All Topics  
Radio

 

   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link






 

Radio



 
 
Radio is the transmission of signals, by modulation
Modulation

In telecommunications, modulation is the process of varying a Periodic function waveform, i.e. a tone, in order to use that signal to convey a message, in a similar fashion as a musician may modulate the tone from a musical instrument by varying its volume, timing and Pitch ....
 of electromagnetic waves
Electromagnetic radiation

Electromagnetic radiation takes the form of wave propagation waves in a vacuum or in matter. EM radiation has an electric field and magnetic field component which oscillate in phase perpendicular to each other and to the direction of energy Wave propagation....
 with frequencies
Frequency

Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit time. It is also referred to as temporal frequency.The period is the duration of one cycle in a repeating event, so the period is the reciprocal of the frequency....
 below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels
Radio propagation

Radio propagation is a term used to explain how radio waves behave when they are transmitted, or are wave propagation from one point on the Earth to another....
 by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space. Information is carried by systematically changing (modulating
Modulation

In telecommunications, modulation is the process of varying a Periodic function waveform, i.e. a tone, in order to use that signal to convey a message, in a similar fashion as a musician may modulate the tone from a musical instrument by varying its volume, timing and Pitch ....
) some property of the radiated waves, such as amplitude
Amplitude

Amplitude is the magnitude of change in the oscillating variable, with each oscillation, within an oscillating system. For instance, sound waves are oscillations in atmospheric pressure and their amplitudes are proportional to the change in pressure during one oscillation....
, frequency
Frequency

Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit time. It is also referred to as temporal frequency.The period is the duration of one cycle in a repeating event, so the period is the reciprocal of the frequency....
, or phase
Phase

A phase is one part or portion in recurring or serial activities or occurrences logically connected within a greater process, often resulting in an output or a change....
. When radio waves pass an electrical conductor, the oscillating fields induce an alternating current in the conductor.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Radio'
Start a new discussion about 'Radio'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Radio is the transmission of signals, by modulation
Modulation

In telecommunications, modulation is the process of varying a Periodic function waveform, i.e. a tone, in order to use that signal to convey a message, in a similar fashion as a musician may modulate the tone from a musical instrument by varying its volume, timing and Pitch ....
 of electromagnetic waves
Electromagnetic radiation

Electromagnetic radiation takes the form of wave propagation waves in a vacuum or in matter. EM radiation has an electric field and magnetic field component which oscillate in phase perpendicular to each other and to the direction of energy Wave propagation....
 with frequencies
Frequency

Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit time. It is also referred to as temporal frequency.The period is the duration of one cycle in a repeating event, so the period is the reciprocal of the frequency....
 below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels
Radio propagation

Radio propagation is a term used to explain how radio waves behave when they are transmitted, or are wave propagation from one point on the Earth to another....
 by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space. Information is carried by systematically changing (modulating
Modulation

In telecommunications, modulation is the process of varying a Periodic function waveform, i.e. a tone, in order to use that signal to convey a message, in a similar fashion as a musician may modulate the tone from a musical instrument by varying its volume, timing and Pitch ....
) some property of the radiated waves, such as amplitude
Amplitude

Amplitude is the magnitude of change in the oscillating variable, with each oscillation, within an oscillating system. For instance, sound waves are oscillations in atmospheric pressure and their amplitudes are proportional to the change in pressure during one oscillation....
, frequency
Frequency

Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit time. It is also referred to as temporal frequency.The period is the duration of one cycle in a repeating event, so the period is the reciprocal of the frequency....
, or phase
Phase

A phase is one part or portion in recurring or serial activities or occurrences logically connected within a greater process, often resulting in an output or a change....
. When radio waves pass an electrical conductor, the oscillating fields induce an alternating current in the conductor. This can be detected
Demodulation

Demodulation is the act of extracting the original information-bearing signal from a modulated carrier wave.A demodulator is an electronic circuit used to recover the information content from the modulated carrier wave....
 and transformed into sound or other signals that carry information.

Etymology

Originally, radio or radiotelegraphy was called "wireless telegraphy
Wireless telegraphy

The term wireless telegraphy is a historic term used today as applied to early radio telegraph communications techniques and practices. Wireless telegraphy originated as a term to describe electrical signaling without the electric wires to connect the end points....
", which was shortened to "wireless". The prefix radio- in the sense of wireless transmission, was first recorded in the word radioconductor, coined by the French physicist Édouard Branly
Edouard Branly

?douard Eug?ne D?sir? Branly was a France inventor, physicist and professor at the Institut Catholique de Paris. He is primarily known for his early involvement in wireless telegraphy and his invention of the Branly coherer around 1890....
 in 1897 and based on the verb to radiate (in Latin "radius" means "spoke of a wheel, beam of light, ray"). "Radio" as a noun is said to have been coined by advertising expert Waldo Warren (White 1944). The word appears in a 1907 article by Lee de Forest
Lee De Forest

Lee De Forest was an United States inventor with over 180 patents to his credit. De Forest invented the Audion tube, a vacuum tube that takes relatively weak electrical signals and amplifies them....
, was adopted by the United States Navy
United States Navy

The United States Navy is the navy of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy currently has approximately 331,682 personnel on active duty as of 31 December 2008 and 124,000 in the United States Navy Reserve....
 in 1912 and became common by the time of the first commercial broadcasts in the United States in the 1920s. (The noun "broadcasting" itself came from an agricultural term, meaning "scattering seeds".) The term was then adopted by other languages in Europe and Asia, although British Commonwealth countries continued to use the term "wireless" until the mid-20th century.

In recent years the term "wireless" has gained renewed popularity through the rapid growth of short-range computer networking, e.g., Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN)
Wireless LAN

A wireless LAN is a wireless local area network that links two or more computers or devices using Spread spectrum or OFDM modulation technology based to enable communication between devices in a limited area....
, WiFi
WIFI

WIFI is a radio station broadcasting a Variety radio format. Licensed to Florence, New Jersey, USA. The station is currently owned by Forsythe Broadcasting....
 and Bluetooth
Bluetooth

Bluetooth is a wireless protocol for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks . It was originally conceived as a wireless alternative to RS232 data cables....
, as well as mobile telephony, e.g., GSM and UMTS. Today, the term "radio" often refers to the actual transceiver device or chip, whereas "wireless" refers to the system and/or method used for radio communication, hence one talks about radio transceivers and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), but about wireless devices and wireless sensor networks.

Processes

Radio systems used for communications will have the following elements. With more than 100 years of development, each process is implemented by a wide range of methods, specialized for different communications purposes.

Each system contains a transmitter
Transmitter

For biologic transmitters, see transmitter substance.A transmitter is an Electronics machine which, usually with the aid of an antenna , propagates an electromagnetic radiation Signalling such as radio, television, or other telecommunications....
. This consists of a source of electrical energy, producing alternating current
Alternating current

In alternating current the movement of electric charge periodically reverses direction. An electric charge would for instance move forward, then backward, then forward, then backward, over and over again....
 of a desired frequency
Frequency

Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit time. It is also referred to as temporal frequency.The period is the duration of one cycle in a repeating event, so the period is the reciprocal of the frequency....
 of oscillation. The transmitter contains a system to modulate (change)
Modulation

In telecommunications, modulation is the process of varying a Periodic function waveform, i.e. a tone, in order to use that signal to convey a message, in a similar fashion as a musician may modulate the tone from a musical instrument by varying its volume, timing and Pitch ....
 some property of the energy produced to impress a signal on it. This modulation might be as simple as turning the energy on and off, or altering more subtle properties such as amplitude, frequency, phase, or combinations of these properties. The transmitter sends the modulated electrical energy to an antenna
Antenna (radio)

An 'antenna' is a transducer designed to transmitter or receive Electromagnetic radiations. In other words, antennas convert electromagnetic waves into electrical currents and vice versa....
; this structure converts the rapidly-changing alternating current into an electromagnetic wave
Electromagnetic radiation

Electromagnetic radiation takes the form of wave propagation waves in a vacuum or in matter. EM radiation has an electric field and magnetic field component which oscillate in phase perpendicular to each other and to the direction of energy Wave propagation....
 that can move through free space.

