Unclassified the Naval Postgraduate School GBS testbed

A downlink testbed for the Global Broadcast System (GBS) has been installed at the Naval Postgraduate School in the NPS Systems Technology Laboratory (STL). The purpose of the testbed is to conduct research on the link characteristics of GBS broadcasts that can be received in Monterey. Currently, the GBS Conus transmission is a Ku-band signal from the uplink testbed at the Pentagon via the medium power SBS-6 satellite located at 79 degrees West. Beginning in 1998, UFO-8 high power GBS broadcasts at Ka- band will be analyzed. In addition, the testbed receives and analyzes commercial Direct Wand Dish Net Ku- band broadcasts. The testbed has been instrumented to monitor carrier power levels and background noise levels for each of the active transponders. Statistical analysis of this data is planned to develop distributions of C/No and Eb/No for the different transmissions. Values are compared with computed link budgets. Correlation with local meteorological measurements is planned.. Bit error rate testing is included to evaluate receiver/decoder losses and to validate effects of variable data rate

Status of coral reef resources in Micronesia and American Samoa: 2008

Coral reefs in Micronesia and American Samoa appear to be amongst the most resilient in the world, despite numerous on-going threats;\ud \ud There has been considerable recovery of reefs in western Micronesia (especially Palau) that were devastated during the massive coral bleaching in 1998;\ud \ud The more remote islands support thriving communities of large reef fishes due to limited fishing pressures and habitat degradation;\ud \ud Fish populations around major population centres show clear signs of over-fishing with few large fish observed because of fishing pressure, particularly spear-fishers using scuba;\ud \ud Management and monitoring efforts are on-going throughout the region and numerous effective initiatives are promoting recovery of damaged coral reefs as well as the conservation of healthy ones;\ud \ud Lack of enforcement continues to be one of the major hindrances to effective resource management outcomes and more support is necessary