Chapter 4

Electromagnetic
Radio Receivers
Waves and its
Behavior
Prepared by: Josiah James Q. Tiburcio
 Activities

Tune in to an AM radio station

using a radio receiver. Imagine how
the signal is processed from your
receiver antenna to the audio
output.
 Intended Learning Outcomes
1. To describe the functions and parameters of a
radio receiver
2. To be able to discuss the functions of the TRF
and Superheterodyne Receivers. 3. To be able to
calculate the frequencies in each of the block
diagrams of receivers.
 PROCESSING

Basic Functions of a Receiver

• The receiver should be capable of changing the range of frequencies to be received

• The receiver should be able to detect and convert the received RF signal to the original source
information

• The receiver should be able to provide sufficient amplification

 Selectivity

A measure of the ability of a receiver to accept a given band of frequencies and

Receiver Parameters to reject all others

A measure of the extent to which a receiver can differentiate between the

desired information signals and the disturbances or information signal at other
frequencies

Can be expressed as a bandwidth and as the ratio of the bandwidth at the

receiver at some predetermined attenuation factor (commonly -60dB) to the
bandwidth at the -3dB (half-power) points
 Bandwidth Improvement
FORMULA

The noise reduction ratio achieved by reducing the

bandwidth
Noise Figure Improvement

NFImprovement = 10logBI
 Sensitivity

The minimum RF signal level that can be detected at the input to the receiver and still
produce a usable demodulated information signal Dynamic Range

The difference in decibels between the minimum input level necessary to discern a
signal and the input level that will overdrive the receiver and produce distortion

The range of input power over which the receiver is useful

DR = 10 log (Pmax/Pmin)
 Fidelity

A measure of the ability of a communications system to produce, at

the output of the receiver, an exact replica of the original source
information
 Insertion Loss

The ratio of the power transferred to the load to the power at the
source

IL = 10 log (Pin/Pout)
 Types of Radio Receivers

TUNED RADIO FREQUENCY RECEIVER SUPERHETERODYNE RECEIVER

Tuned Radio Frequency Receiver

Advantages
• Enhanced sensitivity
• Simple circuitry

Disadvantages
• Poor selectivity
• Instability
• Requires multistage tuning
 Superheterodyne Receiver
Heterodyning means mixing two frequencies
together in a non-linear device.

Advantages
• Good selectivity
•Sufficient image frequency rejection

Disadvantages
• Moderate sensitivity (relatively poor compared to the TRF)
• Complex circuitry
 Sections of a Superheterodyne Receiver

RF Section RF Amplifier
Determines the sensitivity of the
Generally consists of a preselector
receiver
and an amplifier stage
Preselector
Provides enough initial bandlimiting to
prevent a specific unwanted radio
frequency (image frequency) from
entering the receiver
 Advantages of including RF
amplifiers in a Receiver

• Greater gain, thus better sensitivity

• Improved image-frequency rejection

• Better signal-to-noise ratio

• Better selectivity
 Mixer/Converter Section

Includes a local oscillator and a radio-frequency oscillator stage. Heterodyning

takes place in the mixer stage and the radiofrequencies are down converted to
intermediate frequencies (IF).
 Image Frequency, fsi

• The frequency other than the desired which when mixed with the local
oscillator will produce the same intermediate frequency
 Where:
fs = desired signal frequency (Hz)
fi = intermediate frequency (Hz)
fsi = image frequency (Hz)
fo = oscillator frequency (Hz)
 Image Frequency Rejection Ratio
• The ratio of the gain at the signal frequency to
the gain at the image frequency

Where:
Q = quality factor of the tuned circuit.
 IF SECTION DETECTOR AUDIO SECTION

Consists of a series of IF
amplifiers and bandpass filters
and is often called
the IF strip. Most of the receiver
gain and selectivity is achieved in
this
section
Comprises several
Converts the IF signal back to the
cascaded audio
original source information
amplifiers and one or
more speakers
 Single Sideband Receivers
Beat Frequency Oscillator (BFO)
• Produces a frequency input to beat (mix) with the IF signal and results in
• a difference and sum frequencies with the result being the original audio
• Should have at least the tuning range of 1.5 kHz above and below the center of the IF
passband
Non- Coherent BFO SSB Receiver
Coherent BFO SSB Receiver
Practice Problems
Practice Problems