Amplitude Modulation vs Frequency Modulation
AM with FM edit Pros and Cons of AM vs FM
The advantages of AM radio are that it is relatively easy to detect with simple equipment, even if the signal is not very strong. The other advantage is that it has a narrower bandwidth than FM, and wider coverage compared with FM radio. The major disadvantage of AM is that the signal is affected by electrical storms and other radio frequency interference. Also, although the radio transmitters can transmit sound waves of frequency up to 15 kHz, most receivers are able to reproduce frequencies only up to 5kHz or less. Wideband FM was invented to specifically overcome the interference disadvantage of AM radio.
A distinct advantage that FM has over AM is that FM radio has better sound quality than AM radio. The disadvantage of FM signal is that it is more local and cannot be transmitted over long distance. Thus, it may take more FM radio stations to cover a large area. Moreover, the presence of tall buildings or land masses may limit the coverage and quality of FM. Thirdly, FM requires a fairly complicated receiver and transmitter than AM signal. edit Popularity
FM radio became popular in the 1980s and by the 1990s most music stations switched from AM and adopted FM due to better sound quality. This trend was seen in America and most of the countries in Europe, and slowly FM channels exceeded AM channels. Today, speech broadcasting (such as talk and news channels) still prefers to use AM, while music channels are solely FM. edit Technical Details
AM was initially developed for telephone communication. For radio communication, a continuous wave radio signal called double sideband amplitude modulation (DSB-AM) was produced. A sideband is a band of frequencies higher (called upper sideband) or lower (called lower sideband) than the carrier frequencies which is a result of modulation. All forms of modulations produce sidebands. In DSB-AM the carrier and both USB and LSB are present. The power usage in this system proved
The advantages of AM radio are that it is relatively easy to detect with simple equipment, even if the signal is not very strong. The other advantage is that it has a narrower bandwidth than FM, and wider coverage compared with FM radio. The major disadvantage of AM is that the signal is affected by electrical storms and other radio frequency interference. Also, although the radio transmitters can transmit sound waves of frequency up to 15 kHz, most receivers are able to reproduce frequencies only up to 5kHz or less. Wideband FM was invented to specifically overcome the interference disadvantage of AM radio.
A distinct advantage that FM has over AM is that FM radio has better sound quality than AM radio. The disadvantage of FM signal is that it is more local and cannot be transmitted over long distance. Thus, it may take more FM radio stations to cover a large area. Moreover, the presence of tall buildings or land masses may limit the coverage and quality of FM. Thirdly, FM requires a fairly complicated receiver and transmitter than AM signal. edit Popularity
FM radio became popular in the 1980s and by the 1990s most music stations switched from AM and adopted FM due to better sound quality. This trend was seen in America and most of the countries in Europe, and slowly FM channels exceeded AM channels. Today, speech broadcasting (such as talk and news channels) still prefers to use AM, while music channels are solely FM. edit Technical Details
AM was initially developed for telephone communication. For radio communication, a continuous wave radio signal called double sideband amplitude modulation (DSB-AM) was produced. A sideband is a band of frequencies higher (called upper sideband) or lower (called lower sideband) than the carrier frequencies which is a result of modulation. All forms of modulations produce sidebands. In DSB-AM the carrier and both USB and LSB are present. The power usage in this system proved