Field experiment on digital maritime and aeronautical satellite communication systems using ETS-V

Summarized results of a field experiment on the digital maritime and aeronautical satellite communication systems using the Japanese engineering test satellite ETS-V are presented. Since the ETS-V has two spot beams at L-band, various digital communications services can be provided for mobile terminals with small antennas. Taking advantage of this, a 64 kb/s video telephone communication, as well as voice, facsimile, and data transmissions was successfully conducted between a sailing vessel and a ground earth station in the maritime satellite communications experiment. For the aeronautical satellite communications experiment, a phased-array antenna installed on a Cessna airplane was employed, and a small ship antenna was used on the ground to set up the direct communication link between air and ground by means of an L/L transponder (converting 1.6 GHz to 1.5 GHz) on board the ETS-V. Voice, facsimile, and personal computer communications at 9.6 kb/s were satisfactorily provided by this experimental system