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Superheterodyne receiver
(from Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superheterodyne_receiver)
In electronics, a superheterodyne receiver (sometimes shortened to superhet) uses frequency mixing or heterodyning to
convert a received signal to a fixed intermediate frequency, which can be more conveniently processed than the original radio
carrier frequency. Virtually all modern radio andtelevision receivers use the superheterodyne principle.
History


Two-section variable capacitor, used in superheterodyne receivers
The word "super" referrers to "super-sonic" (ultra-sonic today) meaning the IF frequency was superior to or above human
hearing. The word heterodyne is derived from the Greek roots hetero- "different", and -dyne "power". The original heterodyne
detector was pioneered by Canadian inventor Reginald Fessenden in 1905,
[1][2]
but it was not pursued far because local
oscillators available at the time (the oscillating arc) were unstable in their frequency output.
[3][4]
The vacuum tube electronic
oscillator would not come along until 1912.
[5]
The autodyne receiver, which has one stage function as both a local oscillator and
a heterodyne mixer, had several inventors around 1912 to 1913.
[citation needed]

The superheterodyne principle was revisited in 1918 by U.S. Army Major Edwin Armstrong in France during World War I.
[4][6]
He
invented this receiver as a means of overcoming the deficiencies of early vacuum tube triodes used as high-frequency
amplifiers in radio direction finding equipment. Unlike simple radio communication, which only needs to make transmitted
signals audible, direction-finders measure the received signal strength, which necessitates linear amplification of the
actual carrier wave.
In a triode radio-frequency (RF) amplifier, if both the plate (anode) and grid are connected to resonant circuits tuned to the same
frequency, straycapacitive coupling between the grid and the plate will cause the amplifier to go into oscillation if the stage gain
is much more than unity. In early designs, dozens (in some cases over 100) low-gain triode stages had to be connected in
cascade to make workable equipment, which drew enormous amounts of power in operation and required a team of
maintenance engineers. The strategic value was so high, however, that the British Admiralty felt the high cost was justified.

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Armstrong realized that if radio direction-finding (RDF) receivers could be operated at a higher frequency, this would allow better
detection of enemy shipping. However, at that time, no practical "short wave" (defined then as any frequency above 500 kHz)
amplifier existed, due to the limitations of existing triodes.
A "heterodyne" refers to a beat or "difference" frequency produced when two or more radio frequency carrier waves are fed to
a detector. The term was coined by Canadian Engineer Reginald Fessenden describing his proposed method of producing an
audible signal from the Morse Code transmissions of an Alexanderson alternator-type transmitter. With the spark gap
transmitters then in use, the Morse Code signal consisted of short bursts of a heavily modulated carrier wave which could be
clearly heard as a series of short chirps or buzzes in the receiver's headphones. However, the signal from an Alexanderson
Alternator did not have any such inherent modulation and Morse Code from one of those would only be heard as a series of
clicks or thumps. Fessenden's idea was to run two Alexanderson Alternators, one producing a carrier frequency 3 kHz higher
than the other. In the receiver's detector the two carriers would beat together to produce a 3 kHz tone thus in the headphones
the morse signals would then be heard as a series of 3 kHz beeps. For this he coined the term "heterodyne" meaning
"Generated by a Difference" (in frequency).
Later, when vacuum triodes became available, the same result could be achieved more conveniently by incorporating a "local
oscillator" in the receiver, which became known as a "beat frequency oscillator" (BFO). As the BFO frequency was varied, the
pitch of the heterodyne could be heard to vary with it. If the frequencies were too far apart the heterodyne
became ultrasonic and hence no longer audible.
It had been noticed some time before that if a regenerative receiver was allowed to go into oscillation, other receivers nearby
would suddenly start picking up stations on frequencies different from those that the stations were actually transmitted on.
Armstrong (and others) eventually deduced that this was caused by a "supersonic heterodyne" between the station's carrier
frequency and the oscillator frequency. Thus if a station was transmitting on 300 kHz and the oscillating receiver was set to
400 kHz, the station would be heard not only at the original 300 kHz, but also at 100 kHz and 700 kHz.
Armstrong realized that this was a potential solution to the "short wave" amplification problem, since the beat frequency still
retained its original modulation, but on a lower carrier frequency. To monitor a frequency of 1500 kHz for example, he could set
up an oscillator at, for example, 1560 kHz, which would produce a heterodyne difference frequency of 60 kHz, a frequency that
could then be more conveniently amplified by the triodes of the day. He termed this the "Intermediate Frequency" often
abbreviated to "IF".
In December 1919, Major E. H. Armstrong gave publicity to an indirect method of obtaining short-wave amplification, called the
super-heterodyne. The idea is to reduce the incoming frequency which may be, say 1,500,000 cycles (200 meters), to some
suitable super-audible frequency which can be amplified efficiently, then passing this current through a radio frequency amplifier
and finally rectifying and carrying on to one or two stages of audio frequency amplification.
[7]

