What Is the Purpose of an RF Modulator?
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What It does
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The purpose of a radio frequency (RF) modulator is to manipulate information encoded onto a carrier wave. Many of our technological gadgets--like video cameras, radios, and televisions--can actually emit energy pulses. An RF modulator can change those pulses into information and how we hear or see them just depends on whatever device we use. There are variants of this device, which manipulate stronger or more complicated digital signals for larger applications, but the basic principles are always the same. They take in energy pulses and transform them. To understand the purpose of an RF modulator, it's necessary to learn a little about how radio waves work.
Electromagnetic Spectrum (EM) "101"
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All energy generally lives along the Electromagnetic (EM) Spectrum. Just think of it as a collection of multiple waves that exists together. Each has length, intensity, amplitude and frequency. Gamma rays exist at one end of the EM spectrum because their waves are shorter and much more intense. Highly intense waves are difficult to use as they are dangerous to people. Radio waves tend to be less dangerous and longer than gamma rays, so they occur less frequently. Along the EM spectrum, when frequency decreases, wavelength increases--again, radio waves can be long. This makes them ideal for sending information for either short or long range.
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Carrier and Modulator Signals
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An RF modulator uses a modulating signal to "tweak" a carrier wave. Most people are familiar with the two basic kinds of modulating signals, frequency modulation (FM) and amplitude modulation (AM). A radio station, for example, can use a modulator to take a sound and radio wave and mesh them together. An RF modulator can also remove the sound from a radio wave, too.
Let's say someone talks into a transducer commonly referred to as a "microphone." This device changes the sound into an electronic pulse. The pulse can be electronically coded onto a carrier wave by an RF modulator. Electricity is pumped through wires that are connected to the modulator, which generates an electromagnetic field sending waves outward. The naturally occurring EM Spectrum helps to move these waves, as well. These waves can then ride along in the atmosphere until someone wants to catch them with an antenna, for example, which moves the pulses down into an electronic device. If the electronic device has its own modulator, it can send out its own signal, too.
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