Radio Investigation: Gps

In a 21st century world we are constantly developing new technology and means of navigation. For about $200 you can buy a handheld device that can pinpoint your exact location anywhere on earth. In this essay I will be telling you what radio is and the GPS phenomenon.

Radio can allow us to transmit music, images, video, data and many more through the air invisibly without us even knowing they are there. Radio waves are all around us, thousands of them all unique and all caring different things through the air. So many things depend on radio it would be almost impossible to name them all but here are just a few:
    * AM and FM radio broadcasts
    * Cordless phones
    * Garage door openers
    * Wireless networks
    * Radio-controlled toys
    * Television broadcasts
    * Cell phones
    * GPS receivers
    * Satellite communications
    * Police radios
    * Wireless clocks
If radio today would not exist life would be very different, imagine a life without microwave ovens, mobile phones, internet access and many of the things listed above. All of these devises depend on radio waves and without radio our civilisation would fail.

A radio wave is generated by combining a wave with a piece of information this process is called modulation. There are three types of modulation, pulse modulation, amplitude modulation and frequency modulation. Once modulation is complete you can transmit the signal.

Pulse modulation works by simply turning the wave on and off. This is an easy way to send Morse code. PM is not that common, but one good example of it is the radio system that sends signals to radio-controlled clocks in the United States.

AM radio stations and the picture part of a TV signal use amplitude modulation to encode information. In amplitude modulation the wave produced sound is overlaid onto the transmitter's wave to vary its amplitude.

FM radio stations and hundreds of other wireless technologies including the sound portion of a TV... [continues]

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