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

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1. - E0A02

When evaluating RF exposure levels from your station at a neighbor's home, what must you do?

Select	Answer
A	Ensure signals from your station are less than the uncontrolled Maximum Permitted Exposure (MPE) limits
B	Ensure signals from your station are less than the uncontrolled Maximum Permitted Emission (MPE) limits
C	Ensure signals from your station are less than the controlled Maximum Permitted Emission (MPE) limits
D	Ensure signals from your station are less than the controlled Maximum Permitted Exposure (MPE) limits

2. - E1A04

With your transceiver displaying the carrier frequency of phone signals, you hear a DX station calling CQ on 3.601 MHz LSB. Is it legal to return the call using lower sideband on the same frequency?

Select	Answer
A	Yes, because the displayed frequency is within the 75 meter phone band segment
B	Yes, because the DX station initiated the contact
C	No, the sideband will extend beyond the edge of the phone band segment
D	No, U.S. stations are not permitted to use phone emissions below 3.610 MHz

3. - E1B02

Which of the following is an acceptable bandwidth for Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) based voice or SSTV digital transmissions made on the HF amateur bands?

Select	Answer
A	10 kHz
B	15 kHz
C	20 kHz
D	3 kHz

4. - E1C10

What is the permitted mean power of any spurious emission relative to the mean power of the fundamental emission from a station transmitter or external RF amplifier installed after January 1, 2003 and transmitting on a frequency below 30 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	At least 73 dB below
B	At least 43 dB below
C	At least 53 dB below
D	At least 63 dB below

5. - E1D09

Which UHF amateur bands have frequencies authorized for space stations?

Select	Answer
A	70 cm and 13 cm
B	33 cm and 13 cm
C	70 cm and 33 cm
D	70 cm only

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	A sentence of up to one year in prison
D	Revocation of the VE's amateur station license grant and the suspension of the VE's amateur operator license grant

7. - E1F09

Which of the following conditions apply when transmitting spread spectrum emissions?

Select	Answer
A	A station transmitting SS emission must not cause harmful interference to other stations employing other authorized emissions
B	The transmitting station must be in an area regulated by the FCC or in a country that permits SS emissions
C	The transmission must not be used to obscure the meaning of any communication
D	All these choices are correct

8. - E2A03

How is the signal inverted by an inverting linear transponder?

Select	Answer
A	The signal is detected and remodulated on the reverse sideband
B	The signal is passed through a non-linear filter
C	The signal is passed through a mixer and the difference rather than the sum is transmitted
D	The signal is reduced to I and Q components and the Q component is filtered out

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 two fields simultaneously
D	By scanning odd numbered lines in one field and even numbered lines in the next

10. - E2C08

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

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

11. - E2D09

What type of modulation is used for JT65 contacts?

Select	Answer
A	RTTY
B	IEEE 802.11
C	Multi-tone AFSK
D	PSK

12. - E2E06

What is the most common data rate used for HF packet?

Select	Answer
A	110 baud
B	300 baud
C	1200 baud
D	48 baud

13. - E3A08

When a meteor strikes the Earth's atmosphere, a cylindrical region of free electrons is formed at what layer of the ionosphere?

Select	Answer
A	The D layer
B	The F2 layer
C	The F1 layer
D	The E layer

14. - E3B06

Which of the following amateur bands most frequently provides long-path propagation?

Select	Answer
A	6 meters
B	10 meters
C	80 meters
D	20 meters

15. - E3C10

What does the 304A solar parameter measure?

Select	Answer
A	UV emissions at 304 angstroms, correlated to the solar flux index
B	The solar wind velocity at 304 degrees from the solar equator, correlated to solar activity
C	The solar emission at 304 GHz, correlated to x-ray flare levels
D	The ratio of x-ray flux to radio flux, correlated to sunspot number

16. - E4A11

How should an antenna analyzer be connected when measuring antenna resonance and feed point impedance?

