BASICS OF
COMMUNICATION
EC403E – Basics of Communication
Chapter 6: Radio Receivers
Dr. Dinesh N. Bhange
Lecturer (EC)
Govt. Polytechnic, Nagpur
Learning Outcomes
After completion of this chapter you will be able to:
• Define the terms related to radio receiver
• Describe the functioning of radio receiver
• Describe Image frequency and its rejection
• Describe the principle and functioning of Superheterodyne Radio
receiver
• Analyze the different sections of Radio receiver.
CONTENTS
▶ 6.1 Characteristic of radio receiver.
▶6.2 Types of radio receiver .
▶ 6.3 Principle and block diagram of Tuned radio frequency (TRF) ).
▶ 6.4 Principle and block diagram of Super heterodyne receivers .
▶ 6.5 Electronic tuning
▶ 6.6 Image frequency and its rejection
▶ 6.7 Double spotting frequency
▶ 6.8 Stereophonic FM receiver
Receiver: function of receiver
• At the receiver, signals from various transmitters at different frequencies are
present. In addition o this, noise is also present. The receiver is expec ted to
receive the wanted signal from this crowd of the signals.
Select the desired signal from all the other
1 unwanted signals.
Functions of a Receiver
Amplify the desired signal.
2
Demodulate the amplified signal.
3
After demodulation, the original
4 modulating signal is obtained which must
be amplified.
Apply the amplified demodulated signal to
5 the loudspeaker.
Receiver Types
Receiver Types
Tuned Radio Frequency Oldest and Simplest
(TRF) Receiver
Superheterodyne Most popular and
Receiver widely used
Tuned Radio Frequency (TRF)Receiver
Detected signal is
Audio Amplifier
Due to EM
RF Amplifiers
Demodulator
These are tuned Amplified signal is
amplified to
Receiving
waves passing simultaneously then demodulated
adequate power
Antenna
over the to select & by the detector.
antenna, level using the
amplify the The carrier signal
voltage is audio amplifier &
desired signal & is bypassed & only
induced in it power amplifier &
reject all the the modulating
given to the
other signals signal is recovered
loudspeaker for
reproduction
Tuned Radio Frequency (TRF)Receiver
Problems in TRF Receiver
1. Instability
• The overall gain of the RF amplifier stages is very very high.
• So a very small f eedb ac k signal from its output to input with correct phase c an
initiate oscillations in the RF amplifier stage.
• This feed b ac k takes p lac e throu gh stray c apac itanc es in the circuit. The
reactance of stray c apacitance dec reases at high frequencies which results in
increased f eedb ac k.
• Thus the possibility of oscillatory behaviour and therefore instability will
increase with increased frequency.
• O n c e the oscillations b egin, the RF amplifiers will stop to work as amplifiers and
operate as oscillators.
Tuned Radio Frequency (TRF)Receiver
Problems in TRF Receiver
2. Variation in the bandwidth
• When the receiver is tuned, it is tuned to carrier frequency fc , and the tuned
circuit is expec ted to select the carrier and the sidebands of the desired signal.
Resonant Frequency (fr)
• For a tuned circuit,Bandwidth =
Quality factor (Q)
• Let us assume required bandwidth is 10KHz
At fr =fc =1640 KHz,
At fr =fc =535KHz, At the most we can obtain
highest frequency in
lowest frequency in MW MW band Q of 120 at this frequency.
band Q =1640/10 = 164 BW =fr/Q =1640 KHz/ 120
Thisvalue of Q is
Q =535 /10 = 53.5 practically =13.7KHz
unobtainable.
But the required bandwidth is10KHz. Due to increased bandwidth, the receiver will
pick the adjacent channelalong with the desired one.
Tuned Radio Frequency (TRF)Receiver
Problems in TRF Receiver
3. Insufficient Selectivity
▶ Due to increased bandwidth at higher frequencies, the ability of the TRF
receiver to selec t the desired signal and reject all others is seriously
affected. This is called loss of selectivity.
▶ Due to these problems of instability and poor adjacent channel
rejection, the TRF receivers are not used. They are replaced by
superheterodyne receivers.
