An introduction to communication technology used by the Navy, such as that
used on the EP-3 spy plane whose crew was recently held hostage by the Chinese
after a fighter piloted by an incompetent Chinese pilot crashed into the spy plane.
U.S. ships use almost the entire electromagnetic spectrum, from ELF (70-80 Hz),
which has a baud rate of one character every 10 minutes, to blue-green lasers.
Unlike civilian users, the principal concern of military users is not
maximizing bandwidth, but reliably transmitting narrow-band voice signals,
typically 2400 bps, under adverse conditions (such as, for instance, when a
50 megaton nuclear missile is homing in on your position). Has nice chapters
on modulation systems, spread-spectrum, and anti-jamming techniques; the latter
requires some understanding of basic information theory. The remainder is relatively
non-technical with little mathematics or technical depth. Readers unfamiliar
with radio wave propagation or satellite communications will find it interesting.
Lots and lots of acronyms, block diagrams at the systems level, and blurry
photographs of obsolete-looking equipment, but little technical information
about the role of computers or cryptography, and no circuit diagrams or
discussion of surveillance equipment. Also, much of the information is quite
dated; the most modern communication systems are not even mentioned.
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