FM Stereo

Written by BuSan
Friday, 17 November 2006
Until 1961, all commercial FM broadcast-band transmissions were monophonic. The FCC authorized stereophonic
transmission for the commercial FM broadcast band. With stereophonic transmission, the information signal is
spatially divided into two 50-Hz to 15-kHz audio channels (a left and a right). Music that originated on the left side
is reproduced only on the left speaker, and music that originated on the right side is reproduced only on the right
speaker. The main problem with introducing stereophonic transmission is the compatibility with monophonic
receivers.

The spectrum shown in figure 1 is the standard spectrum used today. The spectrum compromises the 50 Hz to 15
kHzstereo channel plus an additional stereo channel frequency division multiplexed into a composite baseband
signal with a 19 kHz pilot. The three channels are (1) the left (L) plus the right (R) audio channels, (2) the left plus
the inverted right audio channels, and (3) the SCA subcarrier and its associated sidebands.

The L + R stereo channel occupies the 0 - 15 kHz passband. The L - R audio channel amplitude modulates a 38
kHz subcarrier and produces the L - R stereo channel, which is a double-sideband suppressed carrier that
occupies the 23 - 53 kHz passband, used only for FM stereo transmission. SCA transmission occupy the 60 - 74
kHz frequency spectrum. Mono receivers can demodulate the total baseband spectrum but only the 50 - 15 kHz L
+ R channel is amplified and fed to all speakers. Stereophonic receivers must provide additional demodulation of
the 23 - 53 kHz L - R stereo channel, separate the left and right audio channels and then feed them to their
respective speakers.

The process of multiplexing two audio signals is shown in figure 2.

Stereo Transmission

Figure 3 shows a simplified block diagram for a stereo FM transmitter. The L and R audio channels are combined
in a matrix network to produce the L + R and the L - R audio channels. The L - R audio channel modulates a 38
kHz subcarrier and produces a 23 to 53 kHz L - R stereo channel. Because there is a time delay introduced in the
L - R signal path as it propagates through the balanced modulator, the L + R stereo channel must be artificially
delayed somewhat to maintain phase integrity with the L - R stereo channel for demodulation purposes. Also for
demodulation purposes, a 19 kHz pilot is transmitted rather than the 38 kHz subcarrier because it is considerably
more difficult to recover the 38 kHz subcarrier in the receiver. The composite baseband signal is fed to the FM
transmitter, where it modulates the main carrier.
Stereo Reception
FM stereo receivers are identical to standard FM receivers up to the output of the audio detector stage. The output
of the discriminator is the total baseband spectrum that was shown in figure 1. Figure 4 shows a simplified block
diagram for an FM receiver that has both mono and stereo audio outputs. In the mono section of the signal
processor, the L + R stereo channel, which contains all of the original information from both the L and R audio
channels, is simply filtered, amplified and the fed to both the L and R speakers. In the stereo section of the signal
processor, the baseband signal is fed into the stereo demodulator where the L and R audio channels are separated
and then fed to their respective speakers. The L + R and L - R stereo channels and the 19 kHz pilot are separated
from the composite baseband signal with filters. The 19 kHz pilot is filtered with a high-Q bandpass filter, multiplied
by 2, amplified and the fed to the L - R demodulator. The L + R stereo channel is filtered off by a low-pass filter with
an upper cutoff frequency of 15 kHz. The L - R double-sideband signal is separated with a broadly tuned bandpass
filter and then mixed with the recovered 38 kHz carrier in a balanced modulator to produce the L - R audio
information. The matrix network combines the L + R and L - R signals in such a way as to separate the L and R
audio information signals, which are fed to their respective deemphasis networks and speakers.

The block diagram for the stereo matrix decoder if shown in figure 5. The L - R audio channel is added directly to
the L + R audio channel. The ouput from the adder is

The L - R audio channel is inverted and then added to the L + R audio channel. The output from the adder is