Physics Coaching Centre

1. The transfer of information between a sender and a receiver is called communication and
an arrangement of perform the communication is called communication system. A
communication system mainly consists of three major parts: (i) Transmitter (ii)
Communication channel and (iii) Receiver.
Transmitter is a setup that transmits the
message to the receiving end through a
communication channel. The basic
function of transmitter is to transform
the message signal into a form suitable
for transmission through the channel to
the receiver and transmit it. It consists of
a message signal generator,' modulator
and antenna.
(i) Communication
channel or the
transmission medium is the physical path between the transmitter and receiver.
The transmission media can be
(a) Guided like twisted pair, coaxial cable and optical fibre.
(b) Unguided like free space.
(ii) Receiver which constructs the original message or data after its propagation through the
communication channel. Let's understand how the communication takes place between two
persons:
If two persons A and B are standing close to each other, the speaker A is the
transmitter, air through which the sound signals travel is the communication channel
and
listener B is the receiver.
If two persons A and B are few kilometers apart, then they need telephone system to
communicate.In telephonic conversation, the sender speaks in microphone of
telephone. The sound signals are converted into electrical signals, which are carried to
the receiver through wires and at the receiving end the speaker in the telephone
converts electric signals into sound.
The device which converts one form of energy into other, is called transducer. Here
microphone and speaker are working as transducers and electric wires as
communication channel.
If two persons A and B are at a distance of several hundred kilometers or more, we
send the message signals in the form of electromagnetic waves.
2. Message signals A message signal is generally an electric signal generated from the
original signal using an appropriate transducer and it varies with time.
The signal generated by different sources have their own characteristics
such as amplitude, frequency or nature.
Message signals can be of two types: (1) Analog signals: which is a
continuous signal value lying within the range of a maximum and
minimum value at any instant, like sinusoidal analog signals. Such signal can have any value
at any instant, within the range of maximum valueVmax and minimum valueVmin:
2 Digital signal or Discrete signal is a discontinuous signal value which has two levels of
current or voltage (0 and 1) A digital signal may indicate a data as series of digits or

9878024788

COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

9878024788
Physics Coaching Centre

numbers. These digits used are '0' and '1', called 'binary digits' or 'bits'. '0' refers to 'open' i.e.
no current or voltage and' 1' refers to 'closed' i.e. maximum current or voltage.
3. There are two basic modes of communication:
point-to-point and broadcast.
In point-to-point communication mode, communication takes place over a link between a
single transmitter and a receiver. Telephony is an example of such a mode of communication.
Broadcast mode: In contrast, in the broadcast mode, there are a large number of receivers
corresponding to a single transmitter. Radio and television are examples of broadcast mode
of communication.
3. Basic Terminology Used in Electronic Communication Systems
(1) Transducer: Any device that converts one form of energy into another can be termed as a
transducer. In electronic communication systems, devices that have either their inputs or
outputs in the electrical form. An electrical transducer is a device that converts some physical
variable (pressure, displacement, force, temperature, etc) into corresponding variations in the
electrical signal at its output.
(2) Signal: information converted in electrical form and suitable for transmission is called a
signal. Signals can be either along or digital. Sound and picture signals in TV are analog in
nature. There are several coding schems useful for digital communication. They employ
suitable combinations of number systems such as the binary coded decimal (BCD)*.
American Standard Code for information interchange (ASCII)** is a universally popular
digital code to represent numbers, letters and certain characters.
(3) Noise: Noise refers to the unwanted signals that tend to disturb the transmission and
processing of message signals in a communication system. The source generating the noise
may be located inside or outside the system.
(4) Transmitter: A transmitter processes the incoming message signal so as to make it
suitable for transmission through a channel and subsequent reception.
(5) Receiver: A receiver extracts the desired message signals from the received signals at the
channel output.
(6) Attenuation: The loss of strength of a signal while propagating through a medium is
known as attenuation.
(7) Amplification: It is the process of increasing the amplitude of a signal using an electronic
circuit called the amplifier. Amplification is necessary to compensate for the attenuation of
the signal in communication systems. The energy needed for additional signal strength is
obtained from a DC power source.
(8) Range: It is the largest distance between a source and a destination up to which the signal
is received with sufficient strength.
(9) Bandwidth: Bandwidth refers to the frequency range over which an equipment operates or
the portion of the spectrum occupied by the signal.
(10) Modulation: The original low frequency message/ information signal cannot be
transmitted to long distances. Therefore, at the transmitter, information contained in the low
frequency message signal is superimposed on a high frequency wave, Which acts as a carrier
of the information. This process is known as modulation. There are several types of
modulation, abbreviated as AM, FM and PM.
(11) Demodulation: The process of retrieval of information from the carrier wave at the
receiver is termed demodulation. This is the reverse process of modulation.

