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88 MHz – 108 MHz Frequency Modulation Radio Transmitter Module Board for
Emergency Broadcast
Submitted by:
Ariel Papares
Instructor
CHAPTER 1
Introduction and Background
Introduction
The circuit has three main stages, the input stage, the modulation stage, and the output. The
input stage consists of capacitors C3 and C1, and resistor R1. Input signals into the FM transmitter
must not contain a DC component as it would adversely affect the modulation/oscillation stage (by
saturating the transistor) and therefore no FM signal would be generated. C3 is used to couple the
input signal so that no DC component is fed into the transmitter. R1 provides biasing for the
transistor by feeding a small amount of current into the base (which prevents the transistor from
turning off).
The next stage is the modulation/oscillation stage which provides a carrier signal which is
then modulated by the input signal. The oscillator consists of C2, L1, C4 and R2 with the frequency
of oscillation being determined by C2 and L1 only. When power is applied to the circuit, a rush of
current flows through the inductor. This rush of current will also pass through C4 via capacitive
coupling which will result in current flowing through R2. Current flowing through R2 will result
in a voltage drop across R2 and since R2 is connected to the emitter of Q1, the same voltage will
be present on the emitter of Q1. This increase in voltage on the emitter therefore results in a smaller
value of Vbe and this reduction in Vbe reduces the conduction of Q1. As C4 begins to charge the
amount of current flowing through C4 reduces which results in less current flowing through R2.
When this happens the voltage across R2 reduces which increases the size of Vbe and therefore
increases the conduction of Q1. This increase in conduction results in C4 discharging and the
Between the base – emitter, base – collector, and collector – base, are parasitic capacitances whose
capacitance value depends on the base current. By altering the base current these values change as
well and since the oscillation in the circuit is dependent on all capacitors and inductors in the LC
tank, the parasitic capacitances also affect the frequency of oscillation. Therefore, by changing the
base current you change the frequency of the oscillation which is how the FM (frequency
Emitting the FM signal is done by AE1 which is a long piece of wire. The modulated signal
is fed into the antenna which helps to transmit the EM waves generated by the current as it
oscillates.
This Capstone Project aimed to create an 88 MHz – 108 Mhz FM Transmitter Module
Board for Emergency Broadcast: specifically, it requires answering the following questions:
1. What are the factors that affect the transmission of signal as to:
a) Electronic Interference
b) Bandwidth
c) Channel
d) Human Intervention
a) Human
b) Electronic Devices
c) Technical Equipment
3. What are the possible strategy that may be recommended to improve the signal of the
transmitter?
The primary purpose of the project is to understand the operation of basic wireless
practice. During the hardware implementation, practical skills such as soldering, printed circuit
board (PCB) implementation and circuit testing can be enhanced. This project will definitely help
people mostly for those who are in areas that is prone to danger, as it activates the communication
process that can reach (one-fourth) ¼ to (one) 1 mile radius; the idea of it gives increasing rate
of possibility to get people to help immediately. The project’s goal is designed to improve the
survivability rate of people who are in absolute danger, especially within a danger zone caused by
natural calamities that sometimes become unexpected. It may also be an alternative device to use
that can transmit message effortlessly and immediately even if the cause of danger is made
intentionally. For the researchers, the most significant thing in the project itself is that it may
greatly help them uncover life-and-death situations and its flexibility as it is applicable to people
volcanic eruption, that affects Filipinos in so many ways like economic crisis, destruction of
properties and specially causing them and their families to suffer. The researchers believe that by
making the 88 MHz – 108 MHz Frequency Modulation Radio Transmitter Module Board for
Emergency Broadcast can minimize casualties in such areas affected by calamities. By using this
device, it can broadcast messages through specific frequency to inform government officials or
authorities like the police, barangay officials, radio stations, or even people with radios available
on their cellular phones or just the literal radio powered by dry cells. It can help to deliver message
easily even without electricity in the specific place. Rescue operations can easily pinpoint where
the victim is and the chances of saving lives would be increased. It can also be used to spread
announcements from government officials for upcoming calamity that will affect a certain
location. Disseminating information would not be a problem when the proposed device is applied.
