Radio Communication

The most basic need of the human race is to communicate. The entire world will come to a halt or a complete standstill if we do not communicate. Most of the things we see in today's world are a means to satisfy this impulse or need of communication. Radio communication can be labeled as a very indigenous invention by human intelligence that served the need of mass communication or distant communication.

What is a Radio? How did it all start?

A radio is transmission of signals where no wires are required and which uses the modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below that of the visible light. Although it was Nikola Tesla who first demonstrated the feasibility of wireless communications in 1893, Guglielmo Marconi, an Italian inventor, was the first to develop workable radio communication. In Italy, he sent and received his first radio signal in the year 1895. Lots of experimentations were carried out with the radio, but it was in the early 1930s, when amateur radio operators invented single sideband and frequency modulation. And by the end of the decade, they were established commercial modes.

In 1954, Regency introduced a pocket transistor radio, the TR-1, powered by a "standard 22.5 V Battery". However in 1960, Sony introduced its first transistorized radio, which was small enough to fit in a vest pocket, and was able to be powered by a small battery. Over the next 20 years, except for very high-power uses, transistors replaced tubes almost completely. In the early 1990s, amateur radio experimenters were using personal computers with audio cards to process radio signals and in the year 1994, the U.S. Army launched an aggressive, successful project to construct a software radio that was to become a different radio on the fly by changing software.

Radio Broadcasting

Radio Broadcasting is the distribution of audio signals that transmit programs to an audience. There are wide varieties of broadcasting systems, all of which have different capabilities. It can vary from limited area coverage to national and can be used to transmit signals globally too, using retransmitted towers, satellite systems, and cable distribution. Satellite radio revolutionaries the entire scenario, it could cover even wider areas, such as entire continents, and Internet channels can distribute text or streamed music worldwide. In the late 1990s, digital transmissions began to be applied to broadcasting.

A broadcast may be distributed through several physical means. If coming directly from the studio at a single station, then it is simply sent to the transmitter from the antenna on the tower. Programming which comes through a satellite, played either live or recorded for transmission later. Different stations may simulcast the same programming at the same time. Usually analog or digital tapes or CDs/DVDs are included in another broadcast. The final stage of broadcasting is to get the signal to the audiences. It is done via a station to a receiver or through cable. Internet also brings radio to the recipient.

Let's talk about today...Internet Radio

Many live stations, rather internet radio stations are operating and if you want to explore just go to U.S.A. Live radio stations listed by state...on InternetRadioIndex.com and radio-locator.com, I have found these sites very interesting and useful. Internet radio is an audio broadcasting service transmitted via the Internet. Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as web casting since it is not transmitted broadly through wireless means but is delivered over the World Wide Web. Internet radio is usually accessible from anywhere in the world. These, live radio stations on the Web make it a popular service since everything that is on the radio station being simulcast over the Internet with a net cast stream.

Commercial interests of corporate giants have proved to be a boon to the listeners all over the world. I wish this continues and we all benefit from this, at least once for the sake of history, common man will be benefited by war of these big commercial giants. I fancy that day when telepathy will become so strong that we will not require any physical means to communicate, no words...just complete silence and peace and that every one will become a transmitter and a receiver. The rate at which we have grown in past few centuries...who knows someday all our fancies may come true.