Why The Radio Is One Of History's Most Important Inventions - mersano/Article GitHub Wiki
Over the last 100,000 years, the animal at the top of the food chain has made incredible leaps in understanding the surrounding environment. This knowledge has helped them to invent and create stuffs that have taken them higher and higher up the food chain. It has made their lives better and a lot more fun. Among the greatest of these inventions is the radio.
Radio is the general name for equipments that use radio waves to send or receive a signal. The most commonly used type of radio is the radio sets used for AM and FM broadcasting. These radio sets receive signals from a radio station which transmit signals around hundreds of square miles using powerful antennas. Live radio streaming allow us to listen to radio programs on the internet.
We also use radio for point to point communication. This kind of communication is used mostly by the armed forces, law enforcement and navigators.
The internet, satellite technology, and our cell phone applications all depend on radio technology. The importance of radio in our lives today is so immense that we can consider it one of the greatest inventions in history.
Scientists believe that the first radio transmission was performed by David Edward Hughes in 1880. Hertzian waves
Between 1886 and 1888 Heinrich Rudolf Hertz published the results of his experiments which showed it was possible to transmit radio waves through air. As a result of Hertz's robust work on radio waves, it came to be known as the 'Hertzian waves'. It is this Hertzian waves that we now know as radio waves.
In 1894, the Italian inventor, Guglielmo Marconi unveiled the first commercially successful radio transmission system. Many other inventors contributed significantly to the invention of radio. For this reason, the invention of the radio is not credited to just one person. We surely do have a lot of thanking to do.
Would you say it's the printing press, the combustion engine or electric power? Surely, these inventions changed the way we do things. But there is arguably no invention that has as much widespread use as radio in our modern life. Without radio, many technological advances we had wouldn't have been possible. Think of any aspect of human life today; whether it's communication, broadcasting, medicine, or navigation, radio waves revolutionized human living.
- Broadcasting: This basically means the transmission of radio waves to members of the public who own receivers that are capable of interpreting the transmitted signal.
There are two general types radio broadcasts which are radio and TV broadcasts.
Radio Broadcast: This is involves a one-way transmission of audio signals to a public audience who have receivers compatible with the signal. This audio signal is sent through radio waves. Until the invention of the television, radio was the only source of electronic mass media. It was used to entertain, inform and educate the public. Today millions of lovers of radio find solace, entertainment and companionship in their favorite programs. Radio has made it easier for marketers to reach wide audiences through affordable advertisement. Governments also find the radio a lot more effective for disseminating information to the public. It is the most effective way for the government to spread information that requires repetition.
Radio transmissions are typically done in Amplitude Modulation (AM) or Frequency Modulation (FM). In these cases, the signals are analog.
Live radio streaming is available on the internet. This helps users to overcome the limitations of analog radio signals which include audio quality, interference and range.
TV Broadcasting: This makes use of radio waves to transmit moving images to a public audience. Television serves the same purposes as radio but with images added to the mix. Television broadcasting require radio wave frequencies higher than that of radio broadcasting.
- Communication: Most wireless communication are done by radio. Some communication systems that depend on radio are listed as follows
Mobile Phone communication: Imagine a world without your cell phones. Cell phones untangled us from the telephone wires and set us free. The cell phone takes credit for a lot of the economic growth the world has experienced in the last two decades. Text messages from cell phones are transmitted through radio waves.
Picture a scientist lost in Antarctica or the Amazon forest with no one in sight and no cell towers to call for help. And then luckily he happens to have a satellite phone. Thank Jesus!
Satellite phones communicate by sending and receiving signals directly from/ to satellites without being routed through cell towers. This means that researchers can go to remote places and still be able to communicate with the base. Imagine the number of lives saved in the process.
Networks: The internet is a connection of computers which share information through radio waves. Take a minute to imagine a world without social media, online trading, online news, Netflix, Google and Wikipedia. That's a world where radio was not invented.
Wireless networks like the Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) and the Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN) both depend on radio waves for data transmission. The routers for modems use WLAN while telecommunication cell towers broadcast radio waves using WWAN.
Portable Half-Duplex Radio transceivers: These are used for short range communication. They are mostly used by law enforcement agencies. They are also used by airlines, ships and submarines to communicate with other vessels.
- Radar: This is used to detect the position of planes, ships, submarines and such bodies large enough to reflect a radio beam.
Radio waves are used in medicine to treat cancer and perform some surgical procedures. It's also used in drones, keyless doors and wireless doorbells.
Can you think of anything that doesn't need radio in the modern world?