SSB Performance as a Function of Carrier Strength

This paper shows the important part that the carrier plays in over-all system performance and in particular compares the various systems using full carrier, reduced carrier, suppressed carrier and controlled carrier. It is concluded that as the carrier is reduced, the factors of modulation splatter, transmitter efficiency, available peak sideband power, desensitization, and intermodulation all tend to improve. It is also pointed out that due to system stability requirements, complete suppression at the higher radio-frequencies is not feasible. Because there are many types of SSB receiving systems, each requiring a different amount of carrier for synchronizing purposes, it is necessary to consider all values of transmitted carrier to compare the resulting systems and to gain a better understanding of the system characteristics considered. The characteristics of the controlled carrier system are discussed for completeness.