The intraCoastal satellite communicator system

This paper describes an application of the ORBCOMM satellite system for helping pleasure-boat sailors to navigate. The IntraCoastal Satellite Communication System (ICSCS) is an improvement on the well established ChartPlotter made by Geonav 11E Navionix for bidirectional coastal communication. By using a terminal of the ORBCOMM system, ICSCS allows the sailors to access and retrieve information which has been coded ad-hoc on web sites. The paper briefly describes the software architecture of the system and presents the additional user facilities. The IntraCoastal Satellite Communicator System has been available on the market since beginning of year 2000, and has already been installed on many pleasure boats in Italy.