Frequency Bands

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Part 2

How can your cell phone and your television work at the same time? Both use antennas to receive
information from electromagnetic waves, so why isn't there a problem?

The answer goes back to the fundamental secret of the universe. No matter what information you
want to send, that waveform can be represented as the sum of a range of frequencies. By the use of
modulation (which in a nutshell shifts the frequency range of the waveform to be sent to a higher
frequency band), the waveforms can be relocated to separate frequency bands.

As an example, cell phones that use the PCS (Personal Communications Service) band have their
signals shifted to 1850-1900 MHz. Television is broadcast primarily at 54-216 MHz. FM radio
operates between 87.5-108 MHz.

The set of all frequencies is referred to as "the spectrum". Cell phone companies have to pay big
money to get access to part of the spectrum. For instance, AT&T has to bid on a slice of the
spectrum with the FCC, for the "right" to transmit information within that band. The transmission
of EM energy is greatly regulated. When AT&T is sold a slice of the spectrum, they can not
transmit energy at any other band (technically, the amount transmitted must be below some
threshold in adjacent bands).

The Bandwidth of a signal is the difference between the signals high and low frequencies. For
instance, a signal transmitting between 40 and 50 MHz has a bandwidth of 10 MHz. This means
that the energy of the signal is contained between 40 and 50 MHz (and the energy in any other
frequency range is negligible).

We'll wrap up with a table of frequency bands along with the corresponding wavelengths. From
the table, we see that VHF is in the range 30-300 MHz (30 Million-300 Million cycles per
second). At the very least then, if someone says they need a "VHF antenna", you should now
understand that the antenna should transmit or receive electromagnetic waves that have a
frequency of 30-300 MHz.
Frequency Band Name Frequency Range Wavelength (Meters) Application
Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) 3-30 Hz 10,000-100,000 km Underwater Communication
Super Low Frequency (SLF) 30-300 Hz 1,000-10,000 km AC Power (though not a transmitted wave)
Ultra Low Frequency (ULF) 300-3000 Hz 100-1,000 km
Very Low Frequency (VLF) 3-30 kHz 10-100 km Navigational Beacons
Low Frequency (LF) 30-300 kHz 1-10 km AM Radio
Medium Frequency (MF) 300-3000 kHz 100-1,000 m Aviation and AM Radio
High Frequency (HF) 3-30 MHz 10-100 m Shortwave Radio
Very High Frequency (VHF) 30-300 MHz 1-10 m FM Radio
Ultra High Frequency (UHF) 300-3000 MHz 10-100 cm Television, Mobile Phones, GPS
Super High Frequency (SHF) 3-30 GHz 1-10 cm Satellite Links, 5-7GHz WIFI, UWB
Extremely High Frequency (EHF) 30-300 GHz 1-10 mm Astronomy, Vehicle Radar, mmWave 5G
400-790 THz (4*10^14-
Visible Spectrum 380-750 nm (nanometers) Human Eye
7.9*10^14)

Table 1. Chart of Common Frequency Bands

Basically the frequency bands each range over from the lowest frequency to 10 times the lowest
frequency. Antenna engineers further divide the bands into things like "X-band" and "Ku-band".
That is the basics of frequency. To understand at a more advanced level move on to the next topic.

Next Topic: Radiation Pattern

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