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

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1. - E0A01

What is the primary function of an external earth connection or ground rod?

Select	Answer
A	Lightning protection
B	Reduce received noise
C	Reduce RFI to telephones and home entertainment systems
D	Reduce RF current flow between pieces of equipment

2. - E1A12

What special operating frequency restrictions are imposed on slow scan TV transmissions?

Select	Answer
A	They are restricted to 7.245 MHz, 14.245 MHz, 21.345 MHz, and 28.945 MHz
B	None; they are allowed on all amateur frequencies
C	They are not permitted above 54 MHz
D	They are restricted to phone band segments

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	3 kHz
B	20 kHz
C	15 kHz
D	10 kHz

4. - E1C05

When may an automatically controlled station originate third party communications?

Select	Answer
A	Never
B	Only when transmitting RTTY or data emissions
C	When approved by the National Telecommunication and Information Administration
D	When agreed upon by the sending or receiving station

5. - E1D02

Which of the following may transmit special codes intended to obscure the meaning of messages?

Select	Answer
A	Data containing personal information
B	Auxiliary relay links carrying repeater audio
C	Binary control characters
D	Telecommand signals from a space telecommand station

6. - E1E02

Who does Part 97 task with maintaining the pools of questions for all U.S. amateur license examinations?

Select	Answer
A	The VEs
B	The FCC
C	The ARRL
D	The VECs

7. - E1F02

What privileges are authorized in the U.S. to persons holding an amateur service license granted by the government of Canada?

Select	Answer
A	None, they must obtain a U.S. license
B	All privileges of the Amateur Extra Class license
C	Full privileges, up to and including those of the Amateur Extra Class license, on the 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meter bands
D	The operating terms and conditions of the Canadian amateur service license, not to exceed U.S. Amateur Extra Class license privileges

8. - E2A08

Why should effective radiated power to a satellite that uses a linear transponder be limited?

Select	Answer
A	To avoid interfering with terrestrial QSOs
B	To prevent creating errors in the satellite telemetry
C	To prevent the satellite from emitting out-of-band signals
D	To avoid reducing the downlink power to all other users

9. - E2B10

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

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

10. - E2C10

Why might a DX station state that they are listening on another frequency?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	To separate the calling stations from the DX station
C	To improve operating efficiency by reducing interference
D	Because the DX station may be transmitting on a frequency that is prohibited to some responding stations

11. - E2D11

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

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

12. - E2E05

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

Select	Answer
A	PACTOR
B	MFSK
C	PSK31
D	RTTY

13. - E3A05

Tropospheric propagation of microwave signals often occurs in association with what phenomenon?

Select	Answer
A	Lightning discharges
B	Sprites and jets
C	Warm and cold fronts
D	Grayline

14. - E3B04

What is meant by the terms "extraordinary" and "ordinary" waves?

Select	Answer
A	Independent waves created in the ionosphere that are elliptically polarized
B	Refracted rays and reflected waves
C	Extraordinary waves describe rare long-skip propagation compared to ordinary waves, which travel shorter distances
D	Long-path and short-path waves

15. - E3C05

What orientation of Bz (B sub z) increases the likelihood that incoming particles from the sun will cause disturbed conditions?

Select	Answer
A	Eastward
B	Westward
C	Southward
D	Northward

16. - E4A06

What is the effect of aliasing on a digital oscilloscope caused by setting the time base too slow?

Select	Answer
A	A false, jittery low-frequency version of the signal is displayed
B	All signals will have a DC offset
C	Excessive blanking occurs, which prevents display of the signal
D	Calibration of the vertical scale is no longer valid

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 a galvanometer, the reading in volts multiplied by the ohms per volt rating will determine the power drawn by the device under test
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 an ammeter, the full scale reading in amps divided by ohms per volt rating will determine the size of shunt needed

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	Analog-to-digital converter sample width in bits
C	CPU register width in bits
D	Anti-aliasing input filter bandwidth

19. - E4D11

Why are odd-order intermodulation products, created within a receiver, of particular interest compared to other products?

Select	Answer
A	Odd-order products overload the IF filters
B	Odd-order products are an indication of poor image rejection
C	Odd-order products of two signals in the band of interest are also likely to be within the band
D	Odd-order intermodulation produces three products for every input signal within the band of interest

20. - E4E07

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

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

21. - E5A06

What is the magnitude of the circulating current within the components of a parallel LC circuit at resonance?

Select	Answer
A	It equals 2 multiplied by pi, multiplied by frequency, multiplied by inductance
B	It equals 1 divided by the quantity 2 times pi, multiplied by the square root of inductance L multiplied by capacitance C
C	It is at a maximum
D	It is at a minimum

22. - E5B06

What is susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	A measure of the efficiency of a transformer
B	The magnetic impedance of a circuit
C	The imaginary part of admittance
D	The ratio of magnetic field to electric field

23. - E5C06

What does the impedance 50-j25 represent?

Select	Answer
A	25 ohms resistance in series with 50 ohms inductive reactance
B	50 ohms resistance in series with 25 ohms inductive reactance
C	50 ohms resistance in series with 25 ohms capacitive reactance
D	25 ohms resistance in series with 50 ohms capacitive reactance

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	355 W
B	704 W
C	252 W
D	1.42 mW

25. - E6A07

Which of the following indicates that a silicon NPN junction transistor is biased on?

