Showing posts with label receivers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label receivers. Show all posts

October 12, 2009

Transceivers


The world has become a global village because of the advancement in the two way radio communication systems. Anyone living in the remotest part of the world can share his knowledge or information within seconds with the rest of the world. The electronic media is growing in leaps and bounds and we cannot even imagine what a life our ancestors have been leading, without electricity, mobiles or the internet. All these gadgets and gizmos have become a part of our lives so much so that our kids feel it is a very important part of their communications. Any form of communication medium needs a receiver and a transmitter. But a transceiver can do the job of both the transmitter and the receiver.

What is actually the job of the transceiver? How can it be useful with the two way radio communication systems? A transceiver combines into a common circuitry both the receiver and the transmitter, and this term came into process from the 1920’s. When the transceivers don’t have a common circuitry it is called transmitter-receiver. But technically speaking every transceiver must have part of both the receiver and transmitter. There are other similar devices like transverters, repeaters and transponders. One best example of a transceiver is the mobile phone wherein the whole unit contains the transceiver, whereas the normal telephone has wired receiver and transmitter in its handset.

A modem and cordless telephones are also best examples of the transceivers. Cable or optical fiber systems also use these devices. In a radio the transceivers role is imperative. The receiver goes into silent mode while transmitting. The switch of the radio connects both the receiver and transmitter to the antenna which in turn stops the transmitter from damaging the receiver. In this so called half duplex mode receiving signals is not possible while transmitting as both the functions are done in the same frequency.

In the full duplex mode the transceivers can transmit and receive signals at the same time, as they operate on totally two different frequencies. In this case both the signals do not intercept one another. This full duplex mode is what is used in cellular and cordless phones. Almost all satellite dependant communication systems use the full duplex mode of transceivers. In this case the transmitted signal to the satellite is otherwise known as uplink and the received signal from the satellite is called the downlink. Many different types of transceivers are being invented tested and used from time to time.

The cost of the transceivers depends upon its usage and capability to handle the amount of work transmitted and received. Whatever the price the role of transceivers in two way radio communication systems is imperative. Today most of the people cannot live without their mobiles and they find it hard to use fixed landline telephones. The telephone operators introduce cordless, wireless phones for customer friendly feature and this is best made use of by the customers. In today’s fast world transceivers enabled devices are user friendly, powerful and performance driven. Newer technologies will enhance the user experience more and more in future.

September 30, 2009

Communication Systems: Microwave Receivers


There are simply a variety of receivers out there that has many uses. One receiver type that comes to my mind that I think I need to discuss is the Microwave Receivers, it is a common receiver that is used to amplify weak signals that antennas, radios or any communication systems gather. So, basically Microwave Receivers is all about gathering weak signals or in some terms weak frequencies to make ends meet in broadcasting. Most people take a swing at it because they claim that the name itself confuses them. Microwave Receivers can be a funny name for a receiver because we have the common knowledge that a Microwave is an oven that we use at home to cook meals and mixing it with a technical term like receiver paints an awkward picture on people’s minds. So, I am here to further discuss some few things regarding Microwave Receivers.

First and foremost as I have defined in the early parts of this article, Microwave Receivers are receivers that amplify or modify signals that it gathers from basic communication and broadcasting systems or gadgets. It gives the reception a stronger impulse thus making the signal or frequency stronger. Some people might not understand this but it is really a device which makes your signals stronger.

Learning more about Microwave Receivers, you also need to know more about receiver terminologies such as baseband frequency, or when the receiver uses a mixer, you need to know something about RF, IF and LO frequencies etc. Well, to tell you the truth it isn’t really required to study most of them as long as you have an idea what they are. Microwave Receivers is commonly used these days because most technology or communication systems rely heavily on signals.

The internet technology for example uses broadband connection, in order to make the signals stronger and more reliable, microwave receivers come in to play to amplify it, WiFi signals and others also require microwave receivers to help them have a better distribution of frequency or signal. It is basically an important part of today’s communication engineering. Most microwave engineers tackle the importance of knowing more about these receivers in order for people to further have a broad understanding not only about microwave receivers and also how it operates. The distribution of signals to most locations can be limited, like in broadcasting for satellite dishes it doesn’t really gives you a big clear picture once the signal is relatively weak, so what happen is microwave receivers comes to the scene to give you a clearer picture.

We all need to be at least aware on what microwave receivers do, so that we would be knowledgeable on how things work around our communication systems. The realm of engineering can be really broad depending on what you need to know. Microwave Receivers should not be taken for granted and/or snubbed. We need to make our own understanding in certain terminologies that affect our everyday lives and technology such as microwave receivers¸ we need to be well informed so that we know what we are dealing with in our own communication systems.