FM Capture Effect

FM CAPTURE EFFECT:

A phenomenon, associated with FM reception, in which only the stronger of two signals at or near the same frequency will be demodulated

•   The complete suppression of the weaker signal occurs at the receiver limiter, where it is treated as noise and rejected.

•   When both signals are nearly equal in strength, or are fading independently, the receiver may switch from one to the other.

In the frequency modulation, the signal can be affected by another frequency modulated signal whose frequency content is close to the carrier frequency of the desired FM wave. The receiver may lock such an interference signal and suppress the desired FM wave when interference signal is stronger than the desired signal. When the strength of the desired signal and interference signal are nearly equal, the receiver fluctuates back and forth between them, i.e., receiver locks interference signal for some times and desired signal for some time and this goes on randomly.

·  This phenomenon is known as the capture effect.