What is Radio: Definition and 691 Discussions

Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connected to an antenna which radiates the waves, and received by another antenna connected to a radio receiver. Radio is very widely used in modern technology, in radio communication, radar, radio navigation, remote control, remote sensing and other applications.
In radio communication, used in radio and television broadcasting, cell phones, two-way radios, wireless networking and satellite communication among numerous other uses, radio waves are used to carry information across space from a transmitter to a receiver, by modulating the radio signal (impressing an information signal on the radio wave by varying some aspect of the wave) in the transmitter. In radar, used to locate and track objects like aircraft, ships, spacecraft and missiles, a beam of radio waves emitted by a radar transmitter reflects off the target object, and the reflected waves reveal the object's location. In radio navigation systems such as GPS and VOR, a mobile receiver accepts radio signals from navigational radio beacons whose position is known, and by precisely measuring the arrival time of the radio waves the receiver can calculate its position on Earth. In wireless radio remote control devices like drones, garage door openers, and keyless entry systems, radio signals transmitted from a controller device control the actions of a remote device.
Applications of radio waves which do not involve transmitting the waves significant distances, such as RF heating used in industrial processes and microwave ovens, and medical uses such as diathermy and MRI machines, are not usually called radio. The noun radio is also used to mean a broadcast radio receiver.
Radio waves were first identified and studied by German physicist Heinrich Hertz in 1886. The first practical radio transmitters and receivers were developed around 1895–1896 by Italian Guglielmo Marconi, and radio began to be used commercially around 1900. To prevent interference between users, the emission of radio waves is regulated by law, coordinated by an international body called the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), which allocates frequency bands in the radio spectrum for different uses.

View More On Wikipedia.org
  1. I

    How is the gain of a radio antenna at 230GHz calculated?

    Is it feasible to perform space VLBI at 230 GHz? Also how does one detect the radio jets at 230 GHz?
  2. A

    What is the job of a radio transmitter

    I am kind of confused. Does the radio transmitter modulate the waves or change it into alternating current. If it does both then which one is done first? Thanks for your help.
  3. L

    Could a coaxial cable be used for electric current instead of radio signals?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coaxial_cable http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poynting_vector Could a coaxial cable be used for electric current instead of radio signals? 'For example, the Poynting vector within the dielectric insulator of a coaxial cable is nearly parallel to the wire axis...
  4. A

    Radio wave attenuation and scattering and absorption

    I am trying to understand why radio waves are not greatly attenuated by the atmosphere due to scattering or absorption? I have tried searching the internet and can't find any satisfactory answers. Please help. Oh and does this property somehow relate to why they are used to transmit information...
  5. M

    Calculating Coils for AM Radio Frequency

    How does one know how many coils one needs to pick up a given frequency? AM frequency requires how many coils? I have a VC w/ inductor setup running into an AM IC but I'm not getting anything out of it. Pretty sure I have it set up correctly, alas no music!
  6. M

    Transmitting video via radio wave from weather balloon

    My friend and I had an idea to put camera on the weather balloon and we wanted to have like a live picture from camera. But because we don't know so much about electronics we don't know how to do it. Fe figured out that we can do it via radio waves, maybe there is some more efficient way. That...
  7. J

    Medical Electrophysiology Radio frequency Ablation Question

    I am interested in the medical field of electrophysiology and I have a few questions regarding the procedures done on patients with atrial fibrillation. What is the purpose of radio frequency ablation on the tissue of the heart? How does damaging the tissue relieve atrial fibrillation...
  8. A

    Creating Radio Waves: A Scientific Explanation

    How can you make radio waves? Explain it scientifically
  9. M

    Is radio path chanell respone symmetry ?

    Hello assume I sample signal between Transmiter to Reciver T->R Is the chanell respone would be the same to R->T also? especially I wonder about knife difraction effect ( Fresnel zone )
  10. I

    MATLAB Using Loops to Set Radio Buttons in MATLAB GUI

    Hi I have seri port data,which is like this; data=[0 1 0 1 1 1 0 ] (data could changed by input) My aim is :i will compare all of data(1) data(2) ...data (7) with 0 and 1.If that data 1 radiobutton will be 1. If data(1)==1 -----> radiobutton1=1 else data(1)==0 ---->radiobutton1=0 ...
  11. L

    Combustion Volume vs. Heat Transfer and AM radio

    Hello, I have 2 problems that are currently bothering me, and I would enjoy help with either. The more immediate of these problems is with my family's gas stove. Whenever we need water to boil, we put the pot on and turn the burner all the way up. My father then comes in and turns it...
  12. E

    Tesla circuit radio mining for electrically independent house?