Superheterodyne Receiver
Superheterodyne is basically a process of designing and constructing wireless
communications such as radio receivers by mixing two frequencies together in
order to produce a difference frequency component called as intermediate
frequency (IF), so as to reduce signal frequency pr ior to processing.
Superheterodyne Receiver
• Receiving antenna: The receiving antenna receives the signal which
was sent by the transmitter. It sends the received signal for further
processing.
• R F amplifier: The received signal is f ed to the RF amplifier stage so as to
amplify it, as the signal gets attenuated during long-distance
transmission. It is tuned in such a way that it can choose the desired carrier
frequency and amplify it.
Superheterodyne Receiver
• Loc al Oscillator: This circuit basically generates a signal with a fixed frequency and
the output is then f ed to the mixer. When we talk about A M broadcast system, the
intermediate frequency is 455 KHz that simply means that local oscillator should select
such a frequency which is 455 KHz above the incoming signal frequency.
• Mixer: A mixer simply mixes the carrier frequency with the frequency of the signal
generated by the local oscillator.
Superheterodyne Receiver
In mixer, two different frequencies are to b e mixed so as to have another frequency
component of lower value. Now the thing that first comes to our mind is why the mixer
produces a lower frequency value, which is the difference between the two frequencies.
The summation of the carrier and local oscillator frequency at the output of the mixer
will give rise to image frequency which is treated as a type of noise or distortion in the
signal. This is the reason why the mixer generates a frequency difference at its output.
This difference frequency is a constant value irrespective of the variations in the input,
known as the intermediate frequency. The constant frequency at its output is gained by
capacitance tuning. In capacitance tuning, several capacitances are arranged together
and operated by a controlling knob. It doesn’t matter what the incoming signal frequency
is, the RF amplifier and local oscillator must b e tuned to it.
Superheterodyne Receiver
• IF amplifier: This section basically amplifies the output of the mixer. IF amplifier
provides sensitivity(gain) and selectivity (bandwidth requirement) to the receiver. As
it consists of several transformers consisting of pairs of the tuned circuit. Here, the
sensitivity and selectivity are uniform and does not show variations as in c ase of TRF
receivers because IF amplifier’s characteristics are independent of that of the
received signal frequenc y as it works on the intermediate frequency. D ue to this, the
system design is quite easy so as to provide constant bandwidth along with high gain.
This section has narrow bandwidth and due to its lower bandwidth, it rejects all other
frequency so as to reduce the risk generated from interference. The lower bandwidth
accepting nature supports Superheterodyne receivers to give much better
performance than other types of receivers.
Superheterodyne Receiver
• Demodulator: Demodulator is placed exactly after the IF amplifier so that the constant
frequency signal is demodulated and the message signal can b e extracted from it.
• Audio amplifier: The original signal is fed to the audio amplifier which does not hold
distortion or noise so that it can amplify audio signal to a particular level.
• Power amplifier : Here, the signal is further amplified to a particular power level
which can activate the loudspeaker. The amplified signal is finally f ed to the
loudspeaker circuit which converts the electrical form of the signal into an audio
sound signal which can b e heard by the listeners.
Superheterodyne Receiver
Summary of superheterodyne action Select the desired station at frequency fs by tuning the RF
amplifier and local oscillator.
Local oscillator is tuned to frequency f0 with f0 >fs.
Mixer producesIF.Note t hat IF =(f 0 – fs)
Output of mixer is an AM signal with two sidebands and carrier equal
to IF.The IF amplifier amplifies this signal.
Detector will demodulate this signal to recover the modulating
signal.
The audio amplifier and power amplifier will amplify the AF
signal and apply it to loudspeaker.
Superheterodyne Receiver
Fig: Waveforms at different points of superheterodyne receiver
Superheterodyne Receiver
Advantages
1. No variation in bandwidth.The bandwidth remains constant over the entire
operating range.
