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

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1. - E0A07

How may dangerous levels of carbon monoxide from an emergency generator be detected?

Select	Answer
A	By the odor
B	Only with a carbon monoxide detector
C	Any ordinary smoke detector can be used
D	By the yellowish appearance of the gas

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 highest frequency of the channel
C	At the lowest frequency of the channel
D	On any frequency where the signal's sidebands are within the channel

3. - E1B04

What must be done before placing an amateur station within an officially designated wilderness area or wildlife preserve, or an area listed in the National Register of Historic Places?

Select	Answer
A	An Environmental Assessment must be submitted to the FCC
B	A proposal must be submitted to the National Park Service
C	A form FSD-15 must be submitted to the Department of the Interior
D	A letter of intent must be filed with the Environmental Protection Agency

4. - E1C14

How long must an operator wait after filing a notification with the Utilities Technology Council (UTC) before operating on the 2200 meter or 630 meter band?

Select	Answer
A	Operators may operate after 30 days, providing they have not been told that their station is within 1 km of PLC systems using those frequencies
B	Operators may not operate until a test signal has been transmitted in coordination with the local power company
C	Operators must not operate until approval is received
D	Operations may commence immediately, and may continue unless interference is reported by the UTC

5. - E1D10

Which amateur stations are eligible to be telecommand stations of space stations (subject to the privileges of the class of operator license held by the control operator of the station)?

Select	Answer
A	Any amateur station so designated by the ITU
B	Any amateur station designated by NASA
C	All these choices are correct
D	Any amateur station so designated by the space station licensee

6. - E1E05

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

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

7. - E1F06

Under what circumstances might the FCC issue a Special Temporary Authority (STA) to an amateur station?

Select	Answer
A	To provide additional spectrum for personal use
B	To provide for experimental amateur communications
C	To allow regular operation on Land Mobile channels
D	To provide temporary operation while awaiting normal licensing

8. - E2A06

What are Keplerian elements?

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

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 two fields simultaneously
C	By scanning odd numbered lines in one field and even numbered lines in the next
D	By scanning lines from left to right in one field and right to left in the next

10. - E2C02

Which of the following best describes the term self-spotting? in connection with HF contest operating?

Select	Answer
A	A manual technique for rapidly zero beating or tuning to a station's frequency before calling that station
B	An automatic method for rapidly zero beating or tuning to a station's frequency before calling that station
C	The acceptable practice of manually posting the call signs of stations on a spotting network
D	The often-prohibited practice of posting one's own call sign and frequency on a spotting network

11. - E2D02

Which of the following is a good technique for making meteor scatter contacts?

Select	Answer
A	Short transmissions with rapidly repeated call signs and signal reports
B	15-second timed transmission sequences with stations alternating based on location
C	All these choices are correct
D	Use of special digital modes

12. - E2E05

Which of these digital modes does not support keyboard-to-keyboard operation?

Select	Answer
A	RTTY
B	PACTOR
C	MFSK
D	PSK31

13. - E3A02

What characterizes libration fading of an EME signal?

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

14. - E3B07

What happens to linearly polarized radio waves that split into ordinary and extraordinary waves in the ionosphere?

Select	Answer
A	They are bent toward the magnetic poles
B	They become elliptically polarized
C	They become phase locked
D	They become depolarized

15. - E3C06

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

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

16. - E4A09

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

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

17. - E4B02

What is the significance of voltmeter sensitivity expressed in ohms per volt?

Select	Answer
A	When used as an ohmmeter, the reading in ohms divided by the ohms per volt rating will determine the voltage applied to the circuit
B	When used as an ammeter, the full scale reading in amps divided by ohms per volt rating will determine the size of shunt needed
C	The full scale reading of the voltmeter multiplied by its ohms per volt rating will indicate the input impedance of the voltmeter
D	When used as a galvanometer, the reading in volts multiplied by the ohms per volt rating will determine the power drawn by the device under test

18. - E4C13

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

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

19. - E4D06

What is the term for spurious signals generated by the combination of two or more signals in a non-linear device or circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Intermodulation
B	Adjacent channel interference
C	Neutralization
D	Amplifier desensitization

20. - E4E06

What is one type of electrical interference that might be caused by a nearby personal computer?

Select	Answer
A	A clicking noise at intervals of a few seconds
B	The appearance of unstable modulated or unmodulated signals at specific frequencies
C	A whining type noise that continually pulses off and on
D	A loud AC hum in the audio output of your station receiver

21. - E5A11

What is the half-power bandwidth of a resonant circuit that has a resonant frequency of 7.1 MHz and a Q of 150?

Select	Answer
A	47.3 kHz
B	157.8 Hz
C	315.6 Hz
D	23.67 kHz

22. - E5B11

What is the phase angle between the voltage across and the current through a series RLC circuit if XC is 25 ohms, R is 100 ohms, and XL is 50 ohms?

Select	Answer
A	14 degrees with the voltage leading the current
B	14 degrees with the voltage lagging the current
C	76 degrees with the voltage leading the current
D	76 degrees with the voltage lagging the current

23. - E5C10

Which point on Figure E5-1 best represents the impedance of a series circuit consisting of a 400-ohm resistor and a 38-picofarad capacitor at 14 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	Point 2
B	Point 6
C	Point 5
D	Point 4

24. - E5D07

How many watts are consumed in a circuit having a power factor of 0.71 if the apparent power is 500VA?

