MEASUREMENT OF DEVIATION AND

FREQUENC Y IN F. M. TWO- WAY RADIO SYSTEMS

M. COOPER

INTRODUCTION SOME THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS

A pleaforpropersetting of deviationand REGARDING F. M. AND P. M.
frequencybefore a grouphavingthestature of
Thesimplestwaytodescribethevarious
the PGVCwould a p p e a r t o be as n e c e s s a r y a s a signals associated with modulation is in the use
strong pitch for motherhood before the local PTA.
of thetimeandfrequencygraphsasshownin
Certainly everyone believes in it. Many two-way Fig. 1. Fig. l ( a ) andl(b).representplots of the
systemsusershavenot,however,realizedthe
amplitude of the modulating signal andcarrier as
f u l l i m p o r t a n c et h a tt h e s ep a r a m e t e r sh a v e at-
a function of time. Fig. l ( c ) i s a plot of t h e f r e -
tainedsincethetighttolerances of thesplit
quency spectrum resulting from the combination
channel have been imposed upon us.
of c a r r i e r and modulation.
I will attempt, in this paper, to discuss some
of the theoretical considerations regarding fre- Anamplitudemodulatedsignal i s disp!ayed
quency modulation deviation, and to briefly peruse in Fig. Note that the degree of modulation i s
a few of t h e m o r e p r a c t i c a l a s p e c t s of deviation veryclearlyindicated by thetimeplot of the
and frequency measurement. I promise to use the c a r r i e r (whichcouldeasily be anoscilloscopic
expression "Bessel Function'' only once, just to trace) andthat thespectrum, assuming dis-
give it officialcognizance of t h i sc o n f e r e n c e , tortionlessmodulation,consists of only t h r e e
and to leave any mathematical derivation to the d i s t i n c tf r e q u e n c i e s ,t h ec a r r i e r ,a n dt h e two-
more ambitious readers. sidebandsspaced at anintervalequaltothe

I
t

Fig. 1 Unmodulated c a r r i e r . Fig. 2 Amplitude modulation.

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modulatingfrequency.Thepowerinthecarrier lation.The 90° phasedifferenceshownbetween
is a constant and a p a i r of sidebands is added for Fig.3(b)and3(c) is notimportantanddoesnot
eachmodulatingfrequency.Forlinearmodula- affect the spectra or recovered signal. It is only
tion, the energy in the sidebands maynot exceed whenthespectra of differentmodulatingfre-
half the carrier power. As long a s t h e c a r r i e r is quencies is observed that the difference becomes
not over-modulated, the sidebands resulting from obvious.Fig. showsthespectra of a n F. M.
m u l t i t o n et r a n s m i s s i o na r e all independentand
have no effect u p each other.

Thepicture is quitedifferentforphaseor
a frequency modulated signals as shown in Fig. 3.
We note here that, even though the modulation is
d i s t o r t i o n - f r e e , a large number of sidebands ap-
pear, spaced at intervals equal to the modulating
frequency. Unlike the A. M. case, the total power
in the sidebands and carrier is equal to that of the
u n m o d u l a t e d c a r r i e r a n d t h e c a r r i e r mbea yl a r g e r
o r s m a l l e r t h a n t h e s i d e b a n d s . In f a c t , t h e c a r r i e r
actuallydisappearsundersomecircumstances.
Addition of modulating frequencies causes a r e -
distribution of t r a n s m i t t e r e n e r g y , but the F. M.
o r P. M. s i d e b a n d s a r e all i n t e r - r e l a t e d a n d s i d e -
li,:Il" .Ii
bandsoccuratintervalsequaltotheindividual
modulating frequencies as well a s v a r i o u s c o m -
binations of these frequencies.
0
A few words on the difference between Fre-
quencyModulationandPhaseModulation are in
orderatthispoint.AsindicatedinFig. 3, the Fig. 4 Frequencymodulation spectra
s p e c t r a of the two systems are identical for the variable modulation frequency.
same modulating frequency and degree of modu-
signal having 5 Kc deviation with modulating fre-
quencies of 300 cps, 1000 cps and 3000 cps. Note
thattheenvelope of thespectraispractically
independent of themodulatingfrequency. On the
otherhand,phase
modulation spectra
forthe
sa,me frequencies and a constant phase shift of 5
radians indicates, in Fig. 5 , that the width of the
phase modulated spectrum is a direct function of
the modulating frequency.

CARRIER It is c l e a r now that the two f o r m s of rnodula-

tion are identical except that for F. M. having a
fixed deviation, the phase angle of modulationde-
c r e a s e sd i r e c t l yw i t hi n c r e a s i n gf r e q u e n c ya n d
for P . M . having a fixedphaseangle,thede-
viation increases directly with frequency.

R e g a r d l e s s of the type of modulating and de-

tectingcircuitry,an F. M. s y s t e mc a n be con-
verted to P . M o. rv i c ev e r s ab y a p p r o p r i a t e l y
adjusting the frequency response prior to modu-
lationandafterdetection.Toconvert a P.M.
modulatorto F. M. weneedonlyde-emphasize
the high frequencies relative to the low frequencies
a t 6 db per octave. On the other hand, an F. M.
modulator can produce P. M. with addition of p r e -
emphasis. De-emphasis applied to the modulation
Fig. 3 Frequencymodulation phase described by Fig. 5 will convert it to the spectra
modulation. of F i g .

