An audio signal of 15 kHz frequency cannot be transmitted over long distances without modulation, because (a … size of the antenna is…
(a, b, d)
Key concept: Size of the antenna or aerial. For transmitting a signal, we need an antenna or an aerial. This antenna should have a size comparable to the wavelength of the signal (at least 1/4 in dimension) so that the antenna properly senses the time variation of the signal. For an electromagnetic wave of frequency 20 kHz, the wavelength λ is 15 km. Obviously, such a long antenna is not possible to construct and operate. Hence direct transmission of such base band signals is not practical. We can obtain transmission with reasonable antenna s if transmission frequency is high (for example,
if n is 1 MHz, then λ is 300 m). Therefore, there is a need of translating the information contained in our original low frequency baseband signal into high or radio frequencies before transmission.
Effective power radiated by an antenna: A theoretical study of radiation from a linear antenna (length l) shows that the power radiated is proportional to (1/λ)2 . This implies that for the same antenna length, the power radiated increases with decreasing λ, i.e., increasing frequency. Hence, the effective power radiated by a long wavelength base band signal would be small. For a good transmission,we need high powers and hence this also points out to the need of using high frequency transmission.