FM Radios
Advantages
Frequency Modulation
Frequency Modulation gives a
much better sound quality than an
Internet radio. This means that
more people are likely to enjoy
listening to the radio as they can
hear it easily and the quality is
good.
Reduction in unwanted noise
Most noise is based around
amplitude which many listeners
find very disturbing, this can be
removed by running the signal
through a limiter so that only
frequency variations appear. A
limiter is what changes the
dynamics of the sound and
compresses the sound so you only
hear what is wanted to be heard.
Reduces varying tones This
means that if the signal varies and
becomes worse at some points the
frequency and amplitude of the
sound will not change. If it did
change it would be unpleasant to
listen to and keeps the radio more
consistent.
Better efficiency due to the
software and equipment that FM
radios use it means that the radio
has a much better ease of use and
is more efficient.
Does not require linear
amplifiers Linear amplifiers are
good as they provide more power
but this means they are very
difficult to set up. It also means
that an FM radio has enough power
without the linear amplifier so
would be the same quality anyway
Disadvantages
Requires a demodulator Using
a demodulator is a little more
complicated, and slightly more
expensive than the equipment
used for AM radios. As its more
complicated it means that a small
college radio would not know how
to set that up and it would
therefore be timelier and probably
not turn out as well as the
equipment wont be set up
properly.
Other radios can transmit more
efficiently Other radios can
transmit more efficiently as they
use different types of modulation.
These other types of modulation
transmit data quicker as the
formats use less space and time,
however it does mean the quality
is lower.
Sidebands continue to infinite
In radio communications,
a sideband is a band of frequencies
higher than or lower than the
carrier frequency, this contains
power because of the modulation
process used. Therefore, filters are
used to stop the sidebands
extending that far which creates
some distortion in the signal.