🔍 Key Concepts

• Single-Sideband (SSB) modulation and why it requires linear amplification • Difference between linear vs. non-linear amplifiers in terms of how they treat the waveform • What happens to a complex voice signal when its amplitude relationships are changed non‑linearly

💭 Think About

• Think about what an SSB phone signal looks like in the frequency domain. If you change its shape non‑linearly, what happens to the frequencies that make up your voice? • Which of the listed effects is most typical when the waveform peaks are compressed, clipped, or otherwise altered in a non‑proportional way? • Ask yourself: which choice describes an unwanted effect that radio operators are warned to avoid by using linear RF amplifiers with SSB?

✅ Before You Answer

• Verify that SSB transmitters are designed to work with linear RF amplifiers to preserve signal quality. • Check which option refers to a degradation of signal quality as opposed to an improvement or a specific modulation feature. • Confirm that non-linear behavior tends to create new frequency components or alter the original ones, affecting how clean the transmitted audio sounds.