Name: Yoong Jia Wee

ID: 011698
Titile: Waveform and Frequency Spectra
Objectives

1. To observe the waveforms and frequency spectra of various commonly

encountered communications signals.
2. Explain the principles of analogue modulation.
3. Compare the experimental results with theoretical predictions using
spectrum analysis.

Introduction
In telecommunications, modulation is the process of conveying a message signal, for
example a digital bit stream or ananalog audio signal, inside another signal that can be
physically transmitted. Modulation of a sine waveform transforms a baseband message
signal into a passband signal.
Amplitude modulation (AM)

Amplitude Modulation, the message signal is being imposed on to a single

frequency carrier wave. The carrier waves amplitude will increase and diminish
along with the amplitude of the message signal. The modulation depth is the ratio
of the peak of the modulating signal to the un-modulated signal. The frequency
spectrum [C(t)] can be written as the following:

( 2 ( fc+fm ) t)
2 ( fcfm )+ cos

cos
a
( 2 fct )+
2
C ( t )=K cos
According to the equation above the received signal consists of two spectral lines at
fc-fm and at fc+fm.
fm carrying the message whereas the spectral line fc representing the carrier
containing no information.

Frequency Modulation (FM)

Frequency Modulation, conveys information over a carrier wave by varying its
instantaneous frequency. The modulated carrier signal is given by the equation
below:

2 fm t
()
2 fct + sin

C ( t ) =A cos
By expanding the above equation as a Fourier series. Set of equations is obtained.
This is an infinite series with each term representing a harmonic in the spectrum.

Experiment A- Frequency Modulation

Discussions

1. The carrier frequency was set to be 2.3 MHz and message signal was set to
be 100kHz. After generating message signal and carrier signal from the
function generator, the amplitude was set to 0 and the attenuation was set to
0dB. A single peak was obtained from the spectrum analyser which is the
peak of the carrier signal.
2. The amplitude of the message signal was increased by using the function
generator. The amplitude of the sidebands increases as the amplitude of the
message signal increases. However, the amplitude of the carrier decreased
and then became zero zero at modulating index of 2.4. The peak-to-peak
value, Vx, of the modulating "message" signal obtained was 650mV.
3.

From Figure 1,the amplitude of the carrier signal at 2MHz is zero. There are
6 pairs of side bands with decreasing amplitude. According to Bessel Table, at
the modulation index of 2.4, the number of sidebands should be 5 pairs. As
the amplitude of the carrier signal is set to zero, all the power can be seen to
reside on the sidebands. When the carrier signal amplitude is zero, this
means that there is no power in the center frequency. All the power is in the
sidebands.

Figure 1
4. The frequency of the sidebands corresponds to the following equation:

f c nfm
2 () t

Jn ( f c +nfm , where n ranges from 0 to n+1. When n=0, the central

2 () t
cos
frequency is at 2.3MHz. The sideband frequency decreases at 100kHz at the
left hand side (

f c n f m

)and the sideband frequency increases at 100kHz at

the right hand side of the central frequency(

f c +nfm ). Therefore, the

number of sidebands are equal on both sides. As n increases, the amplitude

of the sidebands decreases.
5. The calculation of Vx for
When
Vm =

=1.0,Vx=0.65,
1.0

0.65
2.4

= 0.2708V

Figure 2: = 1.0

of=1.0 , 4.0 are shown below:

When
Vm =

=4.0, Vx=0.65,
4.0

0.65
2.4

= 1.0833V

Figure 3: = 4.0

6. From the Bessel table, when the modulating index is 1, there will be 3
sidebands. There is a steady decrease in amplitude in both theoretical and
practical values.
7. From the Bessel table, the number of sidebands should be 7 when =4.0. The
amplitude of the sidebands should have a gradual decrease from the first
band to the seventh band. However we obtained more than 7 sidebands in
this experiment.
Experiment B- Amplitude Modulation
Discussions
1. When the signal generator was set to AM, and a square wave was set at a
frequency of 2MHz, the resulting amplitude spectrum is shown in figure 4.

Figure 4
it is similar to the sinc

function,

It is having discrete values, thus there are more than 1 spike having discrete values
with each separation of 2MHz. Therefore, the result matches the theory.
2.

Figure 5: 10% modulation

depth

Figure 6: 100% modulation

depth

3. Modulation of a signal occurs when the modulating signal voltage is less than
the carrier signal voltage. Output power is the highest at the transmitter when
the signal is 100% modulated.
4. The changes can be seen when message signal changes from 50 KHz to
500kHz.

Figure 7: message signal at 500kHz.

From figure 7, we can see that there are 1 pair of sidebands each at the right
and left hand side of the centre frequency.
Decreasing the modulation depth does not cause any change in the power of
the carrier signal, but it has an effect on the sidebands. It decreases the
power
of the sidebands as the theoretical formula states P s=M2Pc/2. Therefore, as
the
modulation depth, M, decreases, the power of the sidebands decreases, P s.
5. Decreasing the modulation depth decreases the power of the sidebands. This
is because Ps=M2Pc/2. As the modulation depth, M, decreases, the power of
the sidebands decreases, Ps.

6. When the modulating frequency increases, the distance between the sideband
and the distance between the carrier signal increases and vice versa. On a
smaller scale of the frequency analyser, the carrier signal and the sidebands
will shift to the left when the modulating frequency decrease, and it shifts to
the right when the modulating frequency increase.
Conclusion

In conclusion, the objectives were met. The theoretical predictions and the
results obtained using the spectral analysis was compared. Better
understanding of AM and FM was achieved.
References
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modulation