UNIVERSITY OF ASIA PACIFIC

Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Experiment No. 6 Semester: Fall 2023

Name of the Experiment: Study of an FM superheterodyne Receiver

Objective:
To learn about a FM Receiver, its block diagram and its working principles

Requirements:
The experiment requires the following equipment:

FM Receiver Kit Module KL-930XX

DC Power supply module
Dual Trace oscilloscope
Function Generator
Digital Multimeter

FM Receiver Block Diagram, Working Principle

This experiment is about a FM Radio Receiver. We have to understand the block diagram to understand
the working principles of the FM Radio receiver. FM means Frequency Modulation. The commercial FM
band is broadcast at frequencies from 87 MHz to 108 MHz.

The main function of an FM receiver circuit is to receive the radio signal and convert it into the audio
output signal. FM receiver circuits are mainly used in broadcast receiver stations. A good FM receiver
circuit should be able to receive signals properly, have high bandwidth, high selectivity, very low noise,
very low interferences, etc. Here, you will find the block diagram of FM Receiver which will help you to
understand the working principle of FM Receiver.

FM Receiver Block Diagram

Here you can see a simplified block diagram of FM Receiver. We shall compare this block diagram with
the evaluated block diagram that we shall derive from the Kit.

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 FM Carrier
Ratio Detector
I.F = 10.7 MHz

RF AMPLIFIER MIXER IF AMP LIMITER

AFC (Fx – FLO )

AGC
LOCAL
DISCRIMINATOR
OSCILLATOR

Audio amplifier De-emphasis

Audio Power
Speaker
amplifier

Block Diagram of a FM Mono Receiver

FM Receiver Working Principle

To easily understand the working principle of FM Receiver, see the block diagram. The first block is the
Antenna. The receiver works in Superheterodyne principles where a local oscillator creates an IF
frequency of 10.7 MHz by heterodyning the local oscillator frequency with the received Carrier frequency.

The antenna is used to receive the radio signals and intercepted it. The next block is Radio Frequency
Amplifier or RF amplifier. The RF amplifier is used to amplify the RF signal received by the antenna. The
received RF signal is very weak that is why it needs to amplify. The RF amplifier is also responsible for
Noise-reducing, impedance matching, etc.

The next stage is the Mixer stage. The mixer circuit takes two signals as input, one is the amplified RF
signal coming from the RF amplifier and another is an oscillating signal coming from the local oscillator.
By combining those two signals, the mixer circuit generates the IF signal.

The IF amplifier circuit takes the IF signal or Intermediate Frequency signal of 10.7 MHz coming from the
Mixer Circuit and amplifies it.
The receiver employes an automatic Frequency control (AFC or AFT) which employs a technique to
automatically keep the tuned resonant frequency tuned with the incoming radio signal. Typically PLL
Method or Phase locked Loop methods are used to keep the receiver tuned to the selected resonant
frequency.

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The FM Detector or Demodulator Circuit, called as Discriminator, is used to demodulate the FM signal.
The FM demodulator circuit recovers the actual modulated signal which comes from the transmitter circuit
in the form of the radio signal. The demodulator circuit gives de-emphasizing signal as output.

After passing the de-emphasizing signal (which coming from the demodulator circuit) through the AF or
Audio Frequency Voltage Amplifier we get the original audio signal which was sent from the sender
station.

At last the audio signal is fed to the power amplifier circuit to amplify it. Then the output of the power
amplifier is applied to the speaker.
Remember that a FM Receiver Circuit only can receive carrier frequencies in the band 87 to 108 MHz. it
cannot transmit a signal. While receiving signal, frequency matching or frequency selection is a very
important factor. There are so many signal of different frequencies that are available. By using the
frequency selection process, a particular signal is extracted or received by the use of a tuned RF stage.

