development of Underwater Data Communication System (I) -Echo Signal Transfer System-
This paper describes a Frequency Shift Keying (FSK) modulator and demodulator and the experimented underwater data ommunication equipment to transfer the analog echo signal in real-time from an underwater vehicle to the mother ship. The system consists of an echo signal transfer unit equipped to the vehicle and an ultrasonic receiver equipped on the ship. The former includes an ultrasonic transceiver unit of 180kHz for echo detection and a continuous wave transmitter of 50kHz with a FSK modulator for echo transmission to the ship. The latter includes an ultrasonic receiver of 50kHz and the FSK demodulator. The results of experiment are as follows. 1. The characteristics of the FSK modulating and demodulating circuits designed with the use of C-MOS IC 4046 was good and confirmed its usefulness in underwater data communication system.2. The prototype ultrasonic transceiver unit shows profitable driving power while the pulse duration was short less than 3 msec, but it was found that the driving power is not sufficient while the long pulse duration or continuous wave is used. The gain of the ultrasonic receiver was 80 dB and the receiving bandwidth 700Hz (at - 3 dB point).3. It was found that the system designed by the author has some possibility to use in underwater echo transfer.4. At the FSK modulator, the widths of voltage and frequency which represent linearity were 3.5 V, 1600Hz, respectively, at the FSK demodulator 2.6 V, 700Hz, respectively.