Telescope

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The 100 inch (2.5 m) Hooker reflecting telescope at Mount Wilson Observatory near Los
Angeles, California.
A telescope is an instrument that aids in the observation of remote objects by collecting
electromagnetic radiation (such as visible light). The first known practical telescopes were
invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 17th century, using glass lenses. They found
use in terrestrial applications and astronomy.
Within a few decades, the reflecting telescope was invented, which used mirrors. In the 20th
century many new types of telescopes were invented, including radio telescopes in the 1930s and
infrared telescopes in the 1960s. The word telescope now refers to a wide range of instruments
detecting different regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, and in some cases other types of
detectors.
The word "telescope" (from the Greek , tele "far" and , skopein "to look or see";
, teleskopos "far-seeing") was coined in 1611 by the Greek mathematician Giovanni
Demisiani for one of Galileo Galilei's instruments presented at a banquet at the Accademia dei
Lincei.[1][2][3] In the Starry Messenger Galileo had used the term "perspicillum".

History
Main article: History of the telescope

Modern telescopes typically use CCD instead of film for recording images. This is the sensor in
the Kepler spacecraft
The earliest recorded working telescopes were the refracting telescopes that appeared in the
Netherlands in 1608. Their development is credited to three individuals: Hans Lippershey and
Zacharias Janssen, who were spectacle makers in Middelburg, and Jacob Metius of Alkmaar.[4]
Galileo heard about the Dutch telescope in June 1609, built his own within a month,[5] and
greatly improved upon the design in the following year.
The idea that the objective, or light-gathering element, could be a mirror instead of a lens was
being investigated soon after the invention of the refracting telescope.[6] The potential advantages
of using parabolic mirrorsreduction of spherical aberration and no chromatic aberrationled
to many proposed designs and several attempts to build reflecting telescopes.[7] In 1668, Isaac
Newton built the first practical reflecting telescope, of a design which now bears his name, the
Newtonian reflector.
The invention of the achromatic lens in 1733 partially corrected color aberrations present in the
simple lens and enabled the construction of shorter, more functional refracting telescopes.
Reflecting telescopes, though not limited by the color problems seen in refractors, were
hampered by the use of fast tarnishing speculum metal mirrors employed during the 18th and
early 19th centurya problem alleviated by the introduction of silver coated glass mirrors in
1857,[8] and aluminized mirrors in 1932.[9] The maximum physical size limit for refracting
telescopes is about 1 meter (40 inches), dictating that the vast majority of large optical
researching telescopes built since the turn of the 20th century have been reflectors. The largest
reflecting telescopes currently have objectives larger than 10 m (33 feet).
The 20th century also saw the development of telescopes that worked in a wide range of
wavelengths from radio to gamma-rays. The first purpose built radio telescope went into
operation in 1937. Since then, a tremendous variety of complex astronomical instruments have
been developed.

Types of telescopes
The name "telescope" covers a wide range of instruments. Most detect electromagnetic radiation,
but there are major differences in how astronomers must go about collecting light
(electromagnetic radiation) in different frequency bands.
Telescopes may be classified by the wavelengths of light they detect:

X-ray telescopes, using shorter wavelengths than ultraviolet light

Ultraviolet telescopes, using shorter wavelengths than visible light

Optical telescopes, using visible light

Infrared telescopes, using longer wavelengths than visible light

Submillimetre telescopes, using longer wavelengths than infrared light

Light Comparison

Name

Wavelength

Frequency (Hz)

Photon Energy (eV)

Gamma ray

less than 0.01 nm

more than 10 EHZ

100 keV - 300+ GeV

X
X

X-Ray

0.01 to 10 nm

30 PHz - 30 EHZ

120 eV to 120 keV

Ultraviolet

10 nm - 400 nm

30 EHZ - 790 THz

3 eV to 124 eV

Visible

390 nm - 750 nm

790 THz - 405 THz

1.7 eV - 3.3 eV

X
X

Infrared

750 nm - 1 mm

405 THz - 300 GHz

1.24 meV - 1.7 eV

Microwave

1 mm - 1 meter

300 GHz - 300 MHz

1.24 meV - 1.24 eV

Radio

1 mm - km

300 GHz - 3 Hz

1.24 meV - 12.4 feV

As wavelengths become longer, it becomes easier to use antenna technology to interact with
electromagnetic radiation (although it is possible to make very tiny antenna). The near-infrared
can be handled much like visible light, however in the far-infrared and submillimetre range,
telescopes can operate more like a radio telescope. For example the James Clerk Maxwell
Telescope observes from wavelengths from 3 m (0.003 mm) to 2000 m (2 mm), but uses a
parabolic aluminum antenna.[10] On the other hand, the Spitzer Space Telescope, observing from
about 3 m (0.003 mm) to 180 m (0.18 mm) uses a mirror (reflecting optics). Also using
reflecting optics, the Hubble Space Telescope with Wide Field Camera 3 can observe from about
0.2 m (0.0002 mm) to 1.7 m (0.0017 mm) (from ultra-violet to infrared light).[11]

Fresnel Imager, an optical lens technology

X-ray optics, optics for certain x-ray wavelengths

Another threshold in telescope design, as photon energy increases (shorter wavelengths and
higher frequency) is the use of fully reflecting optics rather than glancing-incident optics.
Telescopes such as TRACE and SOHO use special mirrors to reflect Extreme ultraviolet,
producing higher resolution and brighter images then otherwise possible. A larger aperture does
not just mean more light is collected, it is collected at a higher diffraction limit.
Telescopes may also be classified by location: ground telescope, space telescope, or flying
telescope. They may also be classified by whether they are operated by professional astronomers
or amateur astronomers. A vehicle or permanent campus containing one or more telescopes or
other instruments is called an observatory.

Optical telescopes

50 cm refracting telescope at Nice Observatory.

Main article: Optical telescope
An optical telescope gathers and focuses light mainly from the visible part of the electromagnetic
spectrum (although some work in the infrared and ultraviolet).[12] Optical telescopes increase the
apparent angular size of distant objects as well as their apparent brightness. In order for the
image to be observed, photographed, studied, and sent to a computer, telescopes work by
employing one or more curved optical elements, usually made from glass lenses and/or mirrors,
to gather light and other electromagnetic radiation to bring that light or radiation to a focal point.
Optical telescopes are used for astronomy and in many non-astronomical instruments, including:
theodolites (including transits), spotting scopes, monoculars, binoculars, camera lenses, and
spyglasses. There are three main optical types:

The refracting telescope which uses lenses to form an image.

The reflecting telescope which uses an arrangement of mirrors to form an image.

The catadioptric telescope which uses mirrors combined with lenses to form an image.

Beyond these basic optical types there are many sub-types of varying optical design classified by
the task they perform such as Astrographs, Comet seekers, Solar telescope, etc.

Radio telescopes

The Very Large Array at Socorro, New Mexico, United States.

Main article: Radio telescope
Radio telescopes are directional radio antennas used for radio astronomy. The dishes are
sometimes constructed of a conductive wire mesh whose openings are smaller than the
wavelength being observed. Multi-element Radio telescopes are constructed from pairs or larger
groups of these dishes to synthesize large 'virtual' apertures that are similar in size to the
separation between the telescopes; this process is known as aperture synthesis. As of 2005, the
current record array size is many times the width of the Earthutilizing space-based Very Long
Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) telescopes such as the Japanese HALCA (Highly Advanced
Laboratory for Communications and Astronomy) VSOP (VLBI Space Observatory Program)
satellite. Aperture synthesis is now also being applied to optical telescopes using optical
interferometers (arrays of optical telescopes) and aperture masking interferometry at single
reflecting telescopes. Radio telescopes are also used to collect microwave radiation, which is
used to collect radiation when any visible light is obstructed or faint, such as from quasars. Some
radio telescopes are used by programs such as SETI and the Arecibo Observatory to search for
extraterrestrial life.

X-ray telescopes

Einstein Observatory was a space-based focusing optical X-ray telescope from 1978.[13]
Main article: X-ray telescope
X-ray telescopes can use X-ray optics, such as a Wolter telescopes composed of ring-shaped
'glancing' mirrors made of heavy metals that are able to reflect the rays just a few degrees. The
mirrors are usually a section of a rotated parabola and a hyperbola, or ellipse. In 1952, Hans
Wolter outlined 3 ways a telescope could be built using only this kind of mirror.[14][15] Examples
of an observatory using this type of telescope are the Einstein Observatory, ROSAT, and the
Chandra X-Ray Observatory. By 2010, Wolter focusing X-ray telescopes are possible up to 79
keV.[13]

Gamma-ray telescopes
Higher energy X-ray and Gamma-ray telescopes refrain from focusing completely and use coded
aperture masks: the patterns of the shadow the mask creates can be reconstructed to form an
image.
X-ray and Gamma-ray telescopes are usually on Earth-orbiting satellites or high-flying balloons
since the Earth's atmosphere is opaque to this part of the electromagnetic spectrum. However,
high energy x-rays and gamma-rays do not form an image in the same way as telescopes at
visible wavelengths. An example of this type of telescope is the Fermi Gamma-ray Space
Telescope.
The detection of very high energy gamma rays, with shorter wavelength and higher frequency
than regular gamma rays, requires further specialization. An example of this type of observatory
is VERITAS. Very high energy gamma-rays are still photons, like visible light, whereas cosmicrays includes particles like electrons, protons, and heavier nuclei.
A discovery in 2012 may allow focusing gamma-ray telescopes.[16] At photon energizes greater
than 700 keV, the index of refraction starts to increase again.[16]

High-energy particle telescopes

High-energy astronomy requires specialized telescopes to make observations since most of these
particles go through most metals and glasses.
In other types of high energy particle telescopes there is no image-forming optical system.
Cosmic-ray telescopes usually consist of an array of different detector types spread out over a

large area. A Neutrino telescope consists of a large mass of water or ice, surrounded by an array
of sensitive light detectors known as photomultiplier tubes. Energetic neutral atom observatories
like Interstellar Boundary Explorer detect particles traveling at certain energies.

Other types of telescopes

Gravitational wave detector, aka gravitational wave telescope

Neutrino detector, aka neutrino telescope

Types of telescope mount

Main article: Telescope mount
A telescope mount is a mechanical structure which supports a telescope. Telescope mounts are
designed to support the mass of the telescope and allow for accurate pointing of the instrument.
Many sorts of mounts have been developed over the years, with the majority of effort being put
into systems that can track the motion of the stars as the Earth rotates. The two main types of
tracking mount are:

Altazimuth mount

Equatorial mount

Atmospheric electromagnetic opacity

See also: Airmass
Since the atmosphere is opaque for most of the electromagnetic spectrum, only a few bands can
be observed from the Earth's surface. These bands are visible near-infrared and a portion of the
radio-wave part of the spectrum. For this reason there are no X-ray or far-infrared ground-based
telescopes as these have to be flown in space to observe. Even if a wavelength is observable from
the ground, it might still be advantageous to fly it on a satellite due to astronomical seeing.

A diagram of the electromagnetic spectrum with the Earth's atmospheric transmittance (or
opacity) and the types of telescopes used to image parts of the spectrum.

Telescopic image from different telescope types

Different types of telescope, operating in different wavelength bands, provide different
information about the same object. Together they provide a more comprehensive understanding.

A 6 wide view of the Crab nebula supernova remnant, viewed at different wavelengths of light
by various telescopes

Telescopes by spectrum
Telescopes that operate in the electromagnetic spectrum:
Name

Telescope

Radio

Radio telescope

Submillimetre
Far Infrared
Infrared
Visible
Ultraviolet
X-ray
Gamma-ray

Submillimetre telescopes*

Infrared telescope
Visible spectrum telescopes
Ultraviolet telescopes*
X-ray telescope

*Links to categories.

Astronomy
Radio astronomy
(Radar astronomy)
Submillimetre astronomy
Far-infrared astronomy
Infrared astronomy
Visible-light astronomy
Ultraviolet astronomy
X-ray astronomy
Gamma-ray astronomy

Wavelength
more than 1 mm
0.1 mm - 1 mm
30 m - 450 m
700 nm - 1 mm
400 nm - 700 nm
10 nm - 400 nm
0.01 nm - 10 nm
less than 0.01 nm

Lists of telescopes

List of optical telescopes

Category:Telescopes

List of largest optical reflecting

telescopes

Category:Cosmic-ray telescopes

Category:Gamma-ray telescopes

List of largest optical refracting

telescopes

Category:Gravitational wave telescopes

List of largest optical telescopes

historically

Category:High energy particle

telescopes

List of radio telescopes

Category:Infrared telescopes

List of solar telescopes

Category:Submillimetre telescopes

List of space telescopes

Category:Ultraviolet telescopes

List of telescope parts and construction

Category:X-ray telescopes

List of telescope types

Microscope
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This article is about microscopes in general. For light microscopes, see optical microscope.
Microscope

Uses
Notable
experiments
Inventor
Related items

Small sample observation

Discovery of cells
Zacharias Janssen
Optical microscope Electron
microscope

18th century microscopes from the Muse des Arts et Mtiers, Paris
A microscope (from the Ancient Greek: , mikrs, "small" and , skopen, "to look"
or "see") is an instrument used to see objects that are too small for the naked eye. The science of
investigating small objects using such an instrument is called microscopy. Microscopic means
invisible to the eye unless aided by a microscope.
There are many types of microscopes, the most common and first to be invented is the optical
microscope which uses light to image the sample. Other major types of microscopes are the
electron microscope (both the transmission electron microscope and the scanning electron
microscope) and the various types of scanning probe microscope.

