radio

/ray"dee oh'/, n., pl. radios, adj., v., radioed, radioing.

n.

1. wireless telegraphy or telephony: speeches broadcast by radio.

2. an apparatus for receiving or transmitting radio broadcasts.

3. a message transmitted by radio.

adj.

4. pertaining to, used in, or sent by radio.

5. pertaining to or employing radiations, as of electrical energy.

v.t.

6. to transmit (a message, music, etc.) by radio.

7. to send a message to (a person) by radio.

v.i.

8. to transmit a message, music, etc., by radio.

[1910-15; shortening of RADIOTELEGRAPH or RADIOTELEGRAPHY]

* * *

I

Electromagnetic radiation of lower frequency (hence longer wavelength) than visible light or infrared radiation, and consisting of the range of frequencies used for navigation signals, AM and FM broadcasting, television transmissions, cell-phone communications, and various forms of radar.

For radio transmission, information is imparted to a carrier wave by varying (modulating) its amplitude, frequency, or duration. The technology of radio arose from the work of Michael Faraday, James Clerk Maxwell, Heinrich Hertz, Guglielmo Marconi, and others, and improvement followed the development of the vacuum tube, the electronic-tube oscillator, the tuned circuit, and other components. Later innovations have included the replacement of tubes by transistors and of wires by printed circuits. See also radio and radar astronomy.

II

(as used in expressions)

pulsating radio star

quasi stellar radio source

National Public Radio

radio and radar astronomy

radio telescope

radio wave

RKO Radio Pictures Inc.

* * *

Introduction

      transmission and detection of communication signals consisting of electromagnetic waves that travel through the air in a straight line or by reflection from the ionosphere or from a communications satellite.

Basic physical principles

       Frequency terms and their abbreviations electromagnetic radiation includes light as well as radio waves, and the two have many properties in common. Both are propagated through space in approximately straight lines at a velocity of about 300,000,000 metres (186,000 miles) per second and have amplitudes that vary cyclically with time; that is, they oscillate from zero amplitude to a maximum and back again. The number of times the cycle is repeated in one second is called the frequency (symbolized as f ) in cycles per second, and the time taken to complete one cycle is 1/f seconds, sometimes called the period. To commemorate the German pioneer Heinrich hertz, who carried out some of the early radio experiments, the cycle per second is now called a hertz so that a frequency of one cycle per second is written as one hertz (abbreviated Hz). Higher frequencies are abbreviated as shown in Table 3 (Frequency terms and their abbreviations).

      A radio wave being propagated through space will at any given instant have an amplitude variation along its direction of travel similar to that of its time variation, much like a wave traveling on a body of water. The distance from one wave crest to the next is known as the wavelength.

      Wavelength and frequency are related. Dividing the speed of the electromagnetic wave (c) by the wavelength (designated by the Greek letter lambda, λ) gives the frequency: f = c/λ. Thus a wavelength of 10 metres has a frequency of 300,000,000 divided by 10, or 30,000,000 hertz (30 megahertz). The wavelength of light is much shorter than that of a radio wave. At the centre of the light spectrum the wavelength is about 0.5 micron (0.0000005 metre), or a frequency of 6 × 10¹⁴ hertz or 600,000 gigahertz (one gigahertz equals 1,000,000,000 hertz). The maximum frequency in the radio spectrum is usually taken to be about 45 gigahertz, corresponding to a wavelength of about 6.7 millimetres. Radio waves can be generated and used at frequencies lower than 10 kilohertz (λ = 30,000 metres).

Mechanism of wave propagation

      A radio wave is made up of electric and magnetic fields vibrating mutually at right angles to each other in space. When these two fields are operating synchronously in time, they are said to be in time phase; i.e., both reach their maxima and minima together and both go through zero together. As the distance from the source of energy increases, the area over which the electric and magnetic energy is spread is increased, so that the available energy per unit area is decreased. Radio signal intensity, like light intensity, decreases as the distance from the source increases.

