1.) This is a course in radio history and theory, uniting science with education and religious beliefs, presented by Milwaukee Free University. Today´s Blog is Rated G (from Dec. 27, 2010)

Radio, Physics, Religion, and Where They Meet: (for children)

Einstein´s Theory of General Relativity predicts neat things about anything that travels really fast. The faster you move, the slower that time goes for you, compared to those moving slower than you. If you were to get onto a spaceship that goes almost the speed of light, only a few seconds going by for you at that speed would have millions of years passing on Earth in the same time. Everyone you ever knew would be dead from old age, yet it only took a few seconds on your watch.

A few seconds for you, travelling very fast, relative to (Relativity) the rest of the universe. So, what would happen if we were to ride on a radio wave, headed out of a television station transmitter? Beginning at the transmitter output, we would ride inside of a coaxial cable, a special cable for radio waves, which is a "plane" in String Theory, meaning that it has its own weird internal science.

Coaxial cables are designed to permit an electrical wave to travel as fast as 96% of the Speed of Light, down a wire! That is why they are used for cable TV. Riding on our radio-television wave, out of the transmitter, travelling at such a fast speed means that almost no time is going by for us, yet millions of years have happened on Earth. By the time we have gone two feet down the coaxial cable, it is already a hundred million years in the future for the world outside the cable! This is because we are moving so fast.

By the time we reach the Singularity Point, which is a point in String Theory that is outside of this dimension and this universe, where we begin to go the Speed of Light, all time has expired, and we are at the End of Time. This is at the antenna, the other end of the coaxial cable. Our radio signal, and ourselves riding on it, reach the antenna at precisely the End of Time. That is what happens when anything goes the Speed of Light.

That point, obviously, must touch God. The radio wave must then go faster than the Speed of Light, and thus go back in time to just instants after it came out of the transmitter. We have been thru a time loop. This can happen, because we were outside of the universe at that time. String Theory calls this being in a different "Dimension", and there are at least eleven of them. But what happened on that journey was a trip into God and to eternity. All radio and television waves visit the End of Time!

I have a chapter on Philosophy, probably too mature for most children, that puts together Atheism (non-belief in God), plus Cynicism (philosophy that Earth is evil), Hedonism (philosophy that the purpose of life is to have fun), Science (philosophy that the purpose of life is to control one´s environment and other people, thus becoming like God), and Comparative Religion (philosophy that all religions teach the same thing, but from different perspectives.)

No one has ever done that, nor has anyone completed the philosophy of the Ancient Greek Cynics before. They killed themselves, believing that Earth here is hell, and the only way to escape is death. Silly, right? They also believed that their soul would be born again as another baby, who maybe had a nicer life.

Getting back to radio waves and relativity, another neat thing happens when a thing going the speed of light crashes into something and stops. Since we cannot see radio waves, but we can see light waves, let us use a slightly different example. Let us ride on the light coming out of a lightbulb.

This, too, goes the Speed of Light, and we see examples everywhere. At the filiment of the lightbulb, the hot part inside that produces the light, we begin going the speed of light. No coaxial cable in this example to travel down. So, we immmediately go the Speed of Light, and thus touch the End of Time. And, like the radio wave, we then must go back in time, in order to go forward in time again from the lightbulb to your eye. Then you see light. But it has been on quite a journey, thru heaven and back!

And, the light has to stop somewhere, too, no longer going the speed of light, when it reaches a barrier. When light from the lightbulb hits the wall, some of it reflects into the room. And, some of it turns into heat energy. And, some of it goes right outside of this universe! We now know from experiments on weird stuff that goes faster than the Speed of Light that it goes faster than the speed of light once it hits a barrier. And, we know that it leaves this universe, and goes back to the Beginning of Time, as fuel for the "Big Bang" where God created everything. Once again, slowing down from light speed abruptly by hitting a barrier also touches time at its infinity point.

We are not certain if the Beginning of Time and the End of Time are the same place, but it makes sense for this to all be in a loop. If God consists of energy that is outside of our universe, in a place or dimension (heaven?) where the past, present, and future are all the same time, does every transmission of energy touch God? It does seriously look like the "signatures" left upon time by the motion of energy forms the memory of God. The only thing that I find remarkable is that God is actually an intelligent being, and not just a symbol. I only know that because God chose to come down to Earth and talk to me, in person. Some of these writings are things that I asked Him about.

