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How Does a Radio Work

Gaynor Borade
At the turn of the last century, what began as a KDKA broadcast from Pennsylvania, resulted in a radio craze for a product of the 'mass market'.
The radio is a modern wonder that still entertains and keeps us abreast of current affairs. The technology incorporated is rife with transmission variations...
The radio is a modern electronic wonder. The fervor of the 1920s continues to this day. Although the basic receivers have changed to sleeker avatars, the awe and intrigue around this 24 hour entertainment medium continues. The radio remains an electronic benchmark in more than one ways.
The first radio station at Chicago, set up in 1921, by the Westinghouse Manufacturing Company, initiated a trend that countries across the globe soon followed. Broadcasts remain pretty similar even today, including popular music, commentaries on sporting events, lectures, newscasts, weather reports, and fiscal market updates.
The radio is rightly adjudged as an ethnic connection between various communities and interests. Today, a number of radio stations compete for air-time and listeners, offering listeners a public service that is not only affordable, but also portable.

The Mechanism
The basic design of a radio works around the transmission of modulated electromagnetic waves. The frequencies are adjusted to those of visible light, to accommodate electromagnetic radiation, traveling along electromagnetic fields that oscillate.
The technology capitalizes on these electromagnetic fields that are an integral part of our unique ionosphere. These fields pass through the vacuum of space, carrying along broadcast information.
Through systematic modulation of the radiated waves, the resultant frequency and amplitude generate an electrical conduction, infused with alternating current. The waves are finally transformed back into sound, aired by the dedicated instrument.
Radiotelegraphy or wireless telegraphy was first recorded by Édouard Branly, a French physicist, in 1897. The term 'radio' was coined from the Latin word 'radius', which means 'wheel-spoke' or 'ray'.
Today, the use of short-range computer networking like that incorporated in the Wireless Local Area Network or WLAN, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi technologies, relates to a transceiver device more than a system. The radio comprises a design that is developed for communication purposes. The integrated components include:

Transmitter

The transmitter is a source of electricity that produces alternating current of a predetermined oscillation frequency. This component is capable of modulating energy to produce a signal. The modulation activates amplitude, frequency, or a combination of properties. The modulated energy is transmitted to an antenna.

Transmitting Antenna

The antenna is a structure designed and configured, at source-point, to convert the alternating current into electromagnetic waves. These waves are then allowed, or rather directed, through free space. The direction is along a predetermined and altered path that is defined by reflection, diffraction, or refraction.
In the course of the path, due to geometric dispersion, the intensity of the electromagnetic waves diminishes. The waves are intervened by natural sources, as well as artificial sources.

Receiving Antenna

The receiving antenna is the device, at end point, that intercepts the electromagnetic waves. The energy is captured and some of it 'bounces' as oscillating electrical currents.
The receiving antenna demodulates the electric currents received and converts them into usable signals. The inbuilt detector subsystem enables tuning of the receiving antenna, responding preferentially to the signals desired.
The design remains the same even today, though in a more sophisticated and versatile form. Large components are now chips and microchips. The earlier versions relied entirely on the antenna-captured energy waves, to produce the desired signals.
Today, there are specially designed electronic components that contribute to the multiple and controversial commercialization of radio.