A ship / shore satellite communications teleconferencing system for smaller surface ships.

A ship/shore combination satellite communications and video conferencing system is proposed which is designed to signal over C-Band commercial satellites using an 0.8 meter antenna. The project will involve the development of a C Band maritime satellite communications terminal using spread spectrum code division multiple access signalling over C-Band frequencies. The maritime terminal will signal at up to 64kbps. As part of the Project, it will be integrated with existing 64kbps videoteleconferencing system to demonstrate a ship/shore teletraining application. The Phase I objectives are: 1. Development of system design for the combined satellite and video teleconferencing system. 2. Development of detailed product / design plans for the CDMA satellite terminal including analytic verification that the CDMA waveform and proposed 0.8m antenna will meet technical objectives especially non-interference to adjacent satellites. 3. Analysis and verification that the proposed approach will achieve significant operational cost savings over current systems such as Inmarsat B.