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

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1. - E0A03

Over what range of frequencies are the FCC human body RF exposure limits most restrictive?

Select	Answer
A	30 to 300 MHz
B	3 to 30 MHz
C	300 kHz to 3 MHz
D	300 to 3000 MHz

2. - E1A09

What action or actions should you take if your digital message forwarding station inadvertently forwards a communication that violates FCC rules?

Select	Answer
A	Notify the originating station that the communication does not comply with FCC rules
B	Discontinue forwarding the communication as soon as you become aware of it
C	Notify the nearest FCC Field Engineers office
D	All these choices are correct

3. - E1B03

Within what distance must an amateur station protect an FCC monitoring facility from harmful interference?

Select	Answer
A	1 mile
B	30 miles
C	10 miles
D	3 miles

4. - E1C02

Which of the following types of communications may be transmitted to amateur stations in foreign countries?

Select	Answer
A	Messages intended for users of the maritime satellite service
B	Business-related messages for non-profit organizations
C	Communications incidental to the purpose of the amateur service and remarks of a personal nature
D	All these choices are correct

5. - E1D12

Which of the following amateur stations may transmit one-way communications?

Select	Answer
A	A space station, beacon station, or telecommand station
B	A message forwarding station or automatically controlled digital station
C	A local repeater or linked repeater station
D	All these choices are correct

6. - E1E11

What must the VE team do if an examinee scores a passing grade on all examination elements needed for an upgrade or new license?

Select	Answer
A	Three VEs must certify that the examinee is qualified for the license grant and that they have complied with the administering VE requirements
B	Issue the examinee the new or upgrade license
C	Photocopy all examination documents and forward them to the FCC for processing
D	All these choices are correct

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

8. - E2A07

Which of the following types of signals can be relayed through a linear transponder?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	SSB and SSTV
C	PSK and packet
D	FM and CW

9. - E2B06

What is vestigial sideband modulation?

Select	Answer
A	Narrow-band FM modulation achieved by filtering one sideband from the audio before frequency modulating the carrier
B	A type of modulation in which one sideband is inverted
C	Amplitude modulation in which one complete sideband and a portion of the other are transmitted
D	Spread spectrum modulation achieved by applying FM modulation following single sideband amplitude modulation

10. - E2C12

What technique do individual nodes use to form a mesh network?

Select	Answer
A	Custom code plugs for the local trunking systems
B	Forward error correction and Viterbi codes
C	Discovery and link establishment protocols
D	Acting as store-and-forward digipeaters

11. - E2D09

What type of modulation is used for JT65 contacts?

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

12. - E2E01

Which of the following types of modulation is common for data emissions below 30 MHz?

Select	Answer
A	FSK
B	Spread spectrum
C	Pulse modulation
D	DTMF tones modulating an FM signal

13. - E3A12

What is the cause of auroral activity?

Select	Answer
A	The interaction in the E layer of charged particles from the Sun with the Earth's magnetic field
B	The interaction in the F2 layer between the solar wind and the Van Allen belt
C	Meteor showers concentrated in the extreme northern and southern latitudes
D	An extreme low-pressure area in the polar regions

14. - E3B05

Which amateur bands typically support long-path propagation?

Select	Answer
A	6 meters to 2 meters
B	160 meters to 10 meters
C	Only 30 meters to 10 meters
D	Only 160 meters to 40 meters

15. - E3C08

What does the space weather term G5 mean?

Select	Answer
A	An extreme geomagnetic storm
B	Very low solar activity
C	Moderate solar wind
D	Waning sunspot numbers

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 spectrum analyzer
C	A wattmeter
D	A logic analyzer

17. - E4B08

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

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

18. - E4C14

What transmit frequency might generate an image response signal in a receiver tuned to 14.300 MHz and that uses a 455 kHz IF frequency?

Select	Answer
A	14.755 MHz
B	15.210 MHz
C	13.845 MHz
D	14.445 MHz

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	Adjacent channel interference
B	Amplifier desensitization
C	Intermodulation
D	Neutralization

20. - E4E07

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

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

21. - E5A05

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

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

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

23. - E5C09

When using rectangular coordinates to graph the impedance of a circuit, what do the axes represent?

Select	Answer
A	The X axis represents the resistive component and the Y axis represents the reactive component
B	The X axis represents the phase angle and the Y axis represents the magnitude
C	The X axis represents the magnitude and the Y axis represents the phase angle
D	The X axis represents the reactive component and the Y axis represents the resistive component

24. - E5D14

What is reactive power?

Select	Answer
A	Power consumed in wire resistance in an inductor
B	Wattless, nonproductive power
C	Power lost because of capacitor leakage
D	Power consumed in circuit Q

25. - E6A03

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

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

26. - E6B08

Which of the following is a Schottky barrier diode?