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 Because of c e r t a i nc h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of voice frequencies with equal maximum fidelity, such a
and of the recovered noise in pure F. M. t r a n s - s y s t e m wouldbenecessary.Forvoicetrans-
mission,mostso-called F. M. e y s t e m si nu s e mission,however, we wouldbepenalizingthe
today, including broadcast F; M. a s well a s F. M. s p e c t r u m of maximum voice energy from 300 to
mobile radio, are to a large extent actually P. M. cpsinordertogetfaithfultransmissionof
systems. seldomusedhighfrequencies.Thecharacteris-
t i c s of the human voice are such that high f r e -
Sir.ce the channels allotted to mobile use are quency high amplitude
peaks canberemoved
closely spaced, some means must be provided without degradingintelligibility and,in
some
to limit the modulation in such a way as t o p r e v e n t cases, actually improving it. It is f o r t h i s r e a s o n
splatter into adjacent channels and thus to prevent that two-wayradiosystemsuseaform of in-
interference between channels. It i s a l s o d e s i r a b l e stantaneous deviation limiting. With thisform
t ok e e pa sm u c h of thetransmittedpower as of limiting, low levelsignals of allfrequencies
possiblewithinthereceiverbandpasstomaxi- usetruephasemodulation.Asthelevel is in-
m i z er e c e i v e rp e r f o r m a n c e .E v e nt h o u g hp h a s e c r e a s e d , high f r e q u e n c i e sa r ec l i p p e df i r s ta n d
i s t h e v a r i a b l e of modulation in o u r s y s t e m , it is as level increases further, clipping may extend to
evident from Figs. and 5 that limiting of phase lower frequencies.
alone, which is equivalent to limiting the modula-
tionamplitudein P . M . , willbeinadequateto
prevent splatter. It is t h e r a t e of change of phase, DEVL4TION.MEASUREMENT
or deviation which,must be limited.
Since a maximumdeviationhasbeende-
termined as a prime system criterion, measure-
ment of this factor becomes important. The
fundamentalrequirementforthismeasurement
isabroadbandwidthreceiverhaving a wide,
l i n e a r ,d i s c r i m i n a t o r( ar a t i od e t e c t o ro rp h a s e
detector could equally well be used provided they
canbemadetorecoverthefulldeviationrange
faithfully).Thereceiverbandwidthmustbead-
lblyDu*TINE equate to include all significant sidebands of the
signal to be measured. Attenuation of s o m e o f t h e
I sidebandswilldistorttherecoveredaudioand
thusaffect ‘the a c c u r a c y of theresult.Thedis-
criminator must be compatible with the receiver
bandwidth and linear to the degree of m e a s u r e m e n t
accuracy required.
It is now n e c e s s a r y to add some form of in-
dicating device to display the discriminator out-
put and to calibrate the entire instrument for de-
viation readings. The most direct, and generally
themostaccurate,indicator is a cathoderay
oscilloscope having a low d i s t o r t i o n v e r t i c a l a m -
plifier. A meter may be calibrated for deviation
measurements provided that certain precautions
a traek eTn .hmeoism t p o r t a tnrta n s m i t t e r
Fig. 5 F h s e modulation spectra d e v i a t i o nm e a s u r e m e nitsm a d e when the de-
variable maulat% freqUenCY. viationlimitingcircuitisfullyoperative.Under
Toillustrate this,
consider
split
a band this condition, the recovered signal is quite dis-
systemwith 3 Kc audiobandpass. It hasbeen tortedasseeninFig. 6 andtheonlysignificant
d e t e r m i n e d that, topreventexcessivespreading measurement which can be m a d e i s a peakto peak
of the spectrum the peak phase shift at 3000 C P S orpeaktoaveragevoltagereading.Theoscil-
shouldnotbegreaterthanoneandtwo-thirds loscope measurement is easily made by counting
radianswhich is equivalentto 5 Kc deviation. s q u a r e s on thereticule. A truepeakmeasuring
If themodulation is limitedto radiansfor metermaybeusedprovidedthatthescaleis
allaudiofrequencies,splatterwill no longerbe c a l i b r a t e dt ot h ed i s c r i m i n a t o ru s e d .E v e nw i t h
aproblembutonlyaverysmallportion of the an accurate peak reading meter, some error may
spectrum will be u s e d a t t h e low audio frequencies beintroduced if the recovered signal is unsym-
(i.e. 500 cpsdeviation at 300 cpsmodulation). m e t r i c a l a s i s t h e c a s e w i t h c e r t a i n f o r m s of d i s -
Now, if ourobjectiveistotransmitallaudio tortion.

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 varied in level until the beat note disappears.
Considerable d i f f i c u l t y m q . ~be encountered i n
aurally separating the beatnote fmm the mdula-
t i o n sidebands which occur when t h e modulation is
turned up. The use of a spectrum analyser as i n
7(b) produces t h e same results without the confu-
sion of t h e sidebandbeatnotes. The r e s u l t a n t
spectrum is sham i n Fig. 7(c).

