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These 10 free FCC-AMATEUR-EXTRA questions are organized by exam domain, so you can see how each part of the Amateur Radio Service Operator License - Amateur Extra Class blueprint is tested. Reveal the answer and explanation under each question.
An Amateur Extra operator in the continental United States plans a 20-meter USB phone transmission with a suppressed-carrier frequency of 14.346 MHz and transmitted audio from 300 to 2700 Hz. Frequency accuracy and unwanted-emission suppression have been verified. Which band-edge assessment is correct?
Correct answer: D - No change; the upper occupied edge is 14.3487 MHz, within the authorized band.
An operator monitors their own USB downlink through an inverting linear satellite transponder. To move that downlink slightly upward in frequency while keeping it on USB, and ignoring Doppler for this adjustment, the ground station should:
Correct answer: B - Lower its uplink frequency while transmitting LSB.
Several HF paths in daylight fade abruptly within minutes of a strong solar X-ray flare. Stations whose entire paths are in darkness report little immediate change. Which mechanism best fits the initial disruption?
Correct answer: A - Enhanced absorption from rapid ionization in the sunlit D region.
During a 40-meter contest, extra signals appear near two strong stations. With automatic gain control disabled, a 10-dB attenuator ahead of the receiver's first active stage reduces the strong stations by 10 dB but the extra signals by about 30 dB. The wanted signal becomes easier to copy. What is the best response to these findings?
Correct answer: B - Keep the attenuator engaged to reduce intermodulation in the receiver.
A sinusoidal 100-V-RMS source drives a load with impedance 40 + j30 ohms. Ignoring losses outside the load, which result correctly describes its average real power and the phase of its current relative to the applied voltage?
Correct answer: D - 160 W; current lags the voltage.
A home-built VFO tunes higher in frequency as the reverse-bias voltage across a diode in its resonant circuit is increased. No coils or fixed capacitors are being switched. Which device characteristic accounts for this tuning action?
Correct answer: C - A varactor's junction capacitance decreases as reverse bias increases.
A transmitter designer has a tuned class-C RF output stage that performs well on an unmodulated carrier. The new requirement is to amplify SSB without distorting its varying envelope. Which revision addresses the limitation of the amplifier class?
Correct answer: C - Use a class-AB stage with adequate peak headroom.
A one-way amateur telemetry beacon has no receiver. Brief fades sometimes corrupt several consecutive bits in a transmitted data block. The design must recover data from some damaged receptions, rather than merely flag them for rejection. Which coding approach meets that need?
Correct answer: A - Apply forward error correction and interleave the coded data.
At 28.5 MHz, a resonant antenna presents a purely resistive 112.5-ohm load. A single lossless quarter-wave coaxial section will match it to a 50-ohm feed line. The section's velocity factor is 0.66. Which characteristic impedance and approximate physical length are required?
Correct answer: A - 75 ohms; 1.74 meters.
An operator adjusts a tuner beside the transmitter until the transmitter sees a 1:1 SWR. The 50-ohm coax and mismatched antenna beyond the tuner have not been changed. What has the tuner actually accomplished?
Correct answer: C - The tuner input is matched to the transmitter; downstream standing waves remain.
The FCC-AMATEUR-EXTRA exam also covers these domains. Drill them in the full free practice test:
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