Electromagnetic waves travel through space
Radio propagation

Radio propagation is a term used to explain how radio waves behave when they are transmitted, or are wave propagation from one point on the Earth to another....
 either directly, or have their path altered by reflection, refraction or diffraction. The intensity of the waves diminishes due to geometric dispersion (the inverse-square law
Inverse-square law

In physics, an inverse-square law is any physical law stating that some physical quantity or strength is Inverse ly proportionality to the square of the distance from the source of that physical quantity....
); some energy may also be absorbed by the intervening medium in some cases. Noise
Signal noise

In science, and especially in physics and telecommunication, noise is fluctuations in and the addition of external factors to the stream of target information being received at a detector....
 will generally alter the desired signal; this electromagnetic interference
Electromagnetic interference

Electromagnetic interference is an unwanted disturbance that affects an electrical circuit due to either electromagnetic conduction or electromagnetic radiation emitted from an external source....
 comes from natural sources, as well as from artificial sources such as other transmitters and accidental radiators. Noise is also produced at every step due to the inherent properties of the devices used. If the magnitude of the noise is large enough, the desired signal will no longer be discernible; this is the fundamental limit to the range of radio communications.

The electromagnetic wave is intercepted by a receiving antenna; this structure captures some of the energy of the wave and returns it to the form of oscillating electrical currents. At the receiver, these currents are demodulated
Demodulation

Demodulation is the act of extracting the original information-bearing signal from a modulated carrier wave.A demodulator is an electronic circuit used to recover the information content from the modulated carrier wave....
, which is conversion to a usable signal form by a detector
Detector (radio)

A detector is a device that recovers information of interest contained in a modulated wave. The term dates from the early days of radio when all transmissions were in Morse Code, and it was only necessary to detect the presence of a radio wave using a device such as a coherer without necessarily making it audible....
 sub-system. The receiver is "tuned
Tuner (electronics)

A tuner is a circuit module or free-standing equipment which detects radio-frequency Signal usually of low amplitude and amplifier them and converts them to a form suitable for further processing....
" to respond preferentially to the desired signals, and reject undesired signals.

Early radio systems relied entirely on the energy collected by an antenna to produce signals for the operator. Radio became more useful after the invention of electronic
Electronics

Electronics refers to the flow of charge through nonmetal electrical conductor , whereas electrical refers to the flow of charge through metal electrical conductor....
 devices such as the vacuum tube
Vacuum tube

In electronics, a vacuum tube, electron tube , thermionic valve, or just valve is a device used to amplifier, switch, otherwise modify, or create an Electricity signal by controlling the movement of electrons in a low-pressure space....
 and later the transistor
Transistor

In electronics, a transistor is a semiconductor device commonly used to Electronic amplifier or switch Electronics signals. A transistor is made of a solid piece of a semiconductor material, with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit....
, which made it possible to amplify weak signals. Today radio systems are used for applications from walkie-talkie
Walkie-talkie

A walkie-talkie is a hand-held, portable, two-way radio transceiver. Originally developed for the Canadian government during the Second World War by Canadian Donald L....
 children's toys to the control of space vehicles
Pioneer program

The Pioneer program is a series of United States unmanned space missions that was designed for planetary exploration. There were a number of such missions in the program, but the most notable were Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11, which explored the outer planets and left the solar system....
, as well as for broadcasting
Broadcasting

Broadcasting is distribution of Sound and/or video Signalling s which transmit programs to an audience. The audience may be the general public or a relatively large sub-audience, such as children or young adults....
, and many other applications.

History


Invention


The meaning and usage of the word "radio" has developed in parallel with developments within the field and can be seen to have three distinct phases: electromagnetic waves and experimentation; wireless communication and technical development; and radio broadcasting and commercialization. Many individuals -- inventors, engineers, developers, businessmen -- contributed to produce the modern idea of radio and thus the origins and 'invention' are multiple and controversial.

Development from a laboratory demonstration to commercial utility spanned several decades and required the efforts of many practitioners. Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison

Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman who developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph and the long-lasting, practical electric light bulb....
 applied in 1885 to the U.S. Patent Office for a patent on a wireless telegraphy system which anticipated later developments in the field. The patent was granted as Patent # 465971 on December 29, 1891, and Guglielmo Marconi felt it necessary to purchase rights to the Edison wireless telegraphy patent as a foundation stone of his own subsequent work in wireless telegraphy. In 1893, in St. Louis, Missouri, Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla was an inventor and a mechanical engineer and electrical engineer. Tesla was born in the village of Smiljan near the town of Gospic, in Croatia ....
 made devices for his experiments with electricity. Addressing the Franklin Institute
Franklin Institute

Founded in honor of Benjamin Franklin, The Franklin Institute is a museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and one of the oldest and premier centers of science education and development in the United States....
 in Philadelphia and the National Electric Light Association
National Electric Light Association

The National Electric Light Association was a national United States trade association including the operators of central power generation power stations and interested individuals....
, he described and demonstrated in detail the principles of his wireless work. The descriptions contained all the elements that were later incorporated into radio systems before the development of the vacuum tube
Vacuum tube

In electronics, a vacuum tube, electron tube , thermionic valve, or just valve is a device used to amplifier, switch, otherwise modify, or create an Electricity signal by controlling the movement of electrons in a low-pressure space....
. He initially experimented with magnetic receivers, unlike the coherer
Coherer

The coherer was a primitive form of radio signal Detector used in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, consisting of a capsule of metal filings in the space between two electrodes....
s (detecting devices consisting of tubes filled with iron filings which had been invented by Temistocle Calzecchi-Onesti
Temistocle Calzecchi-Onesti

Temistocle Calzecchi Onesti was an Italy physicist and inventor born at Lapedona, Italy, who demonstrated in experiments in 1884 through 1886 that iron filings contained in an insulating tube will conduct an electrical current under the action of an electromagnetic wave....
 at Fermo in Italy in 1884) used by Guglielmo Marconi
Guglielmo Marconi

Marchese Guglielmo Marconi was an Italy inventor, best known for his development of a radiotelegraph system, which served as the foundation for the establishment of numerous affiliated companies worldwide....
 and other early experimenters.

The first radio couldn't transmit sound or speech and was called the "wireless telegraph." The first public demonstration of wireless telegraphy took place in the lecture theater of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History on August 14, 1894, carried out by Professor Oliver Lodge and Alexander Muirhead
Alexander Muirhead

Alexander Muirhead, Fellow of the Royal Society, born in East Saltoun and West Saltoun, East Lothian, Scotland was an electrical engineer specialising in wireless telegraphy....
. During the demonstration a radio signal was sent from the neighboring Clarendon laboratory building, and received by apparatus in the lecture theater.

In 1895 Alexander Stepanovich Popov
Alexander Stepanovich Popov

Alexander Stepanovich Popov was a Russian physicist who first demonstrated the practical application of electromagnetic waves, although he did not apply for a patent for his invention....
 built his first radio receiver, which contained a coherer
Coherer

The coherer was a primitive form of radio signal Detector used in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, consisting of a capsule of metal filings in the space between two electrodes....
. Further refined as a lightning detector
Lightning detector

A lightning detector is a device that detects lightning produced by thunderstorms. There are three primary types of detectors: ground-based systems using multiple antennas, mobile systems using a direction and a sense antenna in the same location , and space-based systems....
, it was presented to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society on May 7, 1895. A depiction of Popov's lightning detector was printed in the Journal of the Russian Physical and Chemical Society the same year. Popov's receiver was created on the improved basis of Lodge's receiver, and originally intended for reproduction of its experiments.

Development


In 1896, Marconi was awarded the British patent 12039, Improvements in transmitting electrical impulses and signals and in apparatus there-for, for radio. In 1897 he established the world's first radio station on the Isle of Wight, England. Marconi opened the world's first "wireless" factory in Hall Street, Chelmsford, England in 1898, employing around 50 people.

