Important Notes - Transmitter and Receiver

Jay Amiel Ajoc BSECE

1. The transmitter and receiver are very important parts of any radio communication link.
2. The function of a transmitter is to generate modulated signal with sufficient power, at the
right frequency and to couple the signal into an antenna feedline.
3. High-power AM modulators are relatively easy to build, so this is the preferred topology for
AM.
4. When the modulation involves changing the transmitted frequency as in FM and FSK, it is
usual to modulate the carrier oscillator.
5. Crystal oscillators are very stable but work at only one frequency unless crystals are
changed.
6. A frequency synthesizer uses a phase-locked loop to set the frequency of an oscillator to a
multiple of a crystal-controlled reference frequency.
7. The main requirements for the carrier oscillator are frequency stability and spectral purity.
8. Crystal oscillators are available in frequencies from about 100 kHz to tens of megahertz.
Their only real drawbacks are that the frequency is fixed and they are limited in power
output.
9. Signals with envelopes require linear amplification after the modulator.
10.The frequency multiplier would be used if the required carrier frequency were higher than
could be conveniently generated by the synthesizer.
11.Automatic Frequency Control a scheme for keeping a transmitter or a receiver tuned to the
correct frequency.
12.Coherer is the first practical receiving device used by Edouard Branly that consisted of
tube metal fillings through which RF and DC passed.
13.Tuned-radio-frequency receiver is a type of receiver in which a signal is amplified at its
original frequency before demodulation.
14.An autodyne converter is a combined mixer and local oscillator using the same transistor
or tube for both.
15.Automatic frequency control is a scheme for keeping a transmitter or a receiver tuned to
the correct frequency by applying a correction voltage to a VCO when the operating
frequency is correct.
16.Automatic level control circuit is a circuit for keeping the amplitude of a signal within
prescribed limits.
17.Balanced mixer is a mixer in which the input frequencies are cancelled, so that they are
not present at the output.
18.Buffer is an amplifier stage used to isolate two stages. Often used to prevent changes in
load impedance from affecting the frequency of an oscillator.
19.Compression is a system that provides more gain for low-level signals than for higher level
signals.
20.Converter is the combination of a mixer and a local oscillator that is used to move a signal
from one frequency to another.
21.Crosby system is a method of generating FM signals directly, which uses a discriminator
for automatic frequency control.
22.Crystal filter is a bandpass filter using piezoelectric quartz elements.
23.Discriminator is a circuit whose output is proportional to the difference between its input
frequency and a predetermined center frequency.
24.Frequency agility is the ability of a transmitter to tune rapidly from one operating
frequency to another.
25.Frequency multiplier is a circuit whose output frequency is a small integer multiple of the
input signal frequency.

26.Frequency synthesizer is a device that can produce large amounts of output frequencies
from a smaller number of fixed-frequency oscillators.
27.Driver is an amplifier which supplies the required power input for a power amplifier.
28.Duty cycle is the ratio of time in use to total time for an electronic system.
29.Dynamic range is the ratio between the largest and the smallest signal present at a point
in a system.
30.Front end is the first stage of a receiver.
31.Local oscillator is an oscillator used in conjunction with a mixer to shift a signal to a
different frequency.
32.Loop filter is a low-pass filter included within a phase-locked loop.
33.Low-level modulation is the modulation of a transmitter at any point before the output
element of the output stage.
34.High-level modulation is the amplitude modulation of the output element of the output
stage of a transmitter.
35.High-side injection is the application to a mixer of a signal from a local oscillator that
operates at a frequency above that of the incoming signal.
36.Image frequency is a second input frequency that will produce the same output frequency.
37.Power efficiency is a measure of how much of the transmitted power carries useful
information.
38.Overall efficiency is the ratio of the power output of a device such as a transmitter to the
total power required from the primary power source.
39.Radio frequency is a frequency within the range of radio transmission.
40.Receiver is a device used to extract the information signal from the signal propagating
along a channel.
41.Squelch is a circuit that disables the output of a receiver in the absence of a suitable
signal.
42.Superheterodyne receiver is a receiver in which the signal is moved, using a mixer, to an
intermediate frequency before demodulation.
43.S-meter is a meter on the receiver that indicates the strength of the received signal.
44.Selectivity is the ability of a receiver to reject signals of frequencies other than that to
which the receiver is tuned.
45.Sensitivity is the ability of a receiver to receive weak signals with a satisfactory signal-tonoise ratio.
46.Shape factor for a bandpass filter, is the ratio between the bandwidths for two specified
amounts of attenuation.
47.SINAD is the ratio of signal-plus-noise-and-distortion to noise-plus-distortion.
48.Skin effect is the reduction in effective cross-sectional area of a conductor with increasing
frequency.
49.Tracking is the adjustment of two or more tuned circuits so that the can be tuned
simultaneously with one adjustment.
50.Spectral purity is the absence of spurious signals in the output of a transmitter.
51.Spurious response if the reception of signals at frequencies other than that to which a
receiver is tuned.
52.Spurious signal is any emission from a transmitter other than the carrier and the
sidebands required by the modulation scheme.
53.In suppressed carrier systems the carrier is also a spurious signal.
54.Tuned- radio-frequency receiver is a receiver in which the signal is amplified at its original
frequency before demodulation.
55.All transmitters produce spurious signals.
56.Any amplifier will produce harmonic distortion.
57.Baseband spectrum often must be restricted to keep transmitted bandwidth within legal
limits.
58.Compression is commonly used in commercial broadcast transmitters.

59.For good frequency stability, a crystal oscillator is generally required.

60.The simplest receiver is a tuned circuit.
61.The key conceptual circuit in a superheterodyne receiver is the mixer.
62. A signal two times the IF away from the desired signal that causes interference is referred
to as an image.
63.Noise can be reduced by narrowing the bandwidth.
64.Mixer contributes most of the noise in a receiver.
65.A circuit that keeps the audio cut off until a signal is received is known as squelch.
66.The basic frequency synthesizer circuit is a PLL.