between if there is a significant relationship between the FM Transmitter toward the environment
where the signal is transmitted. Furthermore, recommendations evolving from the result of this
Students. This transmitter module is a lightweight and pocketsize device that students can bring
wherever and whenever they want to. The main function of this device is to transmit information
in times of shortage of electricity and stored energy which empower communication applicable
during natural disasters. Also, the students could use this Capstone Project in creating a better
project or device in relation with the concept of this project. It would be handy for those students
who are taking electronics subject who are capable of modifying and/or enhancing for better
functions.
Community. This Capstone Project aimed to create a simple FM Transmitter for the community.
It would help the community in times of emergency by transmitting a message through the use of
FM Transmitter improving the poor communication that happens every time during typhoon in
example that causes power interruption. It would also be useful in everyday lives by transmitting
phones or the common radio. This would enhance specifically the rate of speed on spreading
Future Researchers. This Capstone Project would serve as a reference or guide for those who
wanted to study a little bit deeper. It would help them in getting an idea about creating their own
FM Transmitter and how it can effectively be a tool in saving lives of people. Furthermore, it
would really help the future researchers in the field of communication, especially those who
This chapter presents the review of related literature which guided the researchers in the
conduct of this project. The literature would be taken from the relevant materials to give the
necessary background, insight and to supplement the ideas in the present investigation. The
tremendous speed of technological innovations required that the students keep pace to the present
day changes. And another decade of the same trend is already detrimental to the educational
development of students.
Related literature
The first primitive radio transmitters (called Hertzian oscillators) were built by German physicist Heinrich
Hertzin 1887 during his pioneering investigations of radio waves. These generated radio waves by a high voltage
spark between two conductors. Theses park-gap transmitters were used during the first three decades of radio (1887-
1917), called the wireless telegraphy era. Short-lived competing techniques came into use after the turn of the
century, such as the Alexanderson alternator and Poulsen Arc transmitters. But all these early technologies were
replaced by vacuum tube transmitters in the 1920s, because they were inexpensive and produced continuous
waves, which could be modulated to transmit audio (sound) using amplitude modulation(AM) and frequency
modulation (FM). This made possible commercial radio broadcasting , which began about1920. The development
of radar before and during World War 2 was a great stimulus to the evolution of high frequency transmitters in the
UHF and microwave ranges, using new devices such as the magnetron and traveling wave tube .In recent years,
the need to conserve crowded radio spectrum bandwidth has driven the development of new types of transmitters
power and range. Extremely low-power transmitters can be used in very small locales, for purposes
such as eavesdropping. At the high end, radio transmitters are sometimes used for propaganda and
psychological warfare through broadcasting. Between these extremes are the low-power radio
transmitters, capable of making every user a broadcaster that have long been an issue of concern
Mini transmitters, which have a range of about 50 feet (15.2 m), are available commercially to
serve purposes such as that of a baby monitor, but are easily adapted for eavesdropping as well.
Although they are capable of operating anywhere on the FM dial, from 88 to 108 MHz, the
recommended range for most of these is 88 to 95 MHz, where there is least likely to be interference.
Low-power FM transmitters, with a range of 100 to 400 feet (30.5–122m), make it possible to
transmit voices over a greater distance, and are applied commercially for purposes such as listening
Both mini and low-power FM transmitters have such limited power—less than 1 watt—
that they pose no concern to communications regulators. On the other hand, high-power or
power—theoretically have the capacity to make anyone a radio broadcaster. This could pose
serious concerns with regard to interference and communication jamming, and by 1998, the
availability of FM transmitters forced the FCC to at least consider the idea of legalizing low-power
transmission. The concept has been under consideration for some time, but many would-be
broadcasters are as likely to choose the Internet as a simpler, non-interfering environment in which
the federal government for the purposes of winning over local populations. In February, 2002, a
year before the administration of President George W. Bush launched Operation Iraqi Freedom, it
provided assistance to the opposition Iraqi National Congress as it began transmitting from the
Kurdish-dominated north of Iraq on the FM dial. The United States already broadcast on short-
wave radio into Iraq, but FM is both more popular and harder to jam than short-wave or AM
(ampere modulation).