    I remember a long time ago I read or watched something that talked about a guy that had a three story antenna and he was using a tesla based circuit to draw enough electrical power to power his household- for free. I recently ran across this [crackpot link deleted] nowwww, I also ran across...
  13. H

    Radio doppler experiment (astro)

    Ive been going through some landers of Venus and Mars and I found they were equipped with radio doppler experiment(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera_9 ) I was wondering what this does. I mean there is radio signal transmitted through space everywhere and i suppose the device would measure...
  14. 0

    Transmitter uses radio waves or any type of waves

    Hi: I'm new in this site I need help here please I need a circuit that works as : 1- transmitter uses radio waves or any type of waves 2- sends waves for long way more than 3 km 3- consist of simple component than can be found in old electronic instruments such as old TV or radio...
  15. G

    Confusion About Simple AM Radio Receiver/Tuner

    I am confused by the design of this AM receiver/tuner circuit. http://imgur.com/f9n05 I don't understand how the inductor and capacitors on the left design a circuit that resonates at a certain frequency, and I also don't understand why the resistor and capacitor in parallel after the diode...
  16. G

    Tuning Circuit for AM Radio

    I am confused by the design of an AM radio tuning circuit--a circuit that we will build and test in an upcoming lab. (See the attached image for the schematic given to us in the lab description.) According to the schematic, aren't all of the tuning components in parallel? If they are in...
  17. L

    Radio waves and Human tissue

    I realize this might be a complicated question, but I can't seem to find any textbooks or papers that address this head on. Perhaps I am naive in this field. What happens to the electric and magnetic parts of a radio wave as it passes through the human body? As far as I understand: The...
  18. F

    Calculate Impedance of Radio Antenna

    After googleing the formula to calculate impedance of a radio antenna, I came up with this formula Z = R + jX where X is reactance and R is resistance. I figured resistance could be measured with an ohmmeter. Then, it seems like there are two kinds of reactances, capacitive and inductive. The...
  19. C

    At what radius can you send peer-to-peer text messages / SMS over ham radio ?

    at what radius can you send peer-to-peer text messages / SMS over "ham radio"? suppose we have lots of people concentrated in a small area, like a college campus. Maybe a mile or so in diameter. We would like to set up a packet switched peer-to-peer SMS transmission using low cost long wave...
  20. C

    RF question - Plane radio aliasing?

    RF question -- Plane radio aliasing? I hope this is the right place to post it. My buddy and I were working on a jet earlier and turned on the HF communication system to perform an operational check out of the system. We tuned the radio to 2.5 MHz and picked up a local AM radio station. The...
  21. K

    Making a radio that accesses the internet

    Hi, I have a Worldspace radio receiver lying around and I listen to internet radio throughout the day using a PC... I was wondering if there was anyway I could modify the radio receiver and connect it to my modem so that it can access the internet and I can listen to internet radio without...
  22. K

    Inverting a Signal and How to make a radio signal adjustable, weak and strong

    Two Questions: 1. I am new to electrical engineering but I want to know how I would Invert a signal. By this I mean, how do I turn a weak signal from, let's say a walkie-talkie, and turn that "weakening" signal into a "strengthening" signal. I would like for the signals to be inverted, in...
  23. P

    Detection of Earth's radio broadcasts at interstellar distances

    I'm trying to understand the entry labeled 1.2.3 on this page - http://setifaq.org/faq.html#1.2.3 The main point of confusion, for me, is what they mean by Tsys. At first, I assumed it referred to the temperature of the telescope, but in the table of results, its value changes depending on...
  24. F

    Engineering Please explain Circuit resonance in a Crystal Radio?

    Homework Statement I'm in grade 11 working on a science fair project I found on this site: http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_ideas/Elec_p014.shtml Grade 11 physics doesn't cover much so I'm confused about why the radio is set up the way it is... I know that...
  25. B

    How do fluorescent tubes light up with radio waves?

    I was reading somewhere that radio waves can actually light up gasses in these tubes. How does this work?
  26. N

    Some questions about Radio signals.

    Hi All, Always wondered a few things about radio transmission, hoping to get some questions answered. 1. Is there a reason why certain frequencies are free to use by everyone and certain ones are reserved? Is it something to do with the fact that the cost (or means) to send signals on...
  27. H

    Varying Distance Radio Wave Travels: Questions & Answers

    Okay. So i am planning to make this project in which i want to use two transmitters and two receivers. I want to make one of them to transmit waves that go only for say 3+ feet and another than can only transmit around 1 feet. 4 Is it possible? I know frequency plays an role and so...
  28. K

    What is the Maximum Range for a 10kW Radio Station in Bangladesh?

    I need a help with a question. we want to implement a commercial radio station with proper licensing in Bangladesh. the regulatory board allow maximum 10kW transmitter and highest 16db by combining 6db antenna each or 40 ERP. how many KM/mile we can cover with this spec or what will be the...
  29. Z

    Radio waves emitted by an antenna - Bremsstrahlung radiation?

    Would radio waves emitted by an antenna be considered Bremsstrahlung radiation caused by pushing the electrons back and forth?
  30. B

    Explain why long wave radio does not cut out in tunnel.

