Question
Which of the following describes problems caused by poor dynamic range in a receiver?
Answer Options
- A) Spurious signals caused by cross modulation and desensitization from strong adjacent signals
- B) Oscillator instability requiring frequent retuning and loss of ability to recover the opposite sideband
- C) Poor weak signal reception caused by insufficient local oscillator injection
- D) Oscillator instability and severe audio distortion of all but the strongest received signals
Correct Answer: A
Explanation
A receiver with poor dynamic range has a narrow gap between its noise floor (minimum discernible signal) and its overload point (maximum handling signal level). This deficiency usually occurs in the front-end amplifier and mixer stages.
Poor dynamic range leads to severe performance degradation when strong signals are present. This typically manifests as two main problems: spurious signals caused by cross modulation (unwanted signals transferring modulation onto the desired signal) and desensitization (blocking) from strong signals that fall just outside the passband. Both of these problems make it impossible to successfully demodulate a weak desired signal in a noisy or congested environment.
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