Applications of FM (Frequency Modulation)

(1) The Frequency Modulation technique is widely used in FM Radio Broadcasting. Every radio station
has its own frequency in the FM band and the signals from all radio stations are transmitted over a single
transmission line. We can tune our radio to connect our radio with a particular radio station.

(2) The Frequency Modulation technique also used in our computer Modems.

(3) In Magnetic Tape Recording system, the Frequency Modulation technique is used.

(4) The Frequency Modulation technique is used in Radio Detection And Ranging(RADAR) system.

(5) The Frequency Modulation technique also used in multimedia data transmissions such as Audio and
Video transmission. Most of the cases Audio is transmitted over FM and sometimes video also transmitted
using FM technique.

(6) The frequency modulation is used for music synthesis to create an electronic signal in electronic
musical instruments.

(7) FM technique also used in the telemetry system.

(8) The FM technique is used in personal computer sound cards to synthesize the sound.

(9) The Frequency Modulation technique is used in Walkie Talkie, police communication system.

(10) The FM technique is also used in Bluetooth, Zigbee communication technologies.

(11) The FM technique also used in Ambulance Communication system.

(12) The FM technique is used in the direct satellite broadcasting system.

(13) The FM technique is used in two-way radio communication for its low noise features.

Advantages of Frequency Modulation

(1) There is very low noise distortion and interference in Frequency Modulation.

(2) In Frequency Modulation system smaller size of Antenna is required.

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(3) The transmitter and receiver circuit in the frequency modulation system can be designed for low power
consumes. It is a great advantage of Frequency Modulation.

(4) The amplitude of the signal in frequency modulation always remains constant which increase
efficiency.

(5) As in the frequency modulation system, the signals can be transmitted with a very high frequency that
is why a huge amount of data can be transmitted.

(6) The FM technique provides a very good sound quality when audio signals are transmitted.

Disadvantages of Frequency Modulation

(1) The frequency modulator circuit is very complex.

(2) In the Frequency Modulation technique, a carrier signal or carrier wave is needed.

(3) Frequency Modulation is not suitable for very long transmission purpose but amplitude
modulation is suitable for long transmission purpose.

(4) In the Frequency Modulation technique, very higher bandwidth is required and the full
bandwidth cannot be used.

(5) The FM transmitter and receiver circuits are costlier than AM transmitter and receiver circuits.

Why is Frequency Modulation needed?

Frequency modulation is mainly used for two reasons: one is to reduce the Antenna size and
another is to reduce interference. We know that if we want to transmit low-frequency signal then
we need a larger size of Antenna but if we transmit very high-frequency signal then we need the
smaller size of Antenna.

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So in frequency modulation technique, the audio signal is modulated with a very high-frequency
radio signal, the carrier, then it is transmitted. In the receiver side, the demodulator circuit
known as a discriminator in this case, extracts the FM audio from the high-frequency carrier
signal into the previous original audio signal.

As the different frequencies are used to transmit different signals over a single channel, there is
very less interference. So, in a big city, many people can communicate at the same time without
any interference.

Procedure:
Study the FM Receiver kit and draw the block diagram from the point where the FM carrier is received
from the transmitter.
Power on the Receiver and tune any radio station. The Frequency display system will display the carrier
frequency received. Check the oscillator output frequency for a particular tuned FM station.
Make other voltage measurements as instructed.
Now put the transmitter kit and the receiver kit and try to tune the transmitter tone in your receiver. Mark
the frequency in the digital readout of the receiver.
Does this frequency have any relation with the signal at TP6 of the transmitter?

Report:
1. Check where the RF amplifier, local oscillator submodule is located.
2. Check how the tuned frequency is displayed in the LED display.
3. Draw the signal flow diagram of the receiver.
4. What circuit is used as an audio amplifier for the receiver?
5. Check with an oscilloscope the signal after the FM discriminator.
6. Check the speaker output signal with an oscilloscope.
7. What is AGC and why is it important in radio receivers?
8. What is AFC? Why is it used in radio receiver circuits?