Introduction to Electronic Communications

The three major fields of electronics are:

o Computers

The largest field in terms of sales of equipment and services and number of employees.

It is concerned in developing and servicing of computer hardware used in business, industry and government for
processing, storage and retrieval of data.

o Communications

Second largest in size and is most certainly the oldest since the electronics really started with radio communications.

Concerned with electronic equipment used for the transfer of information between two or more points.
o Control

the smallest field

Concerned with electric power as well as various kinds of electronic components and circuits used to operate lights,
heating elements, electric motors and other devices.
Communication is the basic exchanging information. It is what humans do to convey their thoughts, ideas, and feelings to one another.
o Communication tools Body movements and Facial expression
o Two Barriers of communication:

Language and Distance (overcome with an interpreters)

o Long Distance Communication

Drums and Smoke Signals

Blowing a horn

Lighting a signal fire

Waving a flag

Human Runner

Horseback

Ship

Trains
o Electricity was discovered and many applications were explored.

Telegraph (1844) by Morse

Telephone (1876) by Bell

Radio (1887)

Radio Waves (1887) by Heinrich Hertz

Wireless Telegraphy (1895) by Guglielmo Marconi

Fleming Valve (1903)

Television (1923)

Color Television begins (1934)

First Communication Satellite (1962)

Electronic communications plays a vital role in all our lives and is essential to the success of our information society.
The major elements of a communications system
o transmitter to send a message. It is designed to convert the information into a signal suitable for transmission over a given
communication medium.
o communications medium, a receiver to pick up the message. Electronic signal is sent from one place to another. It may be a pair
of wires that carry voice signal from microphone to headset
o noise
The three primary communications media are wires, free space, and fiber-optic cable.
Radio waves are signals made up of electric and magnetic fields that propagate over long distances.
Noise is any interference that disturbs the legible transmission of a signal. Noise is produced by the atmosphere, heavenly bodies,
manufactured electrical equipment, and thermal agitation in electronic components.
The transmission medium greatly attenuates and degrades the transmitted signal.
Electronic communications may be either one-way or two-way. One-way transmission is called simplex or broadcasting.
Two-way communication is called duplex. In half-duplex communications, only one of the two parties can transmit at a time. In full
duplex, both parties may transmit and receive simultaneously.
Information signals may be either analog or digital. Analog signals are smooth, continuous voltage variations such as voice or video.
Digital signals are binary pulses or codes.
The information signal, called the base band signal, is often transmitted directly over the communications medium.
In most communications systems, the base band signal is used to modulate a higher-frequency carrier signal than is transmitted by radio.
Modulation is the process of having an information signal modifies a carrier signal in someway.
o Common examples are AM and FM.
The base band signal cannot usually be transmitted through space by radio because the antennas required are too long and because multiple
base band signals transmitting simultaneously would interfere with one another.
Multiplexing is the process of transmitting two or more signals simultaneously over the same channel or medium.

Besides TV, there are several other methods of transmitting visual or graphical information; they are facsimile, videotex, teletext.
Simplex transmission of special signals from land-based or satellite stations is used by ship and airplanes for navigation.
Telemetry is measurement at a distance. Sensors convert physical characteristics to electric signals which modulate a carrier transmitted to
a remote location.
Radio astronomy supplements optical astronomy by permitting the location and mapping of stars by the radio waves they emit.
Radar uses the 'reflection of radio waves from remote objects for the detection of their presence, direction, and speed,
Underwater radar is called active sonar. Passive sonar is simply listening underwater for the detection of objects of interest.
Two forms of personal communications services are CB radio and Amateur "ham" radio, which are a technical hobby as well as a
communications service.
Data communications is the transmission of computer and other digital data via the telephone system, microwave links or satellite.
Devices called modems permit digital data to be transmitted over the analog telephone networks.
Interconnections of PCs for the exchange of information are called local area networks.
The electromagnetic spectrum is that range of frequencies from approximately 30 Hz to visible light over which electronic communications
takes place.
The greatest portion of the spectrum covers radio waves, which are oscillating electric and magnetic fields that radiate for long distances.
Wavelength ( ) is the distance (in meters) between corresponding points on successive cycles of a periodic wave: A= 3OO/f (f is in
megahertz). It is also the distance that an electromagnetic wave travels in the time it takes for one cycle of oscillation.
The range of human hearing is approximately 20 to 20,000 Hz. The voice frequency range is 300 to 3000 Hz.
Amplitude-modulated broadcasting occurs in the MF range from 300 kHz to 3 MHz.
The high-frequency range (3 to 30 MHz), or shortwave, is used for world Wide two way communications and broadcasting.
Television broadcasting occurs in the VHF and UHF ranges.
Frequencies above 1 GHz are called microwaves.
The SHF and EHF bands are used primarily for satellite communications and radar.
Those frequencies directly above 300 GHz are called millimeter waves.
Electromagnetic signals produced primarily by heat sources are called infrared. They cover the 0.7- to 100 m range.
A micron is one millionth of a meter.
Visible light occupies the region above infrared. Its wavelength is 4000 to 8000 .
An angstrom is one ten-thousandth of a micron.
Bandwidth is the spectrum space occupied by a signal, the frequency range of a transmitted signal, or the range of frequencies accepted by
a receiver. It is the difference between the upper and lower frequencies of the range in question.
There is more spectrum space available at the higher frequencies. For a given bandwidth signal, more channels can be accommodated at the
higher frequencies.
Spectrum space is a precious natural resource.
In the United States, the FCC regulates the use of the spectrum and most forms of electronic communications according to the
Communications Act of 1934.
Most countries belong to the ITU, an organization devoted to worldwide cooperation and negotiation on spectrum usage.
The NTIA coordinates government and military communications in the United States.