MODULATION

1. The process of variation of some characteristic of a high

frequency wave called 'carrier wave' in accordance with the
instantaneous value of a signal is called 'modulation'.
The signal wave is called 'modulating wave', high
frequency wave employed to carry signals is called 'carrier
wave' and after modulation, wave obtained is called 'modulated wave'. Electric signal
corresponding to the original signal is called 'base band signal'.
The three characteristics of a carrier wave, amplitude, frequency and phase can be
changed in accordance with that of signal. Accordingly, there are
three types of modulation.
(1) Amplitude Modulation: When the modulating wave is
superimposed on a high frequency carrier wave in a manner that
the frequency of a modulated wave is same as that of carrier wave

9878024788
Physics Coaching Centre

(a)

(12) Repeater: A repeater is a combination of a receiver and a transmitter. A repeater, picks

up the signal from the transmitter, amplifies and retransmits
it
to the receiver sometimes with a change in carrier
frequency. A communication satellite is essentially a
repeater station in space.
5. Bandwidth of Signals
An analog signal is not of a single frequency, but it spreads over a range of frequencies called
the signal bandwidth.
(i) The frequecncy range of sound waves which lie within the audible range of human beings
is from 20 Hz to 20 kHz, also known as audible frequencies, so, the audio signals containing
high quality music, bandwidth is of about 20 kHz.
(ii) The frequency range of human speech is from 0.3 kHz to 3.4 kHz. So, band width of
human speech is about 3 kHz.
(iii) For radio signals, band width is of about 2 MHz
(iv) For TV signals, band width is of about 8 MHz.
6. Transmission of message signals: Audio/video signals for transmission is to be converted
into electric signals, which are then called base band signals. An antenna then converts these
electric base band signals into same frequency em waves at transmitting end and vice-versa at
the receiving end. But the electric signal frequency of audio/video signal is generally small
and when converted into e.m. wave, the e.m. wave will not have enough energy to reach even
few kilometers on its own. Thus, beofe transmitting, the audio/video signals are mixed with
some high frequency em waves, called carrier waves. This process is called modulation. The
carrier wave takes the information of audio/video signals to the receiving antenna as em
waves. At the receiving end. receiving antenna first converts electromagnetic signal into
electrical signal. A demodulator then seperates the carrier signals from audio/video signals
and then gives it to receiver, which then
reproduces the original audio/video.

l2

The relation shows that there is a p 2 need of higher frequency conversion for
antenna,
effective power transmission by the
(4) Mixing of signals: If a number of base band signals are transmitted simultaneously, all
these signals will get in separately mixed up and at the end a mixed signal will be received.
In/such a system, multiple user communication is not possible.
To remove this limitation, the communication is done at high frequency and a band of
frequency is allotted to each user as is done for different radio channels or television
channels.

