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• The use & importanceof Radio Waves and signals beyond radio broadcasting Jamie Innes P11235854

• Radio Waves

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Contents

1.What is a radio wave 2. The electromagnetic spectrum 3. The uses of radio waves 4. Radio waves beyond broadcasting 5. Conclusion 6.Bibliography

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1. What is a Radio Wave ?

A radio wave is an invisible type of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum which is longer than an infrared light. Radio waves can have frequencies from up to 300 GHz and as low as 3 kHz, and other wavelengths from 1mm to 100km. Like every other electromagnetic wave, they all travel at the speed of light.Radio is most famously utilized to send audio, images, and text in the form of signals.Different frequencies of radio waves have different characteristics in the earths atmosphere for example; long waves may cover a part of the earth very consistently and shorter waves can reflect off the ionosphere and travel around the world.

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2. The Electromagnetic Spectrum

Radio waves are invisible to the naked eye and they have the lowest frequency which is mainly used for communications. The radio waves travel round via transmitters. Stars, lightning and gases also give off radio waves, this is why when for e.g. you are listening to the radio during a storm, there might be interference.

Radio waves are part of the electromagnetic spectrum and in the diagram below we see where radio waves are positioned on the spectrum, as you can see radio waves have the longest wavelength and size in the whole of the electromagnetic spectrum. You can also see other aspects of the diagram that use radio waves, FM & AM radio, TV and radar.

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3. The Uses of Radio Waves

Radio Waves play a vital role of importance in todays society with the amount of social networking & communication, not just with the internet but with technology in general, technology and can vary from small appliances to extreme matter of importance such as:

-Wifi

- Mobile Phones - Satellite Navigation - Remote Controls - Microwaves - Emergency services - Hospitals - Government - Military And many more other items & services.

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4. Radio Waves Beyond Broadcast

Radio waves are not just used for radio broadcast but expand to much more as I have previously said, it is used for a number of services.

WiFi Wifi can connect devices such as mobile phones and computers with each other which act as a transmitter and a receiver to create a wireless network but most of the time they will need to have a router/modem & an internet connection.

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Mobile Phones Radio waves are used in mobile phones to transmit a number of information like phone calls and messages between two mobile phone devices which make these waves much more smaller than possibly most other radio waves. aninteresting thing about a mobile/cell phone is that it is actually a radio (an extremely sophisticated radio). The telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876, and wireless communication can trace its roots to the invention of the radio by Nikolai Tesla in the 1880s.

Radar radar uses radio waves and was invented as an object detection system to depict the range hight direction or speed of various objects and was invented as a secret during world war II. The dish on a radar/antenna transmits pulses of micro and radio waves which bounce of any object in their path. Radar is also excellent for helping fight disease like cancer and removing tumors.

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Television Your TV or television set receives the signal, in the form of electromagnetic waves, that is broadcasted from a television station. It is displayed on your television screen, c able companies have antennae or dishes which receive waves broadcasted from your local TV stations. The signal is then sent through a cable to your house. A TV requires about 6hz to receive audio and visual .

Digital & Analog

Digital

Analog

The recording does not degrade over time, as long as the numbers can be read, you will the same wave length everytime.

9. Less expensive 10. More reliable 11. Compatibility with other digital systems. 12. Flexible

A wave is recorded or used in its original form.

13. Simple to hear and understand. 14. Absence of aliasing distortion. 15. Absence of quantization noise 16. Infinite amount of signal resolution. 17. More accurate 18. Uses less bandwidth 19.

5. Conclusion

So to conclude, with radio waves going beyond traditional am/fm radio broadcasting in todays world, which can be said to increase networking and communication but we still could and probably will see a decline in both am & fm radio broadcasting due to online radio on the rise. And with the digital switchover already happened we can see that we get an overall better experience including sound & picture quality, interactivity and better for the broadcasting stations with it being cheaper and less time consuming trying to fix the problem. Also in todays world it is highly depended on to get the best quality whether that be for radio, TV, radar and any other medias because if we didn't have it then the luxuries that we have today for e.g. satellite navigation we could suffer immensely because they are such a convenience that we have.

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6. Bibliography

Pages:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_waves http://www.darvill.clara.net/emag/emagradio.htm http://computer.howstuffworks.com/wireless-network1.htm http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/cell-phone.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar http://www.mritutor.org/mritutor/WhatisMR.html http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumer/assets/images/tv/vision_digital_switchover_hero.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_analog_and_digital_recording http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_spectrum http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/why-are-we-switching-to-digital-television-signals.html

Images:

http://www.cybertheater.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/philips-42pfl7662d-lcd-tv.jpg http://www.photoshopnerds.com/images/radar_17.gif http://www.mobilechoices.co.uk/images/General/mobile_phone_reception_GUIDE_01.jpg http://computer.howstuffworks.com/computer-networking-pictures4.htm http://computer.howstuffworks.com/computer-networking-pictures17.htm http://www.antonine-education.co.uk/physics_gcse/Unit_1/Topic_5/em_spectrum.jpg http://www.clker.com/cliparts/8/J/O/V/S/0/radio-waves-hpg-hi.png http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumer/assets/images/tv/vision_digital_switchover_hero.jpg