heterodyneadj.n.
/ˈhɛtərəʊdʌɪn/ A. adj.
1. Pertaining to, involving, or designating the production of a beat frequency by the combination of two oscillations of slightly different frequency, esp. as a method of radio detection in which one oscillation is the incoming signal and the other is produced in the receiver.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > telecommunication > radio communications > [adjective] > method of receiving or detecting signal
heterodyne1908
autodyne1918
autoheterodyne1919
superheterodyne1920
neutrodyning1924
superhet1926
homodyne1928
frequency shift1944
1908 J. Erskine-Murray tr. E. Ruhmer Wireless Teleph. 201 One of the most interesting of Professor Fessenden's many inventions is what he has called the ‘Heterodyne’ receiver.
1919 Wireless World Mar. 663 (heading) Heterodyne reception.
1931 B.B.C. Year-bk. 442/2 Heterodyne interference, interference caused to broadcast reception by the carrier wave of an unwanted station beating with that of the wanted station.
1931 B.B.C. Year-bk. 442/2 Heterodyne reception, a method of receiving C.W. wireless signals in which use is made of a local oscillator to ‘beat’ with or ‘Heterodyne’ the incoming C.W.
1946 Nature 6 July 33/1 The usual heterodyne methods of measuring a frequency..can be extended to the highest frequencies now in general use.
1957 W. Fraser Telecommunications xxii. 735 The heterodyne waveform when rectified produces a current which varies in amplitude at the beat frequency.
2. figurative.
ΚΠ
1930 Musical Assoc. Proc. 97 To write atonally in a harmonic form at present is to produce a thought ‘heterodyne’.
B. n.
A heterodyne receiver or its local oscillator. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > telecommunication > radio communications > radio equipment > [noun] > radio set > receiver > types of
crystal receiver1910
heterodyne1915
self-heterodyne1915
crystal set1921
crystal radio1922
superheterodyne1922
superhet1924
battery-receiver1928
battery-set1930
mobile unit1961
1915 W. H. Eccles Wireless Telegr. & Teleph. 151 In receiving signals sent out by the spark sets..the heterodyne produced a telephone current variation averaging 4·65 times that due to the liquid barretter alone.
1922 A. F. Collins Bk. Wireless Telegr. & Telephone iii. ii. 174 The oscillations set up by the incoming waves from the distant sending stations and those set up by the separate oscillator tube, or heterodyne..have a slightly different frequency.
Derivatives
ˈheterodyne v. (a) transitive to produce heterodyne interference with (a radio station) (obsolete); (b) transitive to change the frequency of (a signal) by a heterodyne process; intransitive to combine so as to produce beat oscillations or a different frequency.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > telecommunication > radio communications > communicate by radio [verb (intransitive)] > methods or types of operation
oscillate1921
heterodyne1923
society > communication > telecommunication > radio communications > communicate by radio [verb (transitive)] > interfere with
hog1914
jam1914
heterodyne1923
society > communication > telecommunication > radio communications > communicate by radio [verb (transitive)] > methods of operation
quench1910
heterodyne1923
squelch1950
1923 Glasgow Herald 15 Oct. 6 A spark station previously heterodyned by a carrier.
1925 Glasgow Herald 10 Nov. 8 Glasgow can be as effectively ‘heterodyned’ by a German station as Radio Paris can be by a Spanish one working on an almost identical wave-length.
1931 T. H. Pear Voice & Personality iv. 44 The rudeness..heterodynes the shyness. So, while an unselective receiver, or strange listener, perceives a jumbled mixture of both, the ear which is sensitised to rudeness hears it only, while you hear only shyness.
1933 K. Henney Radio Engin. Handbk. x. 274 The frequencies in this selected range are made to heterodyne with an oscillator at a frequency of 42,000 cycles.
1934 Proc. IRE 22 1269 The oscillator operated at a higher frequency than the incoming carriers and heterodyned them to 6 and 7 megacycles.
1965 J. M. Wozencraft & I. M. Jacobs Princ. Communication Engin. vi. 493 At the receiver the signals are heterodyned back down from passband to baseband.
1972 Science 20 Oct. 252/2 It arises because the emission heterodynes with the collinear laser beam.
ˈheterodyning n. and adj.
ΚΠ
1926 R. W. Hutchinson First Course Wireless 185 Howls and squeaks result from the ‘heterodyning’..of the carrier wave.
1926 Encycl. Brit. III. 1044/2 If the signal current has a frequency of 105 cycles (3,000 metres), to give it an audible frequency of c″−512 the heterodyning current must have a frequency of 105 plus or minus 512.
1943 C. L. Boltz Basic Radio xiv. 223 This sound is called the heterodyne note, and the process is called heterodyning.
1967 Electronics 6 Mar. 288/3 In this coherent conversion system, heterodyning converts incoming reference and test signals to 45 Mhz and then to 1 kilohertz.
ˈheterodyned adj.
ΚΠ
1967 Electronics 6 Mar. 291/1 A comparison is made between the phase of a heterodyned 1-khz test signal and the phase of a second 1-khz signal.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1933; most recently modified version published online December 2019).
<
adj.n.1908