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

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1. - E0A06

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

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

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 operator of the originating station
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 packet bulletin board station
D	The control operators of all the stations in the system

3. - E1B10

What frequencies are authorized to an amateur station operating under RACES rules?

Select	Answer
A	Specific segments in the amateur service MF, HF, VHF and UHF bands
B	All amateur service frequencies authorized to the control operator
C	Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) channels
D	Specific local government channels

4. - E1C13

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

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

5. - E1D06

What is the maximum permitted transmitter output power when operating a model craft by telecommand?

Select	Answer
A	5 watts
B	2 watts
C	1 watt
D	100 watts

6. - E1E03

What is a Volunteer Examiner Coordinator?

Select	Answer
A	A person who has volunteered to administer amateur operator license examinations
B	The person who has entered into an agreement with the FCC to be the VE session manager
C	A person who has volunteered to prepare amateur operator license examinations
D	An organization that has entered into an agreement with the FCC to coordinate, prepare, and administer amateur operator license examinations

7. - E1F11

Which of the following best describes one of the standards that must be met by an external RF power amplifier if it is to qualify for a grant of FCC certification?

Select	Answer
A	It must be capable of external RF switching between its input and output networks
B	It must satisfy the FCC's spurious emission standards when operated at the lesser of 1500 watts or its full output power
C	It must exhibit a gain of 0 dB or less over its full output range
D	It must produce full legal output when driven by not more than 5 watts of mean RF input power

8. - E2A13

Which of the following techniques is normally used by low Earth orbiting digital satellites to relay messages around the world?

Select	Answer
A	Node hopping
B	Store-and-forward
C	Multi-satellite relaying
D	Digipeating

9. - E2B10

What aspect of an analog slow-scan television signal encodes the brightness of the picture?

Select	Answer
A	Sync amplitude
B	Tone frequency
C	Tone amplitude
D	Sync frequency

10. - E2C07

What is the Cabrillo format?

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

11. - E2D03

Which of the following digital modes is especially useful for EME communications?

Select	Answer
A	PACTOR III
B	MSK144
C	JT65
D	Olivia

12. - E2E09

Which of the following HF digital modes uses variable-length coding for bandwidth efficiency?

Select	Answer
A	PSK31
B	PACTOR
C	RTTY
D	MT63

13. - E3A06

What might help to restore contact when DX signals become too weak to copy across an entire HF band a few hours after sunset?

Select	Answer
A	Wait 24 hours before attempting another communication on the band
B	Wait 90 minutes or so for the signal degradation to pass
C	Switch to a higher frequency HF band
D	Switch to a lower frequency HF band

14. - E3B10

Why is chordal hop propagation desirable?

Select	Answer
A	Atmospheric noise is lower in the direction of chordal hop propagation
B	The signal experiences less loss compared to multi-hop using Earth as a reflector
C	The MUF for chordal hop propagation is much lower than for normal skip propagation
D	Signals travel faster along ionospheric chords

15. - E3C14

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

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

16. - E4A01

Which of the following limits the highest frequency signal that can be accurately displayed on a digital oscilloscope?

Select	Answer
A	Q of the circuit
B	Sampling rate of the analog-to-digital converter
C	Amount of memory
D	All these choices are correct

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	There is an impedance mismatch between the antenna and feed line
C	The transmitter is not properly neutralized
D	There is possibly a short to ground in the feed line

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	It improves dynamic range by attenuating strong signals near the receive frequency
C	All these choices are correct
D	It improves sensitivity by reducing front end noise

19. - E4D07

Which of the following reduces the likelihood of receiver desensitization?

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

20. - E4E07

Which of the following can cause shielded cables to radiate or receive interference?

Select	Answer
A	Low inductance ground connections at both ends of the shield
B	Common-mode currents on the shield and conductors
C	Use of braided shielding material
D	Tying all ground connections to a common point resulting in differential-mode currents in the shield

21. - E5A09

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

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

22. - E5B12

What is admittance?

Select	Answer
A	The turns ratio of a transformer
B	The inverse of impedance
C	The term for the gain of a field effect transistor
D	The inverse of Q factor

23. - E5C08

What coordinate system is often used to display the phase angle of a circuit containing resistance, inductive and/or capacitive reactance?

Select	Answer
A	Faraday grid
B	Elliptical coordinates
C	Maidenhead grid
D	Polar coordinates

24. - E5D15

What is the power factor of an RL circuit having a 45-degree phase angle between the voltage and the current?

Select	Answer
A	1.0
B	0.5
C	0.866
D	0.707

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. - E6B11

What is used to control the attenuation of RF signals by a PIN diode?