Select	Answer
A	252 W
B	1.42 mW
C	355 W
D	704 W

25. - E6A05

How does DC input impedance at the gate of a field-effect transistor compare with the DC input impedance of a bipolar transistor?

Select	Answer
A	They are both high impedance
B	An FET has higher input impedance
C	An FET has lower input impedance
D	They are both low impedance

26. - E6B07

What is the failure mechanism when a junction diode fails due to excessive current?

Select	Answer
A	Charge carrier depletion
B	Excessive junction temperature
C	Excessive inverse voltage
D	Insufficient forward voltage

27. - E6C07

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

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

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	Steel-core toroids
C	Ferrite beads
D	Butterworth filters

29. - E6E02

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

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

30. - E6F03

What is the most common configuration of an optoisolator or optocoupler?

Select	Answer
A	An amplitude modulated helium-neon laser
B	An LED and a phototransistor
C	A frequency modulated helium-neon laser
D	A lens and a photomultiplier

31. - E7A07

What logical operation does a NAND gate perform?

Select	Answer
A	It produces logic 1 at its output only when all inputs are logic 1
B	It produces logic 0 at its output only when all inputs are logic 0
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. - E7B10

In Figure E7-1, what is the purpose of R1 and R2?

Select	Answer
A	Self bias
B	Feedback
C	Voltage divider bias
D	Load resistors

33. - E7C04

How does an impedance-matching circuit transform a complex impedance to a resistive impedance?

Select	Answer
A	Reactive currents are dissipated in matched resistances
B	It cancels the reactive part of the impedance and changes the resistive part to a desired value
C	It introduces transconductance to cancel the reactive part of impedance
D	It introduces negative resistance to cancel the resistive part of impedance

34. - E7D12

What is the dropout voltage of an analog voltage regulator?

Select	Answer
A	Maximum that the output voltage may decrease at rated load
B	Maximum output voltage drops when the input voltage is varied over its specified range
C	Minimum input-to-output voltage required to maintain regulation
D	Minimum input voltage for rated power dissipation

35. - E7E03

What is a frequency discriminator stage in a FM receiver?

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

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

37. - E7G04

What is meant by the "op-amp input offset voltage"?

Select	Answer
A	The potential between the amplifier input terminals of the op-amp in an open loop condition
B	The difference between the output voltage of the op-amp and the input voltage required in the immediately following stage
C	The differential input voltage needed to bring the open loop output voltage to zero
D	The output voltage of the op-amp minus its input voltage

38. - E7H14

What is a phase-locked loop circuit?

Select	Answer
A	An electronic circuit also known as a monostable multivibrator
B	An electronic servo loop consisting of a ratio detector, reactance modulator, and voltage-controlled oscillator
C	An electronic servo loop consisting of a phase detector, a low-pass filter, a voltage-controlled oscillator, and a stable reference oscillator
D	An electronic circuit consisting of a precision push-pull amplifier with a differential input

39. - E8A08

Why would a direct or flash conversion analog-to-digital converter be useful for a software defined radio?

Select	Answer
A	Very high speed allows digitizing high frequencies
B	Very low power consumption decreases frequency drift
C	All these choices are correct
D	Immunity to out-of-sequence coding reduces spurious responses

40. - E8B03

What is the modulation index of an FM-phone signal having a maximum frequency deviation of 3000 Hz either side of the carrier frequency when the modulating frequency is 1000 Hz?

Select	Answer
A	1000
B	3000
C	0.3
D	3

41. - E8C09

Which digital code allows only one bit to change between sequential code values?

Select	Answer
A	Binary Coded Decimal Code
B	Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code
C	Gray code
D	Excess 3 code

42. - E8D03

How does the spread spectrum technique of frequency hopping work?

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

43. - E9A12

How much gain does an antenna have compared to a 1/2-wavelength dipole when it has 6 dB gain over an isotropic antenna?

Select	Answer
A	8.15 dB
B	3.85 dB
C	2.79 dB
D	6.0 dB

44. - E9B05

What type of antenna pattern is shown in Figure E9-2?

Select	Answer
A	Radiation resistance
B	Polarization
C	Azimuth
D	Elevation

45. - E9C07

What is the approximate feed point impedance at the center of a two-wire folded dipole antenna?

Select	Answer
A	50 ohms
B	72 ohms
C	450 ohms
D	300 ohms

46. - E9D05

What usually occurs if a Yagi antenna is designed solely for maximum forward gain?

Select	Answer
A	The SWR is reduced
B	The front-to-back ratio decreases
C	The frequency response is widened over the whole frequency band
D	The front-to-back ratio increases

47. - E9E06

Which of these feed line impedances would be suitable for constructing a quarter-wave Q-section for matching a 100-ohm loop to 50-ohm feed line?

Select	Answer
A	50 ohms
B	450 ohms
C	62 ohms
D	75 ohms

48. - E9F06

What is the approximate physical length of an air-insulated, parallel conductor transmission line that is electrically 1/2 wavelength long at 14.10 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	8.5 meters
B	10.6 meters
C	13.3 meters
D	7.0 meters

49. - E9G08

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

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

50. - E9H02

Which is generally true for low band (160 meter and 80 meter) receiving antennas?

Select	Answer
A	Low loss coax transmission line is essential for good performance
B	All these choices are correct
C	Atmospheric noise is so high that gain over a dipole is not important
D	They must be erected at least 1/2 wavelength above the ground to attain good directivity

Figure E5-1

Figure E7-1

Figure E9-2