      A transmitting antenna is a device that projects the radio-frequency energy generated by a transmitter into space. The antenna can be designed to concentrate the radio energy into a beam like a searchlight and so increase its effectiveness in a given direction (see electronics).

Frequency bands

  Frequency band designationsThe radio-frequency spectrum is divided arbitrarily into a number of bands from very low frequencies to superhigh frequencies (see Table 4 (Frequency band designations)). Sections of the spectrum have been allocated to the various users (seeTable 5—>), such as telegraph, telephonic speech, telemetry, and radio and television broadcasting.

      The radio-frequency bandwidth is the range of frequencies covered by the modulated radio-frequency signal. The information carried by the signal has a certain bandwidth associated with it, and the carrier must have a channel width at least as great as the information bandwidth. For regular amplitude-modulated (AM) broadcasting the radio-frequency bandwidth must be twice the information-frequency bandwidth. Teleprinter and telex operation requires only a small bandwidth, on the order of 200 hertz, depending on the maximum speed of the pulses forming the information code. Telephonic speech must have high intelligibility, but naturalness (high fidelity) is not of great importance. Tests have shown that the main components of speech lie between about 300 and 3,500 hertz, and telephonic channels carried by radio are therefore normally confined to a bandwidth of about four kilohertz. The smaller the information bandwidth employed, the more speech channels can be carried in a given carrier bandwidth and the more economical the system will be.

      Young people can hear audio frequencies ranging from about 30 hertz to 18 kilohertz, but, as they grow older, hearing ranges from about 100 hertz to 10 kilohertz. For high-quality (high-fidelity) reproduction of voice or speech, the range should be not less than about 30 hertz (the lowest frequency of a large organ pipe) to 15 kilohertz (piccolo, cymbal, triangle). Acceptable audio quality under certain circumstances may be achieved with a bandwidth as small as five kilohertz, as in AM radio; a much larger bandwidth is needed for transmitting a moving picture because it is necessary to convey the overall average light content of a picture as well as the picture detail. The average light content requires frequencies as low as 20 hertz to be transmitted, and picture detail demands frequencies up to five megahertz for a standard television picture.

Modulators and demodulators

      A carrier wave is a radio-frequency wave that carries information. The information is attached to the carrier wave by means of a modulation process that involves the variation of one of the carrier-frequency characteristics, such as its amplitude, its frequency, or its duration. (All of these processes are discussed in greater detail in the article telecommunication system (telecommunication).)

      In amplitude modulation the information signal varies the amplitude of the carrier wave, a process that produces a band of frequencies known as sidebands on each side of the carrier frequency. These sidebands (a pair to each modulation frequency) cover a range of frequencies equal to the sum and difference between the carrier frequency and the information signal.

       frequency modulation involves varying the frequency (the number of times the wave passes through a complete cycle in a given period of time, measured as cycles per second) of the carrier in accordance with the amplitude of the information signal. The amplitude of the carrier wave is unaffected by the variation; only its frequency changes. Frequency modulation produces more (often many more) than one pair of side frequencies for each modulation frequency.

      The variation of carrier frequency is known as the frequency deviation, and for very-high-frequency broadcasting it can reach ± 75 kilohertz. The greater the frequency deviation the greater is the effective modulation. Though theoretically its maximum value need not be limited to 75 kilohertz, any increase beyond this value requires a wider channel, which adds to the cost of reception and reduces the number of transmitters that can be accommodated in the band. The total channel width is approximately twice the sum of the maximum deviation frequency and modulating frequency. If channel width is restricted in either transmitter or receiver circuits, distortion of the information signal occurs.

      A radio broadcast normally consists of only one information signal. The listener hears what he would hear at the microphone position if only one of his ears was functioning; i.e., it is a monaural system. In such a system it is not possible to gain any impression of the position of the instrument groupings in an orchestra, nor can lateral movement be indicated, though movement toward or away from the microphone is conveyed by a change in sound volume.

