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The basic idea of how radios work is actually not that difficult to understand. Information is carried over the airwaves through invisible, electromagnetic waves that travel very rapidly. The audio that is recorded at any radio station is converted so that they can be broadcast through the station’s transmitter. These waves then travel and hit the antenna in your home where they are reconverted back into the original audio. This principle applies for both analogue and digital radios, and has effectively remained the same throughout the previous century.

There is a difference between how analogue and digital radios work though. With the former, data is sent out by modulating the amplitude (AM) or the frequency (FM) of the radio wave in question. Digital signals send out coded messages which are simply carried by these electromagnetic waves. This extra data contains more than just the song or the talkback. It can also provide you with details about the radio station, the artist playing or the DJ currently spinning out the tracks.

When the electromagnetic wave hits your radio’s antenna, the receiver then has to combine the coded information together and then convert it into an audio output that your ear can actually pick up. Because there is the added process of reassembling the data (which is not found in analogue signals), digital radios can actually lag a bit behind their older counterparts. This can be heard by placing two different types of radios next to each other and then tuning into the same station.

Despite this short lag, digital radios have a variety of benefits that make them preferable to the old, analogue versions. Firstly because of the digital nature of the signals, interference by tall buildings or tunnels is virtually done away with as the information contained within can travel onwards regardless of what stands between the transmitter and receiver. Issues such as static and crackly audio are basically a thing of the past thanks to this new digital advancement.

The quality of the audio output is also drastically improved when comparing digital radios to their older analogue versions. This is because more information can actually be contained within these coded messages, allowing your radio to then play a sound which is crisper and clearer than before. Your AM stations will play like FM ones and the FM stations will sound like you are hearing them from a CD. Thus, you can hear better quality sound no matter what you are listening to.

Discover more information about digital radios.