Radio and Television

A few decades ago, it would have been pure wishful thinking for an ordinary citizen to
see or listen to the rulers of the country. Any new pronouncements of the government
would have taken considerable time to reach the man in the streets. But today, ask a
beggar in any city of India whether he has seen the face of the Indian Prime Minister or
if she can he recognize his voice, the chances are grossly in favor of an affirmative
reply. !" and radio have invaded the life of almost everybody, but they still remain the
magic bo# for most of us. Most often we do not understand the processes involved or
the instruments used. $et%s begin with the processes first.
How are pictures formed on a television screen?
Why are TV/radio signals not received by different places at different times
according to their distance from the transmitter?
Do the high frequency radio waves interfere with each other?
How does TV or radio catch different signals? Why does not the sound from
different channels get mixed up?
What is the difference between amplitude modulated and frequency modulated
transmission?
What are the components of a transmitter ? Which component decides its range?
Why is TV transmission over long distances not possible?
Why isnt the sound of a TV broadcast heard in radio?
&uppose you are standing in a closed room on the second floor of a building
and you have to communicate to someone outside 'maybe on the ground floor( the
contents of a poster in a foreign language embedded on the wall. )ow will you do it*
+ou may read aloud the writing on the poster, so that the person below can hear it,
letter by letter or word by word. !he person standing below can then write it down in
the same se,uence to have an e#act transcript of the information contained in the
poster. -uring the transmission of an image, the letters or words in the above analogy
are the electrical signal containing information of the image ..its colour and
brightness/ the sound wave is the like the carrier wave, the person who shouts a
television camera and so on.
!elevision in a way emulates our sense of vision and e#tends it beyond its
natural limits. But there are differences. 0hile from the retina in our eye to our brain
hundreds of thousands of electric circuits are used to convey simultaneously the
content of a scene we see, in case of television only one such circuit is used to connect
the camera to the transmitter. !his fundamental disparity is overcome in television
technology by a process of image analysis and synthesis. !he scene to be televised is
first scanned and translated into an 1electrical image2 which is broken up into an
orderly se,uence of pulses that can be sent over a channel one after the another. !his
se,uential reproduction of visual images is feasible because of what is known as
persistence of vision. 3ur brain retains the impression of illumination for about one
tenth of a second after the source of light is removed. !herefore, if the process of
image synthesis occurs within less than a second, the eye is unable to sense that the
picture was assembled piecemeal. It appears as if the whole surface of the viewing
screen is continuously illuminated. &imilarly, by recreating more than ten complete
pictures per second it is possible to simulate the movement. !ransmission of sounds is
much simpler, essentially because a sound signal is inherently a linear array of
information about the amplitude of vibration with respect to time.
4or transmission, a signal .. sound or light .. is first converted to an electrical
signal using a microphone or a video camera. !hese signals are then superimposed on
to a carrier wave before being sent to the transmitter. -ifferent channels of a radio or
television use carrier waves of different fre,uencies. 5adio!" receivers are so
designed that they can tune in to a particular fre,uency of electromagnetic waves at a
time .. they ignore other signals. !he images and sounds corresponding to one
particular signal can then be selectively processed and reproduced by the receivers. It
is important to remember that radio waves are only part of a e#tensive spectrum of
electromagnetic waves. !his spectrum includes such familiar radiations as visible light/
ultraviolet and infrared radiations, as well as 6.rays and gamma rays. As you may be
aware they all e#hibit phenomenon of reflection, refraction, diffraction, interference
and absorption. &ince sound or the image signals both travel as an electromagnetic
wave, their velocity is the speed of light and they reach any destination on 7arth almost
instantaneously.
!he process of mi#ing electrical signals from a microphone or a !"video
camera with an electromagnetic carrier wave is known as modulation. At present two
kinds of signal modulation are commonly used .. Amplitude Modulation 'AM( and
4re,uency Modulation'4M(. In amplitude modulation the amplitude of the carrier
electromagnetic wave at any instant of time is changed corresponding to the amplitude
of the signal electric current and in fre,uency modulation, the fre,uency of the carrier
wave at a particular instant of time is changed according to the amplitude of the signal
wave. 8ormally amplitude modulation is used for carrier fre,uencies corresponding to
the short, medium and long wavelength bands of radio fre,uencies. !he television
signal is made up of two parts, both related to each other by the fre,uency of the
carrier signal. !he image signal is amplitude modulated and occupies about three
fourth of the total bandwidth 'which is usually 9 megahertz( the audio component of
the !" signal is fre,uency modulated and has a fre,uency in the range of the upper
,uarter of the band fre,uency range. !elevision and radio receivers are generally
designed to process signals in a certain fre,uency range which are globally allotted for
the respective signals. 8ormal radio receivers therefore cannot process sound signals
meant for televisions. But such radio receivers can be designed. In fact in $a:pat 5ai
market, 8ew -elhi and some markets in ;alcutta radio receivers are available which
can receive and process !" audio signals.