      Stereophonic (stereophonic sound system) broadcasting requires two microphones, one to collect sounds from the left and one from the right; the two sets of information must be separable in the receiver pnd be fed to loudspeakers on the left and on the right at the listening position. For high-fidelity reproduction the full audio range up to 15 kilohertz is transmitted; this can only be achieved satisfactorily at very high frequencies with frequency modulation. The broadcast signal is received on monaural receivers by making one set of information the sum of left and right signals (L + R). The other set of information is the difference of left and right (L − R). Summation of the two sets of information at the receiver output recovers the left (L) signal and subtraction recovers the right (R) signal.

      Another system of modulation switches the carrier on and off in pulses, the duration or position of the pulse being determined by the information signal. This system of pulse-coded modulation can provide better protection from noise, and a number of separate speech channels can be combined by allocating specified groups of pulses for each information channel and then interleaving these pulses in a process called time division multiplex. To accomplish this, a comparatively wide transmission channel is needed, and the carrier must be an ultrahigh or superhigh frequency.

The ionosphere

      An English mathematician, Oliver Heaviside (Heaviside, Oliver), and a U.S. electrical engineer, Arthur Edwin Kennelly (Kennelly, Arthur Edwin), almost simultaneously predicted in 1902 that radio waves, which normally travel in straight lines, are returned to Earth when projected skyward because electrified (ionized) layers of air above the Earth (the ionosphere) reflect or refract (bend) them back to Earth, thus extending the range of a transmitter far beyond line of sight. In 1923 the suggestion was proved to be accurate when pulses of radio energy were transmitted vertically upward and returning pulses were received back from the reflecting layer. By measuring the time between the outgoing and returning pulses, it was possible to estimate the height and number of layers. Three layers can normally be distinguished at distances from 50 to about 400 kilometres (30 to 250 miles) above the Earth's surface. The layers result from a breakdown of gas atoms into positively charged ions and free electrons caused by energy radiated from the Sun. The electrons maintain a separate existence in the lower layers for as long as the Sun's energy is being received, and in the upper layers some can remain free throughout the hours of darkness. (D region)

      The three layers are designated D, E, and F. The D layer is approximately 80 kilometres (50 miles) high and exists only (E region) during daylight hours. Because it absorbs medium frequencies and the lower frequencies of the shortwave bands, it limits the range of such stations during daylight. The E layer, about 110 kilometres (68 miles) high, maintains its reflectivity for four or five hours after the Sun sets and so extends the range of such stations to as much as 1,000 kilometres (620 miles). This layer also serves as a good reflector of shortwaves during the day and into the night, until its reflectivity drops.

      Most important of the three layers is the F (F region) layer, which has considerable power to reflect the higher frequencies. During the day it often splits into two layers (F₁ and F₂) at about 200 and 400 kilometres (125 and 250 miles), but at night only one layer is generally present at a height of about 300 kilometres (190 miles).

Radio noise, fading, and interference

      Any sudden discharge of electrical energy, like that of lightning, produces transient (short-duration) radio-frequency waves, which are picked up by antennas. These packets of radio-frequency energy produce the crackle heard on an amplitude-modulated radio receiver when an electrical storm is nearby and may be classed as natural noise.

      Switching of high-voltage power lines can produce similar effects; the lines help to carry the noise-producing signals over long distances. Local switching of lights and electrical machinery can also produce the familiar crackle when the receiver is close to the noise-producing source. These sources are classed as man-made noise.

      Generally noise of both types decreases as the frequency is increased. An exception is automobile ignition noise, which produces maximum effect in the very-high-frequency range, causing a sound in nearby loudspeakers every time a spark plug fires. Many countries have legislation requiring the suppression of man-made noise by means of filters that reduce the amount of radio-frequency energy released at the source. Metallic shielding of leads to and from the noise source curtails the radiated interference. It is also possible to install various noise-reducing devices at the input to radio receivers.

