Technology and Society: Comparing AM and the FM Radio Signals

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Technology and Society
When comparing between the AM radio signals and the FM radio signals, it is clear that the latter has better sound quality. This is relative to the fact that, the FM signals are less affected by noise and interference. Ideally the signal strength of the AM frequencies are based on the amplitude modulation, hence the name amplitude modulation. The amplitude is highly affected by factors such as noise or interferences that are in the vicinity and filtering static is harder (Dumas, M. Barry, and Morris Schwartz). In the case of the FM signals, they are also affected by noise, however it is much easier to filter out for cleaner sound signal.
Radio has evolved over the years and listeners are no longer stuck with AM or FM. There is now the option of HD and Satellite Radio platforms; these are digital platforms. HD radio uses the same spectrum as the AM and FM. When comparing between the two, there is an obvious advantage that comes with HD radio (Lee, David). The HD radio only requires that the listeners to buy a unit that can receive HD signals. They are able to listen to HD radio where there are signals of their favorite stations running in parallel. If there are no digital signals of the channels the unit will switch to analogue signals (Lee, David). The satellite radio on the other hand not only requires a head unit that can receive the digital signals, it also comes with a subscription fe...