Early superheterodyne receivers used IFs as low as 20 kHz, often based on the self-resonance of iron-cored transformers. This
made them extremely susceptible to image frequency interference, but at the time, the main objective was sensitivity rather than
selectivity. Using this technique, a small number of triodes could be made to do the work that formerly required dozens of
triodes.
In the 1920s, commercial IF filters looked very similar to 1920s audio interstage coupling transformers, had very similar
construction and were wired up in an almost identical manner, and so they were referred to as "IF Transformers". By the mid-
1930s however, superheterodynes were using higher intermediate frequencies, (typically around 440470 kHz), with tuned coils

Page 3

similar in construction to the aerial and oscillator coils. The name "IF Transformer" is still used. Modern receivers typically use a
mixture of ceramic resonator or SAW (surface-acoustic wave) resonators as well as traditional tuned-inductor IF transformers.
Armstrong was able to rapidly put his ideas into practice, and the technique was rapidly adopted by the military. However, it was
less popular when commercial radio broadcasting began in the 1920s, mostly due to the need for an extra tube (for the
oscillator), the generally higher cost of the receiver, and the level of technical skill required to operate it. For early domestic
radios, tuned radio frequency receivers ("TRF"), also called the Neutrodyne, were more popular because they were cheaper,
easier for a non-technical owner to use, and less costly to operate. Armstrong eventually sold his superheterodyne patent
to Westinghouse, who then sold it to RCA, the latter monopolizing the market for superheterodyne receivers until 1930.
[8]

By the 1930s, improvements in vacuum tube technology rapidly eroded the TRF receiver's cost advantages, and the explosion
in the number of broadcasting stations created a demand for cheaper, higher-performance receivers.
The development of the tetrode vacuum tube containing a screen grid led to a multi-element tube in which the mixer and
oscillator functions could be combined, first used in the so-called autodynemixer. This was rapidly followed by the introduction of
tubes specifically designed for superheterodyne operation, most notably the pentagrid converter. By reducing the tube count,
this further reduced the advantage of preceding receiver designs.
By the mid-1930s, commercial production of TRF receivers was largely replaced by superheterodyne receivers. The
superheterodyne principle was eventually taken up for virtually all commercial radio and TV designs.
Design and principle of operation
The principle of operation of the superheterodyne receiver depends on the use of heterodyning or frequency mixing. The signal
from the antenna is filtered sufficiently at least to reject the image frequency (see below) and possibly amplified. A local
oscillator in the receiver produces a sine wave which mixes with that signal, shifting it to a specific intermediate frequency (IF),
usually a lower frequency. The IF signal is itself filtered and amplified and possibly processed in additional ways.
The demodulator uses the IF signal rather than the original radio frequency to recreate a copy of the original information (such
as audio).