Related Study
electromagnetic fields (RF-EMFs) from broadcast transmitters (radio and television transmitters)
have been hypothesized to cause childhood cancer, although a biological mechanism has not been
identified for low exposure levels (1, 2). The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)
has classified RF-EMFs as “possibly carcinogenic to humans (group 2B)” based on positive
associations between glioma and acoustic neuroma and exposure to RF-EMFs from wireless
telephones (3). Regarding studies on the possible association between cancer and exposure to RF-
EMFs from fixed-site transmitters, the IARC Working Group found the available evidence
The output power of broadcast transmitters can be high, in order to cover large
geographical areas. Thus, they are spaced far apart, and field levels can be relatively high in the
these sources is less vulnerable to exposure misclassification than that for other environmental RF-
EMF sources such as mobile-phone base stations, which display a much higher spatial variation
(4, 5). High spatial heterogeneity is a challenge for modeling but also for exposure assignment,
Most previous studies on this topic used an ecological design, and leukemia rates were
significance in some (6–9) but not all (10–12) studies. However, lack of individual exposure data
and lack of confounding adjustment limits interpretation. Further, some of these ecological studies
were based on small sample sizes and were initiated because of previous cluster reports. Recently,
the results of 2 more informative large case-control studies with individual exposure assessment
based on modeling were published (13–15). A South Korean study (13, 14) with 1,928 childhood
leukemia cases and an equal number of matched hospital-based controls found no association
between childhood leukemia risk and the average predicted field strengths from 31 amplitude-
modulation (AM) radio transmitters. However, children living within 2 km of the transmitters had
a relative risk of 2.15 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.00, 4.67) for all types of leukemia compared
with children living more than 20 km away. The other large case-control study (15), conducted in
included 1,959 leukemia cases and 3 population-based controls per case, matched on age, sex, and
transmitter area. That study found no indication for an association between RF-EMFs and
childhood leukemia.
The aim of our study was to investigate, within a prospective, census-based cohort study
design, the association between RF-EMF exposure from broadcast transmitters and childhood
cancer, particularly leukemia and tumors of the central nervous system (CNS).
A team of Columbia Engineering researchers, led by Mechanical Engineering
Professor James Hone and Electrical Engineering Professor Kenneth Shepard, has taken
and created a nano-mechanical system that can create FM signals, in effect the world’s smallest
FM radio transmitter. The study is published online on November 17, in Nature Nanotechnology.
achieved using conventional materials,” Hone says. “And it’s an important first step in advancing
wireless signal processing and designing ultrathin, efficient cell phones. Our devices are much
smaller than any other sources of radio signals, and can be put on the same chip that’s used for
data processing.”
Graphene, a single atomic layer of carbon, is the strongest material known to man, and also
has electrical properties superior to the silicon used to make the chips found in modern electronics.
The combination of these properties makes graphene an ideal material for nanoelectromechanical
(MEMS) used widely for sensing of vibration and acceleration. For example, Hone explains,
MEMS sensors figure out how your smartphone or tablet is tilted to rotate the screen.
In this new study, the team took advantage of graphene’s mechanical ‘stretchability’ to
tune the output frequency of their custom oscillator, creating a nanomechanical version of an
electronic component known as a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO). With a VCO, explains
Hone, it is easy to generate a frequency-modulated (FM) signal, exactly what is used for FM radio
broadcasting. The team built a graphene NEMS whose frequency was about 100 megahertz, which
lies right in the middle of the FM radio band (87.7 to 108 MHz). They used low-frequency musical
signals (both pure tones and songs from an iPhone) to modulate the 100 MHz carrier signal from
the graphene, and then retrieved the musical signals again using an ordinary FM radio receiver.
“This device is by far the smallest system that can create such FM signals,” says Hone.