A 5adio!" transmitter performs essentially three functions< generation of the
carrier currents for the sound andor light signals, modulation and amplification of the
resulting signal 'so that it has enough energy to dissipate over a large area(. !he carrier
currents have fre,uencies accurate to roughly one part in =>>,>>>. !he signals are then
sent to the transmission antenna, which in turn, sends the signal out into air as
electromagnetic waves. !he receiver receives the electromagnetic waves through its
own antenna, demodulates the received signal 'by mi#ing with an electromagnetic
wave corresponding to the carrier wave fre,uency generated within itself( and then
recreates the original sounds andor images.
!he broadcasting range of a transmitter depends both on its power 'measured
in watts( as well as the fre,uency of the transmitted signals. 4or e#ample, A typical
strong AM radio station .. which broadcasts signals in the range of ?>>> kilohertz ' in
medium wave band(.. has a power of @>,>>> watts and its signals can be received far
away. 4or e#ample, programs broadcast on -elhi.B by a @>,>>> watts transmitter in
8ew -elhi can be heard at night as far as ;alcutta 'about ?@>> km away(. !he least
powerful AM stations operate at =@> watts and usually serve only neighboring areas.
AI5 ;handigarh programmes can be received in -elhi but not beyond. !he power of
4M stations which broadcast signals in the range of ?>> megahertz, ranges from ?>>
watts 'which can broadcast up to A> kilometers( to ?>>,>>> watts, 'which can
broadcast up to about ?>> kilometers(. !he dependence of the range of a radio signal
on its fre,uency is essentially due to absorption of these waves by matter. As the
fre,uency of the carrier wave increases it is absorbed more readily by the structures in
its way. &ince the television signals are generally transmitted on carrier waves
popularly known as ")4 'very high fre,uency waves( they can only be transmitted
and received more like light i.e. in straight lines. ")4 signals, unlike short.wave radio
signals transmitted by radio stations, transmitting in short.wave fre,uency band,
cannot be reflected by the upper layers of atmosphere. !elevision or 4M signals
therefore cannot be transmitted directly to receivers located at very long distances. But
now with the advent of satellites it is possible to beam signals both in ")4 and Bh4
'ultra high fre,uency( range to geostationary satellites, which can then transmit these
signals back to another far off location on 7arth.
Television, The Magic Lantern:
How does the screen of a television set acquire static electricity?
What is !High Definition TV?
What is a cable TV channel?
While switching on or off the TV our hair tends to stic" to the screen# why?
What is the nature of the substance coated on the inside surface of a colour TV
screen?
Why does the image on a TV screen get distorted if we bring a magnet near it?
Why is it that we can see colour pictures on a colour TV and not on a blac" and
white TV?
How does a colour TV wor"?
Why don$t we get clear photographs of images on the television screen?
Why doesnt a colour picture come on a blac" and white television ?
%n the dar" when we focus a torch on TV screen and turn it off immediately# why is
the image of the focused light is seen on the screen?
What is &'(and in modern television sets?
%f a colour picture tube is fitted in a blac" and white TV set will it function as a
colour TV?
How are we able to watch pictures through video on TV?
Why does an airplane flying overhead distort a TV picture)
In order to answer the above ,ueries, we need to understand the working of a
television receiver. !he radio signals received by the !" antenna are normally weak,
they have to be therefore first amplified using a rf 'radio fre,uency( amplifier. After
amplification the signals are demodulated, this is done through a tuner. A tuner can
produce electric currents 'electromagnetic waves( having same fre,uencies as the
carrier waves used to broadcast various channels. !herefore when we select a
particular band on the !" set, an electric signal having a particular fre,uency is mi#ed
with the amplified signal received through the antenna to produce a demodulated
signal. 4rom the tuner, the television signal goes through complicated electronic
circuits in the set. !hese circuits further process the signal to separate the audio and
video portions of it. !he audio signals are changed into sound waves by the speaker,
the video signals go to the picture tube where they recreate the picture.