      Noise is also caused by irregularities in the flow of electrons in metals, transistors, and electron tubes. This source of noise ultimately limits the maximum useful signal amplification that can be provided by a receiver. Noise due to the random movement of electrons causes a hiss in the loudspeaker. Radio noise can also be picked up from outer space as a hiss similar to random electron noise.

      Fading of a signal, on the other hand, is due to variation in the propagation characteristics of the signal path or paths. This is particularly true when propagation depends on reflection from the ionosphere as it does for shortwaves. Propagation of waves in the very-high-frequency range and above, which penetrate the ionosphere, can be affected by temperature changes in the stratosphere, that part of the atmosphere up to about 15 kilometres (nine miles) from the Earth's surface. The fading effect can be greatly reduced at the receiver loudspeaker by various electronic controls, such as automatic gain control.

      The phenomenon of interference occurs when an undesired signal overlaps the channel reserved for the desired signal. By interaction with the desired carrier, the undesired information may cause speech to become unintelligible. Countermeasures include narrowing the desired channel, thus losing some information but preventing overlap, and using a directional antenna to discriminate against the undesired transmission.

Development of radio technology

Maxwell's prediction

      Early in the 19th century, Michael Faraday (Faraday, Michael), an English physicist, demonstrated that an electric current can produce a local magnetic field and that the energy in this field will return to the circuit when the current is stopped or changed. James Clerk Maxwell (Maxwell, James Clerk), professor of experimental physics at Cambridge, in 1864 proved mathematically that any electrical disturbance could produce an effect at a considerable distance from the point at which it occurred and predicted that electromagnetic energy could travel outward from a source as waves moving at the speed of light.

Hertz: radio-wave experiments

      At the time of Maxwell's prediction there were no known means of propagating or detecting the presence of electromagnetic waves in space. It was not until about 1888 that Maxwell's theory was tested by Heinrich Hertz (Hertz, Heinrich), who demonstrated that Maxwell's predictions were true at least over short distances by installing a spark gap (two conductors separated by a short gap) at the centre of a parabolic metal mirror. A wire ring connected to another spark gap was placed about five feet (1.5 metres) away at the focus of another parabolic collector in line with the first. A spark jumping across the first gap caused a smaller spark to jump across the gap in the ring five feet away. Hertz showed that the waves travelled in straight lines and that they could be reflected by a metal sheet just as light waves are reflected by a mirror.

Marconi's development of wireless telegraphy (telegraph)

      The Italian physicist Guglielmo Marconi (Marconi, Guglielmo), whose main genius was in his perseverance and refusal to accept expert opinion, repeated Hertz's experiments and eventually succeeded in getting secondary sparks over a distance of 30 feet (nine metres). In his experiment he attached one side of the primary spark gap to an elevated wire (in effect, an antenna) and the other to Earth, with a similar arrangement for the secondary gap at the receiving point. The distance between transmitter and receiver was gradually increased first to 300 yards (275 metres), then to two miles (three kilometres), then across the English Channel. Finally, in 1901, Marconi bridged the Atlantic when the letter s in Morse code travelled from Poldhu, Cornwall, to St. John's, Newfoundland, a distance of nearly 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometres). For this distance, Marconi replaced the secondary-spark detector with a device known as a coherer, which had been invented by a French electrical engineer, Edouard Branly, in 1890. Branly's detector consisted of a tube filled with iron filings that coalesced, or “cohered,” when a radio-frequency voltage was applied to the ends of the tube. The cohesion of the iron filings allowed the passage of current from an auxiliary power supply to operate a relay that reproduced the Morse signals. The coherer had to be regularly tapped to separate the filings and prepare them to react to the next radio-frequency signal.