Select	Answer
A	Loosely couple the antenna and a dummy load to the analyzer
B	Connect the analyzer via a high-impedance transformer to the antenna
C	Connect the antenna feed line directly to the analyzer's connector
D	Loosely couple the analyzer near the antenna base

17. - E4B08

Which of the following can be used to measure the Q of a series-tuned circuit?

Select	Answer
A	The resonant frequency of the circuit
B	The inductance to capacitance ratio
C	The frequency shift
D	The bandwidth of the circuit's frequency response

18. - E4C05

What does a receiver noise floor of -174 dBm represent?

Select	Answer
A	The minimum detectable signal as a function of receive frequency
B	The theoretical noise in a 1 Hz bandwidth at the input of a perfect receiver at room temperature
C	The galactic noise contribution to minimum detectable signal
D	The noise figure of a 1 Hz bandwidth receiver

19. - E4D04

Which of the following may reduce or eliminate intermodulation interference in a repeater caused by another transmitter operating in close proximity?

Select	Answer
A	Utilizing a Class D final amplifier
B	A band-pass filter in the feed line between the transmitter and receiver
C	Utilizing a Class C final amplifier
D	A properly terminated circulator at the output of the repeater's transmitter

20. - E4E09

What undesirable effect can occur when using an IF noise blanker?

Select	Answer
A	Received audio in the speech range might have an echo effect
B	Nearby signals may appear to be excessively wide even if they meet emission standards
C	The audio frequency bandwidth of the received signal might be compressed
D	FM signals can no longer be demodulated

21. - E5A05

What is the result of increasing the Q of an impedance-matching circuit?

Select	Answer
A	Matching bandwidth is increased
B	It has no effect on impedance matching
C	Matching range is increased
D	Matching bandwidth is decreased

22. - E5B08

What is the phase angle between the voltage across and the current through a series RLC circuit if XC is 100 ohms, R is 100 ohms, and XL is 75 ohms?

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

23. - E5C01

Which of the following represents capacitive reactance in rectangular notation?

Select	Answer
A	+jX
B	Delta
C	-jX
D	Omega

24. - E5D08

How many watts are consumed in a circuit having a power factor of 0.6 if the input is 200VAC at 5 amperes?

Select	Answer
A	200 watts
B	600 watts
C	1600 watts
D	1000 watts

25. - E6A03

Why does a PN-junction diode not conduct current when reverse biased?

Select	Answer
A	Excess holes in P-type material combine with the electrons in N-type material, converting the entire diode into an insulator
B	Holes in P-type material and electrons in the N-type material are separated by the applied voltage, widening the depletion region
C	Only P-type semiconductor material can conduct current
D	Only N-type semiconductor material can conduct current

26. - E6B02

What is an important characteristic of a Schottky diode as compared to an ordinary silicon diode when used as a power supply rectifier?

Select	Answer
A	Less forward voltage drop
B	More constant reverse avalanche voltage
C	Much higher reverse voltage breakdown
D	Longer carrier retention time

27. - E6C02

What happens when the level of a comparator's input signal crosses the threshold?

Select	Answer
A	The comparator changes its output state
B	The feedback loop becomes unstable
C	The IC input can be damaged
D	The comparator enters latch-up

28. - E6D13

What is the primary cause of inductor self-resonance?

Select	Answer
A	Non-linear core hysteresis
B	Inductive kickback
C	The skin effect
D	Inter-turn capacitance

29. - E6E07

What type of transmission line is used for connections to MMICs?

Select	Answer
A	Circular waveguide
B	Microstrip
C	Parallel wire
D	Miniature coax

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 output RF power divided by the input DC power
D	The relative fraction of light that is converted to current

31. - E7A11

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

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

32. - E7B14

Why are switching amplifiers more efficient than linear amplifiers?