Block diagram of a typical superheterodyne receiver.
The diagram at right shows the minimum requirements for a single-conversion superheterodyne receiver design. The following
essential elements are common to all superhet circuits:
[9]
a receiving antenna, a tuned stage which may optionally contain
amplification (RF amplifier), a variable frequency local oscillator, a frequency mixer, a band pass filter and intermediate
frequency (IF) amplifer, and a demodulator plus additional circuitry to amplify or process the original audio signal (or other
transmitted information).

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Circuit description
To receive a radio signal, a suitable antenna is required. This is often built into a receiver, especially in the case of AM
broadcast band radios. The output of the antenna may be very small, often only a fewmicrovolts. The signal from the antenna is
tuned and may be amplified in a so-called radio frequency (RF) amplifier, although this stage is often omitted. One or
more tuned circuits at this stage block frequencies which are far removed from the intended reception frequency. In order to
tune the receiver to a particular station, the frequency of the local oscillator is controlled by the tuning knob (for instance).
Tuning of the local oscillator and the RF stage may use a variable capacitor, or varicap diode.
[10]
The tuning of one (or more)
tuned circuits in the RF stage must track the tuning of the local oscillator.
Mixer stage
The signal is then fed into a circuit where it is mixed with a sine wave from a variable frequency oscillator known as the local
oscillator (LO). The mixer uses a non-linear component to produce both sum and difference beat frequencies signals,
[11]
each
one containing the modulation contained in the desired signal. The output of the mixer may include the original RF signal at fd,
the local oscillator signal at fLO, and the two new frequencies fd+fLO and fd-fLO. The mixer may inadvertently produce additional
frequencies such as 3rd- and higher-order intermodulation products. The undesired signals are removed by the IF bandpass
filter, leaving only the desired offset IF signal at fIF which contains the original modulation (transmitted information) as the
received radio signal had at fd.
Historically, broadcast AM receivers using vacuum tubes would save costs by employing a single tube as a mixer and also as
the local oscillator. The pentagrid converter
[12]
tube would oscillate and also provide signal amplification as well as frequency
shifting.
Intermediate frequency stage
The stages of an intermediate frequency amplifier are tuned to a particular frequency not dependent on the receiving
frequency;it greatly simplifies optimization of the circuit.
[9]
The IF amplifier (orIF strip) can be made highly selective around its
center frequency fIF, whereas achieving such a selectivity at a much higher RF frequency would be much more difficult. By
tuning the frequency of the local oscillator fLO, the resulting difference frequency fLO - fd (or fd-fLO when using so-called low-side
injection) will be matched to the IF amplifier's frequency fIF for the desired reception frequency fd. One section of the tuning
capacitor will thus adjust the local oscillator's frequency fLO to fd + fIF (or, less often, to fd - fIF) while the RF stage is tuned to fd.
Engineering the multi-section tuning capacitor (or varactors) and coils to fulfill this condition across the tuning range is known
as tracking.
Other signals produced by the mixer (such as due to stations at nearby frequencies) can be very well filtered out in the IF stage,
giving the superheterodyne receiver its superior performance. However, if fLO is set to fd + fIF, then an incoming radio signal
at fLO + fIF will also produce a heterodyne at fIF; this is called the image frequency and must be rejected by the tuned circuits in
the RF stage. The image frequency is 2fIF higher (or lower) than fd, so employing a higher IF frequency fIF increases the
receiver's image rejection without requiring additional selectivity in the RF stage.
Usually the intermediate frequency is lower than the reception frequency fd, but in some modern receivers (e.g. scanners and
spectrum analyzers) it is more convenient to first convert an entire band to a much higher intermediate frequency; this
eliminates the problem of image rejection. Then a tunable local oscillator and mixer converts that signal to a second much lower
intermediate frequency where the selectivity of the receiver is accomplished. In order to avoid interference to receivers, licensing
authorities will avoid assigning common IF frequencies to transmitting stations. Standard intermediate frequencies used are