History
Main article: Timeline of microscope technology
The first microscope to be developed was the optical microscope, although the original inventor
is not easy to identify. An early microscope was made in 1590 in Middelburg, Netherlands.[1]
Two eyeglass makers are variously given credit: Hans Lippershey (who developed an early
telescope) and Zacharias Janssen. Giovanni Faber coined the name microscope for Galileo
Galilei's compound microscope in 1625 [2] (Galileo had called it the "occhiolino" or "little eye").

Rise of modern light microscopy

See also: Optical microscope
The first detailed account of the interior construction of living tissue based on the use of a
microscope did not appear until 1644, in Giambattista Odierna's L'occhio della mosca, or The
Fly's Eye.[3]
It was not until the 1660s and 1670s that the microscope was used extensively for research in
Italy, The Netherlands and England. Marcelo Malpighi in Italy began the analysis of biological
structures beginning with the lungs. Robert Hooke's Micrographia had a huge impact, largely
because of its impressive illustrations. The greatest contribution came from Antonie van
Leeuwenhoek who discovered red blood cells and spermatozoa and helped popularise
microscopy as a technique. On 9 October 1676, Van Leeuwenhoek reported the discovery of
micro-organisms.[3]
In 1893 August Khler developed a key technique for sample illumination, Khler illumination,
which is central to modern light microscopy. This method of sample illumination gives rise to
extremely even lighting and overcomes many limitations of older techniques of sample
illumination. Further developments in sample illumination came from Fritz Zernike in 1953 and
George Nomarski 1955 for their development of phase contrast and differential interference
contrast illumination which allow imaging of transparent samples.

Electron microscopy

An ant as imaged using a scanning electron microscope (SEM)

See also: electron microscope
In the early 1900s a significant alternative to light microscopy was developed, using electrons
rather than light to generate the image. Ernst Ruska started development of the first electron
microscope in 1931 which was the transmission electron microscope (TEM). The transmission
electron microscope works on the same principle as an optical microscope but uses electrons in
the place of light and electromagnets in the place of glass lenses. Use of electrons instead of light
allows a much higher resolution.
Development of the transmission electron microscope was quickly followed in 1935 by the
development of the scanning electron microscope by Max Knoll.[4]
Electron microscopes quickly became popular following the Second World War. Ernst Ruska,
working at Siemens developed the first commercial transmission electron microscope and major
scientific conferences on electron microscopy started being held in the 1950s. In 1965 the first
commercial scanning electron microscope was developed by Professor Sir Charles Oatley and
his postgraduate student Gary Stewart and marketed by the Cambridge Instrument Company as
the "Stereoscan".

Scanning probe microscopy

See also: scanning probe microscope
The 1980s saw the development of the first scanning probe microscopes. The first was the
scanning tunneling microscope in 1981, developed by Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer. This
was closely followed in 1986 with Gerd Binnig, Quate, and Gerber's invention of the atomic
force microscope.

Fluorescence and light microscopy

See also: fluorescence microscope, immunofluorescence, and confocal microscope

The most recent developments in light microscope largely centre on the rise of fluorescence
microscopy in biology. During the last decades of the 20th century, particularly in the postgenomic era, many techniques for fluorescent labeling of cellular structures were developed. The
main groups of techniques are small chemical staining of cellular structures, for example DAPI
to label DNA, use of antibodies conjugated to fluorescent reporters, see immunofluorescence,
and fluorescent proteins, such as green fluorescent protein. These techniques use these different
fluorophores for analysis of cell structure at a molecular level in both live and fixed samples.
The rise of fluorescence microscopy drove the development of a major modern microscope
design, the confocal microscope. The principle was patented in 1957 by Marvin Minsky,
although laser technology limited practical application of the technique. It was not until 1978
when Thomas and Christoph Cremer developed the first practical confocal laser scanning
microscope and the technique rapidly gained popularity through the 1980s.
Main article: Microscopy#Sub-diffraction techniques
Much current research (in the early 21st century) on optical microscope techniques is focused on
development of superresolution analysis of fluorescently labeled samples. Structured
illumination can improve resolution by around two to four times and techniques like stimulated
Emission Depletion microscopy are approaching the resolution of electron microscopes.

Types

Types of microscopes
Microscopes can be separated into several different classes. One grouping is based on what
interacts with the sample to generate the image, i.e., light or photons(optical microscopes),
electrons (electron microscopes) or a probe (scanning probe microscopes). Alternatively,
microscopes can be classed on whether they analyse the sample via a scanning point (confocal
optical microscopes, scanning electron microscopes and scanning probe microscopes) or analyse
the sample all at once (wide field optical microscope and transmission electron microscopes).

Wide field optical microscopes and transmission electron microscopes use the theory of lenses
(optics for light microscopes and electromagnet lenses for electron microscopes) in order to
magnify the image generated by the passage of a wave transmitted through the sample, or
reflected by the sample. The waves used are electromagnetic (in optical microscopes) or electron
beams (in electron microscopes). Resolution in these microscopes is limited by the wavelength
of the radiation used to image the sample, where shorter wavelengths allow for a higher
resolution.
Scanning optical and electron microscopes, like the confocal microscope and scanning electron
microscope, use lenses to focus a spot of light or electrons onto the sample then analyze the
reflected or transmitted waves. The point is then scanned over the sample to analyze a
rectangular region. Magnification of the image is achieved by displaying the data from scanning
a physically small sample area on a relatively large screen. These microscopes have the same
resolution limit as wide field optical, probe, and electron microscopes.
Scanning probe microscopes also analyze a single point in the sample and then scan the probe
over a rectangular sample region to build up an image. As these microscopes do not use
electromagnetic or electron radiation for imaging they are not subject to the same resolution limit
as the optical and electron microscopes described above.

Optical
Main article: Optical microscope
The most common type of microscope (and the first invented) is the optical microscope. This is
an optical instrument containing one or more lenses producing an enlarged image of a sample
placed in the focal plane. Optical microscopes have refractive glass and occasionally of plastic or
quartz, to focus light into the eye or another light detector. Mirror-based optical microscopes
operate in the same manner. Typical magnification of a light microscope, assuming visible range
light, is up to 1500x with a theoretical resolution limit of around 0.2 micrometres or 200
nanometres. Specialized techniques (e.g., scanning confocal microscopy, Vertico SMI) may
exceed this magnification but the resolution is diffraction limited. The use of shorter wavelengths
of light, such as the ultraviolet, is one way to improve the spatial resolution of the optical
microscope, as are devices such as the near-field scanning optical microscope.
Sarfus, a recent optical technique increases the sensitivity of standard optical microscope to a
point it becomes possible to directly visualize nanometric films (down to 0.3 nanometre) and
isolated nano-objects (down to 2 nm-diameter). The technique is based on the use of nonreflecting substrates for cross-polarized reflected light microscopy.

CBP Office of Field Operations agent checking the authenticity of a travel document at an
international airport using a stereo microscope
Ultraviolet light enables the resolution of microscopic features, as well as to image samples that
are transparent to the eye. Near infrared light can be used to visualize circuitry embedded in
bonded silicon devices, since silicon is transparent in this region of wavelengths.
In fluorescence microscopy, many wavelengths of light, ranging from the ultraviolet to the
visible can be used to cause samples to fluoresce to allow viewing by eye or with the use of
specifically sensitive cameras.
Phase contrast microscopy is an optical microscopy illumination technique in which small phase
shifts in the light passing through a transparent specimen are converted into amplitude or contrast
changes in the image. The use of phase contrast does not require staining to view the slide. This
microscope technique made it possible to study the cell cycle in live cells.
The traditional optical microscope has more recently evolved into the digital microscope. In
addition to, or instead of, directly viewing the object through the eyepieces, a type of sensor
similar to those used in a digital camera is used to obtain an image, which is then displayed on a
computer monitor. These sensors may use CMOS or charge-coupled device (CCD) technology,
depending on the application.

Electron
Main article: Electron microscope
Three major variants of electron microscopes exist:

Scanning electron microscope (SEM): looks at the surface of bulk objects by scanning
the surface with a fine electron beam. See also environmental scanning electron
microscope (ESEM).

Transmission electron microscope (TEM): passes electrons through the sample,

analogous to basic optical microscopy. This requires careful sample preparation, since
electrons are scattered so strongly by most materials.This is a scientific device that allows
people to see objects that could normally not be seen by the naked or unaided eye.

Scanning probe

AFM, atomic force microscopy

BEEM, ballistic electron emission microscopy

EFM, electrostatic force microscope

ESTM electrochemical scanning tunneling microscope

FMM, force modulation microscopy

KPFM, kelvin probe force microscopy

MFM, magnetic force microscopy

MRFM, magnetic resonance force microscopy

NSOM, near-field scanning optical microscopy (or SNOM, scanning near-field optical
microscopy)

PFM, piezo force microscopy

PSTM, photon scanning tunneling microscopy

PTMS, photothermal microspectroscopy/microscopy

SAP, scanning atom probe[5]

SCM, scanning capacitance microscopy

SECM, scanning electrochemical microscopy

SGM, scanning gate microscopy

SICM, scanning ion-conductance microscopy

SPSM spin polarized scanning tunneling microscopy

SThM, scanning thermal microscopy[6]

STM, scanning tunneling microscopy

SVM, scanning voltage microscopy

SHPM, scanning Hall probe microscopy

SSM, Scanning SQUID microscope

Of these techniques AFM and STM are the most commonly used.

Other types

Different microscopes
Scanning acoustic microscopes use sound waves to measure variations in acoustic impedance.
Similar to Sonar in principle, they are used for such jobs as detecting defects in the subsurfaces
of materials including those found in integrated circuits.

Mobile phone
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Qualcomm QCP-2700, a mid-1990s candybar style phone, and an iPhone 4S, a current
production smartphone.
A mobile phone (also known as a cellular phone, cell phone and a hand phone) is a device that
can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link while moving around a wide geographic
area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile phone operator,
allowing access to the public telephone network. By contrast, a cordless telephone is used only
within the short range of a single, private base station.
In addition to telephony, modern mobile phones also support a wide variety of other services
such as text messaging, MMS, email, Internet access, short-range wireless communications
(infrared, Bluetooth), business applications, gaming and photography. Mobile phones that offer
these and more general computing capabilities are referred to as smartphones.
The first hand-held mobile phone was demonstrated by John F. Mitchell[1][2][3]and Dr Martin
Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing around 2.2 pounds (1 kg).[4] In 1983, the
DynaTAC 8000x was the first to be commercially available. From 1990 to 2011, worldwide
mobile phone subscriptions grew from 12.4 million to over 6 billion, penetrating about 87% of
the global population and reaching the bottom of the economic pyramid.[5][6][7][8]

Contents

1 History

2 Features
o 2.1 Text messaging
o 2.2 SIM card
o 2.3 Multi-card hybrid phones
o 2.4 Kosher phones

3 Mobile phone operators

4 Manufacturers

5 Use of mobile phones

o 5.1 In general

o 5.2 For distributing content

o 5.3 While driving
o 5.4 In schools
o 5.5 Mobile banking and payments
o 5.6 Tracking and privacy

6 Health effects

7 Future evolution

8 Environmental impact

9 See also

10 References

11 Further reading

12 External links

History
Main article: History of mobile phones

An evolution of mobile phones

The first mobile telephone call was made on 17 June 1946 from a car in St. Louis, Missouri,
USA, using the Bell System's Mobile Telephone Service.[9] This was followed in 1956 by the
worlds first partly automatic car phone system, Mobile System A (MTA) in Sweden. The MTA
phones were composed of vacuum tubes and relays, and had a weight of 88.2 pounds (40 kg).[10]
[11]

John F. Mitchell, Motorola's chief of portable communication products and Martin Cooper's boss
in 1973, played a key role in advancing the development of handheld mobile telephone
equipment. Mitchell successfully pushed Motorola to develop wireless communication products
that would be small enough to use anywhere and participated in the design of the cellular phone.
[12][13]
Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher and executive, was the key researcher on Mitchell's
team that developed the first hand-held mobile telephone for use on a cellular network.[14] Using
a somewhat heavy portable handset, Cooper made the first call on a handheld mobile phone on
April 3, 1973 to his rival, Dr. Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs.[15][16]
As I walked down the street while talking on the phone, sophisticated New Yorkers gaped at the
sight of someone actually moving around while making a phone call. Remember that in 1973,
there weren't cordless telephones or cellular phones. I made numerous calls, including one where
I crossed the street while talking to a New York radio reporter - probably one of the more
dangerous things I have ever done in my life.
Martin Cooper, [17]
The new invention sold for $3,995 and weighed two pounds, leading to a nickname "the brick".
The world's first commercial automated cellular network was launched in Japan by NTT in 1979,
initially in the metropolitan area of Tokyo. In 1981, this was followed by the simultaneous

launch of the Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) system in Denmark, Finland, Norway and
Sweden.[18] Several countries then followed in the early-to-mid 1980s including the UK, Mexico
and Canada.
On 6 March 1983, the DynaTAc mobile phone launched on the first US 1G network by
Ameritech. It cost $100m to develop, and took over a decade to hit the market.[19] The phone had
a talk time of just half an hour and took ten hours to charge. Consumer demand was strong
despite the battery life, weight, and low talk time, and waiting lists were in the thousands.[20][21]
In 1991, the second generation (2G) cellular technology was launched in Finland by Radiolinja
on the GSM standard, which sparked competition in the sector as the new operators challenged
the incumbent 1G network operators.
Ten years later, in 2001, the third generation (3G) was launched in Japan by NTT DoCoMo on
the WCDMA standard.[22] This was followed by 3.5G, 3G+ or turbo 3G enhancements based on
the high-speed packet access (HSPA) family, allowing UMTS networks to have higher data
transfer speeds and capacity.
By 2009, it had become clear that, at some point, 3G networks would be overwhelmed by the
growth of bandwidth-intensive applications like streaming media.[23] Consequently, the industry
began looking to data-optimized 4th-generation technologies, with the promise of speed
improvements up to 10-fold over existing 3G technologies. The first two commercially available
technologies billed as 4G were the WiMAX standard (offered in the U.S. by Sprint) and the LTE
standard, first offered in Scandinavia by TeliaSonera.

