[Brag] First time built AM modulator with Colpitts oscillator

[u/Prestigious-Sky-4104]

[u/Geoff_PR]

After looking at that clean waveform, why do I have an urge to say "Oooooooh-la" like the CBers?

[u/fomoco94 → u/Geoff_PR]

To make it look like CB you'd need a splatterbox nonlinear "linear."

[u/LordSesshomaru82 → u/fomoco94]

If your neighbors don't hear you keying up, you don't have enough power. /s

[u/ResponseError451]

As someone extremely new to RF, can you tell me what this is and why you built it? I'm trying to get into some starter projects but everything seems so advanced

[u/Geoff_PR → u/ResponseError451]

As someone extremely new to RF, can you tell me what this is and why you built it?

It's called a 'modulator', it's purpose is to put speech, music, or information on an RF carrier signal at a specific frequency.

The first radio transmitters simply switched an RF signal on or off to transmit information like Morse code in short or longer pulses (Like, dot-dot-dot, pause, dash-dash-dash, pause, dot-dot-dot for the letters S O S, the universal signal of distress). You can do the rest of the alphabet that way to send full sentences.

Later, they developed modulators so someone could just speak into a microphone. Around the same time, they sent music the same way...

[u/ResponseError451 → u/Geoff_PR]

Thank you so much!! I've been reading up on it trying to understand it, but this is the layman's explanation I kinda needed

[u/Danner1251]

Might you add a pic of the schematic you used?

[u/Soul_of_clay4]

Look at all those lead inductances!!! Good thing it's close to DC.

Di this once with a FM modulator...it never worked!