The next great invention was the vacuum tube detector, invented by Westinghouse engineers. On Christmas Eve, 1906, Reginald Fessenden
Reginald Fessenden

Reginald Aubrey Fessenden was a Canadian inventor....
 used a synchronous rotary-spark transmitter for the first radio program broadcast, from Ocean Bluff-Brant Rock, Massachusetts. Ships at sea heard a broadcast that included Fessenden playing O Holy Night
O Holy Night

"O Holy Night" is a well-known Christmas carol composed by Adolphe Adam in 1847 to the French language poem "Minuit, chr?tiens" by Placide Cappeau , a wine merchant and poet....
 on the violin and reading a passage from the Bible. This was, for all intents and purposes, the first transmission of what is now known as amplitude modulation or AM radio. The first radio news program was broadcast August 31, 1920 by station 8MK in Detroit, Michigan, which survives today as all-news format station WWJ
WWJ

WWJ may refer to:*WWJ , a radio station licensed to Detroit, Michigan, United States*WWJ-TV, a television station licensed to Detroit, Michigan, United States...
 under ownership of the CBS network. The first college radio station began broadcasting on October 14, 1920, from Union College, Schenectady, New York under the personal call letters of Wendell King, an African-American student at the school. That month 2ADD, later renamed WRUC
WRUC

WRUC is the campus radio station of Union College in Schenectady, New York. The 100-watt station also streams on the Internet atThe station is widely recognized as America's first college radio station, and has been broadcasting since October 14, 1920....
 in 1940, aired what is believed to be the first public entertainment broadcast in the United States, a series of Thursday night concerts initially heard within a radius and later for a radius. In November 1920, it aired the first broadcast of a sporting event. At 9 pm on August 27, 1920, Sociedad Radio Argentina aired a live performance of Richard Wagner's Parsifal opera from the Coliseo Theater in downtown Buenos Aires, only about twenty homes in the city had a receiver to tune in. Meanwhile, regular entertainment broadcasts commenced in 1922 from the Marconi Research Centre at Writtle, England
England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
.

One of the first developments in the early 20th century (1900-1959) was that aircraft used commercial AM radio stations for navigation. This continued until the early 1960s when VOR
VHF omnidirectional range

VOR, short for VHF Omni-directional Radio Range, is a type of radio navigation system for aircraft. A VOR ground station broadcasts a VHF radio composite signal including the station's identifier in morse code , and data that allows the airborne receiving equipment to derive a Bearing #Types of bearings from the station to the aircraft...
 systems finally became widespread (though AM stations are still marked on U.S. aviation charts). In the early 1930s, single sideband and frequency modulation
Frequency modulation

In telecommunications, frequency modulation conveys information over a carrier wave by varying its frequency . In analog signal applications, the instantaneous frequency of the carrier is directly proportional to the instantaneous value of the input signal....
 were invented by amateur radio operators. By the end of the decade, they were established commercial modes. Radio was used to transmit pictures visible as television
Television

Television is a widely used telecommunication mass-media for transmitting and receiving moving , either monochrome or color, usually accompanied by sound....
 as early as the 1920s. Commercial television transmissions started in North America
North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
 and Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
 in the 1940s. In 1954, Regency introduced a pocket transistor
Transistor

In electronics, a transistor is a semiconductor device commonly used to Electronic amplifier or switch Electronics signals. A transistor is made of a solid piece of a semiconductor material, with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit....
 radio, the TR-1
Regency TR-1

The Regency TR-1, announced on October 18, 1954 by the Regency Division of I.D.E.A and put on sale in November 1954 was the first practical transistor radio made in any significant numbers....
, powered by a "standard 22.5 V Battery".

In 1960, Sony
Sony

is a multinational corporation list of conglomerates corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, and one of the world's largest media conglomerates with revenue exceeding US$99.1 billion ....
 introduced its first transistorized radio, small enough to fit in a vest pocket, and able to be powered by a small battery. It was durable, because there were no tubes to burn out. Over the next 20 years, transistors replaced tubes almost completely except for very high-power uses. By 1963 color television was being regularly transmitted commercially, and the first (radio) communication satellite
Communications satellite

A communications satellite is an artificial satellite stationed in space for the purposes of telecommunications. Modern communications satellites use a variety of orbits including geostationary orbits, Molniya orbits, other elliptical orbits and low Earth orbits....
, TELSTAR
Telstar

Telstar was the first active communications satellite, and the first satellite designed to transmit telephone and high-speed data communications....
, was launched. In the late 1960s, the U.S. long-distance telephone network began to convert to a digital network, employing digital radio
Digital radio

Digital radio describes radio technologies which carry information as a digital signal, by means of a digital modulation method. The most common meaning is digital audio broadcasting technologies, but the topic may also cover TV broadcasting as well as many two-way digital wireless communication technologies....
s for many of its links. In the 1970s, LORAN
LORAN

LORAN is a terrestrial radio navigation system using low frequency radio transmitters that uses multiple transmitters to determine location and/or speed of the receiver....
 became the premier radio navigation system. Soon, the U.S. Navy experimented with satellite navigation, culminating in the invention and launch of the GPS
Global Positioning System

The Global Positioning System is a global navigation satellite system developed by the United States Department of Defense and managed by the United States Air Force 50th Space Wing....
 constellation in 1987. In the early 1990s, amateur radio
Amateur radio

Amateur radio, often called Etymology of ham radio, is both a hobby and a service in which participants, called "hams," use various types of radio communications equipment to communicate with other radio amateurs for Public services, recreation and self-training....
 experimenters began to use personal computers with audio cards to process radio signals. In 1994, the U.S. Army and DARPA launched an aggressive, successful project to construct a software defined radio that can be programmed to be virtually any radio by changing its software program. Digital transmissions began to be applied to broadcasting in the late 1990s.

Uses of radio

Early uses were maritime, for sending telegraphic messages using Morse code
Morse code

Morse code is a type of character encoding that transmits telegraphic information using rhythm. Morse code uses a standardized sequence of short and long elements to represent the alphanumeric, punctuation and special characters of a given message....
 between ships and land. The earliest users included the Japanese Navy scouting the Russian fleet during the Battle of Tsushima
Battle of Tsushima

The Battle of Tsushima , commonly known as the ?Sea of Japan Naval Battle? in Japan and the ?Battle of Tsushima Strait? elsewhere, was the last and most decisive sea battle of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904?1905....
 in 1905. One of the most memorable uses of marine telegraphy was during the sinking of the RMS Titanic
RMS Titanic

The Royal Mail Ship Titanic was an Olympic class ocean liner superliner owned by the White Star Line and built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland....
 in 1912, including communications between operators on the sinking ship and nearby vessels, and communications to shore stations listing the survivors.

Radio was used to pass on orders and communications between armies and navies on both sides in World War I
World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
; Germany used radio communications for diplomatic messages once it discovered that its submarine cables had been tapped by the British. The United States passed on President Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson

Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States. A devout Presbyterianism and leading intellectual of the Progressive Era, he served as President of Princeton University of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913....
's Fourteen Points
Fourteen Points

The Fourteen Points were listed in a speech delivered by United States President of the United States Woodrow Wilson to a Joint session of the United States Congress of United States Congress on January 8, 1918....
 to Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
 via radio during the war. Broadcasting began from San Jose
San Jose, California

San Jose or San Jos? is the List of cities in California city in California and the List of United States cities by population in the United States....
 in 1909, and became feasible in the 1920s, with the widespread introduction of radio receivers, particularly in Europe and the United States. Besides broadcasting, point-to-point broadcasting, including telephone messages and relays of radio programs, became widespread in the 1920s and 1930s. Another use of radio in the pre-war years was the development of detection and locating of aircraft and ships by the use of radar
Radar

Radar is a system that uses electromagnetic radiation waves to identify the range, altitude, direction, or speed of both moving and fixed objects such as aircraft, ships, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain....
 (RAdio Detection And Ranging).

Today, radio takes many forms, including wireless network
Wireless network

Wireless network refers to any type of computer network that is wireless, and is commonly associated with a telecommunications network whose interconnections between Node is implemented without the use of wires....
s and mobile communications of all types, as well as radio broadcasting
Broadcasting

Broadcasting is distribution of Sound and/or video Signalling s which transmit programs to an audience. The audience may be the general public or a relatively large sub-audience, such as children or young adults....
. Before the advent of television
Television

Television is a widely used telecommunication mass-media for transmitting and receiving moving , either monochrome or color, usually accompanied by sound....
, commercial radio broadcasts included not only news and music, but dramas, comedies, variety shows, and many other forms of entertainment. Radio was unique among methods of dramatic presentation in that it used only sound. For more, see radio programming
Radio programming

Radio programming is the content that is Broadcasting by radio stations.The original inventors of radio, such as Nikola Tesla and Guglielmo Marconi, expected it to be used for one-on-one communication tasks where telephones and telegraphs could not be used because of the impossibility of stringing wires from one point to another, such as in...
.

