Radio Signals with Large Relative Bandwidth for Over-the-Horizon Radar and Spread-Spectrum Communications

It is known that radio signals must have a small relative frequency bandwidth if structures and circuits resonating with sinusoidal functions are to be used for radiation and reception. This paper develops concepts showing that a small relative frequency bandwidth is also required for the use of amplitude or frequency modulation of sinusoidal radio carriers in the usual form. However, it is easy to modify the usual methods of amplitude and frequency modulation for signals with large relative frequency bandwidth. The primary application of such methods is for over-the-horizon radar and spread-spectrum communications in the short-wave region where the desired relative frequency bandwidths are neither small (in the order of 0.01 or less) nor close to 1.