Features
Main article: Mobile phone features
See also: Smartphone

A printed circuit board inside a Nokia 3210

All mobile phones have a number of features in common, but manufacturers also try to
differentiate their own products by implementing additional functions to make them more
attractive to consumers. This has led to great innovation in mobile phone development over the
past 20 years.
The common components found on all phones are:

A battery, providing the power source for the phone functions.

An input mechanism to allow the user to interact with the phone. The most common input
mechanism is a keypad, but touch screens are also found in some high-end smartphones.

Basic mobile phone services to allow users to make calls and send text messages.

All GSM phones use a SIM card to allow an account to be swapped among devices.
Some CDMA devices also have a similar card called a R-UIM.

Individual GSM, WCDMA, iDEN and some satellite phone devices are uniquely
identified by an International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number.

Low-end mobile phones are often referred to as feature phones, and offer basic telephony.
Handsets with more advanced computing ability through the use of native software applications
became known as smartphones.
Several phone series have been introduced to address a given market segment, such as the RIM
BlackBerry focusing on enterprise/corporate customer email needs; the SonyEricsson Walkman
series of musicphones and Cybershot series of cameraphones; the Nokia Nseries of multimedia
phones, the Palm Pre the HTC Dream and the Apple iPhone.

Text messaging
Main article: SMS
The most commonly used data application on mobile phones is SMS text messaging. The first
SMS text message was sent from a computer to a mobile phone in 1992 in the UK, while the first
person-to-person SMS from phone to phone was sent in Finland in 1993.
The first mobile news service, delivered via SMS, was launched in Finland in 2000, and
subsequently many organizations provided "on-demand" and "instant" news services by SMS.

SIM card
Main articles: Subscriber Identity Module and Removable User Identity Module

Typical mobile phone SIM card

GSM feature phones require a small microchip called a Subscriber Identity Module or SIM Card,
to function. The SIM card is approximately the size of a small postage stamp and is usually
placed underneath the battery in the rear of the unit. The SIM securely stores the servicesubscriber key (IMSI) and the Ki used to identify and authenticate the user of the mobile phone.
The SIM card allows users to change phones by simply removing the SIM card from one mobile
phone and inserting it into another mobile phone or broadband telephony device.
The first SIM card was made in 1991 by Munich smart card maker Giesecke & Devrient for the
Finnish wireless network operator Radiolinja.

Multi-card hybrid phones

A hybrid mobile phone can hold up to four SIM cards. SIM and RUIM cards may be mixed
together to allow both GSM and CDMA networks to be accessed.[24][25]
From 2010 onwards they became popular in India and Indonesia and other emerging markets,[26]
attributed to the desire to obtain the lowest on-net calling rate. In Q3 2011, Nokia shipped 18
million of its low cost dual SIM phone range in an attempt to make up lost ground in the higher
end smartphone market.[27]

Kosher phones
There are Jewish orthodox religious restrictions which standard mobile telephones do not meet.
To fulfill this demand, phones without Internet access, text messaging or cameras are required.[28]
These restricted phones are known as kosher phones and have rabbinical approval for use in
Israel and elsewhere by observant Orthodox Jews. Some are even approved for use by essential
workers (such as health, security and public services) on the sabbath, even though use of any
electrical device is restricted.[29]

Although these phones are intended to prevent immodesty, some vendors report good sales to
adults who prefer the simplicity of the devices.

Mobile phone operators

Main article: Mobile phone operator

Global mobile phone subscribers per country from 1980-2009. The growth in users has been
exponential since they were first made available.
The world's largest individual mobile operator by subscribers is China Mobile with over 500
million mobile phone subscribers.[30] Over 50 mobile operators have over 10 million subscribers
each, and over 150 mobile operators had at least one million subscribers by the end of 2009.[31] In
February 2010, there were 6 billion mobile phone subscribers, a number that is expected to grow.
[5]

Manufacturers
See also: List of best-selling mobile phones
Quantity Market Shares by Gartner
(New Sales)
BRAND

Nokia 2010
Nokia 2011
Samsung 2010
Samsung 2011
Apple 2010
Apple 2011
LG Electronics 2010
LG Electronics 2011
ZTE 2010
ZTE 2011
Others-1 2010
Others-1 2011

Percent

28.9%
23.8%
17.6%
17.7%
2.9%
5.0%
7.1%
4.9%
1.9%
3.2%
30.4%
33.7%

Note: Others-1 consist of Sony Ericsson, Motorola, ZTE, HTC and Huawei.(2009-2010)

Prior to 2010, Nokia was the market leader. However, since then competition emerged in the
Asia Pacific region with brands such as Micromax, Nexian, and i-Mobile and chipped away at

Nokia's market share. Android powered smartphones also gained momentum across the region at
the expense of Nokia. In India, their market share also dropped significantly to around 31 percent
from 56 percent in the same period. Their share was displaced by Chinese and Indian vendors of
low-end mobile phones.[32]
In Q1 2012, based on Strategy Analytics, Samsung surpassed Nokia sold by 93.5 million units
and 82.7 million units, respectively. Standard & Poor's has also downgraded Nokia to 'junk'
status at BB+/B with negative outlook due to high loss and still declined with growth of Lumia
smartphones was not sufficient to offset a rapid decline in revenue from Symbian-based
smartphones over the next few quarters.[33]
Top Five Worldwide Total Mobile Phone
Vendors, Q1 2012
Rank Manufacturer Gartner[34] IDC[35]
1
Samsung
20.7%
23.5%
2
Nokia
19.8%
20.8%
3
Apple
7.9%
8.8%
4
ZTE
4.2%
4.8%
5
LG
3.5%
3.4%
Others
33.3%
38.7%

Note: Vendor shipments are branded shipments and exclude OEM sales for all vendors

Other manufacturers outside the top five include Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM), HTC
Corporation, Motorola, Huawei, Sony Ericsson. Smaller current and past players include
Audiovox (now UTStarcom), BenQ-Siemens, CECT, Fujitsu, Just5, Kyocera, Mitsubishi
Electric, modu, NEC, Neonode, Openmoko, Panasonic, Palm, Pantech Wireless Inc., Philips,
Qualcomm Inc., Sagem, Sanyo, Sharp, Sierra Wireless, SK Teletech, Soutec, T&A Alcatel,
Trium, Toshiba, and Vidalco.

Use of mobile phones

In general

Mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants 19972007

A cellphone repair kiosk in Mumbai, India

Mobile phones are used for a variety of purposes, including keeping in touch with family
members, conducting business, and having access to a telephone in the event of an emergency.
Some people carry more than one cell phone for different purposes, such as for business and
personal use. Multiple SIM cards may also be used to take advantage of the benefits of different
calling plansa particular plan might provide cheaper local calls, long-distance calls,
international calls, or roaming. The mobile phone has also been used in a variety of diverse
contexts in society, for example:

A study by Motorola found that one in ten cell phone subscribers have a second phone
that often is kept secret from other family members. These phones may be used to engage
in activities including extramarital affairs or clandestine business dealings.[36]

Some organizations assist victims of domestic violence by providing mobile phones for
use in emergencies. They are often refurbished phones.[37]

The advent of widespread text messaging has resulted in the cell phone novel; the first
literary genre to emerge from the cellular age via text messaging to a website that collects
the novels as a whole.[38]

Mobile telephony also facilitates activism and public journalism being explored by
Reuters and Yahoo![39] and small independent news companies such as Jasmine News in
Sri Lanka.

The United Nations reported that mobile phones have spread faster than any other
technology and can improve the livelihood of the poorest people in developing countries
by providing access to information in places where landlines or the Internet are not
available, especially in the least developed countries. Use of mobile phones also spawns a

wealth of micro-enterprises, by providing work, such as selling airtime on the streets and
repairing or refurbishing handsets.[40]

In Mali and other African countries, people used to travel from village to village to let
friends and relatives know about weddings, births and other events, which are now
avoided within mobile phone coverage areas, which is usually greater than land line
penetration.

The TV industry has recently started using mobile phones to drive live TV viewing
through mobile apps, advertising, social tv, and mobile TV.[41] 86% of Americans use
their mobile phone while watching TV.

In parts of the world, mobile phone sharing is common. It is prevalent in urban India, as
families and groups of friends often share one or more mobiles among their members.
There are obvious economic benefits, but often familial customs and traditional gender
roles play a part.[42] It is common for a village to have access to only one mobile phone,
perhaps owned by a teacher or missionary, but available to all members of the village for
necessary calls.[43]

For distributing content

In 1998, one of the first examples of distributing and selling media content through the mobile
phone was the sale of ringtones by Radiolinja in Finland. Soon afterwards, other media content
appeared such as news, video games, jokes, horoscopes, TV content and advertising. Most early
content for mobile tended to be copies of legacy media, such as the banner advertisement or the
TV news highlight video clip. Recently, unique content for mobile has been emerging, from the
ringing tones and ringback tones in music to "mobisodes," video content that has been produced
exclusively for mobile phones.
In 2006, the total value of mobile-phone-paid media content exceeded Internet-paid media
content and was worth 31 billion dollars.[44] The value of music on phones was worth 9.3 billion
dollars in 2007 and gaming was worth over 5 billion dollars in 2007.[45]

While driving
Main article: Mobile phones and driving safety

Texting in stop-and-go traffic in New York City

Mobile phone use while driving is common but controversial. Being distracted while operating a
motor vehicle has been shown to increase the risk of accident. Because of this, many
jurisdictions prohibit the use of mobile phones while driving. Egypt, Israel, Japan, Portugal and
Singapore ban both handheld and hands-free use of a mobile phone; others including the UK,
France, and many U.S. statesban handheld phone use only, allowing hands-free use.
Due to the increasing complexity of mobile phones, they are often more like mobile computers in
their available uses. This has introduced additional difficulties for law enforcement officials in
distinguishing one usage from another as drivers use their devices. This is more apparent in those
countries which ban both handheld and hands-free usage, rather than those who have banned
handheld use only, as officials cannot easily tell which function of the mobile phone is being
used simply by looking at the driver. This can lead to drivers being stopped for using their device
illegally on a phone call when, in fact, they were using the device for a legal purpose such as the
phone's incorporated controls for car stereo or satnav.
A recently published study has reviewed the incidence of mobile phone use while cycling and its
effects on behaviour and safety.[46]

In schools
Some schools limit or restrict the use of mobile phones. Schools set restrictions on the use of
mobile phones because of the use of cell phones for cheating on tests, harassment and bullying,
causing threats to the schools security, distractions to the students, and facilitating gossip and
other social activity in school. Many mobile phones are banned in school locker room facilities,
public restrooms and swimming pools due to the built-in cameras that most phones now feature.
[citation needed]

Mobile banking and payments

Main articles: Mobile banking and Mobile payment
See also: Branchless banking and Contactless payment
In many countries, mobile phones are used to provide mobile banking services, which may
include the ability to transfer cash payments by secure SMS text message. Kenya's M-PESA
mobile banking service, for example, allows customers of the mobile phone operator Safaricom
to hold cash balances which are recorded on their SIM cards. Cash may be deposited or
withdrawn from M-PESA accounts at Safaricom retail outlets located throughout the country,
and may be transferred electronically from person to person as well as used to pay bills to
companies.
Branchless banking has also been successful in South Africa and Philippines. A pilot project in
Bali was launched in 2011 by the International Finance Corporation and an Indonesian bank
Bank Mandiri.[47]
Another application of mobile banking technology is Zidisha, a US-based nonprofit
microlending platform that allows residents of developing countries to raise small business loans

from web users worldwide. Zidisha uses mobile banking for loan disbursements and repayments,
transferring funds from lenders in the United States to the borrowers in rural Africa using the
internet and mobile phones.[48]
Mobile payments were first trialled in Finland in 1998 when two Coca-Cola vending machines in
Espoo were enabled to work with SMS payments. Eventually, the idea spread and in 1999 the
Philippines launched the first commercial mobile payments systems, on the mobile operators
Globe and Smart.
Some mobile phone can make mobile payments via direct mobile billing schemes or through
contactless payments if the phone and point of sale support near field communication (NFC).[49]
This requires the co-operation of manufacturers, network operators and retail merchants to
enable contactless payments through NFC-equipped mobile phones.[50][51][52]