Audio

AM broadcast radio
AM broadcasting

AM broadcasting is the process of radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation....
 sends music and voice in the Medium Frequency (MF, 0.3 MHz to 3 MHz) radio spectrum. AM radio uses amplitude modulation
Amplitude modulation

Amplitude modulation is a technique used in electronic communication, most commonly for transmitting information via a radio carrier wave....
, in which the amplitude of the transmitted signal is made proportional to the sound amplitude captured (transduced) by the microphone, while the transmitted frequency remains unchanged. Transmissions are affected by static and interference because lightning and other sources of radio emissions on the same frequency add their amplitudes to the original transmitted amplitude. In the early part of the 20th century, American AM radio stations broadcast with powers as high as 500 kW, and some could be heard worldwide; these stations' transmitters were commandeered for military use by the US Government during World War II. Currently, the maximum broadcast power for a civilian AM radio station in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 and Canada is 50 kW, and the majority of stations that emit signals this powerful were grandfathered in; these include WGN (AM)
WGN (AM)

WGN is a radio station in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is owned by the Tribune Company, which also owns the Flagship WGN-TV, the Chicago Tribune newspaper and Chicago magazine locally....
, WJR
WJR

WJR is a radio station in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It broadcasts a news/talk format. It is a List of broadcast station classes clear channel station whose broadcasts can be heard throughout most of the central and eastern United States and Canada at night, making it one of the most powerful radio stations in the United States....
, KGA
KGA

KGA is a sports radio station based in Spokane, Washington. The Mapleton Communications, LLC outlet broadcasts at 1510 kHz with 50 kW. It has switched formats with its sister station, KJRB, who was sports, and is now news-talk....
 at 50 kW. In 1986 KTNN
KTNN

KTNN is a Navajo people AM radio station broadcasting from Window Rock, Arizona, the seat of the government of the Navajo Nation. It broadcasts Country Music in English, but most of its announcers broadcast in Navajo language over the air....
 received the last granted 50,000 watt license. These 50 kW stations are generally called "clear channel" stations (Not to be confused with the Clear Channel radio conglomerate), because within North America
North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
 each of these stations has exclusive use of its broadcast frequency throughout part or all of the broadcast day.

FM broadcast radio
FM broadcasting

FM broadcasting is a broadcasting technology invented by Edwin Howard Armstrong that uses frequency modulation to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio....
 sends music and voice with higher fidelity than AM radio. In frequency modulation
Frequency modulation

In telecommunications, frequency modulation conveys information over a carrier wave by varying its frequency . In analog signal applications, the instantaneous frequency of the carrier is directly proportional to the instantaneous value of the input signal....
, amplitude variation at the microphone
Microphone

A microphone, sometimes referred to as a mike or?more recently?mic, is an acoustic-to-electric transducer or sensor that converts sound into an electrical signal....
 causes the transmitter frequency to fluctuate. Because the audio signal modulates the frequency and not the amplitude, an FM signal is not subject to static and interference in the same way as AM signals. Due to its need for a wider bandwidth, FM is transmitted in the Very High Frequency (VHF, 30 MHz to 300 MHz) radio spectrum. VHF radio waves act more like light, traveling in straight lines, hence the reception range is generally limited to about 50-100 miles. During unusual upper atmospheric conditions, FM signals are occasionally reflected back towards the Earth by the ionosphere
Ionosphere

The ionosphere is the uppermost part of the Earth's atmosphere, distinguished because it is ionized by solar radiation. It plays an important part in atmospheric electricity and forms the inner edge of the magnetosphere....
, resulting in Long distance FM reception. FM receivers are subject to the capture effect
Capture effect

In telecommunication, the capture effect, or FM capture effect, is a phenomenon associated with FM reception in which only the stronger of two signals at, or near, the same frequency will be demodulation....
, which causes the radio to only receive the strongest signal when multiple signals appear on the same frequency. FM receivers are relatively immune to lightning and spark interference.

High power is useful in penetrating buildings, diffracting around hills, and refracting for some distance beyond the horizon. Consequently, 100,000 watt FM stations can regularly be heard up to 100 miles (160 km) away, and farther (e.g., 150 miles, 240 km) if there are no competing signals. A few old, "grandfathered" stations do not conform to these power rules. WBCT-FM (93.7) in Grand Rapids
Grand Rapids, Michigan

Grand Rapids is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the United States 2000 Census, the city population was 197,800. It is the county seat of Kent County, Michigan, Michigan....
, Michigan
Michigan

Michigan is a Midwestern United States U.S. state of the United States of America. It was named after Lake Michigan, whose name is a French adaptation of the Anishinaabe language term mishigama, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
, USA, runs 320,000 watts ERP, and can increase to 500,000 watts ERP by the terms of its original license. Such a huge power level does not usually help to increase range as much as one might expect, because VHF frequencies travel in nearly straight lines over the horizon and off into space. Nevertheless, when there were fewer FM stations competing, this station could be heard near Bloomington, Illinois, USA, almost 300 miles (500 km) away.

FM subcarrier services are secondary signals transmitted in a "piggyback" fashion along with the main program. Special receivers are required to utilize these services. Analog channels may contain alternative programming, such as reading services for the blind, background music or stereo sound signals. In some extremely crowded metropolitan areas, the sub-channel program might be an alternate foreign language radio program for various ethnic groups. Sub-carriers can also transmit digital data, such as station identification, the current song's name, web addresses, or stock quotes. In some countries, FM radios automatically re-tune themselves to the same channel in a different district by using sub-bands.

Aviation voice radios use VHF
VHF radio

VHF radio refers to several communications services in the VHF frequency range, including:* Airband aircraft radio* Amateur radio in the 6, 2 and 1-1/4 meter bands...
 AM. AM is used so that multiple stations on the same channel can be received. (Use of FM would result in stronger stations blocking out reception of weaker stations due to FM's capture effect
Capture effect

In telecommunication, the capture effect, or FM capture effect, is a phenomenon associated with FM reception in which only the stronger of two signals at, or near, the same frequency will be demodulation....
). Aircraft fly high enough that their transmitters can be received hundreds of miles (or kilometres) away, even though they are using VHF.

Marine voice radios can use single sideband voice (SSB) in the shortwave High Frequency (HF—3 MHz to 30 MHz) radio spectrum for very long ranges or narrowband FM
Marine VHF radio

Marine VHF radio is installed on all large ships and most motorized small craft. It is used for a wide variety of purposes, including summoning rescue services and communicating with harbours and marinas, and operates in the Very high frequency frequency range, between 156 to 174 Megahertz....
 in the VHF spectrum for much shorter ranges. Narrowband FM sacrifices fidelity to make more channels available within the radio spectrum, by using a smaller range of radio frequencies, usually with five kHz
Hertz

The hertz is a measure of frequency per unit of time, or the number of list of cycles per second. It is the SI base unit of frequency in the International System of Units , and is used worldwide in both general-purpose and scientific contexts....
 of deviation, versus the 75 kHz used by commercial FM broadcasts, and 25 kHz used for TV sound.

Government, police, fire and commercial voice services also use narrowband FM on special frequencies. Early police radios used AM receivers to receive one-way dispatches.

Civil and military HF (high frequency) voice services use shortwave
Shortwave

Shortwave radio operates in the frequency range of 3,000 kHz to 30,000 kHz . In radio, short wavelength corresponds to high frequency given the inverse relationship between frequency and wavelength, thus, ?shortwave radio? is denominated so, because its wavelengths are shorter than the long wave-lengths used in early radio communications; m...
 radio to contact ships at sea, aircraft and isolated settlements. Most use single sideband voice (SSB), which uses less bandwidth than AM. On an AM radio SSB sounds like ducks quacking. Viewed as a graph of frequency versus power, an AM signal shows power where the frequencies of the voice add and subtract with the main radio frequency. SSB cuts the bandwidth in half by suppressing the carrier and (usually) lower sideband. This also makes the transmitter about three times more powerful, because it doesn't need to transmit the unused carrier and sideband.

