[Farm-Ranch-Homestead]

What is “radio?”

Without getting into a dictionary definition, radio is simply a system of transmitting and receiving communications using electro-magnetic radiation. A transmitter sends an audible “radio” signal by converting it to electro-magnetic energy and radiating it from an antenna, while a receiver receives the electro-magnetic energy through an antenna and converts that energy back into an audible signal.

Radio systems require a transmitter and antenna to transmit the signal, and a receiver and antenna to receive the signal. The radio transmitter can vary in size from a small hand-held device to a large mountain-top installation such as those used by commercial radio and television stations. Radio receivers are usually (but not always), small personal electronic devices including hand-held devices (walkie-talkies), dashboard mounted devices (car radios), or table-top devices (home stereo receivers and “ham” radio sets).

For a radio system to be effective, the transmitter and the receiver must use the same frequency and mode. These will be described further in a future post, but using traditional “terrestrial” radio (standard AM/FM radio), this would refer to 97.7 FM, where 97.7 is the frequency in “MegaHertz” (MHz) and FM is the mode.