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455 kHz for medium-wave AM radio,
[13]
10.7 MHz for broadcast FM receivers, 38.9 MHz (Europe) or 45 MHz (US) for television,
and 70 MHz for satellite and terrestrial microwave equipment.
In early superhets the IF stage was often a regenerative stage providing the sensitivity and selectivity with fewer components.
Such superhets were called super-gainers or regenerodynes.
[citation needed]

Bandpass filter
The IF stage includes a filter and/or multiple tuned circuits in order to achieve the desired selectivity. This filtering must therefore
have a band pass equal to or less than the frequency spacing between adjacent broadcast channels. Ideally a filter would have
a high attenuation to adjacent channels, but maintain a flat response across the desired signal spectrum in order to retain the
quality of the received signal. This may be obtained using one or more dual tuned IF transformers, or a multipole ceramic crystal
filter.
[14]

Demodulation
The received signal is now processed by the demodulator stage where the audio signal (or other baseband signal) is recovered
and then further amplified. AM demodulation requires the simplerectification of the RF signal (so-called envelope detection), and
a simple RC low pass filter to remove remnants of the intermediate frequency.
[15]
FM signals may be detected using a
discriminator, ratio detector, or phase-locked loop. Continuous wave (Morse code) and single sideband signals require
a product detector using a so-called beat frequency oscillator, and there are other techniques used for different types
of modulation.
[16]
The resulting audio signal (for instance) is then amplified and drives a loudspeaker.
When so-called high-side injection has been used, where the local oscillator is at a higher frequency than the received signal
(as is common), then the frequency spectrum of the original signal will be reversed. This must be taken into account by the
demodulator (and in the IF filtering) in the case of certain types of modulation such as single sideband.
Advanced designs
To overcome obstacles such as image response, multiple IF stages are used, and in some cases multiple stages with two IFs of
different values are used. For example, the front end might be sensitive to 130 MHz, the first half of the radio to 5 MHz, and the
last half to 50 kHz. Two frequency converters would be used, and the radio would be a double conversion superheterodyne;
[9]
a
common example is a television receiver where the audio information is obtained from a second stage of intermediate-
frequency conversion. Receivers which are tunable over a wide bandwidth (e.g. scanners) may use an intermediate frequency
higher than the signal to improve image rejection.
[17]

Other uses
In the case of modern television receivers, no other technique was able to produce the precise bandpass characteristic needed
for vestigial sideband reception, similar to that used in the NTSCsystem approved by the U.S. Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) in 1953,
[18]
and the PAL system approved by the BBC in 1957.
[19]
The IF filter originally involved a complex
collection of tuneable inductors that needed careful adjustment to reconstruct the rest of the vestigial sideband, but since the
1970s or early 1980s
[20]
these have been replaced with precision electromechanical surface acoustic wave (SAW) filters.
Fabricated by precision laser milling techniques, SAW filters are cheaper to produce, can be made to extremely close
tolerances, and are stable in operation. To avoid tooling costs associated with these components most manufacturers then
tended to design their receivers around the fixed range of frequencies offered which resulted in de-facto standardization of
intermediate frequencies.

Page 6

Modern designs
Microprocessor technology allows replacing the superheterodyne receiver design by a software defined radio architecture,
where the IF processing after the initial IF filter is implemented in software. This technique is already in use in certain designs,
such as very low-cost FM radios incorporated into mobile phones, since the system already has the necessary microprocessor.
Radio transmitters may also use a mixer stage to produce an output frequency, working more or less as the reverse of a
superheterodyne receiver.
Advantages and drawbacks of the superheterodyne design
Superheterodyne receivers have essentially replaced all previous receiver designs. The development of
modern semiconductor electronics negated the advantages of designs (such as theregenerative receiver) which used fewer
vacuum tubes. The superheterodyne receiver offers superior sensitivity, frequency stability and selectivity. Compared with
the tuned radio frequency receiver(TRF) design, superhets offer better stability because a tuneable oscillator is more easily
realized than a tuneable amplifier. Operating at a lower frequency, IF filters can give narrower passbands at the same Q
factor than an equivalent RF filter. A fixed IF also allows the use of a crystal filter
[9]
or similar technologies which cannot be
tuned. Regenerative and super-regenerative receivers offered a high sensitivity, but often suffer from stability problems making
them difficult to operate.
Although the advantages of the superhet design are overwhelming, we note a few drawbacks which need to be tackled in
practice.
Image frequency (f
img
)
One major disadvantage to the superheterodyne receiver is the problem of image frequency. In heterodyne receivers, an image
frequency is an undesired input frequency equal to the station frequency plus twice the intermediate frequency. The image
frequency results in two stations being received at the same time, thus producing interference. Image frequencies can be
eliminated by sufficient attenuation on the incoming signal by the RF amplifier filter of the superheterodyne receiver.