While graphene NEMS will not be used to replace conventional radio transmitters, they have many
applications in wireless signal processing. Explains Shepard, “Due to the continuous shrinking of
electrical circuits known as ‘Moore’s Law’, today’s cell phones have more computing power than
systems that used to occupy entire rooms. However, some types of devices, particularly those
involved in creating and processing radio-frequency signals, are much harder to miniaturize. These
‘off-chip’ components take up a lot of space and electrical power. In addition, most of these
components cannot be easily tuned in frequency, requiring multiple copies to cover the range of
James Hone and Electrical Engineering Professor Kenneth Shepard, has taken advantage of
nano-mechanical system that can create FM signals, in effect the world’s smallest FM radio
achieved using conventional materials,” Hone says. “And it’s an important first step in advancing
wireless signal processing and designing ultrathin, efficient cell phones. Our devices are much
smaller than any other sources of radio signals, and can be put on the same chip that’s used for
data processing.”
Graphene, a single atomic layer of carbon, is the strongest material known to man, and also has
electrical properties superior to the silicon used to make the chips found in modern electronics.
The combination of these properties makes graphene an ideal material for nanoelectromechanical
(MEMS) used widely for sensing of vibration and acceleration. For example, Hone explains,
MEMS sensors figure out how your smartphone or tablet is tilted to rotate the screen.
In this new study, the team took advantage of graphene’s mechanical ‘stretchability’ to
tune the output frequency of their custom oscillator, creating a nanomechanical version of an
electronic component known as a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO). With a VCO, explains
Hone, it is easy to generate a frequency-modulated (FM) signal, exactly what is used for FM radio
broadcasting. The team built a graphene NEMS whose frequency was about 100 megahertz, which
lies right in the middle of the FM radio band (87.7 to 108 MHz). They used low-frequency musical
signals (both pure tones and songs from an iPhone) to modulate the 100 MHz carrier signal from
the graphene, and then retrieved the musical signals again using an ordinary FM radio receiver.
“This device is by far the smallest system that can create such FM signals,” says Hone.
While graphene NEMS will not be used to replace conventional radio transmitters, they have many
applications in wireless signal processing. Explains Shepard, “Due to the continuous shrinking of
electrical circuits known as ‘Moore’s Law’, today’s cell phones have more computing power than
systems that used to occupy entire rooms. However, some types of devices, particularly those
involved in creating and processing radio-frequency signals, are much harder to miniaturize. These
‘off-chip’ components take up a lot of space and electrical power. In addition, most of these
components cannot be easily tuned in frequency, requiring multiple copies to cover the range of
other types of electronics, and their frequency can be tuned over a wide range because of
“There is a long way to go toward actual applications in this area,” notes Hone, “but this
work is an important first step. We are excited to have demonstrated successfully how this wonder
rewarding to us as engineers.”
The Hone and Shepard groups are now working on improving the performance of the
graphene oscillators to have lower noise. At the same time, they are also trying to demonstrate
integration of graphene NEMS with silicon integrated circuits, making the oscillator design even
more compact. For this study, the team worked with research groups from the School’s
supported by Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship 2012 and the U.S. Air Force, using facilities at
the Cornell Nano-Scale Facility and the Center for Engineering and Physical Science Research
Base on the study of Remixing Benjamin, the relation between radio and its public has
always been based on a mutual act of faith: radio does not know its listeners, it never saw them
and, for a long time, it never heard from them. Radio and its listeners have always been strangers
to each other. Listeners never knew who the voices on the radio belonged to. The radio and its
audience believe in each other without knowing each other. For a long time, until phone calls from
listeners were introduced (in Italy this happened in 1969 with the programme Chiamate Roma
3131), the audience could only listen to the radio, without ever participating. Before the telephone,
the only means of interaction between radio and listeners was mail: too little to speak of audience
participation. From its invention, until the introduction of live telephone calls, radio has always
been a top–down, push medium, from the centre to the periphery, with no space for feedback. The
telephone, and subsequently mobile phones, e–mail, Internet streaming, blogs and social media
progressively reversed the communication flow, re–establishing a balance in favour of the public.
