February, 2016

Department of Electrical Engineering

Postgraduate Programme

Title: Multichannel FM Transmitters

(in Case of Ethiopia)

By Girma Abebe

February, 2016

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

thanks

to God
my staff members who are
working on Terrestrial
transmitter of ORTO
(Kechema)
And our adviser Dr. Sultan
Feisso.
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February, 2016

ABSTRACT:
In

Ethiopia there are many FM broadcasters like

Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation, Fana
Broadcasting corporation, Zami FM, Sheger FM,
Oromia FM Radio etc all broadcast in almost all
same coverage especially in central region of the
country
All these broadcasters build their own Terrestrial
Transmitter Tower at different places almost the
side by side.
But, its possible to design one Multichannel FM
Transmitters that all broadcasters can broadcast
with it instead (save money wasted for building
Transmitter tower)
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February, 2016

Objective of the Project

The primary purpose of the project is to
propose one Multichannel FM Transmitters
that all broadcasters in Ethiopia use to
broadcast with it instead of all putting the
their own Transmitters towers side by side.
This work will save the countrys economy
wasting on building Transmitter towers for
all FM broadcasters.

February, 2016

SCOPE
work

covers the design of

Multichannel FM transmitters for
quality transmission and explains
some of optional Multichannel FM
Transmitters
This work highlight Multichannel
FM Transmitters, their coverage
(at final).
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February, 2016

INTRODUCTION
Modulation is mechanism of putting the
information signal into a carrier for it to be
transmitted farther
Frequency modulation is a form of modulation
in which the baseband information carrying
signal, m(t), varies the frequency of a carrier
wave.
Audio signals transmitted by FM radio
communications are the most common.
Message signal, m(t), is applied to the control
voltage oscillator of voltage-to-frequency gain
(KVCO), and the FM modulated output signal,
7X
February, 2016
FM(t) is

contd

FM radio stations broadcast between radio

frequencies of 88 MHz to 108 MHz with a
channel bandwidth of 200 kHz.

February, 2016

FM TRANSMITTER

FM transmitter convert one or more audio

frequency (composite baseband) input signals
into a frequency modulated, radio frequency
signal at the desired power output level to
feed into the radiating antenna system.
In it's simplest form, it can be considered to
be an FM modulator and an RF power
amplifier packaged into one unit

February, 2016

contd

FM transmitter consists of

10

The
The
The
The
The
The
The

FM exciter
intermediate power amplifier (IPA)
final power amplifier
power supplies
transmitter control system monitors
RF lowpass filter
directional coupler

February, 2016

contd

Simplified block diagram of an FM broadcast

transmitter.

FM Exciter
I/P audio

11

Intermediat
e power
Amplifier

Final
Power
Amplifier

Filter

February, 2016

Antenna

EXCITER

Is heart of an FM broadcast transmitter.

The function of the is to generate and
modulate the carrier wave with one or more
inputs in accordance with the FCC standards.
The FM modulated carrier is then amplified by
a wideband amplifier to the level required by
the transmitter's following stage

12

February, 2016

RF POWER AMPLIFIERS
FM transmitter consists of a chain of power
amplifiers, each having from 6 to 20 dB of
power gain
Ideally, transmitter should have as wide a
bandwidth as practical with a minimum of
tuned stages
Broadband solid state amplifiers are preferred
INTERMEDIATE
POWER AMPLIFIERS (IPA)
to eliminate tuned networks in the RF path

IPA is located between the exciter and the

final amplifier in higher power transmitters
that require more than about 30 watts of drive
13to the final amplifier.
February, 2016

MULTICHANNEL FM

Having several FM stations share a single

broadband antenna system
a filterplexer (also known as an RF
multiplexer) is used
filterplexer provides isolation between the
various transmitters while efficiently
combining their power into a single
transmission line
prevent power from one transmitter from
entering another transmitter

