Review Notes in Transmission Fundamentals for ECE Board Exam

 When load impedance equals to Zo of the line, it means that the

load absorbs all the power
 4:1 – Impedance matching ratio of a coax balun
 dBr stands for dB relative level
 1000 Hz – Standard test tone used for audio measurement
 When VSWR is equal to zero, this means that no power is applied
 Reflection coefficient is the ratio of reflected voltage to the forward
traveling voltage
 Transmission line must be matched to the load to transfer maximum power
to the load
 Dissipation factor indicates the relative energy loss in a capacitor
 0 dBm is the standard test tone
 Standing waves – the energy that neither radiated into space nor
completely transmitted
 1 Angstrom (A°) is equal to 10^-10 m
 It is impossible to use a waveguide at low radio frequencies because of
the size of the waveguide
 Communications is the transmission and reception of information
 Transmission lines are either balanced or unbalanced with respect
to ground
 The standing wave ratio is equal to 1 if the load is properly matched
with the transmission line
 Low attenuation is the advantage of the balanced transmission line
compared to unbalanced line
 Spectral analysis is the method of determining the bandwidth of any
processing system
 Losses in the conducting walls of the guide causes the attenuation present in a
waveguide
 Balun – a device that converts a balanced line to an unbalanced line of
a transmission line
 The average power rating of RG-58 C/u is 50 W
 RG-211A – a coaxial cable used for high temperatures
 The velocity factor of a transmission line depends on the dielectric constant of
the material used
 Impedance inversion can be obtained by a quarter-wave line
 Transmission lines when connected to antennas have resistive load at the
resonant frequency
 Characteristic impedance – the impedance measured at the input of the
transmission line when its length is infinite
 Complex propagation constant is not considered primary line constant
 The dielectric constants of materials commonly used in transmission
lines range from about 1.2 to 2.8
 Typically, the velocity factor (Vf) of the materials used in transmission
lines rage from 0.6 to 0.9
 For an air dielectric two-wire line, the minimum characteristic
impedance value is 83 ohms
 When a quarter-wave section transmission line is terminated by a
short circuit and is connected to an RF source at the other end, its
input impedance is equivalent to a parallel resonant LC circuit
 The concept used to make one Smith chart universal is
called normalization
 The basic elements of communication system are the transmitter, receiver,
and transmission channel
 Facsimile is the transmission of printed material over telephone lines
 Call waiting tone is a continuous tone generated by the combination of
two frequencies of 350 Hz and 440 Hz used in telephone sets
 VF repeaters are unidirectional amplifiers having 20-25 decibel gain that
are placed about 75 km apart used to compensate for losses along the
telephone
 Induction coil is a component in the telephone set that has the primary
function of interfacing the handset to the local loop
 Pulse dialing has 10 pulse/sec rate
 Trunk line is a telephone wire that connects two central offices
 MTSO – the central switching office coordinating element for all cell
sites that has cellular processor and cellular switch. It interfaces with
telephone company zone offices, control call processing and handle
billing activities
 Base station in a cellular system performs radio-related functions for
cellular site.
 Frequency re-use – a technology used to increase the capacity of a
mobile phone system
 If the grade of service of a telephone system indicated P = 0.05, it
means lost call of 5%
 3700 Hz is the Out-of-band signaling between Toll Central Offices (Bell
System Standard)
 If the SWR is infinite, the load transmission line is purely reactive
 Not more than 12 digits make up an international telephone number as
recommended by CCITT REC. E. 161
 One (1) Erlang is equal to 36 CCS
 WATS – standard tariff for flat rate telephone service beyond the
normal flat rate in that area
 The standard analog telephone channel bandwidth is 300-3400 Hz
 Manual switching – type of switching in which a pair of wire from the
telephone set terminates in a jack and the switch is supervised by an
operator
 Everytime when the telephone is idle, the handset is in the on-
hook state.
 Varistor is a component in the telephone set that has the primary
function of compensating for the local loop length
 Electromagnetic receiver is used in conventional telephone handset
 A voice-grade circuit using PTN has an ideal passband of 0 to 4 kHz
 Basic voice grade (VG) is the minimum-quality circuit available using the
PTN
 Direct distance dialing (DDD) network is called Dial-up network
 The advantage of sidetone is it assures the customer that the telephone is
working
 Tie trunk is a special service circuit connected two private branch
exchanges (PBX)
 Tariff – the published rates, regulations, and descriptions governing
the provision of communications service for public use
 The power loss of a telephone hybrid is 3 dB
 Telephone channel has a band-pass characteristic occupying the
frequency range of 300-3400 Hz
 The first strowger step-by-step switch was used in 1897
 G.122 is the CCITT recommendation for a preparation of loss plan, a
variable loss plans and a fixed loss plan
 Umbrella cells is appropriate for load management, fast moving mobiles
and low-usage areas
 In cellular networks, standard base station antennas are replaced
by adaptive array
 Analogue cellular technology is the basis of the first generation wireless
local loop
 When the calling party hears a “busy” tone on his telephone, the call is
considered completed
 Short-circuited stubs are preferred to open circuited stubs because the
latter are liable to radiate
 Coefficient of reflection is the ratio of the reflected voltage to the incident
voltage
 Quarter-wave matching – one method of determining antenna impedance
 Single-wire line is a single conductor running from the transmitter to the
antenna
 Coaxial cable impedance is typically 50 to 75 ohms
 Waveguide becomes compulsory above 3 GHz
 Normal voice channel bandwidth is 4 kHz
 Echo suppressors are used on all communications system when the
round trip propagation time exceeds 50 ms
 Quarter-wavelength line is used as impedance transformer
 The transmission lines which can convey electromagnet ic waves only
in higher modes is usually called waveguide
 Nitrogen gas is sometimes used in waveguide to keep the waveguide dry