Finally, contemporary radio has become a potentially participative tool. With SNS (social
networking sites) we are facing a paradigmatic change in the relation between radio and its
audience: listeners are becoming the real content of radio. McLuhan already understood this when
he claimed that “in electronic media user is content” [1]. This has never been more true than today.
The first scholars to understand the value of radio as a social medium, rather than as a content
distributor, were Brecht and Benjamin. Yet before Brecht, and even more remarkably, it was
Walter Benjamin who realised radio’s radical potential as a “social medium”. Adorno and
Horkheimer considered radio a tool for propaganda and to spread a stupefying kind of
entertainment (Gilloch, 2002); Benjamin, having produced 90 programmes for the public radio of
the Weimar Republic between 1929 and 1933, had a deeper knowledge of this means of
communication, maintained, on the contrary, a positive outlook on radio. It had the ability, in
Benjamin’s view, to transform the public’s relation to culture and politics (Baudouin, 2009). In his
“Conversation with Ernst Schoen” (1929), Benjamin claims that radio should not be a means to
circulate an outdated bourgeois culture or a mere entertainment medium: it should instead occupy
a middle ground between sombre and dry educational broadcasts and the low–mindedness of
vaudeville shows.
It is in Reflections on radio (1930), however, that Benjamin expresses the most fruitful
ideas for our own times: “The crucial failing of [radio] has been to perpetuate the fundamental
separation between practitioners and the public, a separation that is at odds with its technological
basis. The public has to be turned into the witnesses of interviews and conversations in which now
this person and now that one has the opportunity to make himself heard” (Benjamin, 2003). The
radio that Benjamin is advocating is a medium that reduces the distance between transmitter and
receiver, allowing both the author/presenter and the listener to play the role of producers, who
contribute to creating the radio narrative. The importance that Benjamin attributes to active
reception is in stark contrast with the hypnotic effect of Nazi aesthetics and with the allure of a
radio show seen as a product to be consumed. Benjamin juxtaposes the aestheticisation of politics
and art embodied by Nazism (and more in general by propaganda and consumer culture) with the
politicization of art, something which requires, in his view, a more active and participant role for
the listener.
Benjamin further developed this theme in “The Author as Producer” (1934), a paper in
which he pointed out the need for a new intellectual/producer figure (writer, photographer, radio
drama author, film director) and the end of the distance between writer and reader due to the advent
of new mechanical and electrical reproduction technologies. Benjamin noticed that more and more
people had started to become “collaborators” in his own time through the rise of the newspaper,
as editors created new columns according to the current tastes of their readers. These spaces were
meant to make readers feel in touch with their culture, and in this sense the reader became a kind
of author (Navas, 2005). Benjamin saw the reader as redefining the literary text; his example is the
Russian press.
According to the study conducted by Usha Chandar and Ramesh Sharma (April - 2003)
Radio has been used in different formats for educational purposes the world round. Radio
technology was first developed during the late nineteenth century and came into popularity as an
educational medium during the early twentieth century. Although often overshadowed as
educational medium vis-à-vis other technologies such as television, radio remains a viable medium
that has proven educational worth in terms of both pedagogical importance and geographical reach.
audiences located across broad geographical expanses – all at a low per unit production cost
(Couch, 1997). Studies conducted by the Open University UK have demonstrated that, when used
as a supplementary learning tool, radio benefits weaker students (Tripp and Roby, 1996). The
Agency for International Development has shown radio to be more cost-effective and capable of
exerting greater learning effects than textbooks or teacher education (Tripp and Roby, 1996).
Radio has the advantage of permitting the teaching of subjects in which classroom teachers are
untrained or lacking certain knowledge sets. Another benefit for multi-grade classroom use is that
radio can provide instruction for one group of students, whilst the teacher is occupied with another.
