INTRODUCTION:

The aim of this project is to gain an understanding of how an AM radio and an Audio Amplifier works, by building two circuits from electrical components supplied. The experience of doing this will give a greater understanding to how a radio receives a signal and what it does to this to create an audio signal that can be heard. With the use of on-going research and practical lab work, the theory of AM reception of a receiver will be explained through a description of any results gained by testing these circuits. Attention will be drawn to particular components of the circuits and how they operate within the system and will also include a description of the two key components in the amplifier circuit and how they work. Finally, an explanation will be given to how AM receiver works paying attention to a demonstration that was given in the university labs.

Equipment and Components used:

Soldering equipment set Vero board IC KA2209, ferrite rod, 2.5m of 0.315mm enamelled copper wire Resistance 10k variable, 470 X 2,1k,560k,33k,1M,8.2k,10k X 2 Capacitor 470FX 2, 220F,47 FX 3,10 FX 2,103pf X 6 Variable capacitor ,10cm long

Circuit description:
An AM radio receiver consists of the following part: A radio frequency (RF) section An RF-IF converter r(mixer circuit) An IF section Demodulator section Audio amplifier section

The basic block diagram of the radio receiver is

The antenna:
To make an antenna, all we used a long piece of wire. Ideally, this should be very long (like 50 feet), but something shorter would work pretty well. We connected this antenna to a coil of wire that is wound around a piece of plastic tubing. The antenna picks up the signal and brings it to the antenna coil. The antenna coil is brought close to the tuner, and the electrical signal in the antenna coil transfers to the tuner coil.

Radio frequency section:

The circuit that has now been built has 3 different sections, each doing a different job. Firstly the variable capacitor picks up one signal from thousands that are given off from a transmitter. It is this transmitter that has received the electrical signal from the radio station, which started off as an audio signal (such as a DJ voice or music) and then combined with a carrier wave which has the job of transmitting this signal as an electromagnetic wave. It is the carrier waves peaks that are made bigger and smaller and therefore its amplitude (or size) is increased. This is Amplitude Modulation. The radio circuits TUNING section (variable capacitor & ferrite rod) picks up this signal. Fig 1 shows a diagram of a signal (audio) and the carrier wave (or sine wave) and then the combining of the two (modulation)

An RF-IF converter section (mixer circuit):

The RF-IF converter is two parts: Local Oscillator (LO)generates a sinusoidal signal that is fed to the mixer. Varying the frequency of the LO tunes the receiver. The RF filter may be 'track tuned' with the LO tuning.

Mixer generates sum and difference frequencies between the LO and the incoming RF signal.

Fig-2: RF-IF converter

An IF section:
The purpose of the IF amplifier is to bring the radio frequency (RF) signal that has been translated to the IF frequency up to an amplifier level appropriate for demodulation. The gain of the IF amplifier must also be adjustable so that varying signal strengths may be accommodated. The output of mixer is always 455 kHz and is fed to fix tuned IF amplifier. These amplifiers are tuned to one frequency and render nice amplification.

FIG-3: IF section

Demodulator section:
After the radio circuit has received the electrical signal, this needs to be changed back into audio. Because this signal was first MODULATED as it combined with the carrier wave, it now needs to be DEMODULATED. This is where the original sound is extracted form the carrier wave and is done by diode detector circuit.

FIG-4: Demodulator section

Audio amplifier section:

The audio amplifiers are used to finish the signal processing. They also boost the out-put of the detector to a usable level to drive a loudspeaker or set of earphones. The au-duo amplifier is sometimes used to pro-idea additional filtering. It is quite common to find narrow band filters to restrict audio bandwidth, or notch filters to eliminate inter-faring signals that make it through the IF am-pilfers intact.

Conclusion:
Two simple electronic circuits were built and the testing of the results gained from these helped to explain their inner workings.
Looking at the radio circuit, and starting with an audio signal at a radio station its journey was followed through a number of stages, which were Modulation Amplification Transmission Tuning Demodulation Amplification

The results obtained by testing the circuit and hearing what radio station (or frequency) was nearly picked up. Because of gathering other frequency from different sources such as internet, wireless communication Unable to achieve sufficient selectivity at high frequencies, partly due to the use of single tuned circuits The building of an audio amplifier and the testing gave experience of how this system also works, paying particular attention to the two key components, the transistor (or IC component) and the loudspeaker. By doing this an understanding of how these actually work was gained.