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Avelino, Anne Loraine L., Galang, Vincent N., Nañoz, Allona Jane M., Punzalan, Justine Roy A.
College of Engineering
School of Technology
First Asia Institute of Technology and Humanities
I. INTRODUCTION
An amplitude modulation radio simulation was generated in
this experiment. It features an audio signal viewer to
simultaneously display the frequency spectrum and time-domain
representations of any desired signal in the system and play the
signal on the sound card. Using trigonometric functions, it can
form mathematical expressions for the carrier and the modulating
signal and combine these to create a formula for the complete
modulated wave. Modulators compute the product of the carrier
and modulating signals. Figure 2.1: Radio Simulator Front Panel
Amplitude modulation has been in use since the very earliest The front panel of the radio simulator shown in Figure 2.1 has
days of radio technology. The first recorded instance of its use two displays, the output waveform of the signal in time domain
was in 1901 when a signal was transmitted by a Canadian and its equivalent form in spectrum analyzer. The frequency knob
engineer named Reginald Fessenden. Amplitude modulation is is the adjust for the carrier frequency. The modulated signal will
defined as the process in which is the amplitude of the carrier then be displayed on the graph based on the carrier frequency set
wave is varied about a means values linearly with the base band in the knob.
signal. It is the most straightforward way of modulating a signal.
B. Radio Simulator Block Diagram
Lastly, AM transmitter and receiver should be formed in this
experiment through different subVIs. To further explain the operation of the radio simulator, the
block diagram will be discussed in this section. The constants in
the block diagram is placed to global variables. These global
II. CIRCUIT DESIGN variables composed of signal duration dur[s], the sampling
The Amplitude Modulation Radio simulator made in this frequency f_s[Hz], maximum frequency f_max[Hz], and the
machine problem features an audio signal viewer to intermediate frequency used by the receiver f_IF[Hz] which has
simultaneously display the spectrum and time domain default values shown in Figure 2.2.
representations of any desired signal in the system and play the
signal on the sound card. The radio simulator is composed mainly
of two main sections: the AM transmitter and the receiver
sections, and every sections is built with different subVIs which
will be discussed later in this section.
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AM Transmitter
a) Three AM Transmitters
e) AM Modulator
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To get the amplitude of the array input signal, the
function Array Max and Min is used. This will get the minimum
value of the input. This minimum value is added to the input array
x(t).
Fig.2.11: IF Section
Fig.2.12: Demodulator
Fig.2.13: DC Blocker
Figure 3.1
Figure 3.4
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Another simulation of the modulated signals is carried Adding the three modulated signal using compound
out but the carrier frequency this time is 3 kHz. The signals in arithmetic, a signal is derived and is shown in Figure 3.7. The
time domain is shown in Figure 3.5. combined signal has a resemblance in the modulated dual sine
wave despite being combined with the sine and triangle waves.
A final simulation for the modulated signals is done by setting the Nonetheless, it just resembled the dual sine wave because it is one
carrier frequency to 4.5 kHz, shown in Figure 3.6. of its origin, but they’re completely not equal. A requirement to
keep the transmitter from stepping on each other’s signal is that
By experimenting with the carrier frequency and setting they operate at different frequencies. By doing so, unique signals
it to different values, it can be observed that as the carrier can be modulated without stepping on each other’s signal that will
frequency increases, the frequency of the modulated signal also cause distortion.
increases. It is evident in the figures that the lines in the graph are
getting thicker and forming a clear envelope.
Figure 3.7
Figure 3.8
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Enabling the bandpass filter by setting it to ‘T’, a drastic
change happened and can be viewed in Figure 3.11. With a
frequency set to 1.5 kHz, just like the calibration when the
condition is ‘F’, the spectrum doesn’t show any frequency that is
allowed to pass through it. Only the time domain has a signal and
has a very low amplitude.
Figure 3.9
Figure 3.10
Figure 3.13
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It can also be observed that the signal in the time domain
of Figure 3.13 looks like the modulated signal of the triangle
wave, although the reception of this signal is not as clear as the
modulated triangular signal.
Figure 3.14
Figure 3.17
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Figure 3.18 Figure 3.20
Enabling the demodulator (LPF), another drastic change After the demodulator stage, the audio amplifier is the
happened in its output shown in Figure 3.18. Notice that the next and last stage of an AM receiver. One feature of the audio
output of the enabled demodulator is the outline of the output amplifier is the DC blocker which blocks the DC component of
when the demodulator is disabled. Which means that the role of the signal. Figure 3.21 shows the output of the receiver when the
the lowpass filter is to reject all frequencies that are above the knob is calibrated to 2.5 kHz, the carrier frequency of the sine
low-cutoff frequency. wave. The spectrum shows that the sine wave has a frequency of
300 Hz, which is the exact value in the transmitter.
Shown in Figure 3.19 is the spectrum of the disabled
demodulator (sine – dual sine – triangle) and comparing it to the
spectrum of the enabled demodulator (sine – dual sine – triangle)
shown in Figure 3.20, it can be perceived that the enabled lowpass
filter only allows the first set of frequencies from the disabled
filter, which is the reason why the signal in the time domain of
the enabled is only the outline of the disabled.
Figure 3.21
Figure 3.19
Figure 3.22
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Adjusting the knob to 5 kHz, the carrier frequency of the signals is modulated with the given intelligence frequency and
triangle wave, the frequency of the triangle wave in the spectrum carrier frequency. The frequency knob is a representation of
is shown in Figure 3.23, which is approximately 80 Hz just like tuning process where it has to be set on the frequency of the
the frequency in the transmitter. carrier you want to see in the Graphs. Although there is no noise
introduce in the exercise, there is still other matters happen like
the attenuation of the signal when it passes through the bandpass
filters. The importance of the amplifier in the latter part of the
circuit is quite an important part of the receiver.
Vincent N. Galang
Figure 3.23
In our finished machine problem, I learned the principles of
From the results of the AM receiver, it can be noticed amplitude modulation and the fact that it can be divided into AM
that the amplitudes are not the same as the amplitudes of the transmitter and receiver. Modulating an AM signal can be
baseband signals. It is because certain losses occurred when the achieved in a number of ways. In terms of transmission, we need
signal is passed through the filters. That is why there is a need for to create an AM modulator that modulates its baseband input
an audio amplifier, but still, fidelity cannot be achieved for the signal array according to the equation given. While in terms of
amplitude of the output in the receiver varies on the frequency set reception, essentially, the first stage is the RF section where in it
in the knob. amplifies the received RF signals. Second, the mixer section,
where it down-converts the received RF frequencies to
intermediate frequencies. Next is the IF section, the stage where
IV. CONCLUSIONS it amplifies and select the signal. AM envelope detector takes
Simulating the AM transmitter and the receiver gives a clearer place after it amplifies the selected signals. It demodulates the
knowledge and understanding in the application of it in the real AM wave and converts it to the original information signal. It can
life. Three different baseband signals are created to represent the be implemented by an absolute value operator followed by a
modulating signal that will be transmitted and demodulated. lowpass filter. After that, a DC blocker is used to eliminate the dc
These signals are added and it can still be demodulated by tuning component of the demodulator output. Lastly, the audio amplifier
the control knob in its corresponding carrier frequency. So the which is the final stage of the receiver. The resulting output will
knob basically, is the carrier frequency. The spectrum in the front be the required amplitude modulated signal.
panel will display the frequency of the modulating signal, while
the time domain shows the actual signal. Different stages in the
receiver was passed through and upon seeing the final output of
the receiver, it was then noticed that the amplitudes of the
baseband signals and the amplitudes of the demodulated signals Allona Jane M. Nañoz
are not the same. Figuring out what may be the cause of this, the
viewer is connected to every output stages in the receiver. Then, AM Radio Simulator emphasizes the function and significance
a conclusion was derived that every time the signal passes of each block in the process. Baseband signals which represent
through a filter, the amplitude decreases. That is why an audio the AM radio stations in real life is modulated in terms of
amplifier is needed. The group added a constant amplifier to the amplitude then transmitted as RF Signals. On the other hand,
part of the DC blocker to achieve an output amplitude of 1 but the receiver must be able to amplify and demodulate. After series of
outcome didn’t made all the signal amplitudes to 1. Because the stages in the reception, signal’s amplitude is degraded, therefore
amplitude of the demodulated signal depends on the frequency set an amplifier is needed.
in the knob, which was also discovered when experimenting in
the different output stages of the receiver. In an ideal reception, transmitted signal is the same when it is
received and demodulated. However, based on this Machine
Problem/ Simulation, it is impossible to attain such accuracy. The
signal goes a lot of process before it is fed to the amplifier.
Anne Loraine L. Avelino Simulation revealed that the baseband signal as viewed from
output has some difference compared to its state before
The Machine Problem demonstrates the basic process of AM transmission.
Modulation from the input baseband signals, to transmission and
reception. The machine problem clearly demonstrates how the
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This MP also showed the importance of filters in accepting and
rejecting signals specially in the demodulation process.
However, more filter means degradation of amplitude signal.
Therefore, it is important to consider the number of filters in
cascade to balance its effect on the amplitude of transmitted
signal.
REFERENCES
[1] Amplitude Modulation. [Online]. Available at:
http://www.radio-electronics.com/info/rf-technology-design/am-
amplitude-modulation/what-is-am-tutorial.php
[2] Amplitude Modulation. [Online]. Available at:
http://www.pa2old.nl/files/am_fundamentals.pdf
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