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2.) Radio theory for beginners of all ages. What is it, and how does it work?

Radio is an invisible wave

Many of us have wondered what holds a refrigerator magnet in place. And, how is it that this "cling" stuff, magnetism, can even go right through a piece of paper, holding it in place, too. Radio uses the same force, magnetism, to send messages long distances. Magnetism is invisible, and consists of "waves" of force. These "magnetic waves" can go right through solid objects like the piece of paper being clipped to the refrigerator.

If we were to turn this magnetism on and off, we could send messages. Turning the magnet on for a tiny burst would produce a short "click" of something metal on a spring that got attracted to it. A long burst of turning the magnet on would produce a long "click". Since magnetism can also be produced by electricity, in a coil, a switch could turn our magnet on and off, making short clicks and long clicks. This is called telegraph.

The starter solenoid in your car motor is a big electromagnet that gets energized when you turn the key to "start". It pulls metal parts into place, using magnetism, to crank the motor. A telegraph, much smaller and lighter, uses just a tiny piece of metal that clicks on and off against a very small electromagnet.

What if we could turn this electromagnetism on and off thousands of times a second? What if we could use a microphone to turn it on and off using the rhythms of our voice? These are principles involved in speakers, audio, and radio. On certain frequencies, numbers of on-off cycles each second, our electromagnet can go hundreds of miles. That is radio. An electromagnet that gets turned on and off thousands of times a second, making its electromagnetic wave go many miles.

On the other end, a piece of metal is too large to be attracted by such an electromagnetic current. But, if we look for the specific frequency of our transmitter, isolate it alone, and then amplify it electronically, we get a big signal, far away. So the transmitter starts and stops the electromagnet hundreds or thousands of times per second, and in pace with the sound of your voice, this goes far, even all the way around the world, and the receiver isolates this one frequency, and then amplifies it back into a big electromagnetic signal. Then what? We put that signal into headphones or speakers, which use an electromagnet to vibrate plastic or cardboard, in tune with speech or music.

Different frequencies behave differently.

Radio waves that are only half a million off-on cycles each second are actually considered low in frequency. AM Radio, which was the first type band invented, goes from half a million cycles per second to 1.7 million. It travels thru the earth, and that is called groundwave. It can go 90 miles in the daytime, but gets absorbed by sunlight and the radiation layers of the Earth that exist in sunlight. It needs lots of power, because there is a lot of static and noise from inside the Earth. At night, AM radio does not get absorbed by the atmosphere, and can go long distances, bouncing off the different radiation layers than can carry it thousands of miles. For this reason, broadcasters use less power at night. Otherwise, a station in Boston would interfere with a station in Dallas, and vice versa. In the daytime, not a problem at all.

Higher in frequency than that is VHF (Very High Frequency) radio, such as television channels 2 thru 13, and FM Broadcast radio. The TV channels are not all in a continuous row, and have all sorts of other things in-between the channels. FM is between channel 6 and channel 7, and takes up the equivalent of 3.33 television channels. That makes 20 megahertz, from 88 to 108 on FM, with a radio channel every one-fifth megahertz (20 kilohertz), 100 channels in all. 88.1, the first channel, operates from 88.0 to 88.2 megahertz, with the center of the channel on 88.1 where you tune it in. The next channel goes from 88.2 to 88.4 megahertz, but goes by the name of its center, which is 88.3. Understand? The highest channel, channel 100 of FM broadcast, is 107.9 megahertz, which goes from 107.8 to 108.0, the end of the band.

Then there is an aircraft communications band, and then we begin more television channels, 7 thru 13. The space between channels 13 and 14 is enormous. Channels 14 and up are UHF, Ultra-High Frequency. These are similar in characteristics to cellular telephone channels, and so are dangerous to your body. The antennas at the top of a cellular tower would cook you like a microwave oven if you got close to them, but they shoot their signal way over your head, where it cannot harm you. Your cell phone does little or no damage, just because it is so low in power. There also exist cell phone antennas, such as a half-wave vertical, that shoot the cellular transmission from your cell phone straight up, over your head, and then outward.

VHF and UHF do not travel thru the Earth, like AM Radio does. They travel thru the air, and the Earth stops them. So, if there is a mountain in the way of your signal to a receiver, the signal never makes it thru the mountain. The horizon is the limit of UHF and VHF, including FM radio and television. So, the higher up you are, the farther you can receive signals, and also the farther you can transmit them.

