Transmission of information

Each character of the marine radio telex code is represented by a combination of three lows and four
highs or three marks and four spaces. A mark or space is represented by a different audio tone. These
tones are generated by the NBDP equipment and passed to the radio transmitter, where they are
modulated into a radio signal for transmission. At the receiving station the tones are de–modulated by
the radio receiver and passed to the NBDP equipment for processing and display on a monitor or printer.

6.2 MODES OF TRANSMISSION

The following sections describe the various modes of transmission offered by the NBDP system.
6.2.1 Automatic re-transmission request (ARQ) mode
This mode offers full error correction capabilities and is useable even in very poor radio conditions. In this
mode only two stations can communicate with each other at any one time, as the sending and receiving
stations are synchronised (electronically locked) together. The originating station is called the master
whilst the called or receiving station is called the slave. The master station remains the master
throughout the entire contact, no matter which station is transmitting at any one time, as the master
controls the timing of the whole system.

The master station transmits three characters in 210 milliseconds (ms) then switches to receive for 240
ms. During the receive period the master station looks for a logic reply from the slave to indicate that the
three characters have been received correctly.

If the correct reply is received the master station then proceeds with the next three characters. However,
if there has been an error in the reception at either end due to interference or fading the last three
characters are repeated for a total of 32 transmissions, at which point radio contact is automatically
broken off. The master station will then attempt to re–establish contact, and if successful it will continue
the communication from the point where it was broken off.

Both master and slave stations only acknowledge receipt of the correct logic signal consisting of the 3/4
ratio. All other signals are treated as errors and not printed. Therefore interference and fading should not
cause misprints, but only a slowing down of the traffic flow between the two stations.

On completion of the traffic in one direction, an automatic changeover takes place by the sending
(master) station transmitting ‘+?’ (plus question mark). When this is acknowledged by the receiving
(slave) station a change of direction of traffic takes place, and the slave station is now the sending station
(but not the master).

In the event of a loss of signal for 15s the master station will then resume command and start calling the
slave station, as it did at the start of the contact (this is referred to as re–phasing). When contact is re–
established the flow of traffic will continue as though nothing has happened, so that if the slave station
was the transmitting station at the time of loss of signal then the slave station will resume sending traffic
from exactly where it left off, and the master station automatically returns to the receiving situation.

OPERATION PROCEDURE Annex APPLICATION FORM (DECK) Revision Page 1 of 1

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