telecommunication Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that ...

s, a pilot signal is a

signal In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The '' IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing' ...

, usually a single

frequency Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time. It is also occasionally referred to as ''temporal frequency'' for clarity, and is distinct from ''angular frequency''. Frequency is measured in hertz (Hz) which is eq ...

, transmitted over a

communications system A communications system or communication system is a collection of individual telecommunications networks, transmission systems, relay stations, tributary stations, and terminal equipment usually capable of interconnection and interoperat ...

for supervisory, control, equalization, continuity,

synchronization Synchronization is the coordination of events to operate a system in unison. For example, the conductor of an orchestra keeps the orchestra synchronized or ''in time''. Systems that operate with all parts in synchrony are said to be synchronou ...

, or

reference Reference is a relationship between objects in which one object designates, or acts as a means by which to connect to or link to, another object. The first object in this relation is said to ''refer to'' the second object. It is called a '' name'' ...

purposes.

Uses in different communication systems

FM Radio

In FM stereo broadcasting, a pilot tone of 19 kHz indicates that there is

stereophonic Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...

information at 38 kHz (the second

harmonic A harmonic is a wave with a frequency that is a positive integer multiple of the ''fundamental frequency'', the frequency of the original periodic signal, such as a sinusoidal wave. The original signal is also called the ''1st harmonic'', t ...

of the pilot tone). The receiver doubles the frequency of the pilot tone and uses it as a frequency and phase reference to demodulate the stereo information. If no 19 kHz pilot tone is present, then any signals in the 23–53 kHz range are ignored by a stereo receiver. A guard band of ±4 kHz (15–23 kHz) protects the pilot tone from interference from the

baseband In telecommunications and signal processing, baseband is the range of frequencies occupied by a signal that has not been modulated to higher frequencies. Baseband signals typically originate from transducers, converting some other variable i ...

audio Audio most commonly refers to sound, as it is transmitted in signal form. It may also refer to: Sound *Audio signal, an electrical representation of sound *Audio frequency, a frequency in the audio spectrum * Digital audio, representation of sou ...

signal (50 Hz–15 kHz) and from the lower

sideband In radio communications, a sideband is a band of frequencies higher than or lower than the carrier frequency, that are the result of the modulation process. The sidebands carry the information transmitted by the radio signal. The sidebands ...

of the double sideband stereo information (23–53 kHz). The third harmonic of the pilot (57 kHz) is used for

Radio Data System Radio Data System (RDS) is a communications protocol standard for embedding small amounts of digital information in conventional FM radio broadcasts. RDS standardizes several types of information transmitted, including time, station identificati ...

. The fourth harmonic (76 kHz) is used for Data Radio Channel.

AM Radio

In AM stereo, the

bandwidth Bandwidth commonly refers to: * Bandwidth (signal processing) or ''analog bandwidth'', ''frequency bandwidth'', or ''radio bandwidth'', a measure of the width of a frequency range * Bandwidth (computing), the rate of data transfer, bit rate or thr ...

is too narrow to accommodate subcarriers, so the

modulation In electronics and telecommunications, modulation is the process of varying one or more properties of a periodic waveform, called the '' carrier signal'', with a separate signal called the ''modulation signal'' that typically contains informat ...

itself is changed, and the pilot tone is infrasonic (below the normal

hearing Hearing, or auditory perception, is the ability to perceive sounds through an organ, such as an ear, by detecting vibrations as periodic changes in the pressure of a surrounding medium. The academic field concerned with hearing is audit ...

range, instead of above it) at a frequency of 25 Hz.

Television

In some

color television Color television or Colour television is a television transmission technology that includes color information for the picture, so the video image can be displayed in color on the television set. It improves on the monochrome or black-and-white t ...

standards, the color burst placed after every sync pulse on visible lines (as done in

PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a colour encoding system for analogue television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...

and

NTSC The first American standard for analog television broadcast was developed by National Television System Committee (NTSC)National Television System Committee (1951–1953), Report and Reports of Panel No. 11, 11-A, 12–19, with Some supplement ...

) is the pilot signal to indicate that there are color subcarriers present and allow synchronizing the phase of the local oscillator in the demodulation circuitry. However,

SECAM SECAM, also written SÉCAM (, ''Séquentiel de couleur à mémoire'', French for ''color sequential with memory''), is an analog color television system that was used in France, some parts of Europe and Africa, and Russia. It was one of th ...

features continuous subcarriers which don't need their phase tracked due to being frequency-modulated as compared to the QAM approach of the other systems, thus making it unnecessary. In the

television system, a pilot tone of MHz (15,734.27 Hz) is used to indicate the presence of MTS stereo.

Video Recording

In some analog video formats frequency modulation is the standard method for recording the luminance part of the signal, and is used to record a composite video signal in direct color systems, e.g.

Video 2000 Video 2000 (also known as V2000, with the tape standard Video Compact Cassette, or VCC) is a consumer videocassette system and analogue recording standard developed by Philips and Grundig to compete with JVC's VHS and Sony's Betamax video tech ...

and some Hi-band formats a pilot tone is added to the signal to detect and correct timebase errors.

Cable

In cable service plant infrastructures, two or more pilot frequencies are used to allow network amplifiers to automatically adjust their gain over temperature swings. This is done by the amplifiers having special circuitry that track the frequencies in order to maintain a consistent gain. Without this capability, network amplifiers may drive the signal too strongly or weakly, thus requiring constant adjustment. Pilot frequencies can be generated by an agile modulator, taking the space of analog NTSC channels, or by dedicated equipment. Sometimes it is necessary to employ several independent pilot frequencies. Most

radio relay Radio stations that cannot communicate directly due to distance, terrain or other difficulties sometimes use an intermediate radio relay station to relay the signals. A radio relay receives weak signals and retransmits them, often in a different di ...

systems use radio or continuity pilots of their own but transmit also the pilot frequencies belonging to the

carrier frequency In telecommunications, a carrier wave, carrier signal, or just carrier, is a waveform (usually sinusoidal) that is modulated (modified) with an information-bearing signal for the purpose of conveying information. This carrier wave usually has a ...

multiplex system.

References

*{{FS1037C MS188 Telecommunications techniques Synchronization