scope:

This final draft European Telecommunication Standard (ETS) sets out the minimum performance requirements and technical characteristics for ship earth stations capable of transmitting and receiving direct-printing communications, and for Enhanced Group Call (EGC) equipment, as required by regulations IV/7, IV/8, IV/9 and IV/10 of the 1974 International Convention for Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) [5] as amended, concerning radio communications for the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS). Minimum performance requirements for the Network Control Facility (NCF) are contained in ETS 300 459 [3].

NOTE: The only satellite system accepted by the SOLAS convention to provide LBRDC in the GMDSS is INMARSAT-C at the date of publication.

For the purpose of this ETS the term "ship earth station" is used in order to align this ETS to ITU terminology. It is defined as a Maritime Mobile Earth Station (MMES) operating in the GMDSS.

This ETS is applicable to the following classes of equipment:

- Class 0:

- a stand alone EGC receiver;

- Class 1:

- a basic ship earth station providing shore-to-ship and ship-to-shore message transfer only;

- Class 2:

- as for Class 1 but with EGC as an alternative to shore-to-ship transfer using a shared receiver;

- Class 3:

- as for Class 1 but with EGC using an independent receiver.

This ETS covers equipment construction and performance testing. GMDSS requirements and tests are included where they are supplementary to those contained in the equipment certification required in subclause 5.1.

Frequency bands allocated by the Radio Regulations [1] to the Maritime Mobile Satellite Service (MMSS)

Requirements are specified in order to ensure the requirements of the GMDSS are met, to protect other users of the frequency spectrum from unacceptable interference, for the purposes of general safety and for the provision of protection of the ship earth station against electromagnetic interference from other systems.