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A comment on Speech Intellegibility in Naval Aircraft Radios (1972) [pdf]. Parent comment

Re:Speech Intellegibility in Naval Aircraft Radios (1972) [pdf] by paktor132 on Sunday July 15, 2018 @07:03PM (#17537587)
Yes, one of the many little details that BSG did really well.

Given how the distortion sounds, the Fleet apparently uses single sideband (SSB) modulation for its radios. Amplitude modulation has a carrier and two sidebands; SSB suppresses the carrier and keeps only one of the sidebands (USB = upper side band, LSB = lower side band). That way, the transmitter uses bandwidth and power more efficiently. The downside is that it's harder to receive and there are some distortions. A good explanation of why there are those distortions: https://ham.stackexchange.com/a/392

Cool video showing SSB distortions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcX2Pdg35Co

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Re:Speech Intellegibility in Naval Aircraft Radios (1972) [pdf] by GeorgeTirebiter on Sunday July 15, 2018 @08:56PM (#17538005)
Except.... there's no particular technical reason that each of the modulation techniques can't be good if you have the right filters for the desired bandwidth. I can adjust my Ten-Tec Orion II to transmit 3900 Hz bandwidth SSB - and it sounds glorious. Also, I find it interesting that aircraft still use AM. BSG? They tended to be fracked audio-wise by being slightly off-frequency in addition to various amounts of AM distortion that varied with the situation's distress. So say we all.
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