TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION CHANNEL (TDCC)

Technical Configuration

The network consists of three elements - the teaching end, the spacecraft, and the classroom.

The Teaching End:
The teaching end consists of a small studio and an uplink earth station. It also has an EPABX, fax or other equipment to communicate with classrooms. Presently the teaching end facilities (studio and uplinking) are available at the IGNOU campus in Delhi, from the SAC/ISRO campus in Ahmedabad and Madhya Pradesh Academy of Administration (MPAA), Bhopal. Uplinks are being built at Mysore, Gandhinagar and Bhubaneswar by the respective state governments. Effort is also made to provide uplinking from other locations on a temporary basis whenever required.

Spacecraft

One extended C-band transponder on INSAT - 38 has been earmarked for the Training and Development Communication Channel.

Classrooms
There are two types of classrooms - one that can interact with the teaching end through a voice link and another, which does not have this facility. The former classroom type is called a 'talk-back' location and latter a 'receive-only' location.

Classrooms have a Direct Reception System (DRS), which consists of a low-cost dish antenna, front-end electronics and ordinary television receiver. The voice link in talkback locations are either by long- distance telephone calls through STD or through Satellite Communication Terminal (Satcom). Some classrooms also use fax machines and PCs to communicate with the studio at the teaching end.