For example, an AM broadcast station at 580 kHz is tuned on a receiver with a 455 kHz IF. The local oscillator is tuned
to 580 + 455 = 1035 kHz. But a signal at 580 + 455 + 455 = 1490 kHz is also 455 kHz away from the local oscillator; so
both the desired signal and the image, when mixed with the local oscillator, will also appear at the intermediate frequency.
This image frequency is within the AM broadcast band. Practical receivers have a tuning stage before the converter, to
greatly reduce the amplitude of image frequency signals; additionally, broadcasting stations in the same area have their
frequencies assigned to avoid such images.
The unwanted frequency is called the image of the wanted frequency, because it is the "mirror image" of the desired
frequency reflected . A receiver with inadequate filtering at its input will pick up signals at two different frequencies
simultaneously: the desired frequency and the image frequency. Any noise or random radio station at the image frequency
can interfere with reception of the desired signal.
Early Autodyne receivers typically used IFs of only 150 kHz or so, as it was difficult to maintain reliable oscillation if higher
frequencies were used. As a consequence, most Autodyne receivers needed quite elaborate antenna tuning networks,

Page 7

often involving double-tuned coils, to avoid image interference. Later superhets used tubes especially designed for
oscillator/mixer use, which were able to work reliably with much higher IFs, reducing the problem of image interference and
so allowing simpler and cheaper aerial tuning circuitry.
Sensitivity to the image frequency can be minimised only by (1) a filter that precedes the mixer or (2) a more complex mixer
circuit [1] that suppresses the image. In most receivers this is accomplished by a bandpass filter in the RF front end. In
many tunable receivers, the bandpass filter is tuned in tandem with the local oscillator.
Image rejection is an important factor in choosing the intermediate frequency of a receiver. The farther apart the bandpass
frequency and the image frequency are, the more the bandpass filter will attenuate any interfering image signal. Since the
frequency separation between the bandpass and the image frequency is , a higher intermediate frequency improves
image rejection. It may be possible to use a high enough first IF that a fixed-tuned RF stage can reject any image signals.
The ability of a receiver to reject interfering signals at the image frequency is measured by the image rejection ratio. This is
the ratio (in decibels) of the output of the receiver from a signal at the received frequency, to its output for an equal-strength
signal at the image frequency.
Local oscillator radiation
Further information: Electromagnetic compatibility
It is difficult to keep stray radiation from the local oscillator below the level that a nearby receiver can detect. The receiver's
local oscillator can act like a low-power CW transmitter. Consequently, there can be mutual interference in the operation of
two or more superheterodyne receivers in close proximity. In espionage, local oscillator radiation gives a means to detect a
covert receiver and its operating frequency. In the United Kingdom, local oscillator detection is used to find television
receivers being used without a television license.
[citation needed][21]
A method of significantly reducing the local oscillator
radiation from the receiver's antenna is to use an RF amplifier between the receiver's antenna and its mixer stage.
Local oscillator sideband noise
Local oscillators typically generate a single frequency signal that has negligible amplitude modulation but some
random phase modulation. Either of these impurities spreads some of the signal's energy into sideband frequencies. That
causes a corresponding widening of the receiver's frequency response, which would defeat the aim to make a very narrow
bandwidth receiver such as to receive low-rate digital signals. Care needs to be taken to minimize oscillator phase noise,
usually by ensuring that the oscillator never enters a non-linear mode.