The Fleming diode and De Forest Audion

      The next major event was the discovery that an electrode operating at a positive voltage inside the evacuated envelope of a heated filament lamp would carry a current. The American inventor Thomas A. Edison had noted that the bulb of such a lamp blackened near the positive electrode, but it was Sir John Ambrose Fleming (Fleming, Sir John Ambrose), professor of electrical engineering at Imperial College, London, who explored the phenomenon and in 1904 discovered the one-directional current effect between a positively biased electrode, which he called the anode, and the heated filament; the electrons flowed from filament to anode only. Fleming called the device a diode because it contained two electrodes, the anode and the heated filament; he noted that when an alternating current was applied to the diode, only the positive halves of the waves were passed—that is, the wave was rectified (changed from alternating to direct current). The diode could also be used to detect radio-frequency signals since it suppressed half the radio-frequency wave and produced a pulsed direct current corresponding to the on and off of the Morse code transmitted signals. Fleming's discovery was the first step to the amplifier tube that in the early part of the 20th century revolutionized radio communication.

      Fleming failed to appreciate the possibilities he had opened up and it was the American inventor Lee De Forest (De Forest, Lee) who in 1906 conceived the idea of interposing an open-meshed grid between the heated filament and positively biased anode, or plate, to control the flow of electrons. De Forest called his invention an Audion. With it he could obtain a large voltage change at the plate for a small voltage change on the grid electrode. This was a discovery of major importance because it made it possible to amplify the radio-frequency signal picked up by the antenna before application to the receiver detector; thus, much weaker signals could be utilized than had previously been possible.

Early research by commercial companies

      The first commercial company to be incorporated for the manufacture of radio apparatus was the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company, Ltd. (England) in July 1897 (later changed to Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company, Ltd.); other countries soon showed an interest in the commercial exploitation of radio.

      Among the major developments of the first two decades of the 20th century was De Forest's discovery in 1912 of the oscillating properties of his Audion tube, a discovery that led to the replacement of the spark transmitter by an electronic tube oscillator that could generate much purer radio waves of relatively stable frequency. By 1910, radio messages between land stations and ships had become commonplace, and in that year the first air-to-ground radio contact was established from an aircraft. A landmark transmission came in 1918, when a radiotelegraph message from the Marconi long-wave station at Caernarvon, in Wales, was received in Australia, over a distance of 11,000 miles (17,700 kilometres).

      Though early experiments had shown that speech could be transmitted by radio, the first significant demonstration was not made until 1915 when the American Telephone & Telegraph Company successfully transmitted speech signals from west to east across the Atlantic between Arlington, Virginia, and Paris. A year later, a radiotelephone message was conveyed to an aircraft flying near Brooklands (England) airfield. In 1919 a Marconi engineer spoke across the Atlantic in the reverse direction from Ballybunion, Ireland, to the United States.

      From 1920 onward radio made phenomenal progress through research activities in Europe, North America, and Asia. The invention of the electron tube and later the transistor (1948) made possible remarkable developments.

Hand wiring

      In the early days of radio and up to the end of World War II, radio receivers consisted of resistors, capacitors, inductors (coils), and electronic tubes joined together by wires with coloured insulation. A colour code, whereby a particular colour was assigned to a particular circuit connection, such as black leads for filaments, green for grid, was adopted throughout the world to facilitate manufacture and the tracing of faults. Later, wires cut to the right length were laced together into a harness to speed assembly. Plugs and sockets were employed for connecting one major part with another. Printed circuit wiring, developed during the 1940s, eliminated much of the hand work and produced important manufacturing economies.

Printed circuits (printed circuit)

      With printed wiring, the layout of the circuit is planned with component size and position in mind, and connections are made by suitably shaped copper strip or foil bonded to an insulating board or substrate. An extension of this technique was the printed component; resistors, capacitors, and low value inductors became a part of the printing process.

      The development of the transistor simplified the exploitation of printed circuitry by eliminating one of the bulkiest components, the vacuum tube. Further development led to the manufacture of the integrated circuit in the 1960s. Compact circuits of this type can perform a multiplicity of tasks such as amplification and switching. They are widely used in computers where space is at a premium. Integrated-circuit amplifiers are likely to become more important because of their ability to amplify very high frequencies.