Transmitting from down on the ground, you can go thru trees, houses, traffic lights, garages, cars, but how far can your signal go? How far can you see? The planet is curved, and you can only transmit to the horizon, perhaps 5 miles. Transmitting from a tall building, or a mountain, however, you get a signal out to a wide area, maybe even hundreds of miles. This is why broadcasters, and also communications radio operators such as taxicab radio, all use tall towers. Greater distances possible. Note that increasing power does not increase how far you can talk at all! The horizon is still in the same place regardless of how much power you use. Power does help your signal go thru more trees, houses, garages, shopping malls, people, cars, etc., at the edge of your signal, however. All of these destroy a little bit of signal power, until the ground destroys it all at the horizon.

So, how do we get a walkie-talkie (or a cell phone) to go a long distance? We use two different channels at the same time, one for transmitting and the other for receiving. This is called a frequency pair. My tiny walkie-talkie cannot very well communicate directly with yours, 100 miles (150 km.) distant, as both of our signals run into the horizon after 5 miles. But what about a relay station, or repeater, on a mountaintop? I transmit to the repeater, and it repeats what I say to you, 100 miles away. I transmit on Channel One, the repeater up on the mountain has a receiver for Channel 1, receives my tiny signal, and then, at the same time, blasts out my voice on Channel 90. You are listening on Channel 90 for my transmission.

You then, done listening on Channel 90 to my voice on the big mountaintop repeater, answer me by pressing your Push-To-Talk button. Your walkie-talkie automatically switches to Channel One Transmit, and gets received by the repeater. Since I have let go of my transmit button, I am back on Channel 90 receive, and now you are talking to the repeater on Channel One, and I am receiving you on Channel 90. See? Each of us transmits on 1 and receives on 90. The repeater, taking advantage of height, receives on 1 and transmits on 90. We both transmit on the repeater INPUT and then receive on its OUTPUT.

Broadcasters want their station to go as far as possible, too, so they transmit from up high, a long way to the horizon. This also means that their signal is coming into your home from the roof, rather than having to travel in from a low elevation, where the signal would have to go thru churches, cars, dogs, traffic lights, shopping malls, etc., losing some power going thru each object. So, up high determines broadcast distance, but getting the signal good, especially when moving around in a car, is a function of power. Increasing power does not really increase distance. One watt doubles in signal by increasing it to 100 watts, then double again at 1000 watts and double again at ten thousand watts. Power is not the game, antenna height is. What higher power does do, however, is make your station occupy a wider spot on the band, as far as the ability of a receiver goes. It does not actually, in reality, take up any more or less room than the one channel it is on. It just tunes in wider.

Higher in frequency than UHF, there is satellite, microwave, and then the highest frequencies of Xray, and then Gamma radiation. Some of this is used for communications, at very low power, because at high power it is very damaging as far as causing cancer, cataracts, and other problems. Radio engineers who work with it wear a dose meter, similar to those who work with radioactive chemicals.

Article being written. To be continued.

3.) Radio History, basics.

Whales Invented Radio? How?

Before we could drill for oil (and kerosene), whale oil was used by the colonists for lighting. Whaling ships killed whales which were boiled down for their blubber, or fat, whale oil. Kerosene-type lanterns were used to light ships, streets, homes, farms. Until we started to run out of whales!

Thomas Edison who owned a scientific lab corporation thought that electric batteries, already in use for the telegraph, could be made to supply light to a glowing wire, a lightbulb. The filiaments kept burning out, so he enclosed the filament in a glass vacuum chamber but still had problems. The first bulbs used cotton filaments and 600 volts of battery power, which is very deadly. Tungsten (called Woofram, Periodic Element W) was then discovered, requiring only 108 volts, not as deadly.

Italy's Marconi invented a method for using this lightbulb, with additional metal screens inside of it, to amplify electrical impulses. Called a cathode (sender) and anode (receiver) this bulb could amplify the weak signals of oscillators, coil-and-capacitor combinations, that got tuned to a frequency. Such oscillators already existed, but could only transmit magnetism a few meters at best. With tube amplification, the magnetic signal could go long distances. By the time the Titanic needed help, Marconi Wireless Radiotelegraph units were required by law on all large vessels.