9878024788
Physics Coaching Centre

but its amplitude is modified in accordance with that of the modulating wave, the process is
called amplitude modulation.
In amplitude modulation, amplitude A of modulated wave varies in accordance with
modulating wave, while angular frequency and phase remain constant.
(2) Frequency Modulation: When the modulating wave is
superimposed on a high frequency carrier wave in a manner
that amplitude of the modulated wave is same as that of the
carrier wave but its frequency is modified in accordance with t
of modulating wave, the process is called frequency
modulation.
In frequency modulation, the frequency of the modulated wave is varied in accordance
with the modulating wave, while amplitude A and phase angle remain constant.
(iii) Phase Modulation: When the modulating wave is
superimposed on a high frequency carrier wave in a manner
that the magnitude of the phase angle of the modulated signal
varies in accordance with the instantaneous amplitude of the
modulating wave. The process is called phase modulation.
In phase modulation, the phase of the modulated wave is varied in accordance with the
modulating wave, while amplitude A and frequency remain constant.
Need of modulation:
A source of message signals never produce a single frequency but produces the
frequencies spread over a range called signal band width. The message signals or electric
signals to be send are also called the base band signals.
Because of the following reasons the base band signals need modulation with high
frequencies carrier wave, before they are send:
(1) Low Energy: the audio/video signals when converted into e.m. waves do not have
sufficiently high energy to travel upto long distances, because of their lower frequency.
Hence these signals are modulated with high frequency carrier waves, before being send and
are demodulated or separated from the carrier waves at the receiving end.
(2) Size of Antenna: For the effective transmission by an antenna, the size of the
antenna should be at least of the size, where is wavelength of signal to be send.
4
For an e.m. wave of the frequency of the order of audio signal i.e., 20 kHz, we need
an
antenna of size i.e., 3.75 km high, which is practically impossible. Hence these low
frequency base band signals are first converted into high frequencies or radio frequencies
before transmission.
(3) Power radiated by Antenna : The power radiated antenna is related to its length l and
wave length 'of antenna as

Let the signal to be modulated be represented as m(t) re

m(t)= Am sin mt here Am is amplitude of modulating wave m(t) is instantaneous voltage
of modulating wave
m = 2 fm = angular frequency of modulating wave
Similarly let the carrier wave be represented as c (t) Where
C (t) = Ac sin c t

Ac = Amplitude of carrier wave

c = 2 f c = angular frequency of carrier wave

here

As per the definition the amplitude of the carries

wave varies accordance with amplitude of signal to
be modulated. So, instantaneous amplitude of
modulated wave, is given by

A Ac + m(t )
=
=
A Ac + Am sin mt

A
A Ac 1 + m sin mt
=
Ac

A
Here m = . Modulation index
Ac
A Ac (1 + sin mt )
So,=

sin mt = 1
=
Ac (1 )
Thus A
min
signal, when

Condition for Minimum amplitude of modulated

Condition for Maximum amplitude of modulated signal, when

sin mt = 1

Ac 1 +
Thus A=
max
Now further instaneous voltage of amplitude modulated wave is given by

Physics Coaching Centre

Expression for Amplitude Modulated wave

9878024788

Comparison between AM and FM Signals

Advantages of FM over AM
(1) Frequency of a wave does not change while travelling through different medium, while amplitude of a
wave changes while travelling through different medium.
An amplitude modulated wave carries information in terms of variation of amplitude, which can get
disturbed. This is why FM signal is less susceptible to noise than AM signal.
(2) In FM transmission, all the transmitted power is useful, whereas in AM transmission most of the power
wastes in transmitted carrier wave, with no useful information.
FM transmission can be used for the stereo sound transmission.
Disadvantages of FM over AM
(1) The bandwidth in FM transmission is manyfold as compared to AM transmission. Hence a wide
frequency range is required for an FM channel
(2) FM signals do not bend and needs a large antenna or a satellite for the transmission in a large area,
whereas AM signals bend with the ground and through regular apertures on the ground.
(3)FM transmitting and receiving equipments are very complex as compared to those employed in AM
transmission.

 Ac

Ac
2

2sin mt sin ct

cos (c m ) t cos (c m ) t
2
Ac
Ac
Ac sin mt
cos (c m ) t +
Cm ( t ) =
cos (c m ) t
2
2

= Ac sin ct +

Sideband frequencies and bandwidth of A.M. wave:

A.M. wave is the sum of three sinusoidal waves:

(1) One the original carrier wave of amplitude Ac and frequency f c =

(2) The second wave of amplitude

Ac

c
2

and of frequency ( f c + f m ) .The sum of carrier

2
frequency and modulating frequency ( f c + f m ) is called upper side band frequency (USB).
(3) The third wave

Ac
2

of amplitude and frequency

( f c f m ) .The difference of carrier

frequency and modulating frequency ( f c f m ) is called lower side band frequency (LSB).