Select	Answer
A	Base-to-emitter resistance of approximately 0.6 to 0.7 ohms
B	Base-to-emitter voltage of approximately 0.6 to 0.7 volts
C	Base-to-emitter voltage of approximately 6 to 7 volts
D	Base-to-emitter resistance of approximately 6 to 7 ohms

26. - E6B06

Which of the following is a common use of a Schottky diode?

Select	Answer
A	As a VHF/UHF mixer or detector
B	As a constant voltage reference in a power supply
C	As a rectifier in high current power supplies
D	As a variable capacitance in an automatic frequency control circuit

27. - E6C02

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

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

28. - E6D02

What is the equivalent circuit of a quartz crystal?

Select	Answer
A	Motional inductance and loss resistance in series, paralleled with motional capacitance and a capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance
B	Motional capacitance, motional inductance, loss resistance, and a capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance all in series
C	Motional capacitance, motional inductance, loss resistance, and a capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance all in parallel
D	Motional capacitance, motional inductance, and loss resistance in series, all in parallel with a shunt capacitor representing electrode and stray capacitance

29. - E6E10

What advantage does surface-mount technology offer at RF compared to using through-hole components?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	Smaller circuit area
C	Shorter circuit-board traces
D	Components have less parasitic inductance and capacitance

30. - E6F02

What happens to the conductivity of a photoconductive material when light shines on it?

Select	Answer
A	It increases
B	It stays the same
C	It becomes unstable
D	It decreases

31. - E7A05

Which of the following is a circuit that continuously alternates between two states without an external clock?

Select	Answer
A	J-K flip-flop
B	Monostable multivibrator
C	T flip-flop
D	Astable multivibrator

32. - E7B18

What is a characteristic of a grounded-grid amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	High filament voltage
B	Low bandwidth
C	Low input impedance
D	High power gain

33. - E7C09

What is a crystal lattice filter?

Select	Answer
A	A filter with narrow bandwidth and steep skirts made using quartz crystals
B	An audio filter made with four quartz crystals that resonate at 1 kHz intervals
C	A filter using lattice-shaped quartz crystals for high-Q performance
D	A power supply filter made with interlaced quartz crystals

34. - E7D04

Which of the following types of linear voltage regulator usually make the most efficient use of the primary power source?

Select	Answer
A	A series regulator
B	A shunt regulator
C	A shunt current source
D	A series current source

35. - E7E11

Which type of detector circuit is used for demodulating SSB signals?

Select	Answer
A	Discriminator
B	Product detector
C	Phase detector
D	Phase comparator

36. - E7F13

What is the function of taps in a digital signal processing filter?

Select	Answer
A	To reduce excess signal pressure levels
B	Provide incremental signal delays for filter algorithms
C	Provide access for debugging software
D	Select the point at which baseband signals are generated

37. - E7G02

What is ringing in a filter?

Select	Answer
A	An echo caused by a long time delay
B	Undesired oscillations added to the desired signal
C	A reduction in high frequency response
D	Partial cancellation of the signal over a range of frequencies

38. - E7H15

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

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

39. - E8A05

What of the following instruments would be the most accurate for measuring the RMS voltage of a complex waveform?

Select	Answer
A	A D'Arsonval meter
B	A true-RMS calculating meter
C	An absorption wave meter
D	A grid dip meter

40. - E8B10

What is frequency division multiplexing?

Select	Answer
A	The transmitted signal is divided into packets of information
B	The transmitted signal jumps from band to band at a predetermined rate
C	Two or more information streams are merged into a baseband, which then modulates the transmitter
D	Two or more information streams are merged into a digital combiner, which then pulse position modulates the transmitter

41. - E8C05

What is the approximate bandwidth of a 13-WPM International Morse Code transmission?

Select	Answer
A	13 Hz
B	104 Hz
C	26 Hz
D	52 Hz

42. - E8D09

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

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

43. - E9A07

What is the effective isotropic radiated power of a repeater station with 200 watts transmitter power output, 2 dB feed line loss, 2.8 dB duplexer loss, 1.2 dB circulator loss, and 7 dBi antenna gain?

Select	Answer
A	632 watts
B	252 watts
C	159 watts
D	63.2 watts

44. - E9B01

In the antenna radiation pattern shown in Figure E9-1, what is the beamwidth?

Select	Answer
A	25 degrees
B	30 degrees
C	50 degrees
D	75 degrees

45. - E9C01

What is the radiation pattern of two 1/4-wavelength vertical antennas spaced 1/2-wavelength apart and fed 180 degrees out of phase?

Select	Answer
A	Omni-directional
B	A figure-8 oriented along the axis of the array
C	Cardioid
D	A figure-8 broadside to the axis of the array

46. - E9D11

Which of the following conductors would be best for minimizing losses in a station's RF ground system?

Select	Answer
A	Wide flat copper strap
B	Stranded wire
C	Resistive wire, such as spark plug wire
D	Solid wire

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 epsilon match
B	The gamma match
C	The delta match
D	The stub match

48. - E9F07

How does ladder line compare to small-diameter coaxial cable such as RG-58 at 50 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	Smaller reflection coefficient
B	Higher SWR
C	Lower velocity factor
D	Lower loss

49. - E9G05

Which of the following is a common use for a Smith chart?

Select	Answer
A	Determine the gain of an antenna given the physical and electrical parameters
B	Determine the impedance of a transmission line, given the physical dimensions
C	Determine the loss/100 feet of a transmission line, given the velocity factor and conductor materials
D	Determine the length and position of an impedance matching stub

50. - E9H02

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

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

Figure E9-1