      The size of a portable receiver constructed from microminiature circuits is now dictated almost entirely by the loudspeaker and the quality of reproduction required. The smaller the loudspeaker the lower the power it can accept and the less the output of low audio frequencies.

Radio circuitry

Components

      The basic operating principles of the major circuitry and active and passive components used in radio are described in the article electronics. In this section, only enough description is included to permit the reader to understand the applications to radio circuitry.

Active devices: vacuum tubes and transistors (transistor)

      An electron tube or transistor, designated an active element, functions basically as an amplifier, and its output is essentially an amplified copy of the original input signal. The simplest amplifying electron tube is the triode, consisting of a cathode coated with material that provides a copious supply of electrons when heated, an open-mesh grid allowing electrons to pass through but controlling their flow, and a plate (anode) to collect the electrons. The plate is maintained at a positive voltage with respect to the cathode in order to attract the electrons; the grid usually has a small negative voltage so that it does not collect electrons but does control their flow to the plate. The output voltage is usually many times greater than the input voltage to the grid. The tube must be pumped to a high degree of vacuum, or the plate current flow is erratic.

      Other electrodes, also in the form of open-mesh grids, may be included in the tube to perform various special functions. An example is the four-electrode tube known as the tetrode, in which an open-mesh grid (screen grid) maintained at a positive voltage is placed between plate and control grid. This reduces the effect of plate voltage on electron flow and increases the amplifying property of the tube. Introduction of a third grid, known as a suppressor grid, produces the pentode (five-electrode tube), which can provide even greater amplification.

      The transistor, which has largely replaced the electron tube as the active element in low-voltage electronic circuits, is made from semiconductor (semiconductor device) materials—that is, substances that are neither good conductors nor good insulators. Two common semiconductor materials are germanium and silicon, to which small amounts of impurities such as indium, gallium, arsenic, or phosphorus are added to impart electrical charges to them. Arsenic and phosphorus, for example, provide extra negative charges, giving n-type (signifying excess negative charges) material; indium or gallium yield a shortage of electrons or an excess of positive charges or holes, giving p-type (signifying excess positive charges) material.

      A transistor is a sandwich of semiconductor materials with the same impurity in the two outer layers and a different impurity in the centre layer providing current carriers of opposite charge to those produced by the outer layers.

      If the outer layers are reservoirs of positively charged current carriers (p type) and the centre layer provides an excess of electrons (n type), the transistor is known as a p–n–p (positive–negative–positive carriers) type. If the p and n layers are reversed, the transistor is an n–p–n type. The two outer layers are termed the emitter and collector, and the centre layer is known as the base.

      A transistor is an amplifier of current; the vacuum tube, in contrast, is an amplifier of voltage. The transistor produces an adequate supply of current carriers (electrons and holes) at room temperature and does not require a heated cathode as does the vacuum tube. Thus the power required from the power supply is much reduced, less heat is produced, and the transistors and their circuitry can be packed into a smaller container and takes up less space. Transistors are also physically much smaller than comparable electron tubes. Thus the transistorized portable radio can fit in a pocket—a distinct advantage over the cumbersome tube radio it has replaced.

      In its early form the transistor was capable of amplifying only comparatively low frequencies because the exchange of electrons and positive charges across the sandwich was slow. Modern techniques however, have overcome this difficulty so that amplification up to frequencies over 1,000 megahertz is commonplace.

Tuned circuits and the superheterodyne principle

      For information (voice, music, television) to be transmitted, it must be attached to a radio-frequency carrier wave, which is then transmitted in a given frequency channel. The carrier wave and information can be picked up by a receiver tuned to this channel. The process by which the information is attached to the carrier wave is modulation. Modulated carriers are isolated in their separate slots or channels; if transmitters are geographically close to each other, they must not use the same channel or overlap each other's channels. If such overlap occurs, serious interference results—two radio programs may be heard simultaneously or one may form a distorted background to the other.

