MULTIPLE CHANNELSON FM TRANSMITTER

SinghYogendraPal
Prasar Bharti : All IndiaRadio, J aisalmer, Rajasthan(India)
E-mail : yogendraair@yahoo.co.in
Sancheti S.
MalaviyaNational Instituteof Technology, J aipur, Rajasthan(India)
E-mail : sandeepsancheti@rediffmail.com
SharmaO. K.
Prasar Bharti : All IndiaRadio, J aipur, Rajasthan(India)
E-mail : omjpr@indiatimes.com
The proposed system has been designed, developed and tested with main Frequency Modulation (FM) channel at its
maximum power and another FM channel with lower power, simultaneously. The system has been designed &
developed to utilize the capacity of an existing transmitter to its maximum extent, without affecting the existing main
carrier RF power. The capacity of the existing single channel FM transmitters can be increased by using wide band
capability and by applying two or multi tone excitation. This way two or more carriers can be produced at the RF
output, for broadcasting more than one audio channel(s). Prototype of this design has been successfully tested for one
additional channel in normal broadcasting environment without any performance degradation to any of the channels.
The additional channel(s) are meant for small coverage area than the main channel as the additional channel(s) will
have to be broadcasted at lower power level. The technique can be appropriately named as F M Multicasting.
1. INTRODUCTION
Radio broadcasting has a very important role to play for the people, to get the information ready at hand along with
entertainment at the cheapest cost. FM transmitters play the vital role in this regard, since the proposed multi channel
transmission system utilizing the existing system power amplifiers, power combiners/ dividers, feeder cable and
antenna system, so it will incur a very little extra cost, to broadcast another channel. Also the height of the antenna
system, its gain and its radiation pattern provide the benefit of larger coverage area with the lesser RF power. Its
advantage of covering various activities of community services in terms of education, information, entertainment and
other programmes of vital use, makes it a very useful technique. This additional channel may also be used for disaster
management as a common radio communication tool, to be used by rescue teams, while main FM channel is
broadcasting its routine programs .FM broadcast transmitters are usually designed to operate in the full FM broadcast
band (88MHz to 108MHz),and only 200 kHz bandwidth is utilized in the 20 MHz available band, utilize this extra
capacity of the transmitter to broadcast two or multi channels simultaneously ,with out deteriorating the quality of any
channel.
2. DESIGN& DEVELOPMENT
The prototype system was developed with the help of available single channel FM transmitter. The design and
development steps are summarized below.
2.1Selectionof Frequencies
Any two (or more) frequencies in the FM broadcast band can be radiated. The experimental studies based on selectivity
of receivers showed that the carriers separation should be between 300 KHz to 3 MHz. However if more separation is
used, it would require additional excitation power in the secondary channel ( approximately 1 dB/MHz) to maintain the
similar the performance/ coverage area.
2.2RF Level Optimization
The RF Power requirement measurements were done in the Jaipur (India) city on the basis of subjective listening at
different places up to about 20 kms radius. The subjective listening was done with different make of general-purpose
radio receivers. The results of power requirement and coverage is shown in Fig.1 Which shows that the additional
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channel at 20 dB lesser power (i.e.50 W) is sufficient to cover the city. Here we had also studied the effects of
additional channel power to the main channel power as shown in Fig.2. It shows that if the radiated power is 18 dB less
than the main channel carrier power, the main channel power does not get affected by additional channel power.
It is known that the 100 watt of power (320 watt ERP) with 100 meters of height of the antenna is sufficient to produce
the field strength of more than 50 dB micro volt/mtr, to cover approx. 15Kms of radial area. Thus the power of -18dBc
for a 5 KW transmitter is sufficient to cover a moderate town.
P O W E R R E Q U I R E M E N T S
RFPowerRequirementsforAdditional Channel
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
13
16
19
22
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Distance(kM)
SecondaryCoverageArea PrimaryCoverageArea
MainCh. Power Reductionv/s Additional Ch. Power
-1
-0.5
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
3 8 10 11 12 14 16 18 20 22 25 50
P (dB) =MainCh. -Aux. Ch.
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Fig.1. Fig.2
2.3Additional Hardware
The designed system of two channel FM Broadcasting does not involve major changes in the existing system, and does
not require additional costly hardware. The hardware required is commonly available, except for few components. The
list shown in Table 1.
Table1Componentsrequired
2.4IMDReduction
Following procedure may be adopted to minimize the Inter Modulation Distortion (IMD), which is produced due to
non-linearity of the entire system, particularly in amplification with multi tone excitation.