TETRA, Terrestrial Trunked Radio
Terrestrial Trunked Radio

TErrestrial Trunked RAdio is a specialist Professional Mobile Radio and two-way transceiver specification. TETRA was specifically designed for use by government agencies, emergency services, , rail transportation staff, transport services and the military....
 is a digital cell phone system for military, police and ambulances. Commercial services such as XM, WorldSpace
WorldSpace

1worldspace is a satellite radio network that provides service to over 170,000 subscribers in East Africa and southern Africa, the Middle East, and much of Asia with 96% coming from India....
 and Sirius
Sirius Satellite Radio

Sirius Satellite Radio is a satellite radio service operating in the United States and Canada, owned by Sirius XM Radio. Headquartered in New York City, with smaller studios in Los Angeles and Memphis, Tennessee, Sirius was officially launched on July 1, 2002 and currently provides 69 streams of music and 65 streams of sports, news and ente...
 offer encrypted digital Satellite radio
Satellite radio

A satellite radio or subscription radio is a digital radio signal that is broadcast by a communications satellite, which covers a much wider geographical range than terrestrial radio signals....
.

Telephony

Mobile phone
Mobile phone

A mobile phone is a long-range, electronic device used for mobile voice or data communication over a network of specialized base stations known as cell sites....
s transmit to a local cell site
Cell site

A cell site is a term used primarily in North America for a site where antennas and electronic communications equipment are placed to create a cell in a network....
 (transmitter/receiver) that ultimately connects to the public switched telephone network (PSTN
Public switched telephone network

The public switched telephone network is the network of the world's public circuit switching telephone networks, in much the same way that the Internet is the network of the world's public Internet protocol-based packet switching networks....
) through an optic fiber or microwave radio and other network elements. When the mobile phone nears the edge of the cell site's radio coverage area, the central computer switches the phone to a new cell. Cell phones originally used FM, but now most use various digital modulation schemes. Recent developments in Sweden (such as DROPme) allow for the instant downloading of digital material from a radio broadcast (such as a song) to a mobile phone.

Satellite phone
Satellite phone

A satellite telephone, satellite phone, or satphone is a type of mobile phone that connects to orbiting satellites instead of terrestrial cell sites....
s use satellites rather than cell towers to communicate.

Video

Television
Television

Television is a widely used telecommunication mass-media for transmitting and receiving moving , either monochrome or color, usually accompanied by sound....
 sends the picture as AM and the sound as FM, with the sound carrier a fixed frequency (4.5 MHz in the NTSC
NTSC

NTSC is the analog television system used in most of the Americas, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Burma, and some Pacific island nations and territories ....
 system) away from the video carrier. Analog television also uses a vestigial sideband on the video carrier to reduce the bandwidth required.

Digital television uses 8VSB
8VSB

8VSB is the 8-level vestigial sideband modulation method adopted for terrestrial broadcast of the ATSC digital television standard in the United States, Canada, and other countries....
 modulation in North America (under the ATSC digital television standard), and COFDM
Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing

Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing ? essentially identical to Coded OFDM and Discrete multi-tone modulation ? is a frequency-division multiplexing scheme utilized as a digital multi-carrier modulation method....
 modulation elsewhere in the world (using the DVB-T
DVB-T

DVB-T is an abbreviation for Digital Video Broadcasting ?? Terrestrial; it is the Digital Video Broadcasting European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television....
 standard). A Reed-Solomon error correction code adds redundant correction codes and allows reliable reception during moderate data loss. Although many current and future codecs can be sent in the MPEG-2 transport stream
Transport stream

Transport stream is a communications protocol for Digital audio, Digital video, and Program and System Information Protocol which is specified in MPEG-2 Part 1, Systems ....
 container format, as of 2006 most systems use a standard-definition format almost identical to DVD
DVD

DVD, also known as "Digital Versatile Disc" or "Digital Video Disc,"is a popular optical disc data storage device media format. Its main uses are video and data storage....
: MPEG-2
MPEG-2

MPEG-2 is a standard for "the generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information". It describes a combination of Lossy compression video compression and lossy audio data compression methods which permit storage and transmission of movies using currently available storage media and transmission bandwidth....
 video in Anamorphic widescreen
Anamorphic widescreen

Anamorphic widescreen is a videography technique utilizing rectangular pixels to store a widescreen image to standard 4:3 aspect ratio . In its current definition as a video term, it originally was devised for widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio television sets; however, it has been used in regular film movies for decades....
 and MPEG layer 2
MPEG-1 Audio Layer II

MPEG-1 Audio Layer II is a lossy data compression audio codec defined by ISO/IEC 11172-3. While MP3 is much more popular for personal computer and internet applications, MP2 remains a dominant standard for audio broadcasting....
 (MP2) audio. High-definition television
High-definition television

High-definition television is a digital television broadcasting system with higher than traditional television systems . HDTV is digitally broadcast; the earliest implementations used analog broadcasting, but today digital television signals are used, requiring less Bandwidth due to digital video compression....
 is possible simply by using a higher-resolution picture, but H.264/AVC
H.264/MPEG-4 AVC

H.264 is a standard for video compression, and is equivalent to MPEG-4 Part 10, or MPEG-4 AVC . , it is the latest block-oriented motion-compensation-based codec standard developed by the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group together with the International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical...
 is being considered as a replacement video codec in some regions for its improved compression. With the compression and improved modulation involved, a single "channel" can contain a high-definition program and several standard-definition programs.

Navigation

All satellite navigation systems use satellites with precision clocks. The satellite transmits its position, and the time of the transmission. The receiver listens to four satellites, and can figure its position as being on a line that is tangent to a spherical shell around each satellite, determined by the time-of-flight of the radio signals from the satellite. A computer
Computer

A computer is a machine that manipulates Data according to a list of Code .The first devices that resemble modern computers date to the mid-20th century , although the computer concept and various machines similar to computers existed earlier....
 in the receiver does the math.

Radio direction-finding is the oldest form of radio navigation. Before 1960 navigators used movable loop antennas to locate commercial AM stations near cities. In some cases they used marine radiolocation beacons, which share a range of frequencies just above AM radio with amateur radio operators. Loran
LORAN

LORAN is a terrestrial radio navigation system using low frequency radio transmitters that uses multiple transmitters to determine location and/or speed of the receiver....
 systems also used time-of-flight radio signals, but from radio stations on the ground. VOR
VHF omnidirectional range

VOR, short for VHF Omni-directional Radio Range, is a type of radio navigation system for aircraft. A VOR ground station broadcasts a VHF radio composite signal including the station's identifier in morse code , and data that allows the airborne receiving equipment to derive a Bearing #Types of bearings from the station to the aircraft...
 (Very High Frequency Omnidirectional Range), systems (used by aircraft), have an antenna array that transmits two signals simultaneously. A directional signal rotates like a lighthouse at a fixed rate. When the directional signal is facing north, an omnidirectional signal pulses. By measuring the difference in phase of these two signals, an aircraft can determine its bearing or radial from the station, thus establishing a line of position. An aircraft can get readings from two VORs and locate its position at the intersection of the two radials, known as a "fix." When the VOR station is collocated with DME (Distance Measuring Equipment
Distance Measuring Equipment

Distance measuring equipment is a transponder-based radio navigation technology that measures distance by timing the propagation delay of Very high frequency or Ultra high frequency radio signals....
), the aircraft can determine its bearing and range from the station, thus providing a fix from only one ground station. Such stations are called VOR/DMEs. The military operates a similar system of navaids, called TACANs, which are often built into VOR stations. Such stations are called VORTACs. Because TACANs include distance measuring equipment, VOR/DME and VORTAC stations are identical in navigation potential to civil aircraft.

Radar

Radar
Radar

Radar is a system that uses electromagnetic radiation waves to identify the range, altitude, direction, or speed of both moving and fixed objects such as aircraft, ships, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain....
 (Radio Detection And Ranging) detects objects at a distance by bouncing radio waves off them. The delay caused by the echo measures the distance. The direction of the beam determines the direction of the reflection. The polarization and frequency of the return can sense the type of surface. Navigational radars scan a wide area two to four times per minute. They use very short waves that reflect from earth and stone. They are common on commercial ships and long-distance commercial aircraft.

General purpose radars generally use navigational radar frequencies, but modulate and polarize the pulse so the receiver can determine the type of surface of the reflector. The best general-purpose radars distinguish the rain of heavy storms, as well as land and vehicles. Some can superimpose sonar data and map data from GPS
Global Positioning System

The Global Positioning System is a global navigation satellite system developed by the United States Department of Defense and managed by the United States Air Force 50th Space Wing....
 position.

