Amateur Extra Class: 2020–2024
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Amateur Extra Class Practice Test

Select the most correct answer for each question, then submit your practice test to check your score. This practice test randomly pulls one question from each topic in the Amateur Extra pool.

Good Luck!


E2E03:

How is the timing of FT4 contacts organized?

By exchanging ACK/NAK packets
Stations take turns on alternate days
Alternating transmissions at 7.5 second intervals
It depends on the lunar phase

E1C13:

What notifications must be given before transmitting on the 630 meter or 2200 meter bands?

A special endorsement must be requested from the FCC
An environmental impact statement must be filed with the Department of the Interior
Operators must inform the Utilities Telecom Council of their call sign and coordinates of the station
Operators must inform the FAA of their intent to operate, giving their call sign and distance to the nearest runway

E6C07:

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

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

E2C02:

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

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

E9H11:

What feature of a cardioid pattern antenna makes it useful for direction finding?

A very sharp peak
A very sharp single null
Broadband response
High radiation angle

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?

7.0 meters
8.5 meters
10.6 meters
13.3 meters

E6A06:

What is the beta of a bipolar junction transistor?

The frequency at which the current gain is reduced to 0.707
The change in collector current with respect to base current
The breakdown voltage of the base to collector junction
The switching speed

E1B11:

What does PRB-1 require of regulations affecting amateur radio?

No limitations may be placed on antenna size or placement
Reasonable accommodations of amateur radio must be made
Amateur radio operations must be permitted in any private residence
Use of wireless devices in a vehicle is exempt from regulation

E2A10:

What type of satellite appears to stay in one position in the sky?

HEO
Geostationary
Geomagnetic
LEO

E5A13:

What is an effect of increasing Q in a series resonant circuit?

Fewer components are needed for the same performance
Parasitic effects are minimized
Internal voltages increase
Phase shift can become uncontrolled

E4B07:

What do the subscripts of S parameters represent?

The port or ports at which measurements are made
The relative time between measurements
Relative quality of the data
Frequency order of the measurements

E8D06:

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

Faster transmission rate
The signal can overpower interfering signals
Foreign language characters can be sent
Some types of errors can be detected

E1F06:

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

To provide for experimental amateur communications
To allow regular operation on Land Mobile channels
To provide additional spectrum for personal use
To provide temporary operation while awaiting normal licensing

E7E02:

What is the function of a reactance modulator?

To produce PM signals by using an electrically variable resistance
To produce AM signals by using an electrically variable inductance or capacitance
To produce AM signals by using an electrically variable resistance
To produce PM or FM signals by using an electrically variable inductance or capacitance

E4D07:

Which of the following reduces the likelihood of receiver desensitization?

Decrease the RF bandwidth of the receiver
Raise the receiver IF frequency
Increase the receiver front end gain
Switch from fast AGC to slow AGC

E9E08:

What is a use for a Wilkinson divider?

It divides the operating frequency of a transmitter signal so it can be used on a lower frequency band
It is used to feed high-impedance antennas from a low-impedance source
It is used to divide power equally between two 50-ohm loads while maintaining 50-ohm input impedance
It is used to feed low-impedance loads from a high-impedance source

E7F10:

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

Sample rate
Sample width in bits
Sample clock phase noise
Processor latency

E6D07:

What is current in the primary winding of a transformer called if no load is attached to the secondary?

Magnetizing current
Direct current
Excitation current
Stabilizing current

E7D03:

What device is typically used as a stable voltage reference in a linear voltage regulator?

A Zener diode
A tunnel diode
An SCR
A varactor diode

E4A10:

Which of the following displays multiple digital signal states simultaneously?

Network analyzer
Bit error rate tester
Modulation monitor
Logic analyzer

E9D07:

What is an advantage of using top loading in a shortened HF vertical antenna?

Lower Q
Greater structural strength
Higher losses
Improved radiation efficiency

E6F06:

Which of these materials is most commonly used to create photoconductive devices?

A crystalline semiconductor
An ordinary metal
A heavy metal
A liquid semiconductor

E3B09:

At what time of year is sporadic E propagation most likely to occur?

