?

Select	Answer
A	Reactance of either the inductance or capacitance divided by the resistance
B	Resistance divided by the reactance of either the inductance or capacitance
C	Reactance of either the inductance or capacitance multiplied by the resistance
D	Reactance of the inductance multiplied by the reactance of the capacitance

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

23. - E5C05

What is the name of the diagram used to show the phase relationship between impedances at a given frequency?

Select	Answer
A	Near field diagram
B	Far field diagram
C	Phasor diagram
D	Venn diagram

24. - E5D03

What is microstrip?

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

25. - E6A04

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

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

26. - E6B01

What is the most useful characteristic of a Zener diode?

Select	Answer
A	A constant current drop under conditions of varying voltage
B	A negative resistance region
C	A constant voltage drop under conditions of varying current
D	An internal capacitance that varies with the applied voltage

27. - E6C05

What is an advantage of CMOS logic devices over TTL devices?

Select	Answer
A	Lower power consumption
B	Immune to damage from static discharge
C	Lower distortion
D	Differential output capability

28. - E6D03

Which of the following is an aspect of the piezoelectric effect?

Select	Answer
A	Increased conductivity in the presence of light
B	Mechanical deformation of material by the application of a voltage
C	Mechanical deformation of material by the application of a magnetic field
D	Generation of electrical energy in the presence of light

29. - E6E05

Which of the following noise figure values is typical of a low-noise UHF preamplifier?

Select	Answer
A	44 dBm
B	-20 dBm
C	2 dB
D	-10 dB

30. - E6F01

What absorbs the energy from light falling on a photovoltaic cell?

Select	Answer
A	Holes
B	Protons
C	Electrons
D	Photons

31. - E7A06

What is a characteristic of a monostable multivibrator?

Select	Answer
A	It maintains a constant output voltage, regardless of variations in the input voltage
B	It produces a continuous square wave oscillating between 1 and 0
C	It stores one bit of data in either a 0 or 1 state
D	It switches momentarily to the opposite binary state and then returns to its original state after a set time

32. - E7B15

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

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

33. - E7C02

Which of the following is a property of a T-network with series capacitors and a parallel shunt inductor?

Select	Answer
A	It is a high-pass filter
B	It is a low-pass filter
C	It is a notch filter
D	It is a band-pass filter

34. - E7D14

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

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

35. - E7E07

What is meant by the term "baseband" in radio communications?

Select	Answer
A	The lowest frequency band that the transmitter or receiver covers
B	The basic oscillator frequency in an FM transmitter that is multiplied to increase the deviation and carrier frequency
C	The unmodulated bandwidth of the transmitted signal
D	The frequency range occupied by a message signal prior to modulation

36. - E7F08

What is the function of decimation?

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

37. - E7G05

How can unwanted ringing and audio instability be prevented in an op-amp RC audio filter circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Restrict gain but increase Q
B	Restrict Q but increase gain
C	Restrict both gain and Q
D	Increase both gain and Q

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. - E8A07

What determines the PEP-to-average power ratio of a single-sideband phone signal?

Select	Answer
A	The frequency of the modulating signal
B	Speech characteristics
C	The degree of carrier suppression
D	Amplifier gain

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	3
C	2000
D	6000

41. - E8C02

What is the definition of symbol rate in a digital transmission?

Select	Answer
A	The rate at which the waveform changes to convey information
B	The number of characters carried per second by the station-to-station link
C	The number of control characters in a message packet
D	The duration of each bit in a message sent over the air

42. - E8D09

What is considered an acceptable maximum IMD level for an idling PSK signal?

Select	Answer
A	-20 dB
B	+15 dB
C	-30 dB
D	+10 dB

43. - E9A13

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

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

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	18 dB
C	14 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 lobes become more perpendicular to the wire
C	The vertical angle increases
D	The lobes align more in the direction of the wire

46. - E9D01

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

Select	Answer
A	4 dB
B	3 dB
C	2 dB
D	6 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	Gamma match
C	Hairpin 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	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. - E9G08

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

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

50. - E9H06

What is the triangulation method of direction finding?

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

Figure E9-1