Tracking and privacy

See also: Mobile phone tracking
Mobile phones are also commonly used to collect location data. While the phone is turned on,
the geographical location of a mobile phone can be determined easily (whether it is being used or
not), using a technique known as multilateration to calculate the differences in time for a signal
to travel from the cell phone to each of several cell towers near the owner of the phone.[53][54]
The movements of a mobile phone user can be tracked by their service provider and, if desired,
by law enforcement agencies and their government. Both the SIM card and the handset can be
tracked.[55]
China has proposed using this technology to track commuting patterns of Beijing city residents.
[56]
In the UK and US, law enforcement and intelligence services use mobiles to perform
surveillance. They possess technology to activate the microphones in cell phones remotely in
order to listen to conversations that take place near to the person who holds the phone.[57][58]

Health effects
Main article: Mobile phone radiation and health
Further information: Mobile phones on aircraft
The effect mobile phone radiation has on human health is the subject of recent interest and study,
as a result of the enormous increase in mobile phone usage throughout the world. Mobile phones
use electromagnetic radiation in the microwave range, which some believe may be harmful to
human health. A large body of research exists, both epidemiological and experimental, in nonhuman animals and in humans, of which the majority shows no definite causative relationship
between exposure to mobile phones and harmful biological effects in humans. This is often
paraphrased simply as the balance of evidence showing no harm to humans from mobile phones,
although a significant number of individual studies do suggest such a relationship, or are

inconclusive. Other digital wireless systems, such as data communication networks, produce
similar radiation.
On 31 May 2011, the World Health Organization confirmed that mobile phone use may represent
a long-term health risk,[59][60] classifying mobile phone radiation as a "carcinogenic hazard" and
"possibly carcinogenic to humans" after a team of scientists reviewed peer-review studies on cell
phone safety.[61] One study of past cell phone use cited in the report showed a "40% increased
risk for gliomas (brain cancer) in the highest category of heavy users (reported average: 30
minutes per day over a 10year period)."[62] This is a reversal from their prior position that cancer
was unlikely to be caused by cellular phones or their base stations and that reviews had found no
convincing evidence for other health effects.[60][63] Certain countries, including France, have
warned against the use of cell phones especially by minors due to health risk uncertainties.[64]
However, a study published 24 March 2012 in the British Medical Journal questioned these
estimates, because the increase in brain cancers has not paralleled the increase in mobile phone
use.[65]
At least some recent studies have found an association between cell phone use and certain kinds
of brain and salivary gland tumors. Lennart Hardell and other authors of a 2009 meta-analysis of
11 studies from peer-reviewed journals concluded that cell phone usage for at least ten years
approximately doubles the risk of being diagnosed with a brain tumor on the same ('ipsilateral')
side of the head as that preferred for cell phone use.[66]
In addition, a mobile phone can spread infectious diseases by its frequent contact with hands.
One study came to the result that pathogenic bacteria are present on approximately 40% of
mobile phones belonging to patients in a hospital, and on approximately 20% of mobile phones
belonging to hospital staff.[67]
A study on mice suggested that cell phone use during pregnancy may be likely to result in lasting
mental health problems for offspring that resemble the effects of ADHD.[68]

Future evolution
Main article: 5G
5G is a technology used in research papers and projects to denote the next major phase of mobile
telecommunication standards beyond the 4G/IMT-Advanced standards. 5G is not officially used
for any specification or official document yet made public by telecommunication companies or
standardization bodies such as 3GPP, WiMAX Forum, or ITU-R. New standard releases beyond
4G are in progress by standardization bodies, but are at this time not considered as new mobile
generations but under the 4G umbrella.

Environmental impact
See also: Mobile phone recycling

Studies have shown that around 40-50% of the environmental impact of a mobile phone occurs
during the manufacturing of the printed wiring boards and integrated circuits.[69] After purchase,
the average user then replaces their mobile phone every 11 to 18 months.[70][71] The discarded
phones then contribute to electronic waste.
Mobile phone manufacturers within Europe are subject to the WEEE directive. Australia
introduced a mobile phone recycling scheme.[72]

Automobile
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
For the magazine, see Automobile Magazine.
"Car" redirects here. For other uses, see Car (disambiguation).

Automobile

Benz "Velo" model (1894) entered into an early

automobile race as a motocycle[1][2]
Classification
Vehicle
Industry
Various
Application
Transportation
Gasoline, Diesel, Electric,
Fuel source
Hydrogen
Powered
Yes
Self-propelled
Yes
Wheels
34
Axles
12
Inventor
Ferdinand Verbiest

Vehicles in use per country from 2001 to 2007. It shows the significant growth in BRIC.

World map of passenger cars per 1000 people

An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting
passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor. Most definitions of the term specify that
automobiles are designed to run primarily on roads, to have seating for one to eight people, to
typically have four wheels, and to be constructed principally for the transport of people rather
than goods.[3]
The term motorcar has also been used in the context of electrified rail systems to denote a car
which functions as a small locomotive but also provides space for passengers and baggage.
These locomotive cars were often used on suburban routes by both interurban and intercity
railroad systems.[4]
It was estimated in 2010 that the number of automobiles had risen to over 1 billion vehicles, with
500 million reached in 1986.[5] The numbers are increasing rapidly, especially in China and India.
[6]

Contents

1 Etymology

2 History

3 Mass production

4 Weight

5 Seating and body style

6 Fuel and propulsion technologies

7 Safety

8 Costs and benefits

9 Criticism

10 Future car technologies

o 10.1 Driverless cars
o 10.2 Open source development

11 Alternatives to the automobile

12 Industry

13 See also

14 References

15 Further reading

16 External links

Etymology
The word automobile comes, via the French automobile from the Ancient Greek word
(auts, "self") and the Latin mobilis ("movable"); meaning a vehicle that moves itself. The
alternative name car is believed to originate from the Latin word carrus or carrum ("wheeled
vehicle"), or the Middle English word carre ("cart") (from Old North French), in turn these are
said to have originated from the Gaulish word karros (a Gallic Chariot).[7][8]

History
Main article: History of the automobile

The first working steam-powered vehicle was likely to have been designed by Ferdinand
Verbiest, a Flemish member of a Jesuit mission in China around 1672. It was a 65 cm-long scalemodel toy for the Chinese Emperor, that was unable to carry a driver or a passenger.[9][10][11] It is
not known if Verbiest's model was ever built.[10]
Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot is widely credited with building the first self-propelled mechanical
vehicle or automobile in about 1769; he created a steam-powered tricycle.[12] He also constructed
two steam tractors for the French Army, one of which is preserved in the French National
Conservatory of Arts and Crafts.[13] His inventions were however handicapped by problems with
water supply and maintaining steam pressure.[13] In 1801, Richard Trevithick built and
demonstrated his Puffing Devil road locomotive, believed by many to be the first demonstration
of a steam-powered road vehicle. It was unable to maintain sufficient steam pressure for long
periods, and was of little practical use.
In 1807 Nicphore Nipce and his brother Claude probably created the world's first internal
combustion engine which they called a Pyrolophore, but they chose to install it in a boat on the
river Saone in France.[14] Coincidentally, in 1807 the Swiss inventor Franois Isaac de Rivaz
designed his own 'de Rivaz internal combustion engine' and used it to develop the world's first
vehicle to be powered by such an engine. The Nipces' Pyrolophore was fuelled by a mixture of
Lycopodium powder (dried spores of the Lycopodium plant), finely crushed coal dust and resin
that were mixed with oil, whereas de Rivaz used a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen.[14] Neither
design was very successful, as was the case with others, such as Samuel Brown, Samuel Morey,
and Etienne Lenoir with his hippomobile, who each produced vehicles (usually adapted carriages
or carts) powered by clumsy internal combustion engines.[15]
In November 1881, French inventor Gustave Trouv demonstrated a working three-wheeled
automobile powered by electricity at the International Exposition of Electricity, Paris.[16]

Karl Benz, the inventor of the modern automobile

Although several other German engineers (including Gottlieb Daimler, Wilhelm Maybach, and
Siegfried Marcus) were working on the problem at about the same time, Karl Benz generally is
acknowledged as the inventor of the modern automobile.[15]

A photograph of the original Benz Patent-Motorwagen, first built in 1885 and awarded the patent
for the concept
In 1879, Benz was granted a patent for his first engine, which had been designed in 1878. Many
of his other inventions made the use of the internal combustion engine feasible for powering a
vehicle. His first Motorwagen was built in 1885 in Mannheim, Germany. He was awarded the
patent for its invention as of his application on 29 January 1886 (under the auspices of his major
company, Benz & Cie., which was founded in 1883). Benz began promotion of the vehicle on 3
July 1886, and about 25 Benz vehicles were sold between 1888 and 1893, when his first fourwheeler was introduced along with a model intended for affordability. They also were powered
with four-stroke engines of his own design. Emile Roger of France, already producing Benz
engines under license, now added the Benz automobile to his line of products. Because France
was more open to the early automobiles, initially more were built and sold in France through
Roger than Benz sold in Germany. In August 1888 Bertha Benz, the wife of Karl Benz,
undertook the first road trip by car, to prove the road-worthiness of her husband's invention.

Bertha Benz, the first long distance automobile driver in the world

In 1896, Benz designed and patented the first internal-combustion flat engine, called boxermotor.
During the last years of the nineteenth century, Benz was the largest automobile company in the
world with 572 units produced in 1899 and, because of its size, Benz & Cie., became a jointstock company.
The first motor car in central Europe and one of the first factory-made cars in the world, was
produced by Czech company Nesselsdorfer Wagenbau (later renamed to Tatra) in 1897, the
Prsident automobil.
Daimler and Maybach founded Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (DMG) in Cannstatt in 1890, and
sold their first automobile in 1892 under the brand name, Daimler. It was a horse-drawn
stagecoach built by another manufacturer, that they retrofitted with an engine of their design. By
1895 about 30 vehicles had been built by Daimler and Maybach, either at the Daimler works or
in the Hotel Hermann, where they set up shop after disputes with their backers. Benz, Maybach
and the Daimler team seem to have been unaware of each other's early work. They never worked
together; by the time of the merger of the two companies, Daimler and Maybach were no longer
part of DMG.
Daimler died in 1900 and later that year, Maybach designed an engine named Daimler-Mercedes,
that was placed in a specially ordered model built to specifications set by Emil Jellinek. This was
a production of a small number of vehicles for Jellinek to race and market in his country. Two
years later, in 1902, a new model DMG automobile was produced and the model was named
Mercedes after the Maybach engine which generated 35 hp. Maybach quit DMG shortly
thereafter and opened a business of his own. Rights to the Daimler brand name were sold to
other manufacturers.
Karl Benz proposed co-operation between DMG and Benz & Cie. when economic conditions
began to deteriorate in Germany following the First World War, but the directors of DMG
refused to consider it initially. Negotiations between the two companies resumed several years
later when these conditions worsened and, in 1924 they signed an Agreement of Mutual Interest,
valid until the year 2000. Both enterprises standardized design, production, purchasing, and sales
and they advertised or marketed their automobile models jointly, although keeping their
respective brands. On 28 June 1926, Benz & Cie. and DMG finally merged as the Daimler-Benz
company, baptizing all of its automobiles Mercedes Benz, as a brand honoring the most important
model of the DMG automobiles, the Maybach design later referred to as the 1902 Mercedes35 hp, along with the Benz name. Karl Benz remained a member of the board of directors of
Daimler-Benz until his death in 1929, and at times, his two sons participated in the management
of the company as well.
In 1890, mile Levassor and Armand Peugeot of France began producing vehicles with Daimler
engines, and so laid the foundation of the automobile industry in France.
The first design for an American automobile with a gasoline internal combustion engine was
made in 1877 by George Selden of Rochester, New York. Selden applied for a patent for an
automobile in 1879, but the patent application expired because the vehicle was never built. After
a delay of sixteen years and a series of attachments to his application, on 5 November 1895,

Selden was granted a United States patent (U.S. Patent 549,160) for a two-stroke automobile
engine, which hindered, more than encouraged, development of automobiles in the United States.
His patent was challenged by Henry Ford and others, and overturned in 1911.
In 1893, the first running, gasoline-powered American car was built and road-tested by the
Duryea brothers of Springfield, Massachusetts. The first public run of the Duryea Motor Wagon
took place on 21 September 1893, on Taylor Street in Metro Center Springfield.[17][18] To
construct the Duryea Motor Wagon, the brothers had purchased a used horse-drawn buggy for
$70 and then installed a 4 HP, single cylinder gasoline engine.[17] The car had a friction
transmission, spray carburetor, and low tension ignition. It was road-tested again on 10
November, when the The Springfield Republican newspaper made the announcement.[17] This
particular car was put into storage in 1894 and stayed there until 1920 when it was rescued by
Inglis M. Uppercu and presented to the United States National Museum.[17]
In Britain, there had been several attempts to build steam cars with varying degrees of success,
with Thomas Rickett even attempting a production run in 1860.[19] Santler from Malvern is
recognized by the Veteran Car Club of Great Britain as having made the first petrol-powered car
in the country in 1894[20] followed by Frederick William Lanchester in 1895, but these were both
one-offs.[20] The first production vehicles in Great Britain came from the Daimler Motor
Company, a company founded by Harry J. Lawson in 1896, after purchasing the right to use the
name of the engines. Lawson's company made its first automobiles in 1897, and they bore the
name Daimler.[20]
In 1892, German engineer Rudolf Diesel was granted a patent for a "New Rational Combustion
Engine". In 1897, he built the first Diesel Engine.[15] Steam-, electric-, and gasoline-powered
vehicles competed for decades, with gasoline internal combustion engines achieving dominance
in the 1910s.
Although various pistonless rotary engine designs have attempted to compete with the
conventional piston and crankshaft design, only Mazda's version of the Wankel engine has had
more than very limited success.