Page 8

Intermediate frequency
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


The IF stage from a Motorola 19K1 television set circa 1949.
In communications and electronic engineering, an intermediate frequency (IF) is a frequency to which a carrier frequency is
shifted as an intermediate step in transmission or reception.
[1]
The intermediate frequency is created by mixing the carrier signal
with a local oscillator signal in a process calledheterodyning, resulting in a signal at the difference or beat frequency.
Intermediate frequencies are used in superheterodyne radio receivers, in which an incoming signal is shifted to an IF
for amplification before final detection is done.
Conversion to an intermediate frequency is useful for several reasons. When several stages of filters are used, they can all be
set to a fixed frequency, which makes them easier to build and to tune. Lower frequency transistors generally have higher gains
so fewer stages are required. It's easier to make sharply selective filters at lower fixed frequencies.
There may be several such stages of intermediate frequency in a superheterodyne receiver; two or three stages are
called double or triple conversion.
Reasons for using IF
Intermediate frequencies are used for three general reasons. At very high (gigahertz) frequencies, signal processing circuitry
performs poorly. Active devices such as transistors cannot deliver much amplification (gain).
[1][2]
Ordinary circuits
using capacitors and inductors must be replaced with cumbersome high frequency techniques such
as striplines and waveguides. So a high frequency signal is converted to a lower IF for more convenient processing. For
example, in satellite television receivers, converting the microwave downlink signal to a much lower intermediate frequency at
the dish allows a relatively inexpensive coaxial cable to carry the signal to the rest of the receiver inside the building.
A second reason, in receivers that can be tuned to different frequencies, is to convert the various different frequencies of the
stations to a common frequency for processing. It is difficult to buildamplifiers, filters, and detectors that can be tuned to different
frequencies, but easy to build tunable oscillators. Superheterodyne receivers tune in different frequencies by adjusting the
frequency of the local oscillator on the input stage, and all processing after that is done at the same fixed frequency, the IF.
Without using an IF, all the complicated filters and detectors in a radio or television would have to be tuned in unison each time
the frequency was changed, as was necessary in the early tuned radio frequency receivers.
The main reason for using an intermediate frequency is to improve frequency selectivity.
[1]
In communication circuits, a very
common task is to separate out or extract signals or components of a signal that are close together in frequency. This is
called filtering. Some examples are, picking up a radio station among several that are close in frequency, or extracting
the chrominancesubcarrier from a TV signal. With all known filtering techniques the filter's bandwidth increases proportionately

Page 9

with the frequency. So a narrower bandwidth and more selectivity can be achieved by converting the signal to a lower IF and
performing the filtering at that frequency.
Uses
Perhaps the most commonly used intermediate frequencies for broadcast receivers are around 455 kHz for AM receivers and
10.7 MHz for FM receivers. In special purpose receivers other frequencies can be used. A dual-conversion receiver may have
two intermediate frequencies, one higher one to improve image rejection and a second, lower one, for desired selectivity. A first
intermediate frequency may even be higher than the input signal, so that all undesired responses can be easily filtered out by a
fixed-tuned RF stage.
[3]