14

February, 2016

contd

Multichannel FM stations Exciter outputs

amplified by common wide band Power
Amplifiers
one audio
preamplifie
r1

Exciter1

one audio
preamplifie
r 2

Exciter2
Nx1
Filterplexer

Amplifier
1

Amplifier
2

(RF Combiner)

one audio
Antenna
ExciterN
preamplifie
r N

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February, 2016

contd

Multichannel FM stations Exciter outputs

amplified with separate narrow band Power
Amplifiers and combined final output feed to
audio pre
Exciter 1
Amplifie
Amplifier
antenna
-amplifier
r1-1
2-1
FM1
1

audio pre
-amplifier
22

Exciter 2
FM2

Amplifie
r1-2

Amplifie
r2-2
Nx1
RF Combiner

audio preamplifier N

Antenna
16

Exciter N
FMN

Amplifie
r1-N

Amplifie
r2-N

February, 2016

contd
RF

Intermodulation Between FM
Transmitters
Interference to other stations within
the FM broadcast band, as well as to
other services outside the broadcast
band, can be caused by RF
Intermodulation between two or
more FM broadcast transmitters.
Is

17

the serious problem on work

February, 2016

Mitigation techniques

d/t techniques can be used reduce

intermodulation in transmitter power
amplifiers
Filtering

18

Filtering (generally bandpass filtering) of the

transmitter output can be used in conjunction with
the other techniques to reduce the residual
spurious output levels.
The choice of the type of filter to be used is, as
usual, a compromise between a number of
interacting, usually conflicting, requirements such
as out-of-band rejection, bandpass attenuation,
time domain response, size, weight, cost, etc.
February, 2016

contd
Linearization
a. Feedforward linearization:
. This technique compares the amplified
signal with an appropriately delayed version
of the input signal and derives a difference
signal, representing the amplifier distortions.
This difference signal is in turn amplified,
and subtracted from the final HPA output.
. The main drawback of the method is the
requirement for a 2nd amplifier the
technique can, however, deliver an increase
in output power of some 3 dB when used
19 with a TWT.
February, 2016

contd
b.
.

20

Feedback linearization:
In audio amplifiers, linearization may readily
be achieved by the use of feedback, but this
is less straightforward at high RF frequencies
due to limitations in the available open-loop
amplifier gain.
It is possible, however, to feedback a
demodulated form of the output, to generate
adaptive pre-distortion in the modulator.
It is clearly not possible to apply such an
approach in a bent-pipe transponder,
however, where the modulator and HPA are
rather widely separated.
February, 2016

contd
c.
.

21

Predistortion:
Rather than using a method that responds to
the actual instantaneous characteristics of
the HPA, it is common to pre-distort the input
signal to the amplifier, based on a priori
knowledge of the transfer function.
Such pre-distortion may be implemented at
RF, IF or at baseband

February, 2016

contd

RF amplifier linearization techniques can be

broadly divided into two main categories:

Open-loop techniques, which have the

advantage of being unconditionally
stable, but have the drawback of being
unable to compensate for changes in the
amplifier characteristics.
Closed-loop techniques, which are
inherently self-adapting to changes in the
amplifier, but can suffer from stability

problems
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February, 2016

Other Multichannel FM options

different coverage

one audio
preamplifie
r1

one audio
preamplifie
r 2

Modulato
r1+
Amplifier

Modulator
2

(RF
Com
bine
r)

Amplifier

Amplifier
1

Amplifier
2

To Antenna
Exciter

Less power for additional channel (<20dB )

The 2nd channel has about 20km radius coverage
Selection of Frequencies

23

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
February, 2016

CONCLUSION
It

works For two channels, the

same may be extended and
implemented for multiple
channels broadcasting
i.e. Wideband Antenna should
be used

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February, 2016

REFERENCES

MULTIPLE CHANNELS ON FM TRANSMITTER

(by Singh Yogendra Pal)
FM Broadcast Transmitters (by Geoffrey N.
Mendenhall, P.E. Vice President of Engineering
The Engineering Staff of Broadcast Electronics
Inc. Quincy, Illinois)

25

February, 2016

Thank you!
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February, 2016