2. High sensitivity and selectivity.
3. High adjac ent c hannel rejec tion.
Frequency Parameters of AM Receivers
1.Frequenc y b ands:a. Medium wave (MW) b and
b. ShortWave (SW) b and
2.RF C arrier Rang e :a. 535 KHz to 1650 KHz (MW Band)
b. 5 to 15 MHz (SW Band)
3. Intermediate Frequenc y IF : 455 KHz
4. IF b andwidth B : 10KHz
Characteristics of Radio Receivers
The important performance characteristics of a radio receiver are:
Sensitivity These characteristics
are useful to judge the
Selectivity performance of radio
receiver:
They are measured
Fidelity
under standard
operating conditions.
Image Frequency Rejection
Characteristics of Radio Receivers 1.Th
2.Th
Sensitivity 3.No
Sensitivity of a radio receiver isdefined as its ability to amplify weak signals.
It isthe input voltage that must be applied at the input of the receiver to obtain a standard
output power. It ismeasured in µV or decibels, below 1V.
If two receivers A and B are available with the required
input voltages of 4 µV and 6 µV respectively to produce the
standard output,then receiverA will be more sensitive.
Following factors determines the sensitivity of Superheterodyne
receiver
Lowest Sensitivity
1. The gain of RF amplifier Increasing these increases
2. The gain of IF amplifier sensitivity of receiver
3. Noise factor of receiver
Highest Sensitivity
Reqd input voltage is
minimum at 850 KHz &
increases on both sides of
850 KHz
Characteristics of Radio Receivers
Fidelity
Fidelity of a radio receiver is defined as its ability to reproduce all the
modulating frequencies equally. It basically depends on the frequency response of AF
amplifier.
High fidelity isessential in order to
reproduce good quality music
faithfully i.e. without distortion.
For this it is essential to have a flat
frequency response over a wide
range of audiofrequencies.
Characteristics of Radio Receivers
Image Frequency Rejection
• In the broadcast AM receivers the local oscillator frequency is higher than the incoming
signal frequency by intermediate frequency i.e.,
• f 0 =f s +IF or IF=(f0 – f s)
• If two frequency components f1and f2 are mixed in a mixer,then mixer output consistsof following
components:Output of mixer:f 1,f 2,(f 1 – f 2) and (f1 +f 2)
• Out of whichthe difference component i.e., (f1 – f2) isselected using a tuned circuit after the mixer.
• Now assumethat the local oscillator frequency isset to f0 and an unwanted signal at frequency
fsi =(f0 +IF) manages to reach the input of the mixer along with the desiredsignal frequency fs.
• Thenmixer output consistsof the four frequency components corresponding to fsi as follows:
• f si, f 0,(f si +f0 ),(f si - f 0 )
• But f si =(f 0 +IF)
• Thereforethe mixer output will have following frequency components
• f 0,(f0 +IF), (2f0 +IF) and IF
• Where the last component at IF is the difference between fsi andf0.
• Thiscomponent will also be amplified by the IF amplifier along with the desiredsignal at frequency fs
• Thiswill create interference because both the stations corresponding to carrier frequenciesfs andfsi
will be tuned at the sameposition.
Characteristics of Radio Receivers
Image Frequency Rejection
• Thisunwanted signal at frequency fsi isknown as the
‘image frequency’ and it issaid to be the “image” of
the signalfrequency fs.
• The relation betweenf s and f si is
• Image Frequencyf si =f s +2IF
The image of the desired signal frequency can occur
at fs - 2IF aswell.
Effect of value of IF How to rejectthe imagefrequency?
The image frequency rejection The image frequency rejection depends on front end
becomes better with increase selectivity of the receiver i.e., the selectivity of the RF
in the intermediate frequency. circuit.
So while selecting the The image rejection must be achieved before the IF
intermediate frequency we stage because once it reaches the IF stage, it cannot
should keep in mind the point be removed.
of image rejection. The use of RF amplifier thus improves image
frequency rejection.
Double Spotting
Double spotting means the same stations gets picked up at two
different nearby points, on the receiver dial.
It is due to poor front end selectivity i.e. inadequate image
frequency rejection.
Double spotting is harmful becausea weak station may be masked
by the reception of a strong station at same point, on the dial.
Double spotting can be reduced by increasing the front end
selectivity of
the receiver.
RF amplifier stage will help in avoiding double spotting.
Double spotting can be used to calculate the intermediate frequency
(IF) practically.
Stereophonic FM
Stereophonic FM
Thank
you
