Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 625 Wireless Broadcasting Technology

"Your Majesty, we have made a tremendous breakthrough in wireless broadcasting technology!" Tesla, a third-level academician of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Spain, head of the Spanish National Electricity Laboratory, and chief engineer of the Royal Electricity Company of Spain, said excitedly to Carlo.

The importance of wireless broadcasting technology goes without saying, and its militarized variant, wireless telegraphy, has long proven its role in the military field.

Compared to point-to-point radio, wireless broadcasting technology is mainly point-to-multipoint transmission and is mostly used in the civilian field.

When it comes to the main function of wireless broadcasting, it is definitely to transmit information to the outside world, and to transmit information over a large area and in large quantities.

To give a more apt analogy, wireless telegraphy is like two or more people writing letters to each other, while wireless broadcasting is like a newspaper transmitting information.

The difference between the two is obvious. The former emphasizes the mutual transmission of information, and is mostly in text form. The latter emphasizes the reception of information over a wide range of people in large quantities, and can use other forms besides text (audio).

As Spain's territory continued to expand, one problem became increasingly serious: the delivery of government decrees took longer and longer.

The government issued a decree at the beginning of the year, and it would be quite good if state and municipal governments could implement it by the middle of the year. Especially in more remote states, the decree might not be implemented until the end of the year.

This back-and-forth process wastes a lot of time, and the public finds it difficult to understand the government's intentions in issuing decrees.

With the help of radio broadcasting, the government can issue decrees on the same day, and the public can receive information related to the decrees on the same day.

Under pressure from the public, local governments had no choice but to implement the decree in a short period of time. More importantly, the government could directly convey its intentions to the public through radio broadcasts, ensuring that its intentions would not be misinterpreted, thereby effectively mobilizing public sentiment.

When a government decree is conveyed multiple times, its original intent will inevitably be distorted to some extent. This was unavoidable in the past, since the imperial government did not have much time to explain the intent of the decrees to the people in various regions; the information was always conveyed by local governments and newspapers.

With the advent of wireless broadcasting technology, this problem has been initially solved, making it easier for the public to understand the purpose of the various policies promulgated by the government and appreciate the government's good intentions.

Speaking of radio broadcasting technology, its origins can be traced back to the British scientist Maxwell in 1873. He proved the existence of radio waves, laying a solid foundation for the subsequent development of radar and radio broadcasting technologies.

In 1888, German scientist H.R. Hertz successfully generated and received radio waves through spark discharge experiments, which inspired scientists across Europe to devote themselves to radio wave research.

By 1895, wireless telegraphy, a technology similar to wireless broadcasting, had achieved initial success.

This has led scientists from various countries to invest even more heavily in wireless broadcasting technology, since the market for civilian wireless broadcasting technology is significantly larger than that for military wireless telegraphy technology.

At the beginning of the 20th century, specifically on December 24, 1906, American scientist Fessenden successfully conducted the first radio broadcast through the 128-meter-high radio tower of the National Electric Company in Blount Rock, Massachusetts, marking the official birth of radio broadcasting technology.

Although wireless broadcasting was successfully implemented, the technology did not bring much benefit to Fessenden.

The reason is simple: the wireless broadcasting technology at the time had significant limitations. Due to the limited power of radio wave transmitters, the coverage range of wireless broadcasting towers was only a few kilometers, and their resistance to interference was extremely poor.

Simply put, the signal is only stable within one kilometer of the radio tower. Outside this area, even if radio waves can be received, information cannot be received normally.

Because such signals are fundamentally unstable, either with too much noise or with intermittent sound, it is impossible to receive complete information.

By this time, the task of scientists from various countries had shifted from developing wireless broadcasting technology to improving it.

There are two directions for improvement. One is to expand the coverage area of ​​the wireless broadcasting tower so that radio wave signals can be received in more distant areas.

Secondly, it enhances the anti-interference capability of radio waves, ensuring that receiving devices within the coverage area of ​​the radio tower can receive a relatively complete signal, thereby playing out complete audio and information.

Spain was one of the earliest countries to research wireless broadcasting technology. Unfortunately, Tesla developed wireless broadcasting technology a few months later than American scientist Fessenden.

This also meant that Tesla was excluded from the title of inventor of wireless broadcasting, but fortunately, this did not deter Tesla.

After learning that wireless broadcasting technology had been invented by Americans several months earlier, Tesla immediately devoted himself to improving the technology.

If it weren't for the impact of the World War, Tesla would probably have improved the wireless broadcasting technology long ago, and wouldn't have had to wait until now to report this good news to Carlo.

Of course, it's not too late now. The importance of wireless broadcasting technology goes without saying; even in later generations, it remains an important means of information dissemination.

Carlos had high hopes for radio broadcasting technology. He believed that with it, not only could the Spanish government increase its control over various regions, but the royal family's control over those regions would also be strengthened.

