Amplitude Modulation Radio Simulator

Irish Franz Almojela Shyla Gonzales Karen Gutierrez Charles Dimaunahan

College of Engineering College of Engineering College of Engineering College of Engineering
First Asia Institue of Technology First Asia Institute of Technology First Asia Institute of Technology First Asia Institute of Technology
and Humanities and Humanities and Humanities and Humanities
Sto. Tomas City, Batangas, Ph Tanauan City, Batangas, Ph Tanauan City, Batangas, Ph Tanauan City, Batangas, Ph
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Abstract— —An analog method to modulate and demodulate • Simultaneously observe frequency and time
signals is presented in this paper. This paper discusses analysis of an amplitude modulated signal.
modulation techniques with the LabVIEW-based, developed for
the illustration of different modulation types in virtual • Show that it is possible to transmit several signals
instrumentation labs. The tool can generate and display the time using several carrier waves through frequency
and frequency domain behaviors of modulated signals with the analysis
help of spectral and tone measurements icon. Frequency carrier
can be specified by the user. The results of simulation show that The extent of the AM radio simulator are broadcast
the interface of each system is beautiful, the parameters are easy transmissions wherein it is widely used for broadcasting on
to adjust, and the process of modulation-demodulation is simpler long, medium and shortwave bands and transmit and receive
than the traditional system. different intelligence signals.
This AM radio simulator is limited by the range of
Keywords—amplitude and frequency modulation, signal
frequencies available and how much bandwidth each
processing
transmission requires, the double sideband nature of AM
halves the number of independent signals we can send using a
I. INTRODUCTION given range of transmission frequencies, normal AM is prone
Communication is the process of exchanging information. to signal distortion and wasteful of power and transmission
One of many types of communication used today is analog band space, AM also suffers from being prone to interference
communication. Analog communication is an information effects wherein it tends to suffer from buzzes, crackles,
transmitting mechanism, i.e. music, voice, and video using whistles, etc.
broadcast radio, walkie-talkies, or cellular radio, and broadcast
television. Although digital communications systems are much II. CIRCUIT DESIGN
more efficient, cost-saving, more reliable, some
communication systems are still analog. Analog A. Virtual Instrument Design
communication techniques can be summarized as amplitude
modulation, phase modulation and frequency modulation.
Amplitude Modulation (AM) is the simplest and the oldest of
modulation methods, primarily because the stage of
demodulation at the receiver is simple to carry out. A
modulator, followed by a filter, is enough to obtain an
amplitude modulated signal. This project aims to:
• Build and examine the workings of an AM radio
simulator
• Study the circuit and determine how different
parts of the circuit function together make an AM
radio
• Understand the concept of AM radio
• Be familiar with the use of design and simulation
and tools in the design process.
• Be able to construct, analyze and test the
complete project of AM radio designed
Fig. 1 Block Diagram of AM Radio Simulator
• Illustrate the form of signals at each stage of the
amplitude modulation Figure 1 shows the overall block diagram of the AM radio
simulator.
 Figure 4 shows the block diagram of sine wave SubVI of
the dual. It is like the sine wave except that it has two different
sine wave signals. The first signal has a unit amplitude while
second signal has an amplitude of 0.7 and its normalized
frequency is multiplied to 1.7 of the normalized frequency of
the first signal.

Fig. 2 Block diagram of AM Transmitter

Figure 2 shows the block diagram of the AM Transmitter

wherein it transmits three different baseband signals which are
the sine wave, dual sine wave and triangle wave transmitted in
frequencies, 300 Hz, 200 Hz, and 80Hz. Each signal is
connected to three different AM Modulator SubVIs. These
three modulated signals are added using the compound Figure 5 Block Diagram of Triangle SubVi
arithmetic. Figure 5 shows the block diagram of the triangle SubVI.
The connections are the same with the sine wave SubVI. The
only difference is that triangle wave VI was used in this block
instead of sine wave VI.

Fig. 3 Block diagram of sine wave SubVi

Figure 3 shows the block diagram of the sine wave SubVI.

This block is consisting of an oscillator that produces a sine
wave with a unit amplitude at frequency defined by the Fig. 6 Block Diagram of AM Modulator
quotient of normalized frequency and sampling frequency. The
product of global variables sampling frequency and the Figure 6 shows the block diagram of AM Modulator
duration provide the number of samples to be produced and it SubVI. The SINE SubVI is used to produce the carrier signal.
is converted to an integer. The sine wave VI process all this The modulated signal is taken from the equation ym(t) =
data to create a sine wave. [A+sin(2πfmt)] sin(2πfct). The information signal is inserted in
Array Max & Min. This choice of A corresponds to a
modulation index of 1. The absolute of this value is added to
the information signal using “Add function” and then
multiplied to the carrier signal.

Fig. 4 Block Diagram of Sine Wave SubVi

 Fig. 9 Block Diagram of Low pass filter
Fig. 7 AM Receiver Block Diagram

After the transmission of signal is the receiver section. It The second to the last stage of the receiver section is the
receives, filters, converts, demodulates, and amplify the receive demodulator. This block’s main purpose is to recover the
signal. The value of receiver’s frequency is defined by the information signal from its envelope. It uses a lowpass filter
turning knob. (LPF) SubVI as shown in Figure 9 to filter unnecessary signals
from the demodulation process.

