Application of satellite techniques to search and rescue system will make it possible to develope a highly reliable distress alerting system, valid over a wide area of oceans.
For this purpose, the 406.0-406.1 MHz band has been reserved for the use and the development of low power Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) by the 1971 World Administrative Radio Conference for Space Telecommunications (WARC-ST).
This paper describes an EPIRB system which uses the 406 MHz band transmits position information derived from an on-board navigational equipment, such as an Omega receiver, to a land station via a geostationary satellite.
The EPIRB offers many advantages in a relatively simple configuration, low power consumption, and low cost for implementation of the distress buoy. In this system, according to the link parameters, up-link C/No is 33 dB·Hz or less under the condition of elevation an angle 5°.
A sea trial for this system has been carried out using an EPIRB-to-land link to evaluate transmission reliability at this low C/No, in the off-shore region near Iro-saki, Izu peninsula.
The result of the test shows that the signal threshold level is approximately 31 dB·Hz and successful operation is expected under the C/No values of 33 dB·Hz.