If the technology allows, Carlo also intends to establish a tradition in which the Spanish emperor would deliver a Christmas speech to all the Spanish people via radio broadcasting on Christmas Eve each year, in order to win over the hearts and minds of the people at such a time.

Of course, winning over the hearts and minds of the people involves much more than just speeches. In addition to addressing the nation, the Spanish royal family also donates funds to aid the poor; this two-pronged approach is the best way to win public support.

Upon hearing Tesla's report, Carlo asked excitedly, "Mr. Tesla, have the shortcomings of wireless broadcasting been resolved?" "Of course, Your Majesty," Tesla nodded with a smile, eagerly reporting to Carlo on the various improvements to the wireless broadcasting technology.

Both of the original drawbacks of wireless broadcasting technology have now been properly resolved. First, regarding the issue of insufficient coverage by wireless broadcasting towers, we have adopted two methods to address it.

First, the power of the radio wave transmitter has been increased as much as possible. After several improvements, the power of the radio wave transmitter has been greatly increased, and the coverage of the wireless broadcasting tower has been extended from several kilometers to about 20 kilometers.

Of course, such coverage can only be guaranteed in plains areas. In mountainous areas, even if we build the radio tower on a mountaintop, we can only guarantee a coverage range of about 15 kilometers at most.

Second, we discovered a special method that can effectively solve the problem of insufficient coverage of wireless broadcasting.

The principle is simple: within the coverage area of ​​a radio tower, a relay tower is built to amplify the originally decaying radio wave signal.

Our tests showed that building a relay tower at the very end of the radio tower's coverage area can amplify the decaying radio wave signal back to the frequency it was when it was first transmitted.

"This also means that as long as we build countless signal relay towers throughout Spain, radio signals originating from Madrid can be transmitted nationwide within tens of minutes," Tesla said with great excitement.

Building a relay tower was an absolutely brilliant idea. Because no matter how much you increase the power of a radio wave transmitter, there is always a limit.

According to Tesla's estimates, the coverage of radio towers will be limited to a maximum of 30 kilometers within the next decade, and it will be virtually impossible to extend it any further.

This means that the coverage area of ​​a single radio tower is only 2827 square kilometers. Given that Spain's land area is over a million square kilometers, this coverage is clearly insufficient.

Let alone the states, even smaller cities like Madrid and Barcelona would need several radio towers to achieve complete coverage.

Another problem arises: it's difficult for different radio towers to transmit a unified signal. This adds significant obstacles to the nationwide dissemination of information.

Now, with the advent of relay towers, this problem is easily solved. With the help of relay towers, the coverage area of ​​a large wireless broadcasting tower can be increased from the original 2827 square kilometers to an unlimited extent.

Spain only needs one radio broadcasting tower plus countless signal relay towers to transmit the radio wave signals emitted by the radio broadcasting tower throughout the country.

This is the nationwide message dissemination that Carlo wanted, and it's also key to bringing wireless broadcasting technology to commercial use.

Carlo was quite satisfied with the results reported by Tesla. However, there was another problem with wireless broadcasting technology, which was also a key factor affecting its commercialization.

"What about signal strength? Will the radio wave signal, which is further amplified by the relay tower, be affected by weather and other factors?" Carlo asked.

Covering the entire country with radio wave signals is only one aspect; it is also necessary to ensure that the signals are not interfered with and that the signal receiving equipment used by the public receives complete information.

Previous wireless broadcasting technologies had this problem, and now that relay towers are used to transmit signals to farther places, Carlo is worried that the signal strength problem will be amplified.

Tesla clearly considered this issue as well. He explained with a smile, "We also considered this problem and tested the signal strength after the radio wave signal was continuously amplified."

Our tests show that, under good weather conditions, the radio wave signal strength can be guaranteed even after multiple relays and amplifications.

Our receiving equipment, located more than 100 kilometers away from the radio tower, was still able to receive complete audio information and clearly hear what the tester was saying.

However, this doesn't mean the technology is perfect. Bad weather or a strong magnetic field can severely impact radio wave signals, which is currently the biggest drawback of wireless broadcasting technology.

It is clear that the so-called signal relay towers actually have limited function.

This technology is not so miraculous as to guarantee both the coverage of radio wave signals and the stability of the signal strength.

Of course, this is not the fault of the signal relay tower, but rather a result of current technological limitations.

Even the original signals emitted by radio towers are subject to interference from severe weather and strong magnetic fields, which is a current limitation of radio wave technology.

However, such a flaw is not fatal, since severe weather does not occur frequently, and areas with strong magnetic fields are not common.

At least for most of Spain, radio broadcasting technology is still operational. This means that current radio broadcasting technology is capable of covering most of the country.

As for the remaining few areas, there's no need to rush. After all, technology is constantly advancing, and problems that are unsolvable now will be simple problems in the future.

(End of this chapter)