Transceivers

In its most basic sense, transceivers are devices that have both a transmitter and a receiver, usually contained within the same housing unit. They also share a common circuitry. It is interesting to note, that if no circuitry is common between transmit and receive functions the device is more correctly called a transmitter-receiver.

The term transceivers originated in the early 1920s. Technically, transceivers must combine a significant amount of the transmitter and receiver handling circuitry in order to be correctly identified as such. Similar devices include transponders, transverters, and repeaters.

Transceivers are also called Medium Attachment Units (MAUs) in certain documents, such as the IEEE 802.3 documents.

In computer networking, a transceiver (TCVR) is a device that performs, within a common housing, both the transmitting and receiving functions of the entire device. These types of transceivers are often designed for portable or mobile use, use common circuit components for both transmitting and receiving, and will provide what is known as a half-duplex operation.

A common type of transceiver in this area might be the modem that we are all familiar with these days. These can be external or internal devices. The housing for the external units would fulfill the single housing requirement.

In radio terminology, transceivers contain both a receiver and a transmitter. In the field of radio, it was common to have these units separated. Ham radio operators can build their own equipment and it is always easier to design and build a simple unit having one of the functions, transmitting or receiving, than trying to build a single base device.

The more modern amateur radio equipment types are now transceivers. It is rare to find a purely receiving only radio in the ham operator market for shortwave listening purposes. An example of a transceiver would be a walkie-talkie, or a CB radio.

Transceivers are also on wired telephones. The handset contains the transmitter and receiver for the audio. The whole unit is often called the receiver but this is a bit misleading. If a speakerphone is included in a wired telephone base or in a cordless base station, the base also becomes an audio transceiver in addition to the handset.

On a mobile telephone or other radiotelephone, the entire unit is a transceiver, for both audio and radio.