The difference between the highest and the lowest

frequencies present in the A.M. wave is called its
bandwidth.
Bandwidth = f c + f m f c f m = 2 f m
Hence bandwidth of the A.M. wave is twice the
frequency of the modulating signal.

Antenna

) (

An antenna is a metallic structure used to radiate or receive electromagnetic waves. It is vital

component of any communication system. The main function of antenna is to convert high
frequency current into electromagnetic waves and vice-versa. At
the transmitter, it radiates electromagnetic waves into the free
space. While at the receiving end it picks up the transmitted signal.
Thus antenna helps in wireless communication between the
transmitter and receiver. Antenna is generally of two types :
(i) A dipole antenna is omni directional and is employed for
transmission of radio waves.
(ii) A dish type antenna is a directional antenna , generally used to
collect weak electromagnetic waves
In most of the cases, the length of antenna chosen is /2 where is the wavelength of the
radio frequency signal transmitted.

9878024788

= Ac sin ct Ac sin mt sin ct = Ac sin ct

Physics Coaching Centre

Cm ( t ) = A sin ct
Cm=
( t ) Ac (1 + sin mt ) sin ct

SPACE COMMUNICATION

In space communication, a signal is emitted from the antenna of a transmitter and received
by another antenna at the receiver. There are two modes or ways by which radio waves
propagate from transmitting to receiving antenna are :
(i) Ground wave or Surface wave propagation. In ground wave propagation, radio waves
travel close to the surface of earth and due to low frequency they also bend through regular
aperture of earth as well as bend with the shape of earth. Such propagation of waves takes
place when transmitting antenna and receiving antenna are close to the surface of earth.
Ground waves are amplitude modulated waves and are used for radio communication as
medium wave.
The energy of radio waves decreases as they travel over the surface of earth due to the
conductivity and permittivity of earth's surface. The power transmitted from a transmitter
decreases nearly as the inverse square of the distance and hence the signal becomes weaker
with increasing distance. The loss in the strength of signal as it travels through the medium
is attenuation. The decrease in value of energy i.e., increases with increase in frequency of
radio waves. The main cause of attenuation of these waves is the presence of oxygen and
water vapours in lower atmosphere. Due to increase in humidity of atmosphere, absorption
of radio waves increases. Further with increase in frequency of radio waves absorption of
radio waves also increases. Hence ground wave propagation is not suitable for high
frequencies i.e greater then 2 MHz, and is useful only for transmitting radio waves
upto small distances.

Physics Coaching Centre

It is a system with billions of users worldwide. It permits communication and sharing of all
types of information between any two or more computers connected through a large and
complex network. Its applications include
(iii)
E mail - It permits exchange of text/graphic material using email software. We can
write a letter and send it to the recipient through ISP's (Internet Service Providers) who work
like the dispatching and receiving post offices.
(iv) File Transfer - A FTP (File Transfer Programmes) allows transfer of files/software from
one computer to another connected to the Internet.
(v) World Wide Web (WWW) - Computers that store specific information for sharing with
others provide websites either directly or through web service providers. Government
departments, companies, NGO's (Non-Government Organisations) and individuals can post
information about their activities for restricted or free use on their websites. This information
becomes accessible to the users. Several search engines like Google, Yahoo! etc. help us in
finding information by listing the related websites. Hypertext is a powerful feature of the
web that automatically links relevant information from one page on the web to another using
HTML {hypertext markup language).
(vi) E-Commerce - Use of the Internet to promote business using electronic means such as
using credit cards is called E-commerce. Customers view images and receive all the
information about various products or services of companies through their websites. They
can do on-line shopping from home/office. Goods are dispatched or services are provoded by
the company through mail/courier.
(vii) Chat : Real time conversation among people with common interests through typed
messages is called chat. Everyone belonging to that chat group gets the message
instantaneously can respond rapidly.