Select	Answer
A	Electrolytic rectifier
B	Thermionic emission diode
C	PIN junction
D	Metal-semiconductor junction

27. - E6C01

What is the function of hysteresis in a comparator?

Select	Answer
A	To allow the comparator to be used with AC input signals
B	To cause the output to change states continually
C	To increase the sensitivity
D	To prevent input noise from causing unstable output signals

28. - E6D03

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

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

29. - E6E12

Why are DIP through-hole package ICs not typically used at UHF and higher frequencies?

Select	Answer
A	Too many pins
B	Epoxy coating is conductive above 300 MHz
C	Excessive lead length
D	Unsuitable for combining analog and digital signals

30. - E6F08

Why are optoisolators often used in conjunction with solid-state circuits when switching 120 VAC?

Select	Answer
A	Optoisolators provide a low impedance link between a control circuit and a power circuit
B	Optoisolators eliminate the effects of reflected light in the control circuit
C	Optoisolators provide impedance matching between the control circuit and power circuit
D	Optoisolators provide a very high degree of electrical isolation between a control circuit and the circuit being switched

31. - E7A04

How many flip-flops are required to divide a signal frequency by 4?

Select	Answer
A	4
B	2
C	1
D	8

32. - E7B13

Which of the following describes an emitter follower (or common collector) amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	A two-transistor amplifier with the emitters sharing a common bias resistor
B	An OR circuit with only one emitter used for output
C	A differential amplifier with both inputs fed to the emitter of the input transistor
D	An amplifier with a low impedance output that follows the base input voltage

33. - E7C07

Which describes a Pi-L-network used for matching a vacuum tube final amplifier to a 50-ohm unbalanced output?

Select	Answer
A	A Phase Inverter Load network
B	A network with only three discrete parts
C	A Pi-network with an additional series inductor on the output
D	A matching network in which all components are isolated from ground

34. - E7D10

What is the primary reason that a high-frequency switching type high-voltage power supply can be both less expensive and lighter in weight than a conventional power supply?

Select	Answer
A	It uses a diode bridge rectifier for increased output
B	The high frequency inverter design uses much smaller transformers and filter components for an equivalent power output
C	It uses a large power factor compensation capacitor to recover power from the unused portion of the AC cycle
D	The inverter design does not require any output filtering

35. - E7E08

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

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

36. - E7F10

What aspect of receiver analog-to-digital conversion determines the maximum receive bandwidth of a Direct Digital Conversion SDR?

Select	Answer
A	Sample width in bits
B	Sample clock phase noise
C	Sample rate
D	Processor latency

37. - E7G06

What is the gain-bandwidth of an operational amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	The frequency at which the open-loop gain of the amplifier equals one
B	The maximum frequency for a filter circuit using that type of amplifier
C	The frequency at which the amplifier's offset voltage is zero
D	The gain of the amplifier at a filter's cutoff frequency

38. - E7H15

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

Select	Answer
A	Wide-band AF and RF power amplification
B	Comparison of two digital input signals, digital pulse counter
C	Frequency synthesis, FM demodulation
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	All these choices are correct
B	Very high speed allows digitizing high frequencies
C	Very low power consumption decreases frequency drift
D	Immunity to out-of-sequence coding reduces spurious responses

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	2000
C	6000
D	1/3

41. - E8C02

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

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

42. - E8D05

What is the most common method of reducing key clicks?

Select	Answer
A	Increase keying waveform rise and fall times
B	Reduce keying waveform rise and fall times
C	High-pass filters at the transmitter output
D	Low-pass filters at the transmitter output

43. - E9A10

Which of the following improves the efficiency of a ground-mounted quarter-wave vertical antenna?

Select	Answer
A	Installing a radial system
B	Shortening the radiating element
C	Isolating the coax shield from ground
D	All these choices are correct

44. - E9B10

What is the principle of a Method of Moments analysis?

Select	Answer
A	A wire is modeled as a single sine-wave current generator
B	A wire is modeled as a series of segments, each having a uniform value of current
C	A wire is modeled as a series of segments, each having a distinct value of voltage across it
D	A wire is modeled as a single sine-wave voltage source

45. - E9C03

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

Select	Answer
A	Cardioid
B	A Figure-8 end-fire along the axis of the array
C	A Figure-8 broadside to the axis of the array
D	Omni-directional

46. - E9D05

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

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

47. - E9E05

How must an antenna's driven element be tuned to use a hairpin matching system?

Select	Answer
A	The driven element reactance must be inductive
B	The driven element resonance must be lower than the operating frequency
C	The driven element radiation resistance must be higher than the characteristic impedance of the transmission line
D	The driven element reactance must be capacitive

48. - E9F02

Which of the following has the biggest effect on the velocity factor of a transmission line?

Select	Answer
A	The center conductor resistivity
B	The termination impedance
C	The line length
D	Dielectric materials used in the line

49. - E9G05

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

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

50. - E9H06

What is the triangulation method of direction finding?

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