      In most modern radio receivers, reception is based on the superheterodyne (superheterodyne reception) principle. The incoming radio frequency is mixed (heterodyned) with the output of an oscillator the frequency of which is adjusted so that the difference between it and the incoming signal is constant; the result is the intermediate frequency. Amplification is thereafter carried out at this intermediate frequency. Both preliminary selection of the incoming frequency and adjustment of the local oscillator frequency are accomplished by variable tuned circuits consisting of inductance and capacitance. Tuning may be accomplished by varying the capacitance, which consists of interleaved metal plates separated by air spaces with one set of plates movable. Another method of tuning involves varying the inductance by insertion or withdrawal of an iron dust or ferrite core in a cylindrical coil of copper wire. To simplify the tuning procedure, the variable elements of all stages requiring tuning are ganged together and coupled to a tuning knob. The intermediate-frequency amplifier stages always operate at the same frequency and so require tuning only when the receiver is manufactured or serviced. The intermediate frequency is usually around 455 kilohertz for AM receivers, 10.7 megahertz for FM receivers, and 38 megahertz for television receivers. Most of the amplification in a radio receiver is carried out in the intermediate-frequency stages, and most of the selectivity (ability to separate adjacent stations) is obtained in these stages.

Oscillators

      A self-oscillating circuit consists of a vacuum tube or transistor, a tuned circuit, and some form of positive feedback (energy fed from the output back to the input in such a way as to increase the input). Since both tubes and transistors can function as amplifiers, they can also function as oscillators. For receiver circuits, adequate oscillator stability can be obtained with conventional tuned circuits, but the transmitter oscillator must be highly stable, and a circuit made up of inductance and capacitance, tuned to the desired frequency, is not sufficiently stable. A piezoelectric crystal oscillator (a device that vibrates or oscillates at a given frequency emitting radio waves when voltage is applied to it) or its equivalent is ordinarily used.

Amplifiers (amplifier)

      Amplifiers may be classified in a number of different ways: according to bandwidth (narrow or wide); frequency range (audio, intermediate, or radio frequency); or output parameter requirement (voltage or power).

      Wide-band radio-frequency amplifiers are not needed for audio signals unless a frequency-modulated system is used. Amplitude-modulated signals for sound broadcasting should have a radio-frequency bandwidth of ±10 kilohertz though on medium waves it is often limited to ±5 kilohertz (total bandwidth of 10 kilohertz). High-quality frequency-modulated audio needs a bandwidth of about ±100 kilohertz.

      Audio-frequency amplifiers present few design problems, and negative feedback of the output into the input can overcome distortion problems. Radio-frequency amplifiers, which can be tuned, suffer from variation of selectivity (ability to separate adjacent stations) and gain (amplification) over the tuning range. Selectivity tends to broaden and gain to increase as capacitance is decreased, and instability can be troublesome at the highest tuning frequency. Intermediate-frequency amplifiers do not suffer from these defects since the tuning frequency is fixed.

      The main problem with radio-frequency amplifiers in receivers is the possibility of cross modulation—that is, the mixing of two information channels, which can occur if an undesired modulated signal enters the radio-frequency input together with the desired signal.

Antennas (antenna)

      The antenna is an essential part of a radio transmission and reception system. Its purpose at the transmitter is to project electromagnetic energy into space and at the receiver to extract energy from the travelling electromagnetic wave produced from the transmitter antenna.

      The size of the antenna relative to the wavelength of the electromagnetic radiation is important. The wavelength of medium waves is about 300 metres (1,000 feet), and a vertical transmitting mast or self-supporting tower 150 to 210 metres (490 to 690 feet) high may be used with a high-power transmitter (200 kilowatts or more). An equally tall receiving antenna would be ideal but impractical. A vertical rod or suspended wire about six metres (20 feet) long is a workable solution. If the transmitting antenna is vertical, the receiving antenna must also be vertical; if the former is horizontal the receiving antenna must be horizontal. This rule applies at all radio frequencies except shortwaves because the plane of their electromagnetic field can be twisted in its passage through the ionosphere, and a vertical shortwave antenna may pick up a good signal from a horizontal transmitting antenna. The antenna system becomes progressively smaller as the transmitting frequency is increased, and at ultrahigh frequencies (300 megahertz or more) the individual antenna may be only about 50 centimetres (20 inches) long.