Search radars scan a wide area with pulses of short radio waves. They usually scan the area two to four times a minute. Sometimes search radars use the Doppler Effect
Doppler effect

The Doppler effect , named after Austrian physicist Christian Doppler who proposed it in 1842, is the change in frequency and wavelength of a wave for an observer moving relative to the source of the waves....
 to separate moving vehicles from clutter. Targeting radars use the same principle as search radar but scan a much smaller area far more often, usually several times a second or more. Weather radars resemble search radars, but use radio waves with circular polarization and a wavelength to reflect from water droplets. Some weather radar use the Doppler Effect
Doppler effect

The Doppler effect , named after Austrian physicist Christian Doppler who proposed it in 1842, is the change in frequency and wavelength of a wave for an observer moving relative to the source of the waves....
 to measure wind speeds.

Data (digital radio)

Most new radio systems are digital, see also: Digital TV
Digital television

Digital television is the sending and receiving of moving images and sound by Discrete signal signals, in contrast to the Analog television used by analog TV....
, Satellite Radio
Satellite radio

A satellite radio or subscription radio is a digital radio signal that is broadcast by a communications satellite, which covers a much wider geographical range than terrestrial radio signals....
, Digital Audio Broadcasting
Digital audio broadcasting

Digital Audio Broadcasting , also known as EUREKA, is a digital radio technology for broadcasting radio stations, used in several countries, particularly in the UK and Europe....
. The oldest form of digital broadcast was spark gap telegraphy
Telegraphy

Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of written messages without physical transport of letters. Radiotelegraphy or wireless telegraphy transmits messages using radio....
, used by pioneers such as Marconi. By pressing the key, the operator could send messages in Morse code
Morse code

Morse code is a type of character encoding that transmits telegraphic information using rhythm. Morse code uses a standardized sequence of short and long elements to represent the alphanumeric, punctuation and special characters of a given message....
 by energizing a rotating commutating spark gap. The rotating commutator produced a tone in the receiver, where a simple spark gap would produce a hiss, indistinguishable from static. Spark gap transmitters are now illegal, because their transmissions span several hundred megahertz. This is very wasteful of both radio frequencies and power.

The next advance was continuous wave telegraphy
Telegraphy

Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of written messages without physical transport of letters. Radiotelegraphy or wireless telegraphy transmits messages using radio....
, or CW (Continuous Wave
Continuous wave

A continuous wave or continuous waveform is an electromagnetic wave of constant amplitude and frequency; and in mathematical analysis, of infinite duration....
), in which a pure radio frequency, produced by a vacuum tube
Vacuum tube

In electronics, a vacuum tube, electron tube , thermionic valve, or just valve is a device used to amplifier, switch, otherwise modify, or create an Electricity signal by controlling the movement of electrons in a low-pressure space....
 electronic oscillator
Electronic oscillator

An electronic oscillator is an electronic circuit that produces a repetitive electronic signal, often a sine wave or a square wave.A low frequency oscillation is an electronic oscillator that generates an alternating current waveform at a frequency below ?200 Hz....
 was switched on and off by a key. A receiver with a local oscillator would "heterodyne
Heterodyne

In radio and signal processing, heterodyning is the generation of new frequencies by mixing, or multiplying, two oscillating waveforms. It is useful for modulation and demodulation of signals, or placing information of interest into a useful frequency range....
" with the pure radio frequency, creating a whistle-like audio tone. CW uses less than 100 Hz of bandwidth. CW is still used, these days primarily by amateur radio
Amateur radio

Amateur radio, often called Etymology of ham radio, is both a hobby and a service in which participants, called "hams," use various types of radio communications equipment to communicate with other radio amateurs for Public services, recreation and self-training....
 operators (hams). Strictly, on-off keying of a carrier should be known as "Interrupted Continuous Wave" or ICW or on-off keying
On-off keying

On-off keying is a type of modulation that represents digital data as the presence or absence of a carrier wave. In its simplest form, the presence of a carrier for a specific duration represents a Binary numeral system one, while its absence for the same duration represents a binary zero....
 (OOK).

Radio teletypes
Radioteletype

Radioteletype is a telecommunications system consisting of two or more teleprinters using radio as the transmission medium.The term radioteletype is used to describe:...
 usually operate on short-wave (HF) and are much loved by the military because they create written information without a skilled operator. They send a bit as one of two tones. Groups of five or seven bits become a character printed by a teletype. From about 1925 to 1975, radio teletype was how most commercial messages were sent to less developed countries. These are still used by the military and weather services.

Aircraft use a 1200 Baud radioteletype service over VHF to send their ID, altitude and position, and get gate and connecting-flight data. Microwave dishes on satellites, telephone exchanges and TV stations usually use quadrature amplitude modulation
Quadrature amplitude modulation

Quadrature amplitude modulation is a modulation scheme which conveys data by changing the amplitude of two carrier waves. These two waves, usually sinusoids, are out of phase with each other by 90degree and are thus called Quadrature phase carriers?hence the name of the scheme....
 (QAM). QAM sends data by changing both the phase and the amplitude of the radio signal. Engineers like QAM because it packs the most bits into a radio signal when given an exclusive (non-shared) fixed narrowband frequency range. Usually the bits are sent in "frames" that repeat. A special bit pattern is used to locate the beginning of a frame.
Gps Receivers
Communication systems that limit themselves to a fixed narrowband frequency range are vulnerable to jamming
Radio jamming

Radio jamming is the transmission of radio signal that disrupt telecommunication by decreasing the signal to noise ratio. Unintentional jamming occurs when an operator transmits on a busy frequency without checking that it is in use first, or without being able to hear distant stations on the same frequency....
. A variety of jamming-resistant spread spectrum
Spread spectrum

Spread-spectrum techniques are methods by which electromagnetic radiation generated in a particular Bandwidth is deliberately spread in the frequency domain, resulting in a signal with a wider bandwidth....
 techniques were initially developed for military use, most famously for Global Positioning System
Global Positioning System

The Global Positioning System is a global navigation satellite system developed by the United States Department of Defense and managed by the United States Air Force 50th Space Wing....
 satellite transmissions. Commercial use of spread spectrum began in the 1980s. Bluetooth
Bluetooth

Bluetooth is a wireless protocol for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks . It was originally conceived as a wireless alternative to RS232 data cables....
, most cell phones, and the 802.11b version of Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance, founded in 1999 as Wireless Internet Compatibility Alliance , comprising more than 300 companies, whose products are certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance, based on the IEEE 802.11 standards ....
 each use various forms of spread spectrum.

Systems that need reliability, or that share their frequency with other services, may use "coded orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing" or COFDM
Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing

Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing ? essentially identical to Coded OFDM and Discrete multi-tone modulation ? is a frequency-division multiplexing scheme utilized as a digital multi-carrier modulation method....
. COFDM breaks a digital signal into as many as several hundred slower subchannels. The digital signal is often sent as QAM on the subchannels. Modern COFDM systems use a small computer to make and decode the signal with digital signal processing
Digital signal processing

Digital signal processing is concerned with the representation of the signal s by a sequence of numbers or symbols and the processing of these signals....
, which is more flexible and far less expensive than older systems that implemented separate electronic channels. COFDM resists fading and ghosting because the narrow-channel QAM signals can be sent slowly. An adaptive system, or one that sends error-correction codes can also resist interference, because most interference can affect only a few of the QAM channels. COFDM is used for WiFi
WIFI

WIFI is a radio station broadcasting a Variety radio format. Licensed to Florence, New Jersey, USA. The station is currently owned by Forsythe Broadcasting....
, some cell phones
Mobile phone

A mobile phone is a long-range, electronic device used for mobile voice or data communication over a network of specialized base stations known as cell sites....
, Digital Radio Mondiale
Digital Radio Mondiale

Digital Radio Mondiale is a set of digital radio technologies designed to work over the bands currently used for AM broadcasting, particularly shortwave....
, Eureka 147, and many other local area network, digital TV and radio standards.

