Chapter 1
Introduction
I often think that we have now finally come full circle in the world of radio transmission. We are back to where it all started: after all, the first transmission via radio waves by Marconi in 1895 was digital, using Morse code.
These days we are heading for a fully digitalized form of radio transmission, often using Internet Protocol (IP). Most radio services – broadcast, voice transmission for mobiles and television transmission – are being digitalized and transmitted via radio waves.
Radio waves – what a discovery that truly has changed our world! The effect of electromagnetism was discovered by H. C. Ørsted in 1820. Samuel E. Morse invented his digital system, the ‘Morse code’, in 1840. Through copper wires the world got connected via the telegraph line, and cross-continental communication was now accessible. Marconi merged both inventions and created the basis of our modern wireless communication systems, performing the first radio transmission over an incredible distance of 1.5 kilometers in 1895. Now we live in a world totally dependent on spin-offs of these basic discoveries.
Marconi struggled to transmit radio signals over a relative short distance: a few kilometers was a major achievement in the early days. Later, radio waves were used to reach several hundred thousand of kilometers into deep space, communicating with and controlling deep space probes and even vehicles on Mars.
Would it not be fair if we could bring back Ørsted, Morse and Marconi, ...
