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THE WIRELESS ENGINEER A ND EXPERIMENTAL WIRELESS VOL. XI. JANUARY, 1934. No. 124 Editorials What is Demodulation? to a non-military condition, and not the collection of the military elements for use. IN our correspondence columns we. publish Similarly, if we turn to a dictionary for a letter from a Canadian reader with examples, we find decarbonise, to deprive reference to the regrettable fact that the of carbon ; dechristianise, to destroy Chris- word " demodulation " is used by different tian elements ; deconsecrate, to deprive in people two entirely different senses. Our of the character given by consecration ; correspondent plumps for the American depopulate, to deprive of population ; and usage, and it may be that there is something so on. In every case the idea is that of the to say for it, but we certainly do not agree restoration or conversion to a different that " demodulation here has its logical condition by the removal or destruction of meaning as related to modulation." In our something. In this country demodulation opinion the American use of the word to is used in this sense, viz.: the partial or mean detection or rectification is a misuse entire removal or suppression of the modu- of the word ; it may be a convenient misuse ; lation, thus restoring the carrier more or it is certainly a very common one in America. less to its original unmodulated condition. Starting from an unmodulated high -fre- If one wanted to use the water which was quency carrier, it is modulated by causing absorbed in a body one would speak of its amplitude to vary. What would anyone extracting the water and not of dehydrating whose judgment had not been warped by the body ; the latter expression would give continual use of the word in a special sense an entirely wrong idea. In our opinion understand by the demodulation of this it is equally wrong and misleading to refer modulated carrier ? Surely the restoration to a valve as a demodulating valve when its to the previous unmodulated state, either function is to extract and pass on the wholly or in part. When an ionised space modulating element from the modulated is said to have been de -ionised one merely carrier, the carrier itself being generally means that the space has been restored to its destroyed. If " rectifier " is undesirable- un -ionised condition, and, generally speaking, and our correspondent appear_, to dislike one does not care what has become of the it in spite of the time-honoured grid -leak ions. When a State is demilitarised, one and anode -bend rectifiers-and it is thought thinks only of the restoration of the State necessary to include the term " modulation," January, '934 2 THE WIRELESS ENGINEER & we would suggest that our American friends correspondent for twenty years. If it is should find something equivalent to " modu- true, or even if there is any truth whatever lation extractor," and leave the word in it, it is a very important matter which " demodulator " for that which really de- calls for immediate investigation. There modulates in the proper sense of the term. should now be available ample data to It would be wrong, however, to assume that prove or disprove the truth of the statement. everybody in America uses the term in Field strength measurements have been preference to " detection" or "rectification." made on many transmitting aerials and it In Radio Engineering, by Terman of Stanford should he a relatively simple matter for University, the word " Demodulation " is to broadcasting authorities to compare measure- be found in the index, but with the reference ments made after one or two years' operation results obtained when the aerial ; the ' ` see Detectors " and it is as Detectors with that they are described in the text. Our was undergoing its preliminary tests. If correspondent is probably correct as to the these investigations show any appreciable date of the coining of the term demodulation. variation in the radiating efficiency of the It is not mentioned in Morecroft's Principles aerial we shall be very surprised, and we of Radio Engineering published in 1921. shall certainly be faced with a problem which will merit the serious attention of all broadcasting organisations. Our corres- The Earth Resistance of pondent does not say whether he suspects Transmitting Aerials the aerial current of falling away from its IN this issue we publish a letter from a initial value-which would be detected by correspondent suggesting that trans- means of an aerial ammeter or whether mitting stations deteriorate rapidly after he thinks that the earth becomes so poisoned commencing operations, and that within that the radiation for a given aerial current a short time the signals which were originally is reduced. Such points can safely be left loud fade away until they can only he heard until we know if there is any objective with difficulty. This is referred to as a experimental support for the alleged pheno- phenomenon which has been known to our menon. G. W. O. H. The new German short-wave centre at Zeesen, near Berlin, with directional aerial " arrays" for transmission to North and South America, South Africa and the Far East. An omni-directional service is also provided for. EXPERIMENTAL. WIRELESS 3 January, 1934 Ultra -short Radio Waves * Refraction in the Lower Atmosphere By R. L. Smith -Rose, D.Sc., Ph.D., A.M.LE.E., and J. S. McPetrie, B.Sc., A.M.I.E.E. (The National Physical Laboratory) ABSTRACT.-This paper considers some aspects of the problem of the refraction of electric waves in the lower atmosphere due to the variation of density of the air with altitude. As a result of this refraction the path of waves between a transmitter and receiver is curved in a manner concave to the earth's surface. It is shown that for average atmospheric con- ditions the radius of curvature of this path is about six times the radius of the earth. The effective maximum range between a transmitter and receiver using waves following such a curved path is calculated for different heights of the two stations, and is shown to be materially greater than the maximum range obtainable assuming that the waves employed follow a straight line tangential to the earth's surface. A summary of previous work is given and particular attention is drawn to the experi- mental evidence on wavelengths between 0.5 and 8 metres indicating possible communication ranges of nearly fifty per cent. in excess of those determined by the rectilinear or optical path.t On the basis of the calculations made in this paper, it appears that the curvature of the waves by refraction is not sufficient to explain some of the experimental results. The phenomenon of fading, which was encountered in some of the experiments, is explicable, however, as the result of convection currents in the air causing a variation in the refractive index. The possible contribution of diffraction effects around the curvature of the earth is mentioned, but is not considered in any detail. I. General transmitter, elevated to 2,460 feet, would CnNSIDERABLE interest has been pass tangentially along the earth's surface, aroused recently as the result of success- and then on to the receiver at an altitude of ful experiments demonstrating the 1,115 feet.$ It was evident, therefore, that application of electric waves of less than one the waves from the transmitter were subject metre in wavelength to practical radio to a considerable deviation, which allowed communication. In March, 1931, a demon- them to bend round the earth's surface. stration was given by the International This deviation could be produced either by Telephone and Telegraph Laboratories of optical diffraction of the waves round the radio communication across the English curvature of the earth, or by the refraction Channel on a wavelength of about 17 cm.1 of the waves in passing through the lower More recently, Marconi' has obtained com- regions of the atmosphere. It is the purpose of of munication on a wavelength of 50 cms. over this paper to discuss some aspects the distances up to 168 miles from a transmitter latter possibility. near Rome and a receiver situated on the of by Path island of Sardinia. In each of these experi- II. Limitation Range Rectilinear ments reflectors were used at the trans- If the waves from a transmitter T in Fig. i mitting end to concentrate the radiation into are restricted to rectilinear paths then the a beam, and a similar reflector was used at maximum range obtainable will be TR1, the receiving end to improve the efficiency where R1 is the point at which the tangent of the whole system. A feature of Marconi's TR1R2 touches the earth's surface. The experiment which attracted attention was distance d1 between transmitter and re- that the range obtained (168 miles) was in ceiver is commonly referred to as the maxi- excess of the maximum distance (about 107 miles) at which a straight line from the $ In the lecture by Marchese Marconi, the optical range as determined by this rectilinear path was * MS. accepted by the Editor, March, 1933. given as only 72 miles, which is inconsistent with the t Since the writing of this paper, the above heights of transmitter (75o m.) and receiver (34o m.) communication ranges have been considerably described. (See I 'orld Radio, December 30th, extended. 1932, p. 1,380.) January, 1934 4 THE WIRELESS ENGINEER & mum range obtainable by the so-called ments an experimental radio channel was optical path. At points within the range installed in 1929 to link up Corsica with the TR, reception will be possible by means of French land -line telephone system.