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1 Modulation
Modulation is when a high frequency carrier wave is made to vary in accordance with the amplitude of a signal wave. While there are many ways in which this can be achieved, each method essentially changes either the amplitude or the frequency of the carrier wave.
Carrier
time
Voltage
Information
time
Voltage
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With an amplitude modulated wave the amplitude of the radio frequency carrier is varied in proportion to the audio frequency or information signal, as in the diagram above. The amount, or depth, of modulation depends upon the ratio of the amplitude of the information signal to the amplitude of the carrier wave signal. Depth of modulation Consider the diagram below: x is the modulating signal amplitude and y is the carrier wave amplitude. The modulation depth, m, of the resulting amplitude modulated signal is defined by: m = x 100% y
The modulation depth of the waveform in the diagram below is approximately 65% and can be verified by measuring the amplitudes of the waves in the diagram. The peak amplitude of the modulated wave is the sum of the modulating and carrier waves. If x is equal to y then the carrier is 100% modulated. If x is increased further then over modulation occurs and the region represented by y-x in the diagram becomes zero. However, if the modulation depth is too small then the received signal will be of poor quality because the signal-to-noise ratio will be reduced. The usual depth of modulation for good quality reception is approximately 80%. y
y y-x
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Diagram (a) below show an amplitude modulated wave at 100% and diagram (b) shows an amplitude modulated wave that is being over modulated (i.e. greater than 100%). Both diagrams assume the same carrier amplitude as for the diagram above.
(a)
(b)
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Frequency modulation
As the name suggests, the frequency of the carrier wave is varied in accordance with the variations in the information signal. This is shown in the diagram below. Voltage
Carrier
time
Voltage
Information
time
Voltage
Each graph shows the variation of voltage against time. The first graph shows the high frequency carrier signal, the second the low frequency information signal and the third the effect of frequency modulation of the carrier by the information signal. It can be seen that as the information signal increases and becomes positive, the frequency of the carrier increases and as the information signal decreases and becomes negative, the carrier frequency is reduced. FM is used in high quality radio transmission and a typical FM carrier frequency (for radio transmission) is 100MHz and the maximum frequency deviation is limited, by international agreement, to 75kHz. There has to be a compromise between the improved quality that accompanies increased bandwidth and the restriction of the number of channels available in a frequency band.
f c fs
f c + fs
fc frequency/Hz ikes0807 Lower side tone Upper side tone It can be shown that for 100% modulation the amplitude of each side tone is half of the amplitude of the carrier wave and so since
V2 power = R
each side tone carries only a quarter of the power of the carrier. Since there is no information in the carrier wave signal and each side tone carries the same information, only one side tone is needed to recover the transmitted information. This means that 83.3% of the transmitted power is wasted in a standard AM transmission.
Lower sideband
fc
If the frequency of the modulating signal ranges from 100Hz to 5kHz then the lower sideband will range from (fc 5000)Hz to (fc 100)Hz, the upper sideband will range from (fc+100)Hz to (fc+5000)Hz, and the bandwidth of the transmitted radio signal will be 10kHz or twice the bandwidth of the modulating signal. It is possible to suppress one of the sidebands and the carrier if there is a constraint on channel bandwidth. Since it is only the information in one sideband that is needed on reception, the power that would put into transmitting the carrier and the other sideband, in a normal AM signal, can be concentrated into just the one sideband, resulting in a much more potent signal.
tuned circuit
rf amplifier
demodulator
af amplifier
IPK0807
speaker
The aerial receives the radio signals (electromagnetic waves) and converts them into a varying electric current. The tuned circuit selects the required frequency signals from all of the signals that are received by the aerial. The rf amplifier increases the voltage of the selected signals to a level where they can be demodulated. The demodulator often consists of a signal diode which simply blocks the negative going half of the AM signal. The rf component of the demodulated signal is removed by a capacitor, which shunts the rf component to earth, leaving the information (af) signal. The af amplifier provides both voltage and power amplification of the af signal so that it is able to drive a loudspeaker. The loudspeaker converts the varying electric current of the af signal into sound waves.