COM413 – Principles of Communication
COMMUNICATION
 is the process of exchanging of information from source to
destination.
 refers to the sending, receiving and processing of information by
electronic means.
 is a process whereby information is transferred from one point in
space and time, called the source, to another point, the destination.
TWO MAIN BARRIERS OF HUMAN COMMUNICATION
 Language
 Distance
MESSAGE / INFORMATION
 is the physical manifestation of the information as produced by the
source.
TWO TYPES OF SIGNALS
1. ANALOG SIGNAL – are time-varying voltages of currents that are
continuously changing.
2. DIGITAL SIGNAL – are voltages or currents that change in discrete
steps or levels.
HISTORY OF ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS
 1830 – American scientist and professor Joseph Henry transmitted
the first practical electrical signal.
 1837 – Samuel F.B. Morse invented the telegraph.
 1843 – Alexander Bain invented the facsimile.
 1861 – Johann Phillip Reis completed the first nonworking
telephone.
 1864 – James Clerk Maxwell released his paper “Dynamical Theory
of the Electromagnetic Field”
 1866 – The United States and England was the first trans-Atlantic
telegraph cable laid.
 1876 – Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas A. Watson invented the
telephone.
 1877 – Thomas Edison invented the phonograph.
 1879 – George Eastman invented the photography.
 1880 – Heinrich Hertz discovers electromagnetic waves.
Prepared by: ENGR. MARK JOMMEL S. NASOL
 1887 – Heinrich Hertz discovers radio waves and Guglielmo
Marconi demonstrates wireless radio wave propagation.
 1895 – Guglielmo Marconi discovered ground-wave radio signals.
 1903 – John Ambrose Fleming invented the two-electrode vacuum
tube rectifier.
 1905 – Guglielmo Marconi invented the directional radio antenna.
 1906 – Reginald Fessenden invented amplitude modulation (AM)
and demonstrates the first electronic voice communication.
 1906 – Lee De Forest invented the triode vacuum tube.
 1914 – Hiram Maxim founding of American Radio Relay League, the
first amateur radio organization.
 1918 – Major Edwin Armstrong develops the superheterodyne
receiver.
 1920 – Radio station KDKA broadcast the first regular licensed
radio transmission out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
 1923 – Vladimir Zworykin invents and demonstrates television.
 1931 – Major Edwin Armstrong invented frequency modulation
(FM).
 1935 – Commercial FM radio broadcasting with monophonic
transmission.
 1937 – Alec Reeves invents binary-coded pulse-code modulation
(PCM).
 1939 – NBC demonstrates television broadcasting. United States
was first use of two-way radio communications using “walkie-
talkies.”
 1940 – Britain and US, invention and perfection of radar.
 1946 – The AT&T Company was the first mobile telephone system
for the public called MTS.
 1948 – John Von Neumann creates of the first stored program
electronic digital computer and Bell Laboratories invents the
transistor.
 1953 – RCA / NBC was the first color TV broadcast.
 1957 – Russia launches the world’s first satellite.
 1958 – Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce invented the integrated circuits
(IC).
 1965 – First commercial communications satellite launched.
 1970 – HDTV introduced in Japan.
 1977 – First commercial use of optical fiber cables.
 1983 – Cellular telephone networks introduced in US.
 1999 – DTV transmission begins in the United States.
 COM413 – Principles of Communication
ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS 4. NOISE – random and unpredictable electrical signals from natural
- is the totality of mechanism that provides information link sources both internal and external to the system.
between source and destination.

ELEMENTS OF COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

1. TRANSMITTER (TX) - is a collection of electronic components and

circuits designed to convert the message into a signal suitable for
transmission in a communication medium.

2. TRANSMISSION CHANNEL or MEDIUM

- is the electrical connection between the transmitter and
receiver bridging the gap between the source and
destination.

3. RECEIVER (RX) – is a collection of electronic components and circuits

that accept the signal from the medium and convert it back into the
form of understandable by humans.

UNWANTED AND UNDESIRABLE EFFECTS ENCOUNTERED IN THE

MEDIUM

1. ATTENUATION – is a progressive decrease of signal power or power

density as distance increases.

2. DISTORTION – is a signal alteration due to imperfect response of the

system.

3. INTERFERENCE – extraneous signal usually man-made, that comes

into the system in the form similar to the original signal.

Prepared by: ENGR. MARK JOMMEL S. NASOL