Mass production
See also: Automotive industry

Ransom E. Olds

The large-scale, production-line manufacturing of affordable automobiles was debuted by

Ransom Olds in 1902 at his Oldsmobile factory located in Lansing, Michigan and based upon the
assembly line techniques pioneered by Marc Isambard Brunel at the Portsmouth Block Mills,
England in 1802. The assembly line style of mass production and interchangeable parts had been
pioneered in the U.S. by Thomas Blanchard in 1821, at the Springfield Armory in Springfield,
Massachusetts.[21] This concept was greatly expanded by Henry Ford, beginning in 1914.
As a result, Ford's cars came off the line in fifteen minute intervals, much faster than previous
methods, increasing productivity eightfold (requiring 12.5-man-hours before, 1-hour 33 minutes
after), while using less manpower.[22] It was so successful, paint became a bottleneck. Only Japan
black would dry fast enough, forcing the company to drop the variety of colors available before
1914, until fast-drying Duco lacquer was developed in 1926. This is the source of Ford's
apocryphal remark, "any color as long as it's black".[22] In 1914, an assembly line worker could
buy a Model T with four months' pay.[22]

Portrait of Henry Ford (ca. 1919)

Ford's complex safety proceduresespecially assigning each worker to a specific location
instead of allowing them to roam aboutdramatically reduced the rate of injury. The
combination of high wages and high efficiency is called "Fordism," and was copied by most
major industries. The efficiency gains from the assembly line also coincided with the economic
rise of the United States. The assembly line forced workers to work at a certain pace with very
repetitive motions which led to more output per worker while other countries were using less
productive methods.
In the automotive industry, its success was dominating, and quickly spread worldwide seeing the
founding of Ford France and Ford Britain in 1911, Ford Denmark 1923, Ford Germany 1925; in
1921, Citroen was the first native European manufacturer to adopt the production method. Soon,
companies had to have assembly lines, or risk going broke; by 1930, 250 companies which did
not, had disappeared.[22]
Development of automotive technology was rapid, due in part to the hundreds of small
manufacturers competing to gain the world's attention. Key developments included electric

ignition and the electric self-starter (both by Charles Kettering, for the Cadillac Motor Company
in 19101911), independent suspension, and four-wheel brakes.

Ford Model T, 1927, regarded as the first affordable American automobile

Since the 1920s, nearly all cars have been mass-produced to meet market needs, so marketing
plans often have heavily influenced automobile design. It was Alfred P. Sloan who established
the idea of different makes of cars produced by one company, so buyers could "move up" as their
fortunes improved.
Reflecting the rapid pace of change, makes shared parts with one another so larger production
volume resulted in lower costs for each price range. For example, in the 1930s, LaSalles, sold by
Cadillac, used cheaper mechanical parts made by Oldsmobile; in the 1950s, Chevrolet shared
hood, doors, roof, and windows with Pontiac; by the 1990s, corporate powertrains and shared
platforms (with interchangeable brakes, suspension, and other parts) were common. Even so,
only major makers could afford high costs, and even companies with decades of production, such
as Apperson, Cole, Dorris, Haynes, or Premier, could not manage: of some two hundred
American car makers in existence in 1920, only 43 survived in 1930, and with the Great
Depression, by 1940, only 17 of those were left.[22]
In Europe much the same would happen. Morris set up its production line at Cowley in 1924,
and soon outsold Ford, while beginning in 1923 to follow Ford's practise of vertical integration,
buying Hotchkiss (engines), Wrigley (gearboxes), and Osberton (radiators), for instance, as well
as competitors, such as Wolseley: in 1925, Morris had 41% of total British car production. Most
British small-car assemblers, from Abbey to Xtra had gone under. Citroen did the same in
France, coming to cars in 1919; between them and other cheap cars in reply such as Renault's
10CV and Peugeot's 5CV, they produced 550,000 cars in 1925, and Mors, Hurtu, and others
could not compete.[22] Germany's first mass-manufactured car, the Opel 4PS Laubfrosch (Tree
Frog), came off the line at Russelsheim in 1924, soon making Opel the top car builder in
Germany, with 37.5% of the market.[22]

Weight
The weight of a car influences fuel consumption and performance, with more weight resulting in
increased fuel consumption and decreased performance. According to a research conducted by
Julian Allwood of the University of Cambridge, global energy use could be heavily reduced by
using lighter cars, and an average weight of 500 kg has been said to be well achievable.[23]

In some competitions such as the Shell Eco Marathon, average car weights of 45 kg have also
been achieved.[24][25] These cars are only single-seaters (still falling within the definition of a car,
although 4-seater cars are more common), but it nevertheless demonstrates the huge degree in
which car weights can still be reduced, and the subsequent lower fuel use (i.e. up to a fuel use of
2560 km/l).[26]

Seating and body style

See also: Car body style
Most cars are designed to carry multiple occupants, often with four or five seats. Larger cars can
often carry six, seven or more occupants depending in the internal arrange of seats. Sports cars
are often designed with only two seats, and very occasionally three seats. The differing needs for
passenger capacity and their luggage has resulted in a large variety of body styles to suit personal
requirements such as the sedan/saloon, hatchback, station wagon/estate and Multi-Purpose
Vehicle/Minivan.

Fuel and propulsion technologies

The Nissan Leaf is an all-electric car launched in December 2010

See also: Alternative fuel vehicle
Most automobiles in use today are propelled by a internal combustion engine, fueled by
deflagration of gasoline (also known as petrol) or diesel. Both fuels are known to cause air
pollution and are also blamed for contributing to climate change and global warming.[27] Rapidly
increasing oil prices, concerns about oil dependence, tightening environmental laws and
restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions are propelling work on alternative power systems for
automobiles. Efforts to improve or replace existing technologies include the development of
hybrid vehicles, plug-in electric vehicles and hydrogen vehicles. Vehicles using alternative fuels
such as ethanol flexible-fuel vehicles and natural gas vehicles are also gaining popularity in some
countries.

Safety
Main articles: Car safety and Automobile accident

Result of a serious automobile accident

While road traffic injuries represent the leading cause in worldwide injury-related deaths,[28] their
popularity undermines this statistic.
Mary Ward became one of the first documented automobile fatalities in 1869 in Parsonstown,
Ireland[29] and Henry Bliss one of the United States' first pedestrian automobile casualties in 1899
in New York City.[30] There are now standard tests for safety in new automobiles, like the
EuroNCAP and the US NCAP tests,[31] and insurance industry-backed tests by the Insurance
Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).[32]

Costs and benefits

Main article: Economics of automobile usage
The costs of automobile usage, which may include the cost of: acquiring the vehicle, repairs and
maintenance, fuel, depreciation, driving time, parking fees, taxes, and insurance,[33] are weighed
against the cost of the alternatives, and the value of the benefits perceived and real of vehicle
usage. The benefits may include on-demand transportation, mobility, independence and
convenience.[11]
Main article: Effects of the automobile on societies
Similarly the costs to society of encompassing automobile use, which may include those of:
maintaining roads, land use, pollution, public health, health care, and of disposing of the vehicle
at the end of its life, can be balanced against the value of the benefits to society that automobile
use generates. The societal benefits may include: economy benefits, such as job and wealth
creation, of automobile production and maintenance, transportation provision, society wellbeing
derived from leisure and travel opportunities, and revenue generation from the tax opportunities.
The ability for humans to move flexibly from place to place has far reaching implications for the
nature of societies.[34]

Criticism
See also: Automobile emissions

The examples and perspective in this section may not represent a worldwide view of
the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page. (June 2010)
Transportation is a major contributor to air pollution in most industrialised nations. According to
the American Surface Transportation Policy Project nearly half of all Americans are breathing
unhealthy air. Their study showed air quality in dozens of metropolitan areas has worsened over
the last decade.[35] In the United States the average passenger car emits 11,450 pounds (5,190 kg)
of the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide annually, along with smaller amounts of carbon monoxide,
hydrocarbons, and nitrogen.[36]
Animals and plants are often negatively impacted by automobiles via habitat destruction and
pollution. Over the lifetime of the average automobile the "loss of habitat potential" may be over
50,000 square meters (540,000 sq ft) based on primary production correlations.[37] Animals are
also killed every year on roads by automobiles, referred to as Roadkill.
Growth in the popularity of vehicles and commuting has led to traffic congestion. Brussels is
considered Europe's most congested city.[38]
Fuel taxes may act as an incentive for the production of more efficient, hence less polluting, car
designs (e.g. hybrid vehicles) and the development of alternative fuels. High fuel taxes may
provide a strong incentive for consumers to purchase lighter, smaller, more fuel-efficient cars, or
to not drive. On average, today's automobiles are about 75 percent recyclable, and using recycled
steel helps reduce energy use and pollution.[39] In the United States Congress, federally mandated
fuel efficiency standards have been debated regularly, passenger car standards have not risen
above the 27.5 miles per US gallon (8.55 L/100 km; 33.0 mpg-imp) standard set in 1985. Light
truck standards have changed more frequently, and were set at 22.2 miles per US gallon
(10.6 L/100 km; 26.7 mpg-imp) in 2007.[40]
Oil consumption in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries has been abundantly pushed by
automobile growth; the 19852003 oil glut even fuelled the sales of low economy vehicles in
OECD countries. The BRIC countries might also kick in, as China briefly was the first
automobile market in December 2009.[41]
Residents of low-density, residential-only sprawling communities are also more likely to die in
car collisions[original research?] which kill 1.2 million people worldwide each year, and injure about
forty times this number.[28] Sprawl is more broadly a factor in inactivity and obesity, which in
turn can lead to increased risk of a variety of diseases.[42]

Future car technologies

Main article: Future car technologies
This section needs additional citations for verification. (June 2010)

Automobile propulsion technology under development include gasoline/electric and plug-in

hybrids, battery electric vehicles, hydrogen cars, biofuels, and various alternative fuels. Research
into future alternative forms of power include the development of fuel cells, Homogeneous
Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI), Stirling engines,[43] and even using the stored energy of
compressed air or liquid nitrogen.
New materials which may replace steel car bodies include duraluminum, fiberglass, carbon fiber,
and carbon nanotubes.
Telematics technology is allowing more and more people to share cars, on a pay-as-you-go basis,
through car share and carpool schemes.
Communication is also evolving due to connected car systems.