Select	Answer
A	The power transistor is at saturation or cutoff most of the time
B	Switching amplifiers use push-pull circuits
C	Linear amplifiers have high gain resulting in higher harmonic content
D	Switching amplifiers operate at higher voltages

33. - E7C08

Which of the following factors has the greatest effect on the bandwidth and response shape of a crystal ladder filter?

Select	Answer
A	The relative frequencies of the individual crystals
B	The gain of the RF stage preceding the filter
C	The DC voltage applied to the quartz crystal
D	The amplitude of the signals passing through the filter

34. - E7D15

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

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

35. - E7E08

What are the principal frequencies that appear at the output of a mixer circuit?

Select	Answer
A	The square root of the product of input frequencies
B	1.414 and 0.707 times the input frequency
C	Two and four times the original frequency
D	The two input frequencies along with their sum and difference frequencies

36. - E7F11

What sets the minimum detectable signal level for a direct-sampling SDR receiver in the absence of atmospheric or thermal noise?

Select	Answer
A	Sample clock phase noise
B	Data storage transfer rate
C	Reference voltage level and sample width in bits
D	Missing codes and jitter

37. - E7G11

What absolute voltage gain can be expected from the circuit in Figure E7-3 when R1 is 3300 ohms and RF is 47 kilohms?

Select	Answer
A	0.07
B	28
C	7
D	14

38. - E7H15

Which of these functions can be performed by a phase-locked loop?

Select	Answer
A	Comparison of two digital input signals, digital pulse counter
B	Frequency synthesis, FM demodulation
C	Wide-band AF and RF power amplification
D	Photovoltaic conversion, optical coupling

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	Immunity to out-of-sequence coding reduces spurious responses
C	Very low power consumption decreases frequency drift
D	All these choices are correct

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	3
B	1/3
C	2000
D	6000

41. - E8C01

How is Forward Error Correction implemented?

Select	Answer
A	By transmitting extra data that may be used to detect and correct transmission errors
B	By the receiving station repeating each block of three data characters
C	By transmitting a special algorithm to the receiving station along with the data characters
D	By varying the frequency shift of the transmitted signal according to a predefined algorithm

42. - E8D02

What spread spectrum communications technique uses a high-speed binary bit stream to shift the phase of an RF carrier?

Select	Answer
A	Binary phase-shift keying
B	Phase compandored spread spectrum
C	Direct sequence
D	Frequency hopping

43. - E9A08

What is antenna bandwidth?

Select	Answer
A	Antenna length divided by the number of elements
B	The angle between the half-power radiation points
C	The frequency range over which an antenna satisfies a performance requirement
D	The angle formed between two imaginary lines drawn through the element ends

44. - E9B04

What is the front-to-back ratio of the radiation pattern shown in Figure E92?

Select	Answer
A	3 dB
B	38 dB
C	28 dB
D	15 dB

45. - E9C12

Which of the following describes an Extended Double Zepp antenna?

Select	Answer
A	An end-fed folded dipole antenna
B	A portable antenna erected using two push support poles
C	A center-fed 1.25-wavelength antenna (two 5/8-wave elements in phase)
D	A wideband vertical antenna constructed from precisely tapered aluminum tubing

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

47. - E9E11

What is the primary purpose of phasing lines when used with an antenna having multiple driven elements?

Select	Answer
A	It creates a low-angle radiation pattern
B	It allows single-band antennas to operate on other bands
C	It ensures that each driven element operates in concert with the others to create the desired antenna pattern
D	It prevents reflected power from traveling back down the feed line and causing harmonic radiation from the transmitter

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

49. - E9G03

Which of the following is often determined using a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Impedance and SWR values in transmission lines
B	Satellite azimuth and elevation bearings
C	Trigonometric functions
D	Beam headings and radiation patterns

50. - E9H05

What is the main drawback of a small wire-loop antenna for direction finding?

Select	Answer
A	It is practical for use only on VHF and higher bands
B	All these choices are correct
C	It has no clearly defined null
D	It has a bidirectional pattern

Figure E7-3