9878024788

The Internet

where N is the electron density (in m-3) in the concerned layer of ionosphere.
When any radiation reaches the region of electron density N at normal incidence, it will be
reflected. The 'critical frequency' for reflection is therefore given by
f c = 9 N max

fc turns out to be 4 MHz, 5 MHz and 8 MHz for E, F1 and F2 layers respectively.
Any wave directed at a certain angle gets reflected by ionosphere and returns to earth.
The distance from the transmitter, measured along the surface of earth, to the point where
sky wave returns after reflection from ionosphere is called skip distance
for a single hop. Using multiple hops or beaming at different angles, we
can increase the propagation range.
In sky wave propagation, radio signals can be transmitted to the stations
which otherwise become inaccessible to the ground due to curvature of
earth. Thus due to reflection by ionosphere, radio wave signals can be transmitted virtually
from any one place to the other on surface of earth. So it is useful for very long distance
radio communication. Thus for long distance radio broadcasts through sky wave
propagation, we use short wave bands.
3. Space wave propagation : TV signals are frequency modulated and have radio waves of
frequencies greater than 40 MHz. So for long distance TV transmission we cannot use sky
wave propagation, because ionosphere is unable to reflect such radio waves of frequencies
more than 40 MHz.

9878024788
Physics Coaching Centre

(ii) Sky wave propagation : The radio waves which are reflected back to earth by
ionosphere are known as sky waves and mode of propagation sky waves is known as sky
wave propagation
Sky waves are also amplitude modulated waves and are used for long distance radio
communication. In sky wave propagation, radio waves transmitted by transmitting antenna
are directed towards the ionosphere. The radio waves having frequency range 2MHz to
30MHz are reflected back by the ionosphere. The successive reflection of these radio waves
at earths surface and the ionosphere make it possible to transmit these waves from one part
to another part of the earth.
2. Ionosphere : is a layer of atmosphere having charged particles,
ions and electrons. Which extends from about 60 to 350 kms from
the surface of earth.
Ionosphere is subdivided into layers as C, D, E , F1 , F2.
These different layers of ionospheres reflect the radio waves of
different frequencies
(a) Medium frequencies (MF) of frequencies upto 3 MHz are
absorbed by ionosphere.
(a) High frequencies (HF) of frequencies upto 30 MHz are reflected back by ionosphere.
(a) Very high and ultra high frequencies (VHF and UHF) of frequencies
above 40 MHz are only bend by ionosphere, but are not reflected back
towards earth.
The ionosphere consists of positively charged ions and electrons. Such a
system is known as 'plasma', which has a characteristic frequency called
'Plasma frequency' given by
fp = 9 N

=
d 2 2hRe + h 2

h<<<Re, so it can be neglected so d 2 = 2hRe

or
d 2 = 2hRe This gives the distance d upto which TV signals
will be received and hence the area covered on surface of earth is.
A =d2 or A = 2hRe
and the population covered is
= A x n = 2hRen
where n is average population density in that area. In order to cover large range of the order
of hundreds of kilometers, we will need an impossible height of antenna, In such case, we
use geo-stationary satellite. By obtaining the frequency modulation at higher frequencies i.e.,
EHF and SHF. A satellite work as an antenna of the height 36000 km above the earth and
can over one third of earth at a time. Such satellite carry on board microwave receiving and
transmitting equipments. It receives signals beamed up by the earth stations amplifies and
returns to the earth at a different frequency to avoid interference between the uplink and
downlink.
4. Remote sensing is the technique to collect information about an object regarding its size,
colour, nature etc., or a place without physically in direct contact with target of investigation.
Remote sensing is done through a satellite. A satellite used in remote sensing is equipped
with appropriate sensors to acquire data. It is placed in an orbit around earth at any height
having a period of revolution. It takes photographs or collects any other information desired
and transmits it back to an earth station.
Such remote sensing satellites can be used to collect information in meteorological survey,
oceanography, archeology, geological surveys, water resources surveys, urban land use
surveys, spying the enemy troops etc.

9878024788

( Re + h) 2 =d 2 + Re2

Physics Coaching Centre

Further, with increasing frequencies the attenuation in atmosphere is very large and such
signals also get absorbed by ground due to their high frequency. Also such high frequency
waves do not bend with regular aperture of earth. Hence ground wave propagation is not
possible for communication at these frequencies.
So the only way for the transmission of TV signals is that the receiving antenna should
directly intercept the signal from the transmitting antenna. Such a
mode of transmission of signals is called space wave propagation.
To achieve larger coverage, transmission of TV signals is done
from a tall antenna of height h, which can be obtained as