Around the solstices, especially the summer solstice
Around the solstices, especially the winter solstice
Around the equinoxes, especially the spring equinox
Around the equinoxes, especially the fall equinox

E9C07:

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

300 ohms
72 ohms
50 ohms
450 ohms

E5C06:

What does the impedance 50-j25 represent?

50 ohms resistance in series with 25 ohms inductive reactance
50 ohms resistance in series with 25 ohms capacitive reactance
25 ohms resistance in series with 50 ohms inductive reactance
25 ohms resistance in series with 50 ohms capacitive reactance

E9G04:

What are the two families of circles and arcs that make up a Smith chart?

Resistance and voltage
Reactance and voltage
Resistance and reactance
Voltage and impedance

E0A11:

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

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

E6B06:

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

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

E4E07:

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

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

E2B08:

What technique allows commercial analog TV receivers to be used for fast-scan TV operations on the 70 cm band?

Transmitting on channels shared with cable TV
Using converted satellite TV dishes
Transmitting on the abandoned TV channel 2
Using USB and demodulating the signal with a computer sound card

E7A04:

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

1
2
4
8

E1E06:

Who is responsible for the proper conduct and necessary supervision during an amateur operator license examination session?

The VEC coordinating the session
The FCC
Each administering VE
The VE session manager

E9B05:

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

Elevation
Azimuth
Radiation resistance
Polarization
Circuit Diagram

E5D07:

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

704 W
355 W
252 W
1.42 mW

E2D02:

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

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

E4C03:

What is the term for the suppression in an FM receiver of one signal by another stronger signal on the same frequency?

Desensitization
Cross-modulation interference
Capture effect
Frequency discrimination

E1D06:

What is the maximum permitted transmitter output power when operating a model craft by telecommand?

1 watt
2 watts
5 watts
100 watts

E7H09:

What type of frequency synthesizer circuit uses a phase accumulator, lookup table, digital to analog converter, and a low-pass anti-alias filter?

A direct digital synthesizer
A hybrid synthesizer
A phase-locked loop synthesizer
A diode-switching matrix synthesizer

E7B12:

What type of amplifier circuit is shown in Figure E7-1?

Common base
Common collector
Common emitter
Emitter follower
Circuit Diagram

E3A04:

What do Hepburn maps predict?

Sporadic E propagation
Locations of auroral reflecting zones
Likelihood of rain scatter along cold or warm fronts
Probability of tropospheric propagation

E7C09:

What is a crystal lattice filter?

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

E8B11:

What is digital time division multiplexing?

Two or more data streams are assigned to discrete sub-carriers on an FM transmitter
Two or more signals are arranged to share discrete time slots of a data transmission
Two or more data streams share the same channel by transmitting time of transmission as the sub-carrier
Two or more signals are quadrature modulated to increase bandwidth efficiency

E7G02:

What is ringing in a filter?

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

E1A07:

What is the maximum power permitted on the 2200 meter band?

50 watts PEP
100 watts PEP
1 watt EIRP (Equivalent isotropic radiated power)
5 watts EIRP (Equivalent isotropic radiated power)

E5B05:

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

It is unchanged
The sign is reversed
It is shifted by 90 degrees
It becomes the reciprocal

E8C03:

Why should phase-shifting of a PSK signal be done at the zero crossing of the RF signal?

To minimize bandwidth
To simplify modulation
To improve carrier suppression
All these choices are correct

E6E11:

What is a characteristic of DIP packaging used for integrated circuits?

Package mounts in a direct inverted position
Low leakage doubly insulated package
Two chips in each package (Dual In Package)
A total of two rows of connecting pins placed on opposite sides of the package (Dual In-line Package)

E9A02:

What is the effective radiated power relative to a dipole of a repeater station with 150 watts transmitter power output, 2 dB feed line loss, 2.2 dB duplexer loss, and 7 dBd antenna gain?

1977 watts
78.7 watts
420 watts
286 watts

E3C12:

How does the maximum range of ground-wave propagation change when the signal frequency is increased?

It stays the same
It increases
It decreases
It peaks at roughly 14 MHz

E8A09:

How many different input levels can be encoded by an analog-to-digital converter with 8-bit resolution?

8
8 multiplied by the gain of the input amplifier
256 divided by the gain of the input amplifier
256