Sunday 17 July 2011

Getting To Know The Different Types And Importance Of Radio Receivers

By Lewis Gil


Radio receivers function through detecting, demodulating and amplifying transmitted received trough electronic circuits. The signals received through the electronic circuits are then transformed into different forms that can be understood and used by users such as sound, pictures, digital data, measurement values, navigational positions, etc. Audio and high fidelity audio receivers, satellite television receivers, and crystal radio receivers or radio sets are just come of the different types of receivers that are found in the market today.

Audio and high fidelity audio receivers and AV receivers are commonly used by home stereo listeners and audio and home theatre system enthusiasts. With the increasing number of high definition television and home theatre systems, the need for better audio is also increasing. And AV receivers are the foundation of the audio components of a home theatre system. Component parts that make up an AV receiver are an amplifier, a preamp/processor, and an FM/AM tuner. Satellite television receivers, on the other hand, are another type of radio receivers used to receive television programming from communication satellites. With almost every home today having at least one television set, satellite television receivers are among the widely used radio receivers today.

The simplest type of radio receiver is the crystal radio receiver or popularly known as radio set. This receiver is used in the reception of modulated AM/FM signals. The first examples of this type are the radio transistors which are quite popular during the days of grandparents. Today, the reception of AM/FM signal is also integrated as special function for cassette players, DVD/CD players, MP3 CD, USB key players. Radio receivers are communications receivers, specialized-used receivers, measuring receivers, and scanners are other types of radio receivers commonly used. All these types are used for the purpose of entertainment but are also essentials among different companies for business and security purposes.

The discovery of radio receivers was attributed first to the discovery of electromagnetic waves by James Clerk Maxwell in the 1850's. Electromagnetic waves were then demonstrated by Heinrich Hertz in 1887 by using a spark gap equipment to transmit and receive radio waves. However, it was Alexander Stepanovich Popov who designed the world's first radio receiver first seen at the All Russia Exhibition in 1896. His experiment demonstrated how a wireless device can detect an electromagnetic signal flowing through the air and can convert this into usable form-which is the same concept that brought us now the cellphone.

The technology of receivers is continuously moving forward in the present time. This technology is gradually but regularly improving from the initial discovery of the electromagnetic waves to the invention of transistor radios to further improvements made to radio sets. Nowadays, a more popular form commonly used in the digital world is digital signal processing. This is a process of wherein signals are being converted to a digital stream and then are mathematically manipulated. Functions usually performed by an analogue intermediate frequency stage can also now be processed through the different soft wares that have been developed.

Communication and entertainment have been easier and more accessible to consumers due to the different improvements in the radio receiver technology. From the first transistors, radio receiver technology has evolved leading to the invention of different devices such as radio sets, television sets and cellphones which have also become an integral part of everybody's lives.




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