    Homework Statement Explain why if your car is tuned to FM, it cuts out when you enter a tunnel but doesn’t if you are tuned to long wave reception. (λ of FM: 3m, λ of long wave: 1500m) Homework Equations The Attempt at a Solution Well, what I think is that.. As the λ of the long...
  31. E

    Second Sino-Japanese War, Japanese Radio Broadcasts

    Hello, I had heard from a friend that during World War II, Japan had openly broadcasted over the radios about atrocities committed, detailing rape and murder of Chinese women and men, by Japanese forces. My friend told me he heard this over a television program. He did not cite sources. If...
  32. T

    Radio frequency amplifier and error rate

    Hi, I am designing an RF link. Before my spectrum analyzer, I have an RF low noise amp with a NF of 2.5 dB. Without this amplifier, my error vector magnitude or error rate is 2.1%, after an amplifier it goes down to 0.7%. My question is, the receiving signal will have its own SNR and with...
  33. C

    Estimating Doppler Shift for a Radio Wave

    Homework Statement Estimate the Doppler shift for a radio wave reflected from an airplane moving directly toward you at a speed of 292 m/s. Assume the radio wave has a frequency of 9.7x10^6 Hz. Homework Equations fo = fv/(v − vt) The Attempt at a Solution Using the above...
  34. C

    Radio waves & information transition

    How do radio waves carry the information? I mean the information is digital: 1 or 0, but what is 1 and what is 0 from perspective of radio waves?
  35. G

    Radio Frequency Interference (RFI)

    I am an electronics technician, and I work on various types of electronic equipment including radio communications devices which is the reason for asking this question. I was recently troubleshooting a radio communications malfunction, basically when squelch was broken, there was a “noise”...
  36. C

    Radio waves propagation & ionosphere

    I've read that ionosphere mirrors the short radio waves (25-30 MHz). So 2 questions: Why this happens? There is material on the internet, but it's rather complicated for me so far, I've just started to study physics. So I'd appreciate if someone explains this in more or less simple way. Why...
  37. B

    Exponential Distribution and radio active decay

    Typical radio active decay question Half time = 1 year λ = ln 2 here Q 1: if we have 1024 atoms at t=0, what is the time at which the expected number remaining is one. Easy, I get 10 years Q 2: The chance that in fact none of the 1024 atoms remains after the time calculated in c...
  38. W

    Radio astronomy - integration time vs. sample rate

    Sooo I wasn't sure if I should put this here or in the astrophysics section, but I figured electrical engineering was more relevant for my question. I'm involved in a project at my university to build a (very) simple radio telescope, but I'm having a bit of trouble with the radiometer...
  39. C

    Radio Relay System: Hardware, RC Car/Plane, Cheap, Durable

    I am looking for a strictly hardware radio signal system. Something along the lines of what you would find in a RC car or plane. Any suggestions? Hopefully something relativily cheap, and fairly durable. Thanks for any response.
  40. S

    How to locate source of radio signal?

    What method is usually used to locate exact place of radio signal source? Do exist some type of radio signals, exact place of origin which is completely impossible to locate?Well,at least up to few hundreds of feets?
  41. A

    Radioactive Decay: Questions & Clarifications

    I need some clarifications on the following concepts: 1.When an α-particle is released by a radio active sample, it loses a charge of +2. Similarly, when it loses a β particle it gains one positive charge. But there is no change in the number of electrons in the outer orbits of the radio...
  42. Vorde

    Stargazing Why are Radio Telescopes less detailed?

    In my experience pictures from radio antennae are far less accurate than pictures from other areas of the EMR spectrum, why is this?
  43. jaketodd

    Materials that radio frequency EM waves can penetrate

    Can radio waves penetrate steel? What about titanium? Maybe a characterization of what they can't penetrate would be more informative? ...Or a way to figure out what materials they can penetrate. Thanks, Jake
  44. P

    Determine if radio waves are constructive or destructive

    I don't think I have to write out the problem but let me know. There are two radio antennas emitting radio waves and a point was given to me to determine if constructive or destructive at that point. I found the wavelength is 100m and the path difference is 200m. How can I determine if it is...
  45. S

    Where Can I Find Information on Radio Frequency Antennas for Amateur Radio?

    could anyone help me by giving information about radio frequency antennas if possible provide me powerpoint pesentation
  46. E

    How exactly is digital information sent with radio waves?

    What I am interested in here specifically is - how are bits represented? Is it as "1" is represented with a sent photon [at those specific frequencies] and "0" with a .. silence (no photon sent) ? ... but this, in that case, would get really complicated, because other photons from other...
  47. T

    What Causes Radio Stations to Mix and How Does it Affect Listening?

    What does it mean physically when radio stations mix? As in if you are listening to one station, but you begin to here another and eventually only here the wrong station.
  48. M

    Best Science Talk Radio Shows: Forum's Opinion

    I want to know the forum's opinion on the best Science Talk Radio Show that they know of. For instance I like to listen to Michio Kaku's Science Fantastic. So please tell me what you all think is the best science radio show.
  49. Ivan Seeking

    News Political radio affecting productivity?

    I have to wonder and thought maybe someone has done a study. Given the popularity of political radio [right, and what little there is of left - NPR?] and given that people are mostly listening to this on the job, I have to wonder how much this might be affecting productivity and employee...
  50. M

    What household objects can pick up radio signals?

    I have just had a very strange experience, and would like to know if there is an explanation for it. There was a small tin of black olives on my kitchen work surface. I put a teaspoon into the tin, to get an olive. The moment I did this, I heard what sounded like a radio broadcast of a...
Back
Top