DISCUSSION:

The procedures of the experiment are all about learning the properties of a
transmission line especially its characteristic impedance and the propagation of a signal
along it.
The first part of the experiment is all about measuring the required physical
parameters of a balanced transmission line and then use them to find its characteristic

impedance. For a two-wire parallel transmission line, the formula is

ZO=

276
2S
log
d
r

where S is the distance between the centers of the conductors, d is the diameter of the
conductor, and

is the dielectric constant of the insulating material. Using the

Vernier caliper, the diameter of one of its conductor is measured 0.75mm. The centerto-center distance between the two conductors is also measured having a value of
7.9mm. With the constant value of dielectric constant of a polyethylene (2.27), the
characteristic impedance has been calculated using the given formula. The computed
characteristic impedance is 242.47 ohms is close to the specified characteristic
impedance of 300 ohms having a percentage error of 19.18%.
For the next part, the goal is to compute for the characteristic impedance of
unbalanced transmission line using the physical parameters of thin and thick coax. With
the use of the Vernier caliper, the diameter of the inner and outer conductor of a thick

coax is measured 1mm and 5mm respectively. Given the formula

ZO=

138
D
log
d
r

and

a dielectric constant of polysterene, the calculated characteristic impedance of the thick

coax will be 61.01 ohms. This is close to the specified characteristic impedance which is
75 ohms having a percentage error of 18.66 ohms. On the other hand, for thin coax, the
measured diameters of the inner and outer conductor are 0.6mm and 4.7mm which

results into a calculated characteristic impedance of 78.02 ohms. This is closer to the
specified characteristic impedance of 75 ohms having a percentage error of -4.03%.
The second part consists of observation of signal propagation in transmission
line. Velocity factor and propagation speed signal of the transmission line are computed

using the formulas

Vf=

1
r

and

V p=V f C

. For the twin lead, having a dielectric

constant of 2.27 made of polyethylene material, the calculated velocity factor and
propagation speed are 0.6637 and 199.117 x 10 6 m/s respectively. For thick and thin
coax, having a dielectric constant of 2.5 made of polystyrene material, the calculated
velocity factor and propagation speed are 0.632 and 189.74 x 10 6 m/s respectively.
DC signal propagation is also observed by connecting a DC voltage in one end of
the transmission line and observing it in the other end using a voltmeter. The results are
the same for the twin lead, thick coax, and thin coax whether it is 1m or 10m. Having an
input voltage of 1.008 volts, the output voltage measured is also 1.008 volts which
produces a voltage difference of 0 and a loss of 0 dB.
The length of the line is also evaluated by comparing it to the signal wavelength
of different frequencies. To calculate the signal wavelength, the propagation speed is
divided to a certain frequency. If the calculated quarter-wavelength of a certain
frequency is greater than the length of the line, it is said to be short while if it is less than
the length of the line, it is said to be long. According to our data, signal frequencies of 5
kHz, 100 kHz and 3 MHz provided a greater value of quarter-wavelength compared to
the length of the tested transmission lines which made them electrically short. But a
signal frequency of 10MHz provided a less value of quarter-wavelength compared to the
length which made them electrically long.
Wave propagation is also observed signal generator in one end of the
transmission line and observing it in the other end using an oscilloscope. Using a 10

MHz frequency, the voltage differences produced in a twin lead are 172mV for 10m and
600mV for 1m which provided a 13.22 dB and a 12.59 dB loss respectively. For thick
coax, the voltage differences are 0.826V for 10m and 0.792V for 1m which provided a
13.42 dB and a 13.64 dB loss. Lastly, for the thin coax, , the voltage differences are
104mV for 10m and -508mV for 1m which provided a 1.355 dB and a -5.667 dB loss
respectively.

Lastly, the goal is to observe the signal if there is going to be a phase shift in its
wave propagation. The results are the following:

It can be seen that the measured phase shift in the twin lead using 100kHz and
3MHz signal are inaccurate compared to its corresponding computed value. While the
other measured phase shift values are close to their computed values.