S.N. Name Specifications Quantity
1 FM Modulator 88-108 MHz, Linear, Low Distortion, 2 Volt output 1
2 RF Combiner 2-way, 88-108 MHz, 1W, Low loss 1
3 1W VHF Amplifier 88-108 MHz, +15dB, Low Distortion, P
out
>1.2 W 1
4 Variable Attenuators 30dB, 50 Ohm, 2 W 2
5 Tunable Narrow Band Filters 88-108 MHz, Band Pass type, +/-1 MHz, Low Loss, 20 W 1
6 RF Cables 50 Ohm, Low Loss 3 m
7 Connectors BNC, SMC, SMA 2 each
8 Capacitors 1pF, 4.7pF, 10pF, 22pF, 39pF SMD Type, 500 Volts 3 each
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1. Covert the existing wide band filter at the O/P of intermediate stage (10 W and 30 W) to a narrow band. BPF by
tuning the variable capacitors.
2. Extra sharp-cut off filter may be introduced at the output of intermediate stage and at final output stage. However the
filter at final out will be at the cost of reduction in radiated power of the order of 0.5 dB or more.
2.5CoverageArea
Small to moderate towns can be covered by additional channel. This technique of additional channel broad casting
may not be suitable for big cities, where higher field strength is required for normal radio reception. However the actual
coverage area depends on the height of radiation antenna, conditions of the terrain etc.
3. TEST SETUP FOR 2CHANNEL FM SYSTEM
In Primary Test Setup, uses R & S SU115 , 10W FM exciter as primary FM modulator & amplifier, SMY-01 RF signal
generator to generate the other FM modulated RF signal, mini circuit's Splitter ZFSC 2-1 to combine the both RF
signals and 50 Ohm, 100W dummy load to dissipate the generated RF power. FM exciter's sample out point is used as
test point (TP) for the purpose of measurements. Spectrum Analyzer HP-8596E is used to analyze the spectrum and
printer to print the measurements as shown in Fig.3. Capabilities of both channels are tested at low power level at
various frequencies with different deviation levels to check the inter dependency of both channels. One result with
3MHz carrier separation is shown in fig. 4. This spectrum shows that the system is capable to handle the higher degree
of deviation in additional channel without any kind of quality detoriation in any of the channel.
Primary Test Setup
Fig. 3 Fig. 4
3.1 AudioPerformance
Subjective listening of the main and additional Channels were carried out by professional audio engineers of All India
Radio at various places in the Jaipur city up to 15 km radius at 2.5kW and 5 KW of main channel RF power and -19dBc
of additional channel power levels. The results taken in the S.I.N.P.O. format by the ordinary FM receivers were Very
Good, Nil, Nil, Very Good,. Very Good respectively. Audio measurements taken at transmitter campus of both the
channels are summarized in the table 2.
Table.2. AudioMeasurements
Main channel fr 100.3 M Hz Addl channel fr 101.3 M Hz
Power difference 19 dB Main channel power 5 KW
Audio Frequency Deviation Ch. 1 & 2 Distortion Ch. 1 & 2 S.N.R.
1 KHz 20 75 KHz < 0.5% > 55 Db
100 Hz 20 75 KHz < 0.5% > 55 Db
12 KHz 40 75 KHz < 0.6% > 55 Db
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3.2 RF Performance
For conforming the performance of the designed system with both the channels, measurements ware carried out at
various power levels such as 10w, 30W, 1.5kW, 2.5kW and at 5. KW. The results of 2.5 kW and 5 KW are verified at
different frequencies. The prototype shown in Fig 5 is used to test the design in normal broadcasting environment and
for subjective Listing. The RF spectrum (without filter to reduce IMDs) at 5 KW power in main channel at 100.3 MHz
and with 20 dB lesser modulated secondary carrier at 101.3 MHz is shown in Fig .6.
Test at 5 kW RF Power
100.3 MHz as main channel (EX-1)
101.3 MHz as additional Channel(EX-2)
Test Results at
2.5 kW RF Power
Satisfactory subjective listening up to 12km
SINPO =40134
Fig. 5 Prototype2channel FM Fig. 6 RF Spectrum
4. CONCLUSION
Although we have tested this project successfully for two channels, the same may be extended and implemented for
multiple Analog /Digital, Audio/RDS channels broadcasting. As described above. This novel design was implemented
to test the actual high power performance of the system. This system even with the 19dB lesser power in the additional
channel, yielded a satisfactory range of more than 15 km with satisfaction, both, in terms of audio reception and area
coverage. In fact, we observed that the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR), Cross Talk, Frequency Response and
Distortion of both channels in the tested system were in the range of prescribed limits of standards in FM
broadcast. It is expected that this systemwill be acceptable and viable for any kind of city coverage purpose,
sportingCommunity, Commercial toEducational radioservices.
5. REFERENCES
[ 1] Technical Manuals for 2x3 kW RODHE & SCHWARZ's FM Transmitter Vol-1,2,3.
[ 2 ] Fernando Noriega & Pedro J. Gonzalez , Designing LC Wilkinson power splitters RF Design, pp 1824.,
August 2002
[ 3 ] Francisco Javier Ortega Gonzalez ,Designing high efficiency over driven and saturated power amplifiers RF
Design, pp 4650,Oct 2002.
[ 4 ] R&S ROHDE & SCHWARZ GmbH & Co. KG, D-8000 Munchen 80, Muhldorfstr 15
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