In a digital receiver, the analog to digital converter (ADC) operates at low sampling rates, so input RF must be mixed down to IF
to be processed. Intermediate frequency tends to be lower frequency range compared to the transmitted RF frequency.
However, the choices for the IF are most dependent on the available components such as mixer, filters, amplifiers and others
that can operate at lower frequency. There are other factors involved in deciding the IF frequency, because lower IF is
susceptible to noise and higher IF can cause clock jitters.
Modern satellite television receivers use several intermediate frequencies.
[4]
The 500 television channels of a typical system are
transmitted from the satellite to subscribers in the Ku microwave band, in two subbands of 10.7 - 11.7 and 11.7 - 12.75 GHz.
The downlink signal is received by a satellite dish. In the box at the focus of the dish, called a low-noise block
downconverter (LNB), each block of frequencies is converted to the IF range of 950 - 2150 MHz by two fixed frequency local
oscillators at 9.75 and 10.6 GHz. One of the two blocks is selected by a control signal from the set top box inside, which
switches on one of the local oscillators. This IF is carried into the building to the television receiver on a coaxial cable. At the
cable company's set top box, the signal is converted to a lower IF of 480 MHz for filtering, by a variable frequency
oscillator.
[4]
This is sent through a 30 MHz bandpass filter, which selects the signal from one of the transponders on the satellite,
which carries several channels. Further processing selects the channel desired, demodulates it and sends the signal to the
television.
History
An intermediate frequency was first used in the superheterodyne radio receiver, invented by American scientist Major Edwin
Armstrong in 1918, during World War I.
[5][6]
A member of the Signal Corps, Armstrong was building radio direction
finding equipment to track German military signals at the then-very high frequencies of 500 to 3500 kHz. The triode vacuum
tube amplifiers of the day would not amplify stably above 500 kHz, however, it was easy to get them to oscillate above that
frequency. Armstrong's solution was to set up an oscillator tube that would create a frequency near the incoming signal, and mix
it with the incoming signal in a 'mixer' tube, creating a 'heterodyne' or signal at the lower difference frequency, where it could be
amplified easily. For example, to pick up a signal at 1500 kHz the local oscillator would be tuned to 1450 kHz. Mixing the two
created an intermediate frequency of 50 kHz, which was well within the capability of the tubes.
After the war, in 1920, Armstrong sold the patent for the superheterodyne to Westinghouse, who subsequently sold it to RCA.
The increased complexity of the superheterodyne circuit compared to earlier regenerative or tuned radio frequency
receiver designs slowed its use, but the advantages of the intermediate frequency for selectivity and static rejection eventually
won out; by 1930, most radios sold were 'superhets'. During the development of radar in World War II, the superheterodyne
principle was essential for downconversion of the very high radar frequencies to intermediate frequencies. Since then, the
superheterodyne circuit, with its intermediate frequency, has been used in virtually all radio receivers.

Page 10

Commonly used intermediate frequencies
110 kHz was used in Long wave broadcast receivers.
[1]

Analogue television receivers using system M: 41.25 MHz (audio) and 45.75 MHz (video). Note, the channel is flipped over
in the conversion process in an intercarrier system, so the audio IF frequency is lower than the video IF frequency. Also,
there is no audio local oscillator, the injected video carrier serves that purpose.
Analogue television receivers using system B and similar systems: 33.4 MHz. for aural and 38.9 MHz. for visual signal.
(The discussion about the frequency conversion is the same as in system M)
FM radio receivers: 262 kHz, 455 kHz, 1.6 MHz, 5.5 MHz, 10.7 MHz, 10.8 MHz, 11.2 MHz, 11.7 MHz, 11.8 MHz, 21.4 MHz,
75 MHz and 98 MHz. In double-conversion superheterodyne receivers, a first intermediate frequency of 10.7 MHz is often
used, followed by a second intermediate frequency of 470 kHz. There are triple conversion designs used in police scanner
receivers, high-end communications receivers, and many point-to-point microwave systems.
AM radio receivers: 450 kHz, 455 kHz, 460 kHz, 465 kHz, 470 kHz, 475 kHz, 480 kHz
Satellite uplink-downlink equipment: 70 MHz, 950-1450 Downlink first IF
Terrestrial microwave equipment: 250 MHz, 70 MHz or 75 MHz
Radar: 30 MHz
RF Test Equipment: 310.7 MHz, 160 MHz, 21.4 MHz