Fig. 8 BPF SubVi

Fig. 10 Block Diagram DC blocker SubVI
The first stage of the receiver block diagram is the RF
section. The main purpose of this section is detecting, The last stage is the audio amplification. This section uses
bandlimiting and amplifying. The BPF SubVI as shown in a DC Blocker and Amplifier sub VI as shown in the Figure **.
Figure 8 is used to filter the RF signal. Butterworth Order has a Amplification is not necessarily a requirement in the AM
constant of 10 which is equivalent to ten cascaded filter design. modulation and demodulation process but in this block
This stage enables necessary frequency components that will diagram, the signal is amplified to a gain of 4. The AC and DC
be passed on the next stage. The upper and lower frequencies estimator was used to block the remaining DC components
are the sum of the fmax and fc and difference of fmax and fc. from the demodulated signal
This frequency is defined by the value from the tuning knob.

The second stage is a mixer/ converter. It down-converts III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
the RF signals into Intermediate frequencies signals. Before a The following are the simulation results for this project:
conversion, a local oscillator is multiplied with the output of
the BPF SubVI.

The third stage is the IF section. This section uses another

BPF SubVI that selects the information signal from its input
and amplifies it. It has a system constant frequency of 750 Hz
which makes it value less than any of the RF signals and it
came closer to the value of the baseband signal.

Fig. 11 Output of Intelligence Signals

 Fig. 12 Spectrum of Intelligence Signal Fig. 15 Result when bandpass is enabled

The transmitter is composed of three different intelligence

signals in three different frequencies. Figure 11 shows the
Time domain plot of these intelligence signals namely, sine,
dual sine and triangle. Figure 12 shows the equivalent
frequency spectrum of these signals. The sine is carried by a
frequency of 300 Hz, dual sine wave by 200 Hz and triangle
wave by 80 Hz.

Fig. 16 Result when bandpass is disabled

In the Mixer section, the enable input decides whether the

BPF will be enabled or disabled in the receiver. The Figure 15
shows the Time domain and spectrum plot of the dual sine
wave at 3750 Hz when the enable input is True Constant.
Changing the True constant of the enable input of the BPF to
False constant disables the filtering of the frequency signals
Fig. 13 Output Signal of AM Modulator which results to receiving all the modulated signals from the
input as shown in Figure 16. All the frequency spectrums of
the three baseband signals are received.

Fig. 14 Spectrum of AM Modulator

The AM modulator rides the baseband signal and creates the Fig. 17 IF Filter Output (Dual Sine Wave)
AM envelope as shown Fig. 13 and Fig. 14.
The BPF in the IF section is very important in the
receiver’s block diagram. With IF as center frequency, it
brings the signal’s parameters to its baseband signal values. It
also clears the signal and rejects unnecessary parameters
present in the signal. As shown in Figure 17, the dual sine
wave’s time domain and two sets of sidebands in the spectrum additional of a carrier frequency is used to aid in waveform
is present in the plot. demodulation. If the added value carrier amplitude is large, an
envelope detector can correctly demodulate the waveform.

Amplitude modulation forms the basis of several forms of

signal apart from the basic mode. These signal formats are
typically generated by removing or suppressing the carrier,
and then utilizing the sidebands.

The amplitude modulation can be demodulated using an

envelope detector. The magnitude of the modulation must be
limited to avoid distortions arising due to carrier phase
inversion. It is inherently sensitive to interference. The single
sideband and suppressed carrier methods exist and are less
wasteful of transmission bandwidth and power.
Fig. 18 Output of Demodulated Dual Sine wave
REFERENCES
The demodulation section demodulates the intelligence
signal parameters from the captured IF signal. As shown in [1] https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scots_Guide/RadCom/part9/
Figure 18 the output of the demodulator has the same signal of page4.html)
its intelligence signal, the dual sine wave. The amplitude of [2] https://beng2413.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/lab1_example-
the signal is slightly lower than its original peak value, but it discussion-conclusion1.pdf
can be amplified in the audio section. [3] http://zulsidi.tripod.com/AmplitudeModulation.pdf
[4] https://www.radio-electronics.com/info/rf-technology-design/am-
amplitude-modulation/what-is-am-tutorial.php

Fig. 19 Received Signal Output

The last stage of the receiver block diagram is the audio

section. It clears out the DC parameters still present in the
demodulated signal. It also amplifies the amplitude of the
signal to a gain of 4. As shown in Figure 19, the three output
waveforms of the baseband signals were received and
successfully translated and demodulated back to its original
form and frequency.
IV. CONCLUSION
In this experiment, the basic principle of amplitude
modulation is learned through procedures carried out. Inputs
of the carrier and audio (information) signal are applied to the
modulator, and the effect of changing several parameters such
as signals’ amplitude and frequency to the produced AM
signal waveform is observed. The AM and its derivative
scheme basically involve the controlled shifting of the signal
spectrum to various point along the frequency scale. The
modulation properties can be used to generate amplitude
modulated waveform and to demodulated them again. It is
because such waveform has no separate carrier frequency. The