!he picture tube transforms the video signal into patterns of light that duplicate
the scene in front of the camera at the time of the broadcast or when the programme
was recorded. 3ne end of the picture tube is rectangular and nearly flat which makes
up the screen of the !" set. At the other end the picture tube tapers off to a narrow
neck. !he neck of the picture tube holds three electron guns .. one each for red, blue,
and green signals. !he tube of a black and white !" set has only one gun. 7ach
electron gun in a colour picture tube shoots a separate beam of electrons at the screen.
!he screen of most colour tubes is coated with more than A>>,>>> tiny phosphor dots
.. made.up of coating of phosphorescent materials which emit light when e#posed to
some radiation such as light or electrons. !hey continue to emit light for some time
even after the source of radiation is turned off. !his e#plains why the !" screen glows
after a torch light is switched off. !he dots on a colour !" picture tube are grouped in
triangular arrangements of three dots each .. one red, one blue, and one green. !hese
dots glow with their respective colours when struck by an electron beam. A metal plate
perforated with thousands of tiny holes lies about ?A millimeter behind the screen of a
colour picture tube. !his plate, called the shadow mask, keeps the beams from hitting
any other colour dots but their own. 0hen the television set shows a colour program,
the neuron signals produced by light emitted from the three coloured dots blend
together in the viewers brain to produce the perception of all the colours of the original
scene 'see 1*ystery of +olours2, ;uriosity ;orner# &5, 3ct. CD( In case of a black and
white program the dots appear to produce differing amounts of white light.
!he picture on the !" screen is produced by the process of scanning the
electron beam horizontally on the screen at a very fast rate. !he beam is guided by the
magnetic field produced by the signal electric current fed into coils which are located
around the neck of the picture tube. !he electron beam scans the screen much as a
person reads .. from left to right, top to bottom. !he scanning pattern for the normal
!" sets used in India is made up of 9=@ lines. In a high definition !" it is made up of
??=@ lines
As electrons constantly strike the screen, it ac,uires static electric charge,
which can induce electric charge on our hairs on our handsarms and make hair stick to
the screen. A magnet distorts the path of the electron beams used to create the picture
and hence the picture formed on the screen gets distorted when a magnet is brought
close to it. !ransmitting or receiving video signals without modulationdemodulation is
indeed possible for short distances it is used in a close circuit television setup. A video
tape recorder records and replays the video signal and the audio signals on a magnetic
tape very much like a audio tape recorder records audio signals on audio cassettes.
A normal !" receiver can receive transmitted !" on fourteen different
channels. !he fre,uency of these ranges from @E,>>>,>>> hertz or @E megahertz to
=?9,>>>,>>> hertz, or =?9 megahertz. !he bandwidth of each of these channels is 9
megahertz. &ignals transmitted on such fre,uencies are known as ")4, or very high
fre,uency signals. !" signals can also be broadcast on fre,uencies between EF>
megahertz and DC> megahertz known as the B)4 range. -oordarshan in India
broadcasts !" programs on the national channel '--?( in ")4 range. Both ")4 and
B)4 signals act much like light, not bending much around the curvature of 7arth and
pass through the atmosphere. !hey are also blocked by structures and hills. An airplane
coming in the way of the signal and the receiver therefore disturbs !" reception.
!elevision broadcasting antennas are usually placed on tall towers standing on
high ground, so that the radio signal which carries the television programme may travel
as far as possible. But still the ma#imum range of a !" broadcast signal is in between
?>> to =@> km. !elevision signals are therefore sometimes broadcast via satellites to
reach an audience farther off. !he signal sent to the satellite are in the B)4 range and
are sent back towards the ground by the satellites. !hese signals are received by cable
operators using large dish antenna. 3ften there is a limitation posed by the design of
older television sets, which allots 9 M)z. bandwidth to each channel. In order to
overcome this limitation cable operatorsrecent television sets use single sideband '&
Band( technology to modulatedemodulate the signals. Bsing this technology a larger
number of !" signals can be distributed through a cable network. &uch signals have
bandwidth less than 9 M)z.
Some questions about radio
How can % ma"e a simple radio receiver?
&ometimes conversations on a wal"ie tal"ie can be heard on a radio) How does
that happen?
What is the frequency range of short'wave radio band?
Why is there a disturbance in a radio operating on batteries when we switch on or
off an electric appliance?
How do we tune a ,* radio by varying its frequency since frequency of the
modulated signal itself varies?
Why does the sound of radio becomes clear after the sunset?
Why is the reception in medium wave on cloudy day very noisy?
