A fading reduction method for maritime satellite communications

A maritime satellite communication system has been established mainly for large vessels. In the near future it will be expected to service not only large vessels but also small ones. Studies on reducing the fading of the received signals have become very important because a compact antenna designed to be mounted on small vessels has a broad beamwidth which can be greatly influenced by reflected waves from the sea surface. A simple method and antenna equipment which can reduce the fading are proposed and, further, the effects by experiments are confirmed.