POLITEKNIK KUALA TERENGGANU MICROWAVE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

INTRODUCTION Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency

The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (Abbreviation: MMEA; Malay: Agensi Penguatkuasaan Maritim Malaysia; APMM), is the principal government agency tasked with maintaining law and order and coordinating search and rescue operations in the Malaysian Maritime Zone and on the high seas. It is in effect the coast guard of Malaysia. The Agency is not part of nor are there any plans for it be integrated into the Malaysian Armed Forces. The Agency and its members are part of the Malaysian Civil Service and report directly to the Prime Minister's Department. Currently, the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, The Rt. Hon. Dato' Seri Mohd Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak is the Minister responsible for the MMEA.

NAVIGATION SYSTEM

Garmin Navigation System Garmin is an American company that develops consumer, aviation, and marine technologies for the Global Positioning System. Garmin Ltd. is the parent company of a group of companies founded in 1989 by Gary Burrell and Min Kao. Its subsidiary Garmin International, Inc. serves as headquarters for the Garmin Limited companies and is located in Olathe, Kansas in the United States. The largest operating subsidiary and primary production facility of Garmin Limited is Garmin (Asia) Corporation.

Marine GPS The companys first product was the GPS 100, a panel-mounted GPS receiver aimed at the marine market, priced at $2,500. It debuted at the 1990 International Marine Technology Exposition in Chicago. The product was an instant hit and generated a backlog of orders for 5,000 units. In response to the demand thus created, Kao traveled (January 1991) to Taipei to set up manufacturing facilities. Most current Garmin devices can display the current location on a map. The maps are vector-based and stored in the built-in memory or loaded from additional flash media. The built-in (or 'basemap') displays all country borders and major cities. Garmin offers different maps for purchase, including detailed road maps, topographic maps and nautical maps. Noncommercial maps are also available and can be displayed on most Garmin GPS devices. Maritime Radar

Maritime radars are x-band or s-band radar to provide bearing and distance of ships and land targets in vicinity from own ship (radar scanner) for collision avoidance and navigation at sea. Radar is a vital component for safety at sea and near the shore. Captains need to be able to maneuver theirs ships within feet in the worst of conditions and to be able to navigate "blind". This means inside a dark room with no visibility they need to safely navigate their way through waters in the worst of weather. Radars are rarely used alone in a marine setting. In commercial ships, they are integrated into a full system of marine instruments including chartplotters, sonar, two-way radio communication devices, and emergency locators (EPIRB).

The integration of these devices is very important as it becomes quite distracting to look at several different screens. Therefore, displays can often overlay charting, radar, sonar into a single system. This gives the captain unprecedented instrumentation to maneuver the ship. With digital backbones, these devices have advanced greatly in the last years. For example, the newer ones have 3D displays that allow you to see above, below and all around the ship, including overlays of satellite imaging. In port or in harbour, shore-based vessel traffic service radar systems are used to monitor and regulate ship movements in busy waters.

Collision Avoidance As required by COLREGS, all ships shall maintained a proper radar lookout if it is available on board to obtain early warning of risk of collision. Radar plotting or ARPA should be used to get the information of movement and the risk of collision (bearing, distance, CPA (closest point of approach), TCPA) of other ships in vicinity. Navigation Marine radar systems can provide very useful radar navigation information for navigators onboard ships. Ship position could be fixed by the bearing and distance information of land target on radar screen. Radar Control Marine radar has performance adjustment controls for brightness and contrast, gain, tuning, sea clutter and rain clutter suppression, and other interference reduction. Other common controls consist of range scale, bearing cursor, fix/variable range marker or bearing/distance cursor.

References 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysian_Maritime_Enforcement_Agency 2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garmin 3. https://www.mmea.gov.my/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=90&I temid=489&lang=en 4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_radar