A radio receiver can be a very simple instrument. In fact children often get
e#cited when they can pick up radio programs from a nearby radio station using a
headphone from a telephone instrument and a small crystal of galena 'a compound of
lead and sulfur(.. without using any batteries. !his is possible because the
electromagnetic waves from the neighboring station is usually strong enough to
produce sounds in an earphone after the crystal filters off the carrier waves. But, for a
radio receiver to pick up programmes from different stations and produce loud enough
sound in a loudspeaker it needs to have several other components. !he receiver must
be able to resonate with different carrier electromagnetic waves. !his is normally
achieved with the help of a tuning circuit which is an inductor and a variable capacitor
connected in parallel. As one rotates the knob of the capacitor, the instrument gets
tuned to different fre,uencies and hence can pickup signals on that fre,uency, which
after filtering through a crystal diode can produce sound in a earphone. &uch a simple
circuit however is insufficient to tune to all the radio signals 'broadcast on M0, &0
and 4M (. &eparate tuner circuits are re,uired for each fre,uency range. !he band
switch in fact selects each of such circuits. !he 4M, AM, &0, M0 marks on the
selector switch of a radio, in fact, indicate positions of the switch, which select a
particular circuit. Although in a fre,uency modulated '4M( signal the fre,uency is
modulated, when we tune a radio to a particular station broadcasting 4M signals, we
tune the circuit to produce fre,uency corresponding to the carrier fre,uency used by
the transmitter.
An amplitude modulated 'AM( signal used in the short wave or medium wave
transmission is very much susceptible to disturbances caused by some electrical
devices. !hus an automobile starter, sparking in any electrical device, or lightning in
the atmosphere produce electromagnetic waves which are also received by the receiver
set. !he power source of the receiver has no role in such disturbances. &o, such
disturbances occur even in a battery.operated receiver
A signal broadcast by a radio station can reach a radio receiver in a number of
ways. It may travel directly to the receiver as a surface wave, a ground reflected wave,
or it may travel towards the sky and then be reflected back towards the ground 'sky
waves( by a layer of the atmosphere known as the ionosphere. !he ionosphere is made
up of ionized atomsmolecules, and its composition changes with the intensity of solar
radiation passing through it. Although there are at least four distinct ionized layers in
the atmosphere , only two, 7 and 4 layers, are most important for radio transmission.
!he 7 layer e#tends from about ?>> km to =A> km above the ground and is very much
susceptible to the variations in solar radiations. !herefore signals reflected from this
layer are not very good 'low signal to noise ratio(. -uring the night the 7 layer
disappears almost completely and the reflection from the 4 layer is responsible for
radio reception at places far off from the transmitter. !he signals reflected from the 4
layer have a much higher signal to noise ratio. )ence at night or during sunset distant
radio receivers receive a much better signal 'higher signal to noise ratio(. Also
amplitude modulated radio broadcasts in the medium wave band are transmitted via the
ground waves. Many locations can receive the transmission both by surfaceground
waves as well as sky waves, during the day these two waves interfere with each other,
the reception at such locations is therefore noisy in the day but clearer at night, when
there are no sky waves..
Antenna
Why is it possible to increase the sound level of a radio set by -ust changing the
direction?
Why are the shapes of different TV antennas different?
%f an antenna wire can be used for connecting a bulb to the mains# then why can
an ordinary wire not be used to connect a television set to the antenna?
How can a TV with no connection with any cable receive some satellite
channels#?
Why does the reception of a TV programme depend on the orientation of the
antenna?
Why do we need a dish antenna to receive television programmes telecast through
satellites?
Why is it that inside a train compartment# a transistor set is unable to receive
radio programmes?
%f a TV antenna replaces a radio antenna# will a radio receive a TV program?
Why do we sometimes see .ghost images$ on the TV screen?
+an there be some place where radio waves can$t reach?
An antenna is a piece of a conducting material which facilitates the resonance
between the receiver and transmitted electromagnetic waves. It can be in the form of a
length of a wire, a number of metallic rods, a coil or a dish. !he dimensions and the
design of an appropriate antenna for a reciever located at a particular location depends
both on the strength of the signal in that area as well as on the electronic design of the
receiver instrument. 0hile in the neighborhood of a radio or !" transmitter a piece of
wire may be often sufficient to produce good reception, in far off places one needs an
antenna designed for better reception of the signal. !o be highly efficient, an antenna
must have dimensions that are comparable with the wavelength of the radiation of
interest ..the wavelength of a 99.F= M)z. wave 'the fre,uency of channel E on which
--? is transmitted( is about E meters, A conductor having this length is often sufficient
to receive strong !" signals. !he folded rod in the middle of a common television
antenna is also about this length .. the other rods essentially serve as reflectors to
boost up the signal. 5adio signals are usually strong. 0e therefore can pick up signals
from a local radio station even without an antenna. &ometimes a long metallic rod
which has length e,ual to a near fraction of the wavelength 'one tenth or a ,uarter of
the wavelength of the transmitted radiation( or a coil of wire wound on a ferrite core
can be sufficient provided the receiver has been ade,uately designed to receive and
process weak signals.