      For normal amplitude-modulated broadcasting, the receiver antenna may be composed of a fairly short coil of wire wound on a powdered iron or ferrite core. This type of design permits adequate signal pickup with a very small antenna which may be located in a small space, a necessity for small, battery-operated portable receivers.

      Antennas may have their directional characteristics modified by employing multiple elements. Thus an antenna may be omnidirectional (transmitting in all directions) horizontally but narrowly beamed vertically, or it may be bidirectional (transmitting in two directions) in a figure eight pattern with two main directions of energy projection at 180°. It may be unidirectional, having energy projected to one side, or the energy may be concentrated in a relatively narrow beam both horizontally and vertically.

      In point-to-point communication, as from one network centre to another, highly directional antennas are used. Local broadcasting uses an omnidirectional antenna, radiating equally in all directions, except in such special cases as a coastal location or proximity to a neighbouring transmitter.

      Broadcasting planned to serve distant areas, employing shortwaves and depending on reflection from the ionosphere, normally uses a relatively narrow beam of energy projected skyward at an angle from 5° to 10° to the horizontal. A reflecting curtain is placed behind the antenna to prevent loss of energy in the reverse direction. The beam is divergent (spreads out) so that after two or three reflections between ionosphere and Earth it covers a relatively large area.

Transmission lines

      The lines that carry radio waves from the radio transmitter to the antenna are known as transmission lines; their purpose is to convey radio-frequency energy with minimum heating and radiation loss. Heating losses are reduced by conductors of adequate size. Only the outer layers of the conductor carry radio-frequency current.

Concepts of selectivity and sensitivity

      Radio-frequency communication requires the receiver to reject all but the desired signal. Were the number of frequency channels equal to the demand, each channel could be given its correct width in the tuning stages of a receiver. Thus, for audio broadcasting each carrier channel should be 20 kilohertz wide to accommodate both side bands, and each transmission carrier should be 20 kilohertz, separated from those on either side. In much of the world, the medium-wave and shortwave bands are in such demand that transmitters must share the same channel and channels thus must overlap. Though efforts have been made to arrange sharing by geographically separated transmitters, the congestion has forced receiver manufacturers to reduce the receiver bandwidth to about eight kilohertz (±four kilohertz).

      Very-high-frequency transmissions can generally be received at full bandwidth because their signals are confined to line of sight and are, in effect, local-station signals to the receiver. Frequency-modulated transmissions must be received on full bandwidth (about 200 kilohertz) if serious distortion is to be avoided on loud programs.

      Receiver sensitivity is the ability of a receiver to pick up weak signals. Though a communication receiver should always have a high sensitivity, there is a maximum determined by the noise generated inside the receiver itself. Little value is gained by increasing sensitivity if noise at the receiver output is already considerable and comparable with desired signal output. Normally, radio broadcasting systems operate with the signal voltage at least 10 to 50 times greater than the noise. To take full advantage of high sensitivity, receiving antennas for communications links are usually located in an area where there is little man-made noise. A receiver intended only for local-station reception can have a much lower sensitivity than a shortwave receiver intended for picking up signals from the other side of the world.

Kenneth Reginald Sturley, Ed.

Additional Reading

Robert L. Hilliard (ed.), Radio Broadcasting: An Introduction to the Sound Medium, 3rd ed. (1985), addresses such aspects as broadcasting, facilities, programming, production, and performance. J.G. Crowther, Discoveries and Inventions of the 20th Century, 5th ed. (1966), includes information on the early developments in radio transmission and reception. Reference Data for Engineers: Radio, Electronics, Computer, and Communication, 7th ed. (1985), contains a wealth of technical information.Kenneth Reginald Sturley, Ed.

* * *