Select	Answer
A	Reverse voltage larger than the RF signal
B	Forward DC bias current
C	A sub-harmonic pump signal
D	Capacitance of an RF coupling capacitor

27. - E6C07

What best describes a pull-up or pull-down resistor?

Select	Answer
A	A resistor that ensures that an oscillator frequency does not drift
B	A resistor connected to an op-amp output that prevents signals from exceeding the power supply voltage
C	A resistor in a keying circuit used to reduce key clicks
D	A resistor connected to the positive or negative supply line used to establish a voltage when an input or output is an open circuit

28. - E6D07

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

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

29. - E6E02

Which of the following device packages is a through-hole type?

Select	Answer
A	Ball grid array
B	SOT
C	DIP
D	PLCC

30. - E6F09

What is the efficiency of a photovoltaic cell?

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

31. - E7A09

What logical operation is performed by an exclusive NOR gate?

Select	Answer
A	It produces logic 0 at its output only if all inputs are logic 0
B	It produces logic 0 at its output if only one input is logic 1
C	It produces logic 1 at its output only if all inputs are logic 1
D	It produces logic 1 at its output if only one input is logic 1

32. - E7B11

In Figure E7-1, what is the purpose of R3?

Select	Answer
A	Fixed bias
B	Emitter bypass
C	Self bias
D	Output load resistor

33. - E7C06

What are the distinguishing features of an elliptical filter?

Select	Answer
A	Extremely sharp cutoff with one or more notches in the stop band
B	Gradual passband rolloff with extreme stop band ripple
C	Extremely flat response over its pass band with gradually rounded stop band corners
D	Gradual passband rolloff with minimal stop band ripple

34. - E7D02

What is a characteristic of a switching electronic voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	It gives a ramp voltage at its output
B	It is generally less efficient than a linear regulator
C	The resistance of a control element is varied in direct proportion to the line voltage or load current
D	The controlled device's duty cycle is changed to produce a constant average output voltage

35. - E7E05

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

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

36. - E7F05

How frequently must an analog signal be sampled by an analog-to-digital converter so that the signal can be accurately reproduced?

Select	Answer
A	At the same rate as the highest frequency component of the signal
B	At four times the rate of the highest frequency component of the signal
C	At least twice the rate of the highest frequency component of the signal
D	At least half the rate of the highest frequency component of the signal

37. - E7G07

What magnitude of voltage gain can be expected from the circuit in Figure E73 when R1 is 10 ohms and RF is 470 ohms?

Select	Answer
A	24
B	0.21
C	94
D	47

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

39. - E8A07

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

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

40. - E8B06

What is the deviation ratio of an FM-phone signal having a maximum frequency swing of plus or minus 7.5 kHz when the maximum modulation frequency is 3.5 kHz?

Select	Answer
A	2.14
B	0.47
C	0.214
D	47

41. - E8C03

Why should phase-shifting of a PSK signal be done at the zero crossing of the RF signal?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	To improve carrier suppression
C	To minimize bandwidth
D	To simplify modulation

42. - E8D04

What is the primary effect of extremely short rise or fall time on a CW signal?

Select	Answer
A	More difficult to copy
B	Limits data speed
C	The generation of RF harmonics
D	The generation of key clicks

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	2000 watts
B	317 watts
C	126 watts
D	300 watts

44. - E9B02

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

Select	Answer
A	18 dB
B	14 dB
C	36 dB
D	24 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	Omni-directional
C	A figure-8 end-fire along the axis of the array
D	A figure-8 broadside to the axis of the array

46. - E9D10

What happens to feed-point impedance at the base of a fixed length HF mobile antenna when operated below its resonant frequency?

Select	Answer
A	The radiation resistance increases and the capacitive reactance increases
B	The radiation resistance decreases and the capacitive reactance increases
C	The radiation resistance increases and the capacitive reactance decreases
D	The radiation resistance decreases and the capacitive reactance decreases

47. - E9E02

What is the name of an antenna matching system that matches an unbalanced feed line to an antenna by feeding the driven element both at the center of the element and at a fraction of a wavelength to one side of center?

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

48. - E9F01

What is the velocity factor of a transmission line?

Select	Answer
A	The velocity of the wave in the transmission line multiplied by the velocity of light in a vacuum
B	The velocity of the wave in the transmission line divided by the velocity of light in a vacuum
C	The ratio of the characteristic impedance of the line to the terminating impedance
D	The index of shielding for coaxial cable

49. - E9G02

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

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

50. - E9H03

What is Receiving Directivity Factor (RDF)?

Select	Answer
A	Relative directivity compared to isotropic
B	Forward gain compared to average gain over the entire hemisphere
C	Forward gain compared to the gain in the reverse direction
D	Relative directivity compared to a dipole

Figure E7-1

Figure E9-1