Driverless cars
Main article: Driverless car

A robotic Volkswagen Passat shown at Stanford University is a driverless car

Fully autonomous vehicles, also known as robotic cars, or driverless cars, already exist in
prototype, and are expected to be commercially available around 2020. According to urban
designer and futurist Michael E. Arth, driverless electric vehiclesin conjunction with the
increased use of virtual reality for work, travel, and pleasurecould reduce the world's 800
million vehicles to a fraction of that number within a few decades.[44] This would be possible if
almost all private cars requiring drivers, which are not in use and parked 90% of the time, would
be traded for public self-driving taxis that would be in near constant use. This would also allow
for getting the appropriate vehicle for the particular needa bus could come for a group of
people, a limousine could come for a special night out, and a Segway could come for a short trip
down the street for one person. Children could be chauffeured in supervised safety, DUIs would
no longer exist, and 41,000 lives could be saved each year in the US alone.[45][46]

Open source development

There have been several projects aiming to develop a car on the principles of open design. The
projects include OScar, Riversimple (through 40fires.org)[47] and c,mm,n.[48] None of the projects
have reached significant success in terms of developing a car as a whole both from hardware and
software perspective and no mass production ready open-source based design have been

introduced as of late 2009. Some car hacking through on-board diagnostics (OBD) has been done
so far.[49]

Alternatives to the automobile

Main article: Alternatives to the automobile
Established alternatives for some aspects of automobile use include public transit such as buses,
trolleybuses, trains, subways, tramways light rail, cycling, and walking. Car-share arrangements
and carpooling are also increasingly popularthe US market leader in car-sharing has
experienced double-digit growth in revenue and membership growth between 2006 and 2007,
offering a service that enables urban residents to "share" a vehicle rather than own a car in
already congested neighborhoods.[50] Bike-share systems have been tried in some European
cities, including Copenhagen and Amsterdam. Similar programs have been experimented with in
a number of US Cities.[51] Additional individual modes of transport, such as personal rapid transit
could serve as an alternative to automobiles if they prove to be socially accepted.[52]

Industry
Main articles: Automotive industry and Automotive market
The automotive industry designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells the world's motor
vehicles. In 2008, more than 70 million motor vehicles, including cars and commercial vehicles
were produced worldwide.[53]
In 2007, a total of 71.9 million new automobiles were sold worldwide: 22.9 million in Europe,
21.4 million in the Asia-Pacific Region, 19.4 million in the USA and Canada, 4.4 million in Latin
America, 2.4 million in the Middle East and 1.4 million in Africa.[54] The markets in North
America and Japan were stagnant, while those in South America and other parts of Asia grew
strongly. Of the major markets, China, Russia, Brazil and India saw the most rapid growth.
About 250 million vehicles are in use in the United States. Around the world, there were about
806 million cars and light trucks on the road in 2007; they burn over 260 billion US gallons
(980,000,000 m3) of gasoline and diesel fuel yearly. The numbers are increasing rapidly,
especially in China and India.[6] In the opinion of some, urban transport systems based around the
car have proved unsustainable, consuming excessive energy, affecting the health of populations,
and delivering a declining level of service despite increasing investments. Many of these
negative impacts fall disproportionately on those social groups who are also least likely to own
and drive cars.[55][56][57] The sustainable transport movement focuses on solutions to these
problems.
In 2008, with rapidly rising oil prices, industries such as the automotive
industry, are experiencing a combination of pricing pressures from raw
material costs and changes in consumer buying habits. The industry is also
facing increasing external competition from the public transport sector, as

consumers re-evaluate their private vehicle usage.[58] Roughly half of the US's
fifty-one light vehicle plants are projected to permanently close in the
coming years, with the loss of another 200,000 jobs in the sector, on top of
the 560,000 jobs lost this decade.[59] Combined with robust growth in China,
in 2009, this resulted in China becoming the largest automoRadio
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
This article is about radio as a technology. For other uses, including radio broadcasting as an art
form, see Radio (disambiguation).

How radio communication works. Information such as sound is transformed into an electronic
signal which is applied to a transmitter. The transmitter sends the information through space on a
radio wave (electromagnetic wave). A receiver intercepts some of the radio wave and extracts the
information-bearing electronic signal, which is converted back to its original form by a
transducer such as a speaker.
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by electromagnetic radiation of a
frequency significantly below that of visible light, in the radio frequency range, from about
3 kHz to 300 GHz.[1] These waves are called radio waves. Electromagnetic radiation travels by
means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space.
Information, such as sound, is carried by systematically changing (modulating) some property of
the radiated waves, such as their amplitude, frequency, phase, or pulse width. When radio waves
strike an electrical conductor, the oscillating fields induce an alternating current in the conductor.
The information in the waves can be extracted and transformed back into its original form.

Classic radio receiver dial

Contents

1 Etymology

2 Processes
o 2.1 Transmitter and modulation
o 2.2 Antenna
o 2.3 Propagation
o 2.4 Resonance
o 2.5 Receiver and demodulation
o 2.6 Radio band

3 Communication systems

4 History
o 4.1 19th century
o 4.2 20th century

5 Uses of radio
o 5.1 Audio
o 5.2 Telephony
o 5.3 Video
o 5.4 Navigation
o 5.5 Radar
o 5.6 Data (digital radio)
o 5.7 Heating

o 5.8 Amateur radio service

o 5.9 Unlicensed radio services
o 5.10 Radio control (RC)

6 See also

7 References

8 Further reading

9 External links

Etymology
The etymology of "radio" or "radiotelegraphy" reveals that it was called "wireless telegraphy,"
which was shortened to "wireless" in Britain. The prefix radio- in the sense of wireless
transmission, was first recorded in the word radioconductor, a description provided by the
French physicist douard Branly in 1897. It is based on the verb to radiate (in Latin "radius"
means "spoke of a wheel, beam of light, ray").
The word "radio" also appears in a 1907 article by Lee De Forest. It was adopted by the United
States Navy in 1912, to distinguish radio from several other "wireless" communication
technologies in use at the time, such as the photophone. The term became common by the time of
the first commercial broadcasts in the United States in the 1920s. (The noun "broadcasting" itself
came from an agricultural term, meaning "scattering seeds widely.") The term was adopted by
other languages in Europe and Asia. British Commonwealth countries continued to commonly
use the term "wireless" until the mid-20th century, though the magazine of the BBC in the UK
has been called Radio Times ever since it was first published in the early 1920s.
In recent years the term "wireless" has gained renewed popularity through the rapid growth of
short-range computer networking, e.g., Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), Wi-Fi, and
Bluetooth, as well as mobile telephony, e.g., GSM and UMTS. Today, the term "radio" often
refers to the actual transceiver device or chip, whereas "wireless" refers to the system and/or
method used for radio communication; hence one talks about radio transceivers and Radio
Frequency Identification (RFID), but about wireless devices and wireless sensor networks.

Processes

Radio systems used for communications will have the following elements. With more than 100
years of development, each process is implemented by a wide range of methods, specialized for
different communications purposes.

Transmitter and modulation

See also: Radio transmitter design
Each system contains a transmitter. This consists of a source of electrical energy, producing
alternating current of a desired frequency of oscillation. The transmitter contains a system to
modulate (change) some property of the energy produced to impress a signal on it. This
modulation might be as simple as turning the energy on and off, or altering more subtle
properties such as amplitude, frequency, phase, or combinations of these properties. The
transmitter sends the modulated electrical energy to a tuned resonant antenna; this structure
converts the rapidly changing alternating current into an electromagnetic wave that can move
through free space (sometimes with a particular polarization).

An audio signal (top) may be carried by an AM or FM radio wave.

Amplitude modulation of a carrier wave works by varying the strength of the transmitted signal
in proportion to the information being sent. For example, changes in the signal strength can be
used to reflect the sounds to be reproduced by a speaker, or to specify the light intensity of
television pixels. It was the method used for the first audio radio transmissions, and remains in
use today. "AM" is often used to refer to the mediumwave broadcast band (see AM radio).
Frequency modulation varies the frequency of the carrier. The instantaneous frequency of the
carrier is directly proportional to the instantaneous value of the input signal. Digital data can be
sent by shifting the carrier's frequency among a set of discrete values, a technique known as
frequency-shift keying.
FM is commonly used at VHF radio frequencies for high-fidelity broadcasts of music and speech
(see FM broadcasting). Normal (analog) TV sound is also broadcast using FM.
Angle modulation alters the instantaneous phase of a carrier wave to transmit a signal. It is
another term for Phase modulation.

Antenna
Main article: Antenna (radio)

Rooftop television antennas in Israel. Yagi-Uda antennas like these six are widely used at VHF
and UHF frequencies.
An antenna (or aerial) is an electrical device which converts electric currents into radio waves,
and vice versa. It is usually used with a radio transmitter or radio receiver. In transmission, a
radio transmitter applies an oscillating radio frequency electric current to the antenna's terminals,
and the antenna radiates the energy from the current as electromagnetic waves (radio waves). In
reception, an antenna intercepts some of the power of an electromagnetic wave in order to
produce a tiny voltage at its terminals, that is applied to a receiver to be amplified. An antenna
can be used for both transmitting and receiving.

Propagation
Main article: Radio propagation
Once generated, electromagnetic waves travel through space either directly, or have their path
altered by reflection, refraction or diffraction. The intensity of the waves diminishes due to
geometric dispersion (the inverse-square law); some energy may also be absorbed by the
intervening medium in some cases. Noise will generally alter the desired signal; this
electromagnetic interference comes from natural sources, as well as from artificial sources such
as other transmitters and accidental radiators. Noise is also produced at every step due to the
inherent properties of the devices used. If the magnitude of the noise is large enough, the desired
signal will no longer be discernible; this is the fundamental limit to the range of radio
communications.

Resonance
Main article: Electrical resonance
See also: LC circuit

Electrical resonance of tuned circuits in radios allow individual stations to be selected. A

resonant circuit will respond strongly to a particular frequency, and much less so to differing
frequencies. This allows the radio receiver to discriminate between multiple signals differing in
frequency.

Receiver and demodulation

See also: Radio receiver design, Receiver (radio), Radio receiver, Crystal radio, and
Communications receiver

A Crystal Receiver, consisting of an antenna, rheostat, coil, crystal rectifier, capacitor,

headphones and ground connection.
The electromagnetic wave is intercepted by a tuned receiving antenna; this structure captures
some of the energy of the wave and returns it to the form of oscillating electrical currents. At the
receiver, these currents are demodulated, which is conversion to a usable signal form by a
detector sub-system. The receiver is "tuned" to respond preferentially to the desired signals, and
reject undesired signals.
Early radio systems relied entirely on the energy collected by an antenna to produce signals for
the operator. Radio became more useful after the invention of electronic devices such as the
vacuum tube and later the transistor, which made it possible to amplify weak signals. Today
radio systems are used for applications from walkie-talkie children's toys to the control of space
vehicles, as well as for broadcasting, and many other applications.
A radio receiver receives its input from an antenna, uses electronic filters to separate a wanted
radio signal from all other signals picked up by this antenna, amplifies it to a level suitable for
further processing, and finally converts through demodulation and decoding the signal into a
form usable for the consumer, such as sound, pictures, digital data, measurement values,
navigational positions, etc.[2]

Radio band
Main article: Radio frequency
Light Comparison

Name

Wavelength

Frequency (Hz)

Photon Energy (eV)

Gamma ray

less than 0.01 nm

more than 10 EHZ

100 keV - 300+ GeV

X-Ray

0.01 to 10 nm

30 PHz - 30 EHZ

120 eV to 120 keV

Ultraviolet

10 nm - 400 nm

30 EHZ - 790 THz

3 eV to 124 eV

Visible

390 nm - 750 nm

790 THz - 405 THz

1.7 eV - 3.3 eV

Infrared

750 nm - 1 mm

405 THz - 300 GHz

1.24 meV - 1.7 eV

Microwave

1 mm - 1 meter

300 GHz - 300 MHz

1.24 meV - 1.24 eV

Radio

1 mm - km

300 GHz - 3 Hz

1.24 meV - 12.4 feV

Radio frequencies occupy the range from a few hertz to 300 GHz, although commercially
important uses of radio use only a small part of this spectrum.[3] Other types of electromagnetic
radiation, with frequencies above the RF range, are microwave, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet,
X-rays and gamma rays. Since the energy of an individual photon of radio frequency is too low
to remove an electron from an atom, radio waves are classified as non-ionizing radiation.

Communication systems
A radio communication system sends signals by radio.[4] Types of radio communication systems
deployed depend on technology, standards, regulations, radio spectrum allocation, user
requirements, service positioning, and investment.[5]
The radio equipment involved in communication systems includes a transmitter and a receiver,
each having an antenna and appropriate terminal equipment such as a microphone at the
transmitter and a loudspeaker at the receiver in the case of a voice-communication system.[6]
The power consumed in a transmitting station varies depending on the distance of
communication and the transmission conditions. The power received at the receiving station is
usually only a tiny fraction of the transmitter's output, since communication depends on
receiving the information, not the energy, that was transmitted.
Classical radio communications systems use frequency-division multiplexing (FDM) as a
strategy to split up and share the available radio-frequency bandwidth for use by different parties
communications concurrently. Modern radio communication systems include those that divide
up a radio-frequency band by time-division multiplexing (TDM) and code-division multiplexing
(CDM) as alternatives to the classical FDM strategy. These systems offer different tradeoffs in
supporting multiple users, beyond the FDM strategy that was ideal for broadcast radio but less so
for applications such as mobile telephony.
A radio communication system may send information only one way. For example, in
broadcasting a single transmitter sends signals to many receivers. Two stations may take turns
sending and receiving, using a single radio frequency; this is called "simplex." By using two
radio frequencies, two stations may continuously and concurrently send and receive signals - this
is called "duplex" operation.

