Sixty-two Mb/s transmission via Westar satellites

Westar satellites are presently being extensively used for transmitting video, voice, data, and high-quality signals in point-to-point broadcasting modes. The Westar system consists of C-band transponders and a number of varying-size earth stations, fixed as well as portable. The satellite transponders are operated in single or multiple carrier modes at different power levels. The system was designed to carry 1200 FDM/FM channels or one analog video channel per transponder between the major earth stations. However, the increased demand for more transponders now requires more efficient transponder utilization techniques, such as VF transmissions, wiring digital modulation, and compression. To investigate this, a 62-Mb/s test system was installed between Western Union's New York Wire and Repeater room and the Glenwood Earth Station. This paper describes the test system configuration and major subsystems, including the developed digital speech interpolations, TDMA MUX/DUX, and the CTTE simulator. Also briefly described are the test results.