Ralf Rudersdorfer, born in 1979, began his career at the Institute for Applied Physics. He then changed to the Institute for Communications Engineering and RF-Systems (formerly Institute for Communications and Information Engineering) of the Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria, to take over the laboratory area and technical agendas of the Institute. His activities included the setting up of a measuring station with attenuated reflection properties / antenna measuring lab and furnishing the electronic labs of the Mechatronics Department with new basic equipment.

He began publishing technical papers at the age of 21. In August 2002 he became a Guest Consultant for laboratory equipment and RF hardware and conducted practical training courses in "Electronic Circuit Engineering" at the reactivated Institute for Electronics Engineering at the Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany. In 2006 he applied for a patent covering the utilization of a specific antenna design for two widely deviating ranges of operating frequencies, which was granted within only 14 months without any prior objections. In the winter semesters 2008 to 2011 he gets the lectureship for the practical course "Applied Electrical Engineering" at the Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.

Rudersdorfer is author of numerous practice-oriented publications in the fields of radio transmitters and radio receivers, high-frequency technology, and general electronics. Furthermore, he was responsible for the preparation of more than 55 measuring protocols regarding the comprehensive testing of transmitting and receiving equipment of various designs and radio standards issued and published by a trade magazine. During this project alone he defined more than 550 intercept points at receivers. He has repeatedly been invited to present papers at conferences and specialized trade fairs. At the same time he is active in counseling various organizations like external cooperation partners of the university institute, public authorities, companies, associations, and editorial offices on wireless telecommunication, radio technology, antenna technology, and electronic measuring systems.

At the VHF Convention Weinheim, Germany, in 2003 he received the Young Talent Special Award in the radio technology section. At the short-wave/VHF/UHF conference conducted in 2006 at the Munich University of Applied Sciences, Germany, he took first place in the measuring technology section. The argumentation for the present work in its original version received the EEEfCOM Innovation Award 2011 as a special recognition of achievements in Electrical and Electronic Engineering for Communication.

Preface xiii

Acknowledgements xv

I Functional Principle of Radio Receivers 1

I.1 Some History to Start 1

I.2 Present-Day Concepts 4

I.3 Practical Example of an (All-)Digital Radio Receiver 23

I.4 Practical Example of a Portable Wideband Radio Receiver 39

References 46

Further Reading 48

II Fields of Use and Applications of Radio Receivers 49

II.1 Prologue 49

II.2 Wireless Telecontrol 50

II.3 Non-Public Radio Services 54

II.4 Radio Intelligence, Radio Surveillance 64

II.5 Direction Finding and Radio Localization 83

II.6 Terrestrial Radio Broadcast Reception 101

II.7 Time Signal Reception 104

II.8 Modern Radio Frequency Usage and Frequency Economy 107

References 109

Further Reading 112

III Receiver Characteristics and their Measurement 113

III.1 Objectives and Benefits 113

III.2 Preparations for Metrological Investigations 114

III.3 Receiver Input Matching and Input Impedance 118

III.4 Sensitivity 121

III.5 Spurious Reception 147

III.6 Near Selectivity 156

III.7 Reciprocal Mixing 162

III.8 Blocking 171

III.9 Intermodulation 174

III.10 Cross-Modulation 199

III.11 Quality Factor of Selective RF Preselectors under Operating Conditions 204

III.12 Large-Signal Behaviour in General 209

III.13 Audio Reproduction Properties 213

III.14 Behaviour of the Automatic Gain Control (AGC) 218

III.15 Long-Term Frequency Stability 223

III.16 Characteristics of the Noise Squelch 226

III.17 Receiver Stray Radiation 227

III.18 (Relative) Receive Signal Strength and S Units 230

III.19 AM Suppression in the F3E Receiving Path 236

III.20 Scanning Speed in Search Mode 238

References 240

Further Reading 242

IV Practical Evaluation of Radio Receivers (A Model) 245

IV.1 Factual Situation 245

IV.2 Objective Evaluation of Characteristics in Practical Operation 245

IV.3 Information Gained in Practical Operation 249

IV.4 Interpretation (and Contents of the 'Table of operational PRACTICE') 253

IV.5 Specific Equipment Details 255

References 255

Further Reading 255

V Concluding Information 257

V.1 Cascade of Noisy Two-Ports (Overall Noise Performance) 257

V.2 Cascade of Intermodulating Two-Ports (Overall Intermodulation Performance) 260

V.3 Mathematical Description of the Intermodulation Formation 264

V.4 Mixing and Derivation of Spurious Reception 269

V.5 Characteristics of Emission Classes According to the ITU RR 272

V.6 Geographic Division of the Earth by Region According to ITU RR 272

V.7 Conversion of dB. . . Levels 272

References 278

Further Reading 279

List of Tables 281

Index 283