History
Main article: History of radio

19th century

Main article: Invention of radio

The meaning and usage of the word "radio" has developed in parallel with developments within
the field of communications and can be seen to have three distinct phases: electromagnetic waves
and experimentation; wireless communication and technical development; and radio
broadcasting and commercialization. Many individualsinventors, engineers, developers,
businessmen - contributed to produce the modern idea of radio and thus the origins and
'invention' are multiple and controversial. Early radio designs could not transmit sound or speech
and were called the "wireless telegraph."
Development from a laboratory demonstration to a commercial entity spanned several decades
and required the efforts of many practitioners. In 1878, David E. Hughes noticed that sparks
could be heard in a telephone receiver when experimenting with his carbon microphone. He
developed this carbon-based detector further and eventually could detect signals over a few
hundred yards. He demonstrated his discovery to the Royal Society in 1880, but was told it was
merely induction, and therefore abandoned further research.
Experiments were undertaken by Thomas Edison and his employees of Menlo Park. Edison
applied in 1885 to the U.S. Patent Office for a patent on an electrostatic coupling system between
elevated terminals. The patent was granted as U.S. Patent 465,971 on December 29, 1891. The
Marconi Company would later purchase rights to the Edison patent to protect them legally from
lawsuits.[7]

Tesla demonstrating wireless transmissions during his high frequency and potential lecture of
1891. After continued research, Tesla presented the fundamentals of radio in 1893.
In 1893, in St. Louis, Missouri, Nikola Tesla made devices for his experiments with electricity.
Addressing the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia and the National Electric Light Association, he
described and demonstrated the principles of his wireless work.[8] The descriptions contained all
the elements that were later incorporated into radio systems before the development of the
vacuum tube. He initially experimented with magnetic receivers, unlike the coherers (detecting
devices consisting of tubes filled with iron filings which had been invented by Temistocle
Calzecchi-Onesti at Fermo in Italy in 1884) used by Guglielmo Marconi and other early
experimenters.[9]
A demonstration of wireless telegraphy took place in the lecture theater of the Oxford University
Museum of Natural History on August 14, 1894, carried out by Professor Oliver Lodge and

Alexander Muirhead. During the demonstration a radio signal was sent from the neighboring
Clarendon laboratory building, and received by apparatus in the lecture theater.
In November 1894 public demonstration at Town Hall of Kolkata, Jagadish Chandra Bose
ignited gunpowder and rang a bell at a distance using millimetre range wavelength microwaves.
Bose wrote in a Bengali essay, Adrisya Alok (Invisible Light), The invisible light can easily
pass through brick walls, buildings etc. Therefore, messages can be transmitted by means of it
without the mediation of wires. Boses first scientific paper, On polarisation of electric rays by
double-refracting crystals was communicated to the Asiatic Society of Bengal in May 1895. His
second paper was communicated to the Royal Society of London by Lord Rayleigh in October
1895. In December 1895, the London journal the Electrician (Vol. 36) published Boses paper,
On a new electro-polariscope. At that time, the word coherer, coined by Lodge, was used in
the English-speaking world for Hertzian wave receivers or detectors. The Electrician readily
commented on Boses coherer. (December 1895). The Englishman (18 January 1896) quoted
from the Electrician and commented as follows:Should Professor Bose succeed in perfecting
and patenting his Coherer, we may in time see the whole system of coast lighting throughout
the navigable world revolutionised by a Bengali scientist working single handed in our
Presidency College Laboratory. Bose planned to perfect his coherer but never thought of
patenting it.
In 1895 Alexander Stepanovich Popov built his first radio receiver, which contained a coherer.
Further refined as a lightning detector, it was presented to the Russian Physical and Chemical
Society on May 7, 1895. A depiction of Popov's lightning detector was printed in the Journal of
the Russian Physical and Chemical Society the same year. Until recently, mistakenly believed
that it was the first description (publication of the minutes 15/201 of this session December
issue of the journal RPCS[10]), but in fact the first description of the device gave Dmitry
Aleksandrovich Lachinov in July 1895 in the 2nd edition of his course "Fundamentals of
Meteorology and climatology" the first in Russia.[11][12] Popov's receiver was created on the
improved basis of Lodge's receiver, and originally intended for reproduction of its experiments.
Marconi was the first scientist to achieve successful radio transmission.[13] In 1895, Marconi built
a wireless system capable of transmitting signals at long distances (1.5 mi./ 2.4 km).[14][15] In
radio transmission technology, early public experimenters had made short distance broadcasts.[16]
Marconi achieved long range signalling due to a wireless transmitting apparatus and a radio
receiver claimed by him.[17][18] From Marconi's experiments, the phenomenon that transmission
range is proportional to the square of antenna height is known as "Marconi's law."[19]
Marconi's experimental apparatus proved to be the first engineering complete, commercially
successful radio transmission system.[18][20][21] According to the Proceedings of the United States
Naval Institute in 1899, the Marconi instruments had a "[...] coherer, principle of which was
discovered some twenty years ago, [and was] the only electrical instrument or device contained
in the apparatus that is at all new."[22]

Telephone Herald in Budapest, Hungary (1901).

In 1896, Marconi was awarded British patent 12039, Improvements in transmitting electrical
impulses and signals and in apparatus there-for, for radio. In 1897, he established a radio station
on the Isle of Wight, England. Marconi opened his "wireless" factory in the former silk-works at
Hall Street, Chelmsford, England in 1898, employing around 60 people. Shortly after the 1900s,
Marconi held the patent rights for radio.

20th century
In 1900, Brazilian priest Roberto Landell de Moura transmitted the human voice by wireless.
According the newspaper Jornal do Comercio (June 10, 1900), he conducted his first public
experiment on June 3, 1900, in front of journalists and the General Consul of Great Britain, C.P.
Lupton, in So Paulo, Brazil, for a distance of approximately 8 km. The points of transmission
and reception were Alto de Santana and Paulista Avenue.[23]
One year after that experiment, he received his first patent from the Brazilian government. It was
described as "equipment for the purpose of phonetic transmissions through space, land and water
elements at a distance with or without the use of wires." Four months later, knowing that his
invention had real value, he left Brazil for the United States of America with the intent of
patenting the machine at the US Patent Office in Washington, DC.
Having few resources, he had to rely on friends to push his project. In spite of great difficulty,
three patents were awarded: "The Wave Transmitter" (October 11, 1904) which is the precursor
of today's radio transceiver; "The Wireless Telephone" and the "Wireless Telegraph," both dated
November 22, 1904.

"The Wireless Telephone" U S Patent Office in Washington, DC

In June 1912 after the RMS Titanic disaster, due to increased production Marconi opened the
world's first purpose-built radio factory at New Street Works, also in Chelmsford, England.
The next advancement was the vacuum tube detector, invented by Westinghouse engineers. On
Christmas Eve 1906, Reginald Fessenden used a synchronous rotary-spark transmitter for the
first radio program broadcast, from Ocean Bluff-Brant Rock, Massachusetts. Ships at sea heard a
broadcast that included Fessenden playing O Holy Night on the violin and reading a passage
from the Bible.[24]
This was, for all intents and purposes, the first transmission of what is now known as amplitude
modulation or AM radio. The first radio news program was broadcast August 31, 1920 by station
8MK in Detroit, Michigan, which survives today as all-news format station WWJ under
ownership of the CBS network. The first college radio station began broadcasting on October 14,
1920 from Union College, Schenectady, New York under the personal call letters of Wendell
King, an African-American student at the school.[24]
That month 2ADD (renamed WRUC in 1947), aired what is believed to be the first public
entertainment broadcast in the United States, a series of Thursday night concerts initially heard
within a 100-mile (160 km) radius and later for a 1,000-mile (1,600 km) radius. In November
1920, it aired the first broadcast of a sporting event.[24][25] At 9 pm on August 27, 1920, Sociedad
Radio Argentina aired a live performance of Richard Wagner's opera Parsifal from the Coliseo
Theater in downtown Buenos Aires. Only about twenty homes in the city had receivers to tune in
this radio program. Meanwhile, regular entertainment broadcasts commenced in 1922 from the
Marconi Research Centre at Writtle, England.

Sports broadcasting began at this time as well, including the college football on radio broadcast
of a 1921 West Virginia vs. Pittsburgh football game.[26]

Patent rights in the United States during the 1900s.

In 1943, the United States Supreme Court invalidated one of the Marconi patents, number
763,772 (1904), on the basis it had been anticipated by Tesla, Lodge, and others. After years of
patent battles by Marconi's company, the United States Supreme Court, in the 1943 case of
Marconi Wireless Telegraph co. of America v. United States, 320 U.S. 1 (1943), said that "it is
now held that in the important advance upon his basic patent Marconi did nothing that had not
already been seen and disclosed."[27][28][29]
Although Marconi claimed that he had no knowledge of prior art from Tesla's patents, the
Supreme Court considered his claim false.[30] In addition to that ruling from the Supreme Court,
the United States Court of Claims invalidated the fundamental 1935 Marconi patent.[31] This case
defined radio by the statement: "A radio communication system requires two tuned circuits each
at the transmitter and receiver, all four tuned to the same frequency."[32] The court determined that
Tesla's patent clearly was the first to disclose a system which could be used for wireless
communication of intelligible messages (such as human voice and music) and used the fourcircuit tuned combination.[33][dubious discuss]

An American middle-class girl listens to a radio during the Great Depression.

In contrast, related developments in the United Kingdom saw the High Court of Justice uphold
Marconi's British Patent, issued on April 26, 1900. This patent disclosed a four-circuit system,
which was strikingly similar to a four-circuit system disclosed in U.S. patent #645,576 that was

issued earlier to Tesla on March 20, 1900. On the matter of invention, it is held that Marconi
knowingly and unknowingly used the scientific and experimental work of others who were
devising their own radio tuning apparatus' around the same time, such as the work of American
electrical engineer John Stone Stone who was issued several U.S. patents between 1904 and
1908. However, what made Marconi more successful than any other was his ability to
commercialize radio and its associated equipment into a global business.[34][dubious discuss]
One of the first developments in the early 20th century was that aircraft used commercial AM
radio stations for navigation. This continued until the early 1960s when VOR systems became
widespread.[35] In the early 1930s, single sideband and frequency modulation were invented by
amateur radio operators. By the end of the decade, they were established commercial modes.
Radio was used to transmit pictures visible as television as early as the 1920s. Commercial
television transmissions started in North America and Europe in the 1940s.

The Regency TR-1 which used Texas Instruments' NPN transistors was the world's first
commercially produced transistor radio.
In 1954, the Regency company introduced a pocket transistor radio, the TR-1, powered by a
"standard 22.5 V Battery." In 1955, the newly formed Sony company introduced its first
transistorized radio.[36] It was small enough to fit in a vest pocket, powered by a small battery. It
was durable, because it had no vacuum tubes to burn out. Over the next 20 years, transistors
replaced tubes almost completely except for high-power transmitters.
By 1963, color television was being broadcast commercially (though not all broadcasts or
programs were in color), and the first (radio) communication satellite, Telstar, was launched. In
the late 1960s, the U.S. long-distance telephone network began to convert to a digital network,
employing digital radios for many of its links. In the 1970s, LORAN became the premier radio
navigation system.
Soon, the U.S. Navy experimented with satellite navigation, culminating in the launch of the
Global Positioning System (GPS) constellation in 1987. In the early 1990s, amateur radio
experimenters began to use personal computers with audio cards to process radio signals. In

1994, the U.S. Army and DARPA launched an aggressive, successful project to construct a
software-defined radio that can be programmed to be virtually any radio by changing its software
program. Digital transmissions began to be applied to broadcasting in the late 1990s.

Uses of radio
Early uses were maritime, for sending telegraphic messages using Morse code between ships and
land. The earliest users included the Japanese Navy scouting the Russian fleet during the Battle
of Tsushima in 1905. One of the most memorable uses of marine telegraphy was during the
sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912, including communications between operators on the sinking
ship and nearby vessels, and communications to shore stations listing the survivors.
Radio was used to pass on orders and communications between armies and navies on both sides
in World War I; Germany used radio communications for diplomatic messages once it discovered
that its submarine cables had been tapped by the British. The United States passed on President
Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points to Germany via radio during the war. Broadcasting began
from San Jose, California in 1909,[37] and became feasible in the 1920s, with the widespread
introduction of radio receivers, particularly in Europe and the United States. Besides
broadcasting, point-to-point broadcasting, including telephone messages and relays of radio
programs, became widespread in the 1920s and 1930s. Another use of radio in the pre-war years
was the development of detection and locating of aircraft and ships by the use of radar (RAdio
Detection And Ranging).
Today, radio takes many forms, including wireless networks and mobile communications of all
types, as well as radio broadcasting. Before the advent of television, commercial radio broadcasts
included not only news and music, but dramas, comedies, variety shows, and many other forms
of entertainment (the era from the late 1920s to the mid-1950s is commonly called radio's
"Golden Age"). Radio was unique among methods of dramatic presentation in that it used only
sound. For more, see radio programming.

Audio

A Fisher 500 AM/FM hi-fi receiver from 1959.

AM radio uses amplitude modulation, in which the amplitude of the transmitted signal is made
proportional to the sound amplitude captured (transduced) by the microphone, while the
transmitted frequency remains unchanged. Transmissions are affected by static and interference

because lightning and other sources of radio emissions on the same frequency add their
amplitudes to the original transmitted amplitude.
In the early part of the 20th century, American AM radio stations broadcast with powers as high
as 500 kW, and some could be heard worldwide; these stations' transmitters were commandeered
for military use by the US Government during World War II. Currently, the maximum broadcast
power for a civilian AM radio station in the United States and Canada is 50 kW, and the majority
of stations that emit signals this powerful were grandfathered in (see List of 50 kW AM radio
stations in the United States). In 1986 KTNN received the last granted 50,000 watt license. These
50 kW stations are generally called "clear channel" stations (not to be confused with Clear
Channel Communications), because within North America each of these stations has exclusive
use of its broadcast frequency throughout part or all of the broadcast day.

Bush House, home of the BBC World Service.