Heating

Radio-frequency energy generated for heating of objects is generally not intended to radiate outside of the generating equipment, to prevent interference with other radio signals. Microwave oven
Microwave oven

A microwave oven, or a microwave, is a kitchen appliance that cookings or heats food by dielectric heating. This is accomplished by using microwave radiation to heat water and other dipole within the food....
s use intense radio waves to heat food. Diathermy
Dielectric heating

Dielectric heating is the phenomenon in which radiowave or microwave electromagnetic radiation heats a dielectric material. This heating is caused by dipole rotation....
 equipment is used in surgery for sealing of blood vessels. Induction furnace
Furnace

File:Piec krepa.JPGA furnace is a device used for heating. The name derives from Latin fornax, oven. The earliest furnace was excavated at Balakot, a site of the Indus Valley Civilization, dating back to its mature phase ....
s are used for melting metal for casting
Casting

In metalworking, casting involves pouring a liquid metal into a Mold_, which contains a hollow cavity of the desired shape, and then is allowed to solidify....
.

Amateur radio service

Amateur radio
Amateur radio

Amateur radio, often called Etymology of ham radio, is both a hobby and a service in which participants, called "hams," use various types of radio communications equipment to communicate with other radio amateurs for Public services, recreation and self-training....
 (nicknamed Ham radio) is a hobby in which enthusiasts are licensed to transmit radio signals for their own enjoyment. They may also provide an emergency and public-service radio service. This has been very beneficial in emergencies, saving lives in many instances. Radio amateurs are licensed to use frequencies in a wide range of narrow bands throughout the radio spectrum. They use all forms of encoding, including nostalgic and experimental ones. Several forms of radio were pioneered by radio amateurs and later became commercially important including FM, single-sideband (SSB), AM
Amplitude modulation

Amplitude modulation is a technique used in electronic communication, most commonly for transmitting information via a radio carrier wave....
, digital packet radio and satellite repeaters. Some amateur frequencies may be disrupted by power-line internet service
Power line communication

Power line communication or power line carrier , also known as Power line Digital Subscriber Line , mains communication, power line telecom , or power line networking , is a system for carrying data on a conductor also used for electric power transmission....
.

Unlicensed radio services

Unlicensed, government-authorized personal radio services such as Citizens' band radio
Citizens' band radio

Citizens' Band radio is, in many countries, a system of short-distance radio communications between individuals on a selection of 40 channels within the 27-Hertz band....
 in Australia
Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
, the USA, and Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
, and Family Radio Service
Family Radio Service

The Family Radio Service is an improved walkie talkie radio system authorized in the United States since 1996. This personal radio service uses channelized frequencies in the ultra high frequency band....
 and Multi-Use Radio Service
Multi-Use Radio Service

In the United States, the Multi-Use Radio Service is a two-way radio service consisting of five frequencies in the VHF electromagnetic spectrum regulated by Title 47 of the CFR Part 95....
 in North America exist to provide simple, (usually) short range communication for individuals and small groups, without the overhead of licensing. Similar services exist in other parts of the world. These radio services involve the use of handheld units.

Free radio stations, sometimes called pirate radio
Pirate radio

The term pirate radio usually refers to illegal or unregulated radio transmissions. Its etymology can be traced to the unlicensed nature of the transmission, but historically there has been occasional but notable offshore radio ? fitting the most common perception of a pirates ? as broadcasting bases....
 or "clandestine" stations, are unauthorized, unlicensed, illegal broadcasting stations. These are often low power transmitters operated on sporadic schedules by hobbyists, community activists, or political and cultural dissidents. Some pirate stations operating offshore in parts of Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
 and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 more closely resembled legal stations, maintaining regular schedules, using high power, and selling commercial advertising time.

Radio control (RC)

Radio remote controls
Radio control

Radio control is the use of radio signals to remote control a device. The term is used frequently to refer to the control of Radio-controlled model from a hand-held radio transmitter....
 use radio waves to transmit control data to a remote object as in some early forms of guided missile
Guided Missile

Guided Missile is a London based independent record label set up by Paul Kearney in 1994 in music.Guided Missile has always focused on 'the underground', preferring to put out a steady flow of considered and quality releases and developing the numerous and now essential GM...
, some early TV remotes and a range of model boats, cars
Radio-controlled car

A radio-controlled car is a powered model car driven from a distance via a radio control system. Inputs from joysticks on a transmitter are sent to the car's onboard receiver ....
 and airplanes. Large industrial remote-controlled equipment such as cranes
Crane (machine)

A crane is a lifting machine equipped with a winder , wire ropes or chains and Sheave that can be used both to lift and lower materials and to move them horizontally....
 and switching locomotive
Locomotive

A locomotive is a Rail transport vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin language loco - "from a place", Ablative case of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine,....
s now usually use digital radio techniques to ensure safety and reliability.

In Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, has been the name of four arenas in New York City....
, at the Electrical Exhibition of 1898, Nikola Tesla successfully demonstrated a radio-controlled boat. He was awarded U.S. patent No. 613,809 for a "Method of and Apparatus for Controlling Mechanism of Moving Vessels or Vehicles."

The electromagnetic spectrum

Radio waves are a form of electromagnetic radiation that are created when a charged
Electric charge

Electric charge is a fundamental conserved property of some subatomic particles, which determines their electromagnetic interaction. Electrically charged matter is influenced by, and produces, electromagnetic fields....
 object, such as an electron
Electron

The electron is a subatomic particle that carries a negative electric charge. It has elementary particle and is believed to be a point particle....
, accelerates
Acceleration

File:Acceleration.JPGFile:Acceleration components.JPGIn physics, and more specifically kinematics, acceleration is the change in velocity over time....
 with a frequency that lies in the radio frequency
Radio frequency

Radio frequency is a frequency or rate of oscillation within the range of about 3 Hz to 300 GHz. This range corresponds to frequency of alternating current electrical signals used to produce and detect radio waves....
 (RF) portion of the electromagnetic spectrum
Electromagnetic spectrum

The electromagnetic spectrum is the range of all possible electromagnetic radiation frequencies. The "electromagnetic spectrum" of an object is the characteristic distribution of electromagnetic radiation from that particular object....
. In radio, this acceleration is caused by an alternating current
Alternating current

In alternating current the movement of electric charge periodically reverses direction. An electric charge would for instance move forward, then backward, then forward, then backward, over and over again....
 in an antenna
Antenna (radio)

An 'antenna' is a transducer designed to transmitter or receive Electromagnetic radiations. In other words, antennas convert electromagnetic waves into electrical currents and vice versa....
. Radio frequencies occupy the range from a few tens of hertz
Hertz

The hertz is a measure of frequency per unit of time, or the number of list of cycles per second. It is the SI base unit of frequency in the International System of Units , and is used worldwide in both general-purpose and scientific contexts....
 to three hundred gigahertz, although commercially important uses of radio use only a small part of this spectrum. Other types of electromagnetic radiation, with frequencies above the RF range, are microwave
Microwave

Microwaves are electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths ranging from 1 mm to 1 m, or frequency between 0.3 hertz and 300 GHz....
, infrared
Infrared

Infrared radiation is electromagnetic radiation whose wavelength is longer than that of visible light , but shorter than that of terahertz radiation and microwaves ....
, visible light
Light

Light, or visible light, is electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength that is Visible spectrum to the human eye , or up to 380?750 nm. In the broader field of physics, light is sometimes used to refer to electromagnetic radiation of all wavelengths, whether visible or not....
, ultraviolet
Ultraviolet

Ultraviolet light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than that of visible light, but longer than x-rays, in the range 400 nanometer to 10 nm, and energies from 3 Electron volt to 124 eV....
, X-ray
X-ray

X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 10 to 0.01 nanometers, corresponding to frequency in the range 30 Hertz to 30 Hertz and energies in the range 120 Electron volt to 120 keV....
s and gamma ray
Gamma ray

Gamma rays are a form of electromagnetic radiation produced by atom particle interactions, such as electron-positron annihilation or radioactive decay....
s. Since the energy of an individual photon
Photon

In physics, the photon is an elementary particle, the quantum of the electromagnetic field and the basic unit of light and all other forms of electromagnetic radiation....
 of radio frequency is too low to remove an electron
Electron

The electron is a subatomic particle that carries a negative electric charge. It has elementary particle and is believed to be a point particle....
 from an atom
Atom

|-! bgcolor=gray | Properties|-||}The atom is a basic unit of matter consisting of a dense, central atomic nucleus surrounded by a electron cloud of electric charge electrons....
, radio waves are classified as non-ionizing radiation
Non-ionizing radiation

Non-ionizing radiation or non-ionising radiation refers to any type of electromagnetic radiation that does not carry enough energy per quantum to ionize atoms or molecules — that is, to completely remove an electron from an atom or molecule....
.

