superheterodyne receiver (redirected from Supersonic heterodine receiver)

The common type of AM, FM and TV receiver, which uses intermediate frequency (IF) stages. Rather than demodulating the actual carrier frequency of the transmitting station, which was the approach taken in the early days of radio, "superhet" receivers shift the desired frequency to a single frequency that the receiver can handle very efficiently. The intermediate frequency is then demodulated using direct conversion or homodyne techniques. See IF stage, direct conversion receiver and homodyne receiver.

An AM Radio Example
The station carrier frequencies in AM radio operate from 530 kHz to 1610 kHz. In many superheterodyne AM radios, the demodulation circuit is designed for only a 455 kHz carrier. When the listener tunes to a particular station, an oscillator in the radio generates a signal 455 kHz less than the frequency of the desired station. For example, tuning in an 800 kHz station would generate a 345 kHz signal (800-455=345) that would be subtracted from the incoming signal (800-345=455). A bandpass filter would then allow only the 455 kHz signal to go to the demodulator circuit, which recovers the audio signal.