Why does my radio go static when I go near it?

You are a capacitor! By your proximity to the radio and antenna, you are affecting the tuning and coupling capacitance of the antenna input for the radio. So when you tune in the signal, your body adds to the tuning part. Walk away and it drifts slightly.

How does the sound you hear coming from a radio get that way from a radio signal?

Radio waves have the longest wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum. The radio “receives” these electromagnetic radio waves and converts them to mechanical vibrations in the speaker to create the sound waves you can hear.

Why you lose your FM radio signal as you travel farther away from the radio station transmitter?

Because the waves are reflected, they can reach radio receivers that are very far away from the radio tower. Instead, FM waves pass through the ionosphere and out into space. This is also shown in the Figure below. As a result, FM waves cannot reach very distant receivers.

Why can you not get radio reception in a tunnel or in a steel bridge?

AM radio (600kHz – 1500kHz) cannot propagate in any normal tunnel because the wavelength is too long (500m-200m) relative to the diameter, and thus gets reflected at the entrance. FM (100MHz ~ 3m) would propagate and it does for a while but then it suffers reflections (multipath) inside and reception turns to crap.

How does radio transmit sound?

Radio works by transmitting and receiving electromagnetic waves. The radio signal is an electronic current moving back and forth very quickly. A transmitter radiates this field outward via an antenna; a receiver then picks up the field and translates it to the sounds heard through the radio.

Why do you lose radio signals when you travel?

After playing around with the settings of frequency and amplitude, explain why you lose your FM radio signal as you travel farther away from the radio station’s transmitter. Because the intensity of the signal decreases as the distance between the radio receiver and transmitter.