FM broadcast radio sends music and voice with higher fidelity than AM radio. In frequency
modulation, amplitude variation at the microphone causes the transmitter frequency to fluctuate.
Because the audio signal modulates the frequency and not the amplitude, an FM signal is not
subject to static and interference in the same way as AM signals. Due to its need for a wider
bandwidth, FM is transmitted in the Very High Frequency (VHF, 30 MHz to 300 MHz) radio
spectrum.
VHF radio waves act more like light, traveling in straight lines; hence the reception range is
generally limited to about 50200 miles. During unusual upper atmospheric conditions, FM
signals are occasionally reflected back towards the Earth by the ionosphere, resulting in long
distance FM reception. FM receivers are subject to the capture effect, which causes the radio to
only receive the strongest signal when multiple signals appear on the same frequency. FM
receivers are relatively immune to lightning and spark interference.
High power is useful in penetrating buildings, diffracting around hills, and refracting in the dense
atmosphere near the horizon for some distance beyond the horizon. Consequently, 100,000 watt
FM stations can regularly be heard up to 100 miles (160 km) away, and farther (e.g., 150 miles,
240 km) if there are no competing signals.

A few old, "grandfathered" stations do not conform to these power rules. WBCT-FM (93.7) in
Grand Rapids, Michigan, US, runs 320,000 watts ERP, and can increase to 500,000 watts ERP by
the terms of its original license. Such a huge power level does not usually help to increase range
as much as one might expect, because VHF frequencies travel in nearly straight lines over the
horizon and off into space. Nevertheless, when there were fewer FM stations competing, this
station could be heard near Bloomington, Illinois, US, almost 300 miles (500 km) away.[citation
needed]

FM subcarrier services are secondary signals transmitted in a "piggyback" fashion along with the
main program. Special receivers are required to utilize these services. Analog channels may
contain alternative programming, such as reading services for the blind, background music or
stereo sound signals. In some extremely crowded metropolitan areas, the sub-channel program
might be an alternate foreign-language radio program for various ethnic groups. Sub-carriers can
also transmit digital data, such as station identification, the current song's name, web addresses,
or stock quotes. In some countries, FM radios automatically re-tune themselves to the same
channel in a different district by using sub-bands.
Aviation voice radios use VHF AM. AM is used so that multiple stations on the same channel
can be received. (Use of FM would result in stronger stations blocking out reception of weaker
stations due to FM's capture effect). Aircraft fly high enough that their transmitters can be
received hundreds of miles (or kilometres) away, even though they are using VHF.

Degen DE1103, an advanced world mini-receiver with single sideband modulation and dual
conversion
Marine voice radios can use single sideband voice (SSB) in the shortwave High Frequency (HF
3 MHz to 30 MHz) radio spectrum for very long ranges or narrowband FM in the VHF
spectrum for much shorter ranges. Narrowband FM sacrifices fidelity to make more channels
available within the radio spectrum, by using a smaller range of radio frequencies, usually with
five kHz of deviation, versus the 75 kHz used by commercial FM broadcasts, and 25 kHz used
for TV sound.
Government, police, fire and commercial voice services also use narrowband FM on special
frequencies. Early police radios used AM receivers to receive one-way dispatches.
Civil and military HF (high frequency) voice services use shortwave radio to contact ships at sea,
aircraft and isolated settlements. Most use single sideband voice (SSB), which uses less

bandwidth than AM. On an AM radio SSB sounds like ducks quacking, or the adults in a Charlie
Brown cartoon. Viewed as a graph of frequency versus power, an AM signal shows power where
the frequencies of the voice add and subtract with the main radio frequency. SSB cuts the
bandwidth in half by suppressing the carrier and one of the sidebands. This also makes the
transmitter about three times more powerful, because it doesn't need to transmit the unused
carrier and sideband.
TETRA, Terrestrial Trunked Radio is a digital cell phone system for military, police and
ambulances. Commercial services such as XM, WorldSpace and Sirius offer encrypted digital
Satellite radio.

Telephony
Mobile phones transmit to a local cell site (transmitter/receiver) that ultimately connects to the
public switched telephone network (PSTN) through an optic fiber or microwave radio and other
network elements. When the mobile phone nears the edge of the cell site's radio coverage area,
the central computer switches the phone to a new cell. Cell phones originally used FM, but now
most use various digital modulation schemes. Recent developments in Sweden (such as
DROPme) allow for the instant downloading of digital material from a radio broadcast (such as a
song) to a mobile phone.
Satellite phones use satellites rather than cell towers to communicate.

Video
Television sends the picture as AM and the sound as AM or FM, with the sound carrier a fixed
frequency (4.5 MHz in the NTSC system) away from the video carrier. Analog television also
uses a vestigial sideband on the video carrier to reduce the bandwidth required.
Digital television uses 8VSB modulation in North America (under the ATSC digital television
standard), and COFDM modulation elsewhere in the world (using the DVB-T standard). A
ReedSolomon error correction code adds redundant correction codes and allows reliable
reception during moderate data loss. Although many current and future codecs can be sent in the
MPEG transport stream container format, as of 2006 most systems use a standard-definition
format almost identical to DVD: MPEG-2 video in Anamorphic widescreen and MPEG layer 2
(MP2) audio. High-definition television is possible simply by using a higher-resolution picture,
but H.264/AVC is being considered as a replacement video codec in some regions for its
improved compression. With the compression and improved modulation involved, a single
"channel" can contain a high-definition program and several standard-definition programs.

Navigation
All satellite navigation systems use satellites with precision clocks. The satellite transmits its
position, and the time of the transmission. The receiver listens to four satellites, and can figure its
position as being on a line that is tangent to a spherical shell around each satellite, determined by
the time-of-flight of the radio signals from the satellite. A computer in the receiver does the math.

Radio direction-finding is the oldest form of radio navigation. Before 1960 navigators used
movable loop antennas to locate commercial AM stations near cities. In some cases they used
marine radiolocation beacons, which share a range of frequencies just above AM radio with
amateur radio operators. LORAN systems also used time-of-flight radio signals, but from radio
stations on the ground.
VOR (Very High Frequency Omnidirectional Range), systems (used by aircraft), have an antenna
array that transmits two signals simultaneously. A directional signal rotates like a lighthouse at a
fixed rate. When the directional signal is facing north, an omnidirectional signal pulses. By
measuring the difference in phase of these two signals, an aircraft can determine its bearing or
radial from the station, thus establishing a line of position. An aircraft can get readings from two
VORs and locate its position at the intersection of the two radials, known as a "fix."
When the VOR station is collocated with DME (Distance Measuring Equipment), the aircraft can
determine its bearing and range from the station, thus providing a fix from only one ground
station. Such stations are called VOR/DMEs. The military operates a similar system of navaids,
called TACANs, which are often built into VOR stations. Such stations are called VORTACs.
Because TACANs include distance measuring equipment, VOR/DME and VORTAC stations are
identical in navigation potential to civil aircraft.

Radar
Radar (Radio Detection And Ranging) detects objects at a distance by bouncing radio waves off
them. The delay caused by the echo measures the distance. The direction of the beam determines
the direction of the reflection. The polarization and frequency of the return can sense the type of
surface. Navigational radars scan a wide area two to four times per minute. They use very short
waves that reflect from earth and stone. They are common on commercial ships and longdistance commercial aircraft.
General purpose radars generally use navigational radar frequencies, but modulate and polarize
the pulse so the receiver can determine the type of surface of the reflector. The best generalpurpose radars distinguish the rain of heavy storms, as well as land and vehicles. Some can
superimpose sonar data and map data from GPS position.
Search radars scan a wide area with pulses of short radio waves. They usually scan the area two
to four times a minute. Sometimes search radars use the Doppler effect to separate moving
vehicles from clutter. Targeting radars use the same principle as search radar but scan a much
smaller area far more often, usually several times a second or more. Weather radars resemble
search radars, but use radio waves with circular polarization and a wavelength to reflect from
water droplets. Some weather radar use the Doppler effect to measure wind speeds.

Data (digital radio)

2008 Pure One Classic digital radio

Most new radio systems are digital, see also: Digital TV, Satellite Radio, Digital Audio
Broadcasting. The oldest form of digital broadcast was spark gap telegraphy, used by pioneers
such as Marconi. By pressing the key, the operator could send messages in Morse code by
energizing a rotating commutating spark gap. The rotating commutator produced a tone in the
receiver, where a simple spark gap would produce a hiss, indistinguishable from static. Sparkgap transmitters are now illegal, because their transmissions span several hundred megahertz.
This is very wasteful of both radio frequencies and power.
The next advance was continuous wave telegraphy, or CW (Continuous Wave), in which a pure
radio frequency, produced by a vacuum tube electronic oscillator was switched on and off by a
key. A receiver with a local oscillator would "heterodyne" with the pure radio frequency, creating
a whistle-like audio tone. CW uses less than 100 Hz of bandwidth. CW is still used, these days
primarily by amateur radio operators (hams). Strictly, on-off keying of a carrier should be known
as "Interrupted Continuous Wave" or ICW or on-off keying (OOK).
Radioteletype equipment usually operates on short-wave (HF) and is much loved by the military
because they create written information without a skilled operator. They send a bit as one of two
tones using frequency-shift keying. Groups of five or seven bits become a character printed by a
teleprinter. From about 1925 to 1975, radioteletype was how most commercial messages were
sent to less developed countries. These are still used by the military and weather services.
Aircraft use a 1200 Baud radioteletype service over VHF to send their ID, altitude and position,
and get gate and connecting-flight data. Microwave dishes on satellites, telephone exchanges and
TV stations usually use quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM). QAM sends data by changing
both the phase and the amplitude of the radio signal. Engineers like QAM because it packs the
most bits into a radio signal when given an exclusive (non-shared) fixed narrowband frequency
range. Usually the bits are sent in "frames" that repeat. A special bit pattern is used to locate the
beginning of a frame.

Modern GPS receivers.

Communication systems that limit themselves to a fixed narrowband frequency range are
vulnerable to jamming. A variety of jamming-resistant spread spectrum techniques were initially
developed for military use, most famously for Global Positioning System satellite transmissions.
Commercial use of spread spectrum began in the 1980s. Bluetooth, most cell phones, and the
802.11b version of Wi-Fi each use various forms of spread spectrum.
Systems that need reliability, or that share their frequency with other services, may use "coded
orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing" or COFDM. COFDM breaks a digital signal into as
many as several hundred slower subchannels. The digital signal is often sent as QAM on the
subchannels. Modern COFDM systems use a small computer to make and decode the signal with
digital signal processing, which is more flexible and far less expensive than older systems that
implemented separate electronic channels.
COFDM resists fading and ghosting because the narrow-channel QAM signals can be sent
slowly. An adaptive system, or one that sends error-correction codes can also resist interference,
because most interference can affect only a few of the QAM channels. COFDM is used for WiFi, some cell phones, Digital Radio Mondiale, Eureka 147, and many other local area network,
digital TV and radio standards.

Heating
Radio-frequency energy generated for heating of objects is generally not intended to radiate
outside of the generating equipment, to prevent interference with other radio signals. Microwave
ovens use intense radio waves to heat food. Diathermy equipment is used in surgery for sealing
of blood vessels. Induction furnaces are used for melting metal for casting, and induction hobs
for cooking.

Amateur radio service

Amateur radio station with multiple receivers and transceivers

Amateur radio, also known as "ham radio," is a hobby in which enthusiasts are licensed to
communicate on a number of bands in the radio frequency spectrum non-commercially and for
their own enjoyment. They may also provide emergency and public service assistance. This has
been very beneficial in emergencies, saving lives in many instances.[38]
Radio amateurs use a variety of modes, including nostalgic ones like Morse code and
experimental ones like Low-Frequency Experimental Radio. Several forms of radio were
pioneered by radio amateurs and later became commercially important, including FM, singlesideband (SSB), AM, digital packet radio and satellite repeaters. Some amateur frequencies may
be disrupted illegally by power-line internet service.

Unlicensed radio services

Unlicensed, government-authorized personal radio services such as Citizens' band radio in
Australia, the US, and Europe, and Family Radio Service and Multi-Use Radio Service in North
America exist to provide simple, (usually) short range communication for individuals and small
groups, without the overhead of licensing. Similar services exist in other parts of the world.
These radio services involve the use of handheld units.
Free radio stations, sometimes called pirate radio or "clandestine" stations, are unauthorized,
unlicensed, illegal broadcasting stations. These are often low power transmitters operated on
sporadic schedules by hobbyists, community activists, or political and cultural dissidents. Some
pirate stations operating offshore in parts of Europe and the United Kingdom more closely
resembled legal stations, maintaining regular schedules, using high power, and selling
commercial advertising time.[39][40]

Radio control (RC)

Radio remote controls use radio waves to transmit control data to a remote object as in some
early forms of guided missile, some early TV remotes and a range of model boats, cars and
airplanes. Large industrial remote-controlled equipment such as cranes and switching
locomotives now usually use digital radio techniques to ensure safety and reliability.

In Madison Square Garden, at the Electrical Exhibition of 1898, Nikola Tesla successfully
demonstrated a radio-controlled boat.[41] He was awarded U.S. patent No. 613,809 for a "Method
of and Apparatus for Controlling Mechanism of Moving Vessels or Vehicles."[42]

See also
bile producer and market in the world. China 2009 sales had increased to 13.6 million, a
significant increase from one million of domestic car sales in 2000.[60]