Radiotelegraph worked the same as land telegraph, with little short beeps and longer beeps being sent, but using radio waves instead of wires. By the time Alexander Bell invented the telephone, all that was necessary is to hook a telephone microphone in place of the telegraph key, to transmit voice. This was called radiotelephone.

KDKA in Pittsburg, the first commercial radio station in the world, hired an orchestra to play music live, and put out their signal worldwide for ships and anyone else with a radio. To pay for that, radio commercials selling laundry detergent and other products were aired. This led to Coca-Cola being known and demanded worldwide. Radio Corporation of America, RCA, and its network NBC Radio, sold inexpensive radio receivers to anyone they could, even at a loss. The money was in advertising, not in selling radios!

Radio static and interference from Earth noises were an irritation on AM radio, especially near any sort of storm, so Westinghouse invented FM radio, with wider channels, better music quality, and higher fidelity, plus no static. It took many stations, each able to cover only 90 miles or so (unlike the 500 mile coverage of AM radio), but put together into a network was just as effective, with better music and less noise.

Anderson patented the broadcast transmitter early-on, but the whole industry ignored his very real patent (he did the engineering) and paid him nothing, so he died a poor and miserable man. His widow sued for Patent Infringement and won the equivalent of billions of dollars in today's money.

A ham operator in London found a way to send pictures over the airwaves, and called it Telly-Vision, or TV. Radio Corporation of America thought that pictures on its radio broadcasts would be extremely profitable, and started NBC Television to go along with NBC Radio, doing the original engineering work to produce a much better telly-vision. The problem is that the frequency stability of transmitters and receivers was so bad, they could not use 88 Mhz. where the FCC wanted to put television. So, TV had to be placed on the Westinghouse FM Radio Band, around 50 Mhz. Every single Westinghouse FM radio receiver in the country became obsolete and useless, to make room for TV there. FM radio got moved up to 88 Mhz., where it is today.

Television was initially so expensive that only bars, pubs, some pool halls, and a few barber shops had it, along with extremely wealthy people. Later in the 1940s and World War Two era, however, a more inexpensive design came along, and by the 1950s, a lot of ordinary people had television receivers. It was so popular that 2 more channels had to be added, Channel 5 and Channel 6, which are in a different radio band than channels 1, 2, 3, and 4. Television was hot. By 1960, there were another 7 channels added, in yet a third television band, numbered 7 thru 13. It was often said that in the 1960s, a television station license was almost a license to print money.

Color TV started consumer popularity in 1962, but the color was so bad that many of the newscasters looked like green aliens. It was around in 1960, when TV allowed Kennedy to defeat Nixon in the Presidential Race. Curly Lambeau of the Acme Packers, one of the two NFL teams, said

TO BE CONTINUED.

4.) Putting your own radio station on the air!

All radio stations have similarities, and here are the steps to construct one:

1.) Learn about radio law, theory, frequencies, receivers, and the like. Free courses exist in radio. Some people make teaching radio their hobby, just like there are amateur photographers and amateur winemakers. The radio amateurs are called amateur or "ham" radio operators, because they ham it up. They also teach radio, free. To learn more, contact the National Association of Amateur Radio Operators, called the American Radio Relay League, or ARRL. They are at www.ARRL.org, and they are a Nonprofit Organization. They can teach you a hobby that can go on to provide you someday, maybe, with a career in radio engineering, a $200,000 a year (or more) job. Your library, and even Radio Shack, have books on radio theory.

2.) Obtain a license for the class or type of radio station that you want to put on the air. A ham operator can transmit voice, Morse Code, computer data, telephone, teletype, facsimile, or even television, but only for personal use, no business, and no broadcasting. All music and entertainment is prohibited. Typically, ham operators talk to people in faraway nations, send messages free worldwide, teach radio, and similar. Any attempt to make money using a ham license is forbidden! This must strictly be a hobby and learning.

Other sorts of licenses include communications, such as using a walkie-talkie for business, or even broadcasting, which allows music and entertainment. As you may have guessed, there are a limited number of this type of licenses available. And, many of the really "good" frequencies or channels are already taken. To get a ham license, you take a test. To get a communications or broadcast license, you apply to the FCC, generally thru a lawyer or similar. FCC regulations and engineering requirements require the equivalent of a Ph.D. (First Class Radiotelephone or Amateur Extra license) to decipher them and obey the rules.

Article being written. To be continued.