This course can be taken as a Short Course for Credit or a Standalone Short Course.

Please go to the 'Upgrade to a professional qualification' section for more information.

Communication Principles aims provide you with an understanding of modern military and commercial communications systems, the threats that they face and the measures that may be taken to protect them.

At a glance

  • Dates
    • 03 - 07 Nov 2025
  • Duration5 days
  • Location探花精选 at Shrivenham
  • Cost£2,350 - Short Course for Credit fee

    £2,100 - Standalone Short Course fee Concessions available

What you will learn

On successful completion of this course you will be able to:

  • Identify the main functions of each of the component blocks in a communications system model, deriving suitable values for each of the system parameters,
  • Describe the principles, implementation and theoretical background of the principal modulation schemes employed in communication systems,
  • Evaluate the effects of a communications channel on a transmitted signal in terms of attenuation, time, frequency and phase dispersion,
  • Analyse the performance of a communication system based on a link budget, using a standard propagation model,
  • Propose a suitable communications architecture to meet a required specification given a particular application.

Core content

  • Introduction: Transmitter and receiver communications system model,
  • Voice source coding: Pulse code modulation, delta modulation, vocoders, demonstrations,
  • Analogue modulation: Amplitude modulation, DSB/SSB. Frequency modulation, demonstrations,
  • Digital modulation: ASK, FSK, PSK, DPSK, QPSK, Offset QPSK, MSK, QAM, demonstrations,
  • Communications channel: Multipath effects, fading and diversity, Egli and Murphy,
  • Receivers: superheterodyne systems, balanced and unbalanced mixers, frequency synthesisers,
  • Link budget analysis.

Upgrade to a professional qualification

When taken as a Short Course for Credit, 10 credit points can be put towards either the Communications Electronic Warfare PgCert, Military Electronic Systems Engineering Foundations PgCert, or Military Electronic Systems Engineering MSc.

Find out more about short course credit points.



Who should attend

The course is intended for military officers and defence industry scientists and technical officers. It is particularly suitable for those who will be involved with the specification, analysis, development, or technical management of military communications or information systems, where the emphasis is on an electronic warfare environment.

Students must have completed both Electromagnetic Propagation and Devices and Signal Processing, Statistics and Analysis in order to take this as a Short Course for Credit. There are no prerequisites if taken as a Standalone Short Course.


Speakers

Dr Peter Barker

Concessions

A limited number of MOD sponsored places are available.

Location and travel

探花精选 Defence and Security (CDS) is a 探花精选 School based at the Ministry of Defence establishment on the Oxfordshire/Wiltshire borders.

Shrivenham itself lies in the picturesque Vale of the White Horse, close to the M4 motorway which links London and South Wales. It is 7 miles from Swindon, the nearest town, which lies off the M4