A radio fre,uency signal is often much stronger in a certain direction ' the
direction in which the transmitter is located( than others. Also some antennas are
directional . they are more effective in a particular geometry e.g. when the rods of a
!" antenna are aligned perpendicular to the direction in which transmitter is located
the antenna is more effective. &imilarly a radio antenna of a AM radio receiver ' made
up of a wire coil wound on a ferrite rod( if aligned toward the transmitter yields a
higher output signal. !he changing intensity of the volume of a radio program
broadcast on an a medium wave band is due to such directional characteristic of its
antenna. !he antenna of a 4M radio set is often in the form of a stretchable metallic
rod, which normally points towards the sky, but one does sometimes e#perience
changes in the sound intensity in an 4M set. !his is due to the fact that the wavelength
of the electromagnetic waves used to carry 4M signals is in the range of a few meters..
the dimensions of our usual rooms. !hese waves are reflected from the walls of the
room and can be absorbed by ob:ects coming in between. )ence sometimes signals
become very weak or very strong when the receiver is placed pointing to a certain
direction or someone comes in between..
!he metro channel of -oordarshan is transmitted on a fre,uency band ranging
from ?FE.?D> megahertz, hence an antenna having a dipole about ?.A meter length is
sufficient provided the signal does not get attenuated by the time it reaches the
location. +ou may recall, we have said earlier that as the fre,uency of the signal
increases, it is more susceptible to be absorbed by ob:ects in the way. !he metro
channel therefore can be easily received only in the cities where it is broadcast, or
through the satellite. !he signals transmitted from a satellite are also in high fre,uency
range. 3rdinary rod antennas cannot pick up such signals, one needs specially designed
dish antennas linked to appropriate tuners to pick up and process signals from them.
!he energy in an electromagnetic wave is easily dissipated by inducing electric
current 'motion of electrons( in a closed loop of metallic conductors. A receiver
enclosed in a cage like structure made up of a metal ' popularly known as the
4araday%s cage( is therefore unable to receive electromagnetic signals, because there is
no electromagnetic energy left. 3ne can therefore understand why our transistor radio
cannot receive radio programs inside a train or a bus. &uch a cage also acts a no entry
zone for electromagnetic waves. !his also e#plains the use of shielded wires used for
transmission of !" programs by cable networks. A metallic shield around the metallic
wire carrying the signal prevents outside interferences as well as attenuation of the
signal by leaking of waves to neighboring locations. But then cable operators often
have to compromise with low cost :oins between two cables, which are often sufficient
for neighboring !" sets to pick up which e#plains the reception of cable programs
even when you may not have a cable connection. !" signals are easily reflected by
huge buildings in the neighborhood of a transmitter, the reflected signal has a slightly
different phase than the original signal and gives rise to 1ghost2 images.
Remote Control
How does a remote control controls the wor"ing of TV or V+/?
Why doesnt a remote control wor" if a table fan is placed between it and the TV
although the sensor is clearly visible from the other side?
%f something solid comes between the TV and the remote# it does not wor") Why
does this happen?
How does a TV shuts down by pressing a button on the remote control?
%s it possible to operate a TV set by a voice operated remote control?
!he remote control of a television sends out a coded signal to the !" set when
we press a particular button on it. !his message is send using infra red radiation. !he
control signal and their codes are generated by a comple# electronic circuit which are
finally given to the I5.$7- 'Infra.red $ight 7mitting -iode(which convert the
electrical codes into Infra.red 'I5(rays. !hese rays are received by a sensor on the !".
!hereafter the signal that is contained in these rays are processed further by a decoder
circuit in the !" to perform the desired function. 0hen something solid or opa,ue
comes in between the remote and the !" or the remote is not pointed towards the !",
the infra.red beam does not reach the receiver sensor in the !" set, and hence, the
remote does not work.
"oice operated remote controls are indeed possible, indeed in latest computers
lots of commands can be voice controlled, but voice controlled controls have certain
limitations, pronunciation of the same command by different people can be so different
that an instrument can misinterpret it.