A ground station currently transmits amplitude-modulated telemetry with carrier power…
PHYSICS · Multi-part · Fermi University Physics · Electronics, Instrumentation & Communication · Communication systems and RF engineering · Communication systems and RF engineering
Electronics for Measurement, Ch Modulation, receivers and the link that carries the measurement
Problem
A ground station currently transmits amplitude-modulated telemetry with carrier power PC=50W and modulation index m=0.8. An engineer proposes switching to single-sideband transmission, sending only one sideband at the power it currently carries, and argues: "The sideband is the only part that carries the message anyway, so this wastes nothing, and I can keep the same simple diode envelope detector at the receiver, since it is still just a sinusoid of roughly the same shape arriving at roughly the same frequency."
((a)) Find the error in the claim about the receiver, and state what kind of demodulator single-sideband reception actually needs.
((b)) Calculate the power carried in one sideband under the present amplitude-modulated scheme, and compare it with the total transmitted power, to show what switching to single-sideband transmission of that one sideband alone would save.