Radio
Radio is the use of radio waves to carry information, such as sound, by systematically modulating some property of electromagnetic energy waves transmitted through space, such as their amplitude, frequency, phase, or pulse width.[n 1] 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.
Radio systems need a transmitter to modulate (change) some property of the energy produced to impress a signal on it, for example using amplitude modulation or angle modulation (which can be frequency modulation or phase modulation). Radio systems also need an antenna to convert electric currents into radio waves, and vice versa. An antenna can be used for both transmitting and receiving.
The electrical resonance of tuned circuits in radios allow individual stations to be selected. The electromagnetic wave is intercepted by a tuned receiving antenna. A radio receiver receives its input from an antenna and converts it into a form usable for the consumer, such as sound, pictures, digital data, measurement values, navigational positions, etc.[2] Radio frequencies occupy the range from a 3 kHz to 300 GHz, although commercially important uses of radio use only a small part of this spectrum.[3]
A radio communication system sends signals by radio.[4] 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.[5]
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Etymology
The term "radio" is derived from the Latin word "radius", meaning "spoke of a wheel, beam of light, ray". It was first applied to communications in 1881 when, at the suggestion of French scientist Ernest Mercadier, Alexander Graham Bell adopted "radiophone" (meaning "radiated sound") as an alternate name for his photophone optical transmission system.[6] However this invention would not be widely adopted.
Following Heinrich Hertz's establishment of the existence of electromagnetic radiation in the late 1880s, a variety of terms were initially used for the phenomenon, with early descriptions of the radiation itself including "Hertzian waves", "electric waves", and "ether waves", while phrases describing its use in communications included "spark telegraphy", "space telegraphy", "aerography" and, eventually and most commonly, "wireless telegraphy".
However, "wireless" included a broad variety of related electronic technologies, including electrostatic induction, electromagnetic induction and aquatic and earth conduction, so there was a need for a more precise term referring exclusively to electromagnetic radiation.
The first use of radio- in conjunction with electromagnetic radiation appears to have been by French physicist Édouard Branly, who in 1890 developed a version of a coherer receiver he called a radio-conducteur.[7] The radio- prefix was later used to form additional descriptive compound and hyphenated words, especially in Europe, for example, in early 1898 the British publication The Practical Engineer included a reference to "the radiotelegraph" and "radiotelegraphy",[8] while the French text of both the 1903 and 1906 Berlin Radiotelegraphic Conventions includes the phrases radiotélégraphique and radiotélégrammes.
The use of "radio" as a standalone word dates back to at least December 30, 1904, when instructions issued by the British Post Office for transmitting telegrams specified that "The word 'Radio'... is sent in the Service Instructions".[9] This practice was universally adopted, and the word "radio" introduced internationally, by the 1906 Berlin Radiotelegraphic Convention, which included a Service Regulation specifying that "Radiotelegrams shall show in the preamble that the service is 'Radio'".
The switch to "radio" in place of "wireless" took place slowly and unevenly in the English-speaking world. Lee de Forest helped popularize the new word in the United States—in early 1907 he founded the DeForest Radio Telephone Company, and his letter in the June 22, 1907 Electrical World about the need for legal restrictions warned that "Radio chaos will certainly be the result until such stringent regulation is enforced".[10] The United States Navy would also play a role.
Although its translation of the 1906 Berlin Convention used the terms "wireless telegraph" and "wireless telegram", by 1912 it began to promote the use of "radio" instead. The term started to become preferred by the general public in the 1920s with the introduction of broadcasting. ("Broadcasting" is based upon an agricultural term meaning roughly "scattering seeds widely".) British Commonwealth countries continued to commonly use the term "wireless" until the mid-20th century, though the magazine of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the UK has been called Radio Times since its founding in the early 1920s.
In recent years the more general term "wireless" has gained renewed popularity, even for devices using electromagnetic radiation, 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 cell phones. Today, the term "radio" specifies the transceiver device or chip, whereas "wireless" refers to the lack of physical connections; thus equipment employs embedded radio transceivers, but operates as wireless devices over wireless sensor networks.
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History
Main article: History of radio
In 1864 James Clerk Maxwell showed mathematically that electromagnetic waves could propagate through free space.[16] The effects of electromagnetic waves (then-unexplained "action at a distance" sparking behavior) were actually observed before and after Maxwell's work by many inventors and experimenters including Luigi Galvani (1791), Peter Samuel Munk (1835), Joseph Henry (1842), Samuel Alfred Varley (1852), Edwin Houston, Elihu Thomson, Thomas Edison (1875) and David Edward Hughes (1878).[17][18][19] Edison gave the effect the name "etheric force"[20] and Hughes detected a spark impulse up to 500 yards (460 m) with a portable receiver, but none could identify what caused the phenomenon and it was usually written off as electromagnetic induction.[21]
In 1886 Heinrich Rudolf Hertz noticed the same sparking phenomenon and, in published experiments (1887-1888), was able to demonstrate the existence of electromagnetic waves in an experiment confirming Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism. The discovery of these "Hertzian waves" (radio waves) prompted many experiments by physicists. An August 1894 lecture by the British physicist Oliver Lodge, where he transmitted and received "Hertzian waves" at distances up to 50 meters, was followed up a year later with experiments by Indian physicist Jagadish Bose in radio microwave optics and construction of a radio based lightning detector by Russian physicist Alexander Stepanovich Popov.
Starting in late 1894, Guglielmo Marconi began pursuing the idea of building a wireless telegraphy system based on Hertzian waves (radio). Marconi gained a patent on the system in 1896 and developed it into a commercial communication system over the next few years.[22]
Early 20th century radio systems transmitted messages by continuous wave code only. Early attempts at developing a system of amplitude modulation for voice and music were demonstrated in 1900 and 1906, but had little success. World War I accelerated the development of radio for military communications, and in this era the first vacuum tubes were applied to radio transmitters and receivers. Electronic amplification was a key development in changing radio from an experimental practice by experts into a home appliance. After the war, commercial radio broadcasting began in the 1920s and became an important mass medium for entertainment and news.
World War II again accelerated development of radio for the wartime purposes of aircraft and land communication, radio navigation and radar. After the war, the experiments in television that had been interrupted were resumed, and it also became an important home entertainment medium.
Uses of radio
For a broader coverage related to this topic, see Radio spectrum § Applications.
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,[23] 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.
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Multimedia:
Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio (1992) by Ken Burns, PBS documentary based on the 1991 book, Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio by Tom Lewis, 1st ed., New York : E. Burlingame Books, ISBN 0-06-018215-6
http://www.amazon.com/Rebels-Air-Alternative-History-America/dp/0814793827