Another method of superimposing
information signals on to a carrier signal is
frequency modulation (FM) in which
the modulating signal varies the frequency
of a carrier wave. This has a number
of advantages over amplitude modulation
(AM). Frequency modulation is used
for sound broadcasting in the VHF band,
for the sound signal of 625-line
television broadcasting, for some mobile
systems, and for multi-channel
telephony systems operating in the UHF band.
Frequency modulation is therefore
used for all analog communications via
satellites. FM therefore has a wider
bandwidth compared to AM.
When a sinusoidal carrier wave is frequency
modulated, its instantaneous
frequency is caused to vary in accordance
with the characteristics of the
modulating signal. The modulated carrier
frequency must vary either side of
its nominal unmodulated frequency
a number of times per second equal to the
modulating frequency. The magnitude
of the variation - known as the
frequency deviation - is proportional
to the amplitude of the modulating signal
voltage.
When the modulating signal is of sinusoidal
waveform, the frequency of the
modulated carrier wave will vary sinusoidally
; this is illustrated by Fig. 9