Radio can also bring new or previously unavailable resources into the classroom, thereby greatly
enhancing student teaching (Muller, 1985). As a medium that can be listen to in the privacy of
one’s home or room, radio is often the preferred choice for those seeking information on culturally
Jaminson and McAnany (1978) report three main advantages of radio: (1) improved
educational quality and relevance; (2) lowered per student educational costs; and (3) improved
access to education, particularly for disadvantaged groups. Some limitations of radio for
educational purposes are that it inherently lacks interaction; instructor feedback and clarification
are generally unavailable; instruction cannot be interrupted or reviewed Radio has been used in
different formats for educational purposes the world round. Radio technology was first developed
during the late nineteenth century and came into popularity as an educational medium during the
early twentieth century. Although often overshadowed as educational medium vis-à-vis other
technologies such as television, radio remains a viable medium that has proven educational worth
in terms of both pedagogical importance and geographical reach. Radio is capable of delivering
high quality educational programming to highly diversified audiences located across broad
geographical expanses – all at a low per unit production cost (Couch, 1997). Studies conducted by
the Open University UK have demonstrated that, when used as a supplementary learning tool,
radio benefits weaker students (Tripp and Roby, 1996). The Agency for International Development
has shown radio to be more cost-effective and capable of exerting greater learning effects than
textbooks or teacher education (Tripp and Roby, 1996). Radio has the advantage of permitting the
teaching of subjects in which classroom teachers are untrained or lacking certain knowledge sets.
Another benefit for multi-grade classroom use is that radio can provide instruction for one group
of students, whilst the teacher is occupied with another. Radio can also bring new or previously
unavailable resources into the classroom, thereby greatly enhancing student learning (Muller,
1985). As a medium that can be listen to in the privacy of one’s home or room, radio is often the
preferred choice for those seeking information on culturally taboo topics such as HIV/AIDS or
STDs.
Jaminson and McAnany (1978) report three main advantages of radio: (1) improved
educational quality and relevance; (2) lowered per student educational costs; and (3) improved
access to education, particularly for disadvantaged groups. Some limitations of radio for
educational purposes are that it inherently lacks interaction; instructor feedback and clarification
tape-recorded); the pace of the lesson is fixed; note taking is difficult for some; and time for
aby students (unless it is tape-recorded); the pace of the lesson is fixed; note taking is difficult for
some; and time for reflection is minimal. To overcome these drawbacks, preparation, supporting
materials, and follow-up exercises are recommended when possible (McIsaac and Gunawardena,
1996).
Chapter 3
Methodology
This chapter talks about project design, materials, cost analysis, and data analysis.
Design
This miniature transmitter is easy to construct and its transmission can be picked up on any
standard FM receiver. It has a range of up to ¼ of a mile or more. It is greater for room monitoring,
baby listening, nature research, etc. L1 is 8 to 10 turns of a gauge hookup wire close wound around
capacitor. Set your FM receiver for a clear, blank space in lower end of the band. Then, with a
Materials
necessary to build successfully. The resources utilized in the study are the following:
Circuit Board
Transistor
2N3904 NPN
Electret Mic
Chapter 4
Problem 1: What are the factors that interrupt the transmission of signal?
Findings
Nearby electronic equipment or more distant equipment sending strong electromagnetic signals
can affect your wireless network. Common sources of interference include microwave ovens and
cellphones. Power cables carrying large voltages can also create interference. Bandwidth refers to
the amount of data that can be transmitted through a system. If too much of a network’s bandwidth
is being used, the result will be that all parts of the network slow down. According to PCWorld
magazine, another source of interference is a different router using the same channel as your
transmitter and network. This can often occur if more than one transmitter is in use in a particular
building. Signal can also be interrupt by faulty handling by human person. Specially, those who
Conclusion
As a result, most of the factors that affect the transmission are caused by environment or caused
by the place where the transmitter is located. In line with these, the future practitioners or future
researchers should chose a better place or environment where they plan to put the FM Transmitter.
Also, the researchers should plan the project carefully and with enough time to ensure that signal
interruption is minimal.
The researchers can avoid electronic interference by shielding equipment or moving source of
prohibiting high-bandwidth activities or instituting a bandwidth quota for each element of your
network. Also, this situation can sometimes be resolved by physically relocating one or both
transmitter; alternatively, it’s possible to change the frequency that a transmitter uses. Human