 It is impossible to use a waveguide at low radio frequencies because of
the size of the waveguide
 To couple in and out of a waveguide, insertion of an E-probe into the
waveguide and insertion of an H-loop into the waveguide is done
 A rectangular waveguide is operating in the dominant TE10 mode. The
associated flux lines are established transversely across the narrow dimension
of the waveguide
 For dominant mode of a rectangular waveguide, the distance between
two instantaneous consecutive positions of maximum field intensity is
referred to as half of the guide wavelength
 The guide wavelength, in a rectangular waveguide is greater than the free-
space wavelength at the same signal frequency
 Using the TE10 mode, microwave power can only be transmitted in
free rectangular guide provided the wide dimension is greater than one-half of
the wavelength in free space
 If the signal frequency applied to a rectangular guide is increased and
the dominant mode is employed, the group velocity is increased
 The frequency range over which a rectangular waveguide is excited in
the dominant mode is limited to the difference between the frequency at which
the cutoff wavelength is twice the narrow dimension
 If a rectangular waveguide is to be excited in the dominant mode, the
E-probe should be inserted at a distance of one quarter-wavelength from the
sealed end
 A quarter-wave line is connected to an RF generator and is shorted out
at the far end. The input impedance to the line generator is a high value
of resistance
 If the SWR on a transmission line has a high value, the reason could
be an impedance mismatch between the line and the load
 If a quarter-wave transmission line is shorted at one end the line behaves
as a parallel-tuned circuit in relation to the generator
 A 50-ohm transmission line is feeding an antenna which represents a
50 ohm resistive load. To shorten the line, the length must be any
convenient value
 The outer conductor of the coaxial cable is usually grounded at the
beginning and at the end of the cable
 A feature of an infinite transmission line is that its input impedance at the
generator is equal to the line’s surge impedance
 When the surge impedance of a line is matched to a load, the line
will transfer maximum power to the load
 SWR – ratio of the mismatch between the antenna and the transmitter
power
 F3C and A3E – emission designation for a facsimile
 AWG #19 – commonly used telephone wire
 Wavelength is the distance traveled by a wave in the time of one cycle
 The velocity factor is inversely proportional with respect to the square
root of the dielectric constant
 Balun circuit connects a balanced line to an unbalanced line
 To connect a coaxial line to a parallel wire line, balun is used
 Waveguides are transmission lines which can convey electromagnetic
waves only in higher order modes
 The amount of uncertainly in a system of symbols is also called entropy
 The twists in twisted wire pairs reduced electromagnetic interference
 Loading means to the addition of inductance
 Coaxial is the most commonly used transmission line for high frequency
application
 The characteristic impedance of a transmission does not depend upon
its length
 For maximum absorption of power at the antenna, the relationship
between the characteristic impedance of the line Zo and the load
impedance Zl should be Zo = Zl
 The mismatch between antenna and transmission line impedance
cannot be corrected for by adjusting the length of transmission line
 Standing waves is a pattern of voltage and current variations along a
transmission line not terminated in its characteristic impedance
 The desirable SWR on a transmission line is 1
 The most desirable reflection coefficient is 0
 Reflection coefficient is the ratio expressing the percentage of incident
voltage reflected on a transmission line
 At very high frequencies, transmission lines act as tuned circuits
 A shorted quarter-wave line at the operating frequency acts like
a parallel resonant circuit
 A shorted half-wave line at the operating frequency acts like a series
resonant circuit
 Coaxial medium is least susceptible to noise
 Twisted pair medium is most widely used in LANs
 Coaxial cable is the most commonly used transmission line in television
system
 DC blocks are used in coaxial transmission line for the purpose
of preventing AC power supply voltage from being shorted by a balun or band splitter
 Adjacent channel interference is a type of interference caused by off-air TV
channels 2 and 4, plus a satellite dish operating on channel 3
 Dithering (in TVRO communications) is a process for reducing the effect of
noise on the TVRO video signal
 Frequency and voltage are important useful quantities describing
waveforms
 Halving the power means 3-dB loss
 One neper (Np) is 8.686 decibels
 Reflectometer is used to measure SWR
 214-056 twin lead which is commonly used for TV lead-in has
characteristics impedance of 300 ohm
 A coaxial cable is a good example of a bounded medium
 dNp is known as one-tenth of a neper
 The input impedance of a quarterwave short-circuited transmission line
at its resonant frequency is infinite or an open circuit
 The ratio of the largest rms value to the smallest rms value of the
voltage in the line is called VSWR
 The characteristic impedance of a transmission line does not depend
upon its length
 A power difference of -3 dB means a loss of one half of the power
 Low attenuation is an advantage of the balance transmission line
 Waveguides are used mainly for microwave transmission because no
generators are powerful enough to excite them
 The ratio of the smallest to the largest rms current value is called ISWR
 A ten times power change in transmission system is equivalent to 10 dB
 Parallel-wire line type transmission line is employed where balanced
properties are required
 To be properly matched the ratio of a maximum voltage along a
transmission line should be equal to 1
 Absorption coefficient – the ratio between the energy absorbed by a
surface to the total energy received by the surface
 When the diameter of the conductors of a 2 wire transmission line is
held constant, the effect of decreasing the distance between the
conductors is decrease the impedance
 The higher the gauge number of a conductor the higher the resistance or the
smaller the diameter
 λ/4 transformer – a short length of transmission line used to
reduce/eliminate standing wave in the main transmission line
 Reflectance – ratio of reflected power to incident power
 The SWR when a transmission line is terminated in a short circuit
is infinite