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

Logging in (or registering) will help the system to select questions that you need to focus on.

1. - E0A11

Which of the following injuries can result from using high-power UHF or microwave transmitters?

Select	Answer
A	Hearing loss caused by high voltage corona discharge
B	Ingestion of ozone gas from the cooling system
C	Blood clotting from the intense magnetic field
D	Localized heating of the body from RF exposure in excess of the MPE limits

2. - E1A03

What is the maximum legal carrier frequency on the 20 meter band for transmitting USB AFSK digital signals having a 1 kHz bandwidth?

Select	Answer
A	14.100 MHz
B	14.349 MHz
C	14.070 MHz
D	14.149 MHz

3. - E1B12

What must the control operator of a repeater operating in the 70 cm band do if a radiolocation system experiences interference from that repeater?

Select	Answer
A	File an FAA NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) with the repeater system's ERP, call sign, and six-character grid locator
B	Cease operation or make changes to the repeater to mitigate the interference
C	All these choices are correct
D	Reduce the repeater antenna HAAT (Height Above Average Terrain)

4. - E1C05

When may an automatically controlled station originate third party communications?

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

5. - E1D12

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

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

6. - E1E09

What may be the penalty for a VE who fraudulently administers or certifies an examination?

Select	Answer
A	A sentence of up to one year in prison
B	Revocation of the VE's amateur station license grant and the suspension of the VE's amateur operator license grant
C	All these choices are correct
D	A fine of up to $1000 per occurrence

7. - E1F03

Under what circumstances may a dealer sell an external RF power amplifier capable of operation below 144 MHz if it has not been granted FCC certification?

Select	Answer
A	The equipment dealer assembled it from a kit
B	It was imported from a manufacturer in a country that does not require certification of RF power amplifiers
C	It was imported from a manufacturer in another country and was certificated by that country's government
D	It was purchased in used condition from an amateur operator and is sold to another amateur operator for use at that operator's station

8. - E2A02

Which of the following occurs when a satellite is using an inverting linear transponder?

Select	Answer
A	Upper sideband on the uplink becomes lower sideband on the downlink, and vice versa
B	All these choices are correct
C	Doppler shift is reduced because the uplink and downlink shifts are in opposite directions
D	Signal position in the band is reversed

9. - E2B05

Which of the following describes the use of vestigial sideband in analog fast-scan TV transmissions?

Select	Answer
A	The vestigial sideband contains chroma information
B	Vestigial sideband provides high frequency emphasis to sharpen the picture
C	Vestigial sideband reduces bandwidth while allowing for simple video detector circuitry
D	The vestigial sideband carries the audio information

10. - E2C02

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

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

11. - E2D03

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

Select	Answer
A	MSK144
B	PACTOR III
C	JT65
D	Olivia

12. - E2E04

What is indicated when one of the ellipses in an FSK crossed-ellipse display suddenly disappears?

Select	Answer
A	The mark and space signal have been inverted
B	Selective fading has occurred
C	The receiver has drifted 5 kHz from the desired receive frequency
D	One of the signal filters is saturated

13. - E3A13

Which of these emission modes is best for auroral propagation?

Select	Answer
A	RTTY
B	SSB
C	FM
D	CW

14. - E3B06

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

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

15. - E3C03

Which of the following signal paths is most likely to experience high levels of absorption when the A index or K index is elevated?

Select	Answer
A	Transequatorial
B	NVIS
C	Sporadic E
D	Polar

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	Calibration of the vertical scale is no longer valid
C	Excessive blanking occurs, which prevents display of the signal
D	All signals will have a DC offset

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 bandwidth of the circuit's frequency response
D	The frequency shift

18. - E4C06

A CW receiver with the AGC off has an equivalent input noise power density of -174 dBm/Hz. What would be the level of an unmodulated carrier input to this receiver that would yield an audio output SNR of 0 dB in a 400 Hz noise bandwidth?

Select	Answer
A	-155 dBm
B	-148 dBm
C	-164 dBm
D	-174 dBm

19. - E4D09

What is the purpose of the preselector in a communications receiver?

Select	Answer
A	To allow selection of the optimum RF amplifier device
B	To increase rejection of signals outside the desired band
C	To store often-used frequencies
D	To provide a range of AGC time constants

20. - E4E11

What could cause local AM broadcast band signals to combine to generate spurious signals in the MF or HF bands?

Select	Answer
A	Nearby corroded metal joints are mixing and re-radiating the broadcast signals
B	Your station receiver IF amplifier stage is defective
C	One or more of the broadcast stations is transmitting an over-modulated signal
D	You are receiving skywave signals from a distant station

21. - E5A10

How is the Q of an RLC series 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 the inductance multiplied by the reactance of the capacitance
D	Reactance of either the inductance or capacitance divided by the resistance

22. - E5B05

What happens to the magnitude of a pure reactance when it is converted to a susceptance?

Select	Answer
A	It is unchanged
B	The sign is reversed
C	It is shifted by 90 degrees
D	It becomes the reciprocal

23. - E5C02

How are impedances described in polar coordinates?

Select	Answer
A	By phase angle and magnitude
B	By X and R values
C	By real and imaginary parts
D	By Y and G values

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	1000 watts
B	600 watts
C	1600 watts
D	200 watts

25. - E6A09

What is a depletion-mode FET?