6 Devistion mearurement by oscilloscope.

Many signal generators and monitoring equip-

mente incorporate a deviation meter which is de-
flected by t h ea v e r a g eo r r. m. s. value of the frequency
detected signal but which has a scale calibrated in
peak deviation frequency. These meters will read R i g . 7 M e r disappearance.
c o r r e c t l y o n l y f o r a distortionless sine wave modu-
l a t i o n a n d w i l l b e in e r r o r f o r a n y o t h e r w a v e f o r m .
A low distortion signal may be used with such a One pitfall in this technique is worth mentioning
m e t e r to calibrate an oscilloscope reticule but the at this time. The spectrum produced by a single
meter must never be used for readingdeviation of frequency signal phase modulating a c a r r i e r con-
a limitedsignal.Provisionisoftenmadefor tains the same frequencycomponents as t h e c a r r i e r
checking themeter calibration byapplying a modulated by a distorted signal. Only the relative
standard audio signal directly into the metercircuit. amplitudes of the sidebands change. Thus, a dis-
torted audio modulated carrierwill a p p e a r s i m i l a r
The most precise calibration method for any in s p e c t r u m to the pure sine wave case and will
indicatorinvolvesuse of t h e c a r r i e r d i s a p p e a r - displaythecarrierdisappearancephenomenon.
ance phenomenon which was mentionedpreviouely. The nulls will occur at the predicted deviations
When the peak phase shift or deviation ratio (ratio a n d r e s u l t swill be erroneous to the degree that the
of peak deviation to modulating frequency) equals signal i s d i s t o r t e d . C a r e m u s t b e t a k e n t o i n s u r e
2.40, 5.52, 8.65, etc., the amplitude of t h e c a r - that any signal used in this calibration method is
rier becomes zero and all the transmitted energy not in clipand is reasonably distortion-free.
is in the sidebands. Thus, if the disappearance of
t h e c a r r i e r is m e a s u r e d f o r a givenmodulating Actual measurement of deviation once a cali-
frequency,theindicatorcanbecalibratedusing bratedindicator is availablebecomes a s i m p l e
one of the ratios above. Fig. 7 shows block m a t t e r . It is only necessary to modulate the car-
d i a g r a m s of two test set-up for this type of cali- r i e r with a Kc signal db greater than that re-
bration and a typical spectrum. The methodillus- quiredfor two-thirds system modulation andto set
tratedinFig.7ta)involvesuse of a heterodyne the deviation control of t h e t r a n s m i t t e r to provide
frequency meter to mix the modulated calibratipg rated peak deviation. E t h e s y s t e m u s e s a f o r m o f
signal with an unmodulated carrier fixed several tone squelch, the tone must be included a s shown
hundredcyclesfromthemodulatedsignal.The in Fig. 8(b). The oscilloscope faces in Fig. 8have
modulationisturned off, thebeatnotedetected been calibrated at kc per division and the trans-
aurallyandthemodulationturned on againand m i t t e r s p r o p e r l y s e t at 5 kc deviation.

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 Fig. 9 S p l i t channelspectrum and receiver
bandpass.

quency receiver bandpass characteristic. The

sidebands which a r e a t t e n u a t e d when the bandpass
is moved to one side or the other are effectively
s as any given receiver
l o s t t r a n s m i t t e r p o w e r afar
is concerned. In addition, a s m o r e s i d e b a n d s a r e
lost, noise appears in the receiver output to further
KC Deviation with degrade performance. The result of these effects
Tone Squelch
is a reduction in range and generally poor com-
munications. Even where signals are strong, the
Fig. Fmper deviation setting. off-frequencysignal is highlydistortedandhas
reduced intelligibility.

FREQUENCY MEASUREMENT Frequenciesshould

thus
be
checkedat
reasonable intervals, at least every 6 months, to
Theshortspacetobedevotedtofrequency eliminate this source of degradation.
m e a s u r e m e n t i n p a p e r is not intendedto minimize
the importance of this factor. Mis-setting of fre- T o meetFCCrequirements,thesecondary
quency in split channel systems can reduce per- standardused a s a station monitor must be
formance drastically both in area coverage and in checked against a p r i m a r y s t a n d a r d s u c h a s R a d i o
intelligibility. Station W W V e v e r y 4 months. Suitable receivers
for this purpose are generally included with station
Setting of frequency requires onlya ac- monitor equipment.
curate standard and a means for comparisonof this
standardwith the oscillatorunder test. Inthe case CONCLUSION
of receiver setting, the discriminator maybe used
as a zeroindicator.Mostsecondarystandards The time spent in accurately setting the de-
include a f o r m of indicator consisting of a m i x e r , viation and frequency in an F. M. two-way radio
low pass filter, detector, and meter. systemwillbewellrewarded by theimprove-
mentinsystemperformance.Theappreciation
Fig. 9 i l l u s t r a t e s a t o n e s p e c t r u m of a split of your neighbor channels for keeping within your
channel transmitter superimposed uponan on f r e - home grounds comes as an extra bonus.

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