See also

  • Amateur radio
    Amateur radio

    Amateur radio, often called Etymology of ham radio, is both a hobby and a service in which participants, called "hams," use various types of radio communications equipment to communicate with other radio amateurs for Public services, recreation and self-training....
  • Antique radio
    Antique radio

    An antique radio is a radio receiving set that is collectible because of its age and uniqueness. Although collectors may differ on the cutoff dates, most would use 50 years old, or the pre-World War II Era, for vacuum tube sets and the first five years of transistor sets....
  • Batteryless radio
    Batteryless radio

    Radio receivers were originally operated by battery . The term batteryless radio was initially used for the radio receivers which could be used directly by AC mains supply ....
  • Crystal radio
  • Digital radio
    Digital radio

    Digital radio describes radio technologies which carry information as a digital signal, by means of a digital modulation method. The most common meaning is digital audio broadcasting technologies, but the topic may also cover TV broadcasting as well as many two-way digital wireless communication technologies....
  • Hertz
    Hertz

    The hertz is a measure of frequency per unit of time, or the number of list of cycles per second. It is the SI base unit of frequency in the International System of Units , and is used worldwide in both general-purpose and scientific contexts....
  • Longwave
    Longwave

    The longwave radio band is a range of frequencies used for AM broadcasting, which extends from 148.5 to 283.5 kHz. It falls within the low frequency part of the radio spectrum ....
  • Mediumwave
    Mediumwave

    Medium Wave is a part of the Medium frequency radio band used mainly for AM broadcasting. Some experiments and trials are planned or under way for a digital modulation such as Digital Radio Mondiale ....
  • Old-time radio
    Old-time radio

    Old-Time Radio and the Golden Age of Radio refer to a period of radio programming lasting from the proliferation of radio broadcasting in the early 1920s until television's replacement of radio as the dominant home entertainment medium in the late 1950s and early 1960s....
  • Pirate radio
    Pirate radio

    The term pirate radio usually refers to illegal or unregulated radio transmissions. Its etymology can be traced to the unlicensed nature of the transmission, but historically there has been occasional but notable offshore radio ? fitting the most common perception of a pirates ? as broadcasting bases....
  • Radio and terrorism
  • Radio astronomy
    Radio astronomy

    Radio astronomy is a subfield of astronomy that studies Astronomical object at radio frequency. The initial detection of radio waves from an astronomical object was made in the 1930s, but subsequent advances have identified a number of different sources of radio emission....
  • Radio documentary
    Radio documentary

    A radio documentary or feature is a radio documentary programme devoted to covering a particular topic in some depth, usually with a mixture of commentary and sound pictures....
  • History of Radio
    History of radio

    The pre-history and early history of radio is the history of technology that produced radio equipment that use radio waves. Within the timeline of radio, many people contributed theory and inventions in what became radio....
  • Radio direction finder
    Radio direction finder

    A radio direction finder is a device for finding the direction to a radio source. Due to radio's ability to travel very long distances and "over the horizon", it makes a particularly good navigation system for ships and aircraft that might be some distance from their destination ....
  • Radio direction finding
  • Radio navigation
    Radio navigation

    Radio navigation or radionavigation is the application of radio frequencies to determining a position on the Earth. Like radiolocation, it is a type of radiodetermination....
  • Radio programming
    Radio programming

    Radio programming is the content that is Broadcasting by radio stations.The original inventors of radio, such as Nikola Tesla and Guglielmo Marconi, expected it to be used for one-on-one communication tasks where telephones and telegraphs could not be used because of the impossibility of stringing wires from one point to another, such as in...
  • Radio propagation
    Radio propagation

    Radio propagation is a term used to explain how radio waves behave when they are transmitted, or are wave propagation from one point on the Earth to another....
     and ionosphere
    Ionosphere

    The ionosphere is the uppermost part of the Earth's atmosphere, distinguished because it is ionized by solar radiation. It plays an important part in atmospheric electricity and forms the inner edge of the magnetosphere....
  • Radio software
    Radio software

    Almost all radio stations today use some form of broadcast automation. Although some only use small scripts in audio players, a more robust solution is using a full Radio Automation Suite....
  • Receiver (radio)
    Receiver (radio)

    This article is about a radio receiver, for other uses see Radio .A radio receiver is an electronics circuit that receives its input from an antenna , uses electronic filters to separate a wanted radio signal from all other signals picked up by this antenna, electronic amplifier it to a level suitable for further processing, and finally...
  • Satellite radio
    Satellite radio

    A satellite radio or subscription radio is a digital radio signal that is broadcast by a communications satellite, which covers a much wider geographical range than terrestrial radio signals....
  • Shortwave
    Shortwave

    Shortwave radio operates in the frequency range of 3,000 kHz to 30,000 kHz . In radio, short wavelength corresponds to high frequency given the inverse relationship between frequency and wavelength, thus, ?shortwave radio? is denominated so, because its wavelengths are shorter than the long wave-lengths used in early radio communications; m...
  • Software radio
  • Topic outline of radio
  • Transistor radio
    Transistor radio

    A transistor radio is a small transistor-based radio receiver. Historically, the term "transistor radio" refers to a radio that is monaural and typically receives only the 540–1600 kilocycle AM broadcast band....
  • Tuner (radio)
    Tuner (radio)

    A tuner is an adjustable device which passes one radio frequency, or band of frequencies, and excludes others, by using electrical resonance. A tuner performs the process of selecting the desired signal but its output is not directly usable and must be sent to another device....
  • Types of radio emissions
    Types of radio emissions

    The International Telecommunication Union uses an internationally agreed system for classifying radio frequency signals. Each type of radio emission is classified according to its Bandwidth , method of modulation, nature of the modulating signal, and type of information transmitted on the carrier signal....


Further reading

  • Aitkin Hugh G. J. The Continuous Wave: Technology and the American Radio, 1900-1932 (Princeton University Press, 1985).
  • Briggs Asa. The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom (Oxford University Press, 1961).
  • De Forest, Lee. Father of Radio: The Autobiography of Lee de Forest (1950).
  • Ewbank Henry and Lawton Sherman P. Broadcasting: Radio and Television (Harper & Brothers, 1952).
  • Fisher, Marc Something In The Air: Radio, Rock, and the Revolution That Shaped A Generation (Random House, 2007).
  • Leland I. Anderson (ed.), "". The Antique Wireless Review, Vol. 1. 1986. 24 pages, illustrated.
  • Maclaurin W. Rupert. Invention and Innovation in the Radio Industry (The Macmillan Company, 1949).
  • Ray William B. FCC: The Ups and Downs of Radio-TV Regulation (Iowa State University Press, 1990).
  • Scannell, Paddy, and Cardiff, David. A Social History of British Broadcasting, Volume One, 1922-1939 (Basil Blackwell, 1991).
  • Schwoch James. The American Radio Industry and Its Latin American Activities, 1900-1939 (University of Illinois Press, 1990).
  • Sterling Christopher H. Electronic Media, A Guide to Trends in Broadcasting and Newer Technologies 1920-1983 (Praeger, 1984).
  • White Llewellyn. The American Radio (University of Chicago Press, 1947).
  • Ulrich L. Rohde, Jerry Whitaker "Communications Receivers, Third Edition ", McGraw Hill, New York, NY, 2001, ISBN 0-07-136121-9.


External links


General


History
  • U.S. Supreme Court, "". 320 U.S. 1. Nos. 369, 373. Argued 9 April-12, 1943. Decided 21 June 1943.
  • Horzepa, Stan, "?" Arrl.org. 10 October 2003.
  • .
Antiques
  • - Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution


Technical
  • commandline.net.
  • IAteacher:


DX
  • Glenn Hauser
    Glenn Hauser

    Glenn Hauser is an internationally-known DXinger and radio host from Enid, Oklahoma, United States. He produces and narrates the weekly 30-minute radio show "World Of Radio", heard on various public radio AM radio and FM radio stations throughout the United States, plus worldwide on shortwave radio....
    's internationally-known DX radio show