Select	Answer
A	Any FET without a channel
B	An FET that exhibits a current flow between source and drain when no gate voltage is applied
C	Any FET for which holes are the majority carriers
D	An FET that has no current flow between source and drain when no gate voltage is applied

26. - E6B11

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

Select	Answer
A	Forward DC bias current
B	A sub-harmonic pump signal
C	Reverse voltage larger than the RF 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 in a keying circuit used to reduce key clicks
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 that ensures that an oscillator frequency does not drift
D	A resistor connected to an op-amp output that prevents signals from exceeding the power supply voltage

28. - E6D05

What is one reason for using ferrite cores rather than powdered iron in an inductor?

Select	Answer
A	Ferrite toroids are easier to use with surface mount technology
B	Ferrite toroids generally have lower initial permeability
C	Ferrite toroids generally have better temperature stability
D	Ferrite toroids generally require fewer turns to produce a given inductance value

29. - E6E03

Which of the following materials is likely to provide the highest frequency of operation when used in MMICs?

Select	Answer
A	Silicon
B	Silicon nitride
C	Gallium nitride
D	Silicon dioxide

30. - E6F05

Which describes an optical shaft encoder?

Select	Answer
A	A device that measures the strength of a beam of light using analog to digital conversion
B	A device for generating RTTY signals by means of a rotating light source
C	A device that detects rotation of a control by interrupting a light source with a patterned wheel
D	A digital encryption device often used to encrypt spacecraft control signals

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. - E7B15

What is one way to prevent thermal runaway in a bipolar transistor amplifier?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	Neutralization
C	Select transistors with high beta
D	Use a resistor in series with the emitter

33. - E7C03

What advantage does a series-L Pi-L-network have over a series-L Pi-network for impedance matching between the final amplifier of a vacuum-tube transmitter and an antenna?

Select	Answer
A	Greater harmonic suppression
B	Does not require a capacitor
C	Higher efficiency
D	Greater transformation range

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

35. - E7E07

What is meant by the term "baseband" in radio communications?

Select	Answer
A	The lowest frequency band that the transmitter or receiver covers
B	The unmodulated bandwidth of the transmitted signal
C	The frequency range occupied by a message signal prior to modulation
D	The basic oscillator frequency in an FM transmitter that is multiplied to increase the deviation and carrier frequency

36. - E7F08

What is the function of decimation?

Select	Answer
A	Removing unnecessary significant digits
B	Reducing the effective sample rate by removing samples
C	Attenuating the signal
D	Converting data to binary code decimal form

37. - E7G09

What will be the output voltage of the circuit shown in Figure E7-3 if R1 is 1000 ohms, RF is 10,000 ohms, and 0.23 volts DC is applied to the input?

Select	Answer
A	0.23 volts
B	-2.3 volts
C	2.3 volts
D	-0.23 volts

38. - E7H14

What is a phase-locked loop circuit?

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

39. - E8A02

Which of the following is a type of analog-to-digital conversion?

Select	Answer
A	Level shifting
B	Harmonic regeneration
C	Successive approximation
D	Phase reversal

40. - E8B05

What is the deviation ratio of an FM-phone signal having a maximum frequency swing of plus-or-minus 5 kHz when the maximum modulation frequency is 3 kHz?

Select	Answer
A	0.6
B	60
C	0.167
D	1.67

41. - E8C12

What factors affect the bandwidth of a transmitted CW signal?

Select	Answer
A	All these choices are correct
B	IF bandwidth and Q
C	Keying speed and shape factor (rise and fall time)
D	Modulation index and output power

42. - E8D06

What is the advantage of including parity bits in ASCII characters?

Select	Answer
A	The signal can overpower interfering signals
B	Foreign language characters can be sent
C	Faster transmission rate
D	Some types of errors can be detected

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 angle formed between two imaginary lines drawn through the element ends
D	The frequency range over which an antenna satisfies a performance requirement

44. - E9B11

What is a disadvantage of decreasing the number of wire segments in an antenna model below 10 segments per half-wavelength?

Select	Answer
A	The computed feed point impedance may be incorrect
B	Ground conductivity will not be accurately modeled
C	The antenna will become mechanically unstable
D	The resulting design will favor radiation of harmonic energy

45. - E9C06

What is the effect of adding a terminating resistor to a rhombic antenna?

Select	Answer
A	It changes the radiation pattern from horizontal to vertical polarization
B	It changes the radiation pattern from bidirectional to unidirectional
C	It reflects the standing waves on the antenna elements back to the transmitter
D	It decreases the ground loss

46. - E9D06

What happens to the SWR bandwidth when one or more loading coils are used to resonate an electrically short antenna?

Select	Answer
A	It is unchanged if the loading coil is located at the feed point
B	It is decreased
C	It is unchanged if the loading coil is located at a voltage maximum point
D	It is increased

47. - E9E04

What is the purpose of the series capacitor in a gamma-type antenna matching network?

Select	Answer
A	To provide a rejection notch that prevents the radiation of harmonics
B	To cancel the inductive reactance of the matching network
C	To provide DC isolation between the feed line and the antenna
D	To transform the antenna impedance to a higher value

48. - E9F04

What impedance does a 1/2-wavelength transmission line present to a generator when the line is shorted at the far end?

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

49. - E9G07

On the Smith chart shown in Figure E9-3, what is the only straight line shown?

Select	Answer
A	The resistance axis
B	The reactance axis
C	The current axis
D	The voltage axis

50. - E9H09

What is a Pennant antenna?

Select	Answer
A	A form of rhombic antenna terminated in a variable capacitor to provide frequency diversity
B	A small, vertically oriented receiving antenna consisting of a triangular loop terminated in approximately 900 ohms
C	A four-element, high-gain vertical array invented by George Pennant
D	A stealth antenna built to look like a flagpole

Figure E7-3

Figure E9-3