Radio

A radio signal by itself is like a mail truck without letters. A radio signal alone, without superimposed information, is called a carrier wave. An unmodulated radio signal conveys only the information that there was once a source for the signal picked up by the receiver. Adding information to a carrier signal is a process called modulation. To modulate a radio carrier means that it is changed in some way to correspond to the speech, music, or data it is to carry.

The simplest modulation method is also the first used to transmit messages. The signal is turned on and off to transmit the characters of an agreed code. Text messages can be carried by the signal modulated in this way. Unique patterns stand for letters of the alphabet, numerals, and punctuation marks.

The least complicated modulation method capable of transmitting speech or music varies the carrier signal's instantaneous power. The result is called amplitude modulation, or AM. Another common system varies the signal's instantaneous frequency at an informational rate. The result is frequency modulation, FM.

If radio is to transmit speech and music, information must be carried that mimics the pattern of changing air pressure the ear would experience hearing the original sound. To transmit sounds these air-pressure changes are converted into electrical signals, amplified electronically, then used to modulate the carrier.

Amplitude modulation was the first process to have the capability of transmitting speech and varied the radio signal's instantaneous power at a rate that matched the original sound vibrations in the air. A better modulation technology followed that varied the instantaneous frequency of the radio signal but not the amplitude. Frequency modulation, or FM, has advantages compared to AM but both AM and FM are still in use.

Sound can be converted to digital data, transmitted, then used to reconstruct the original waveform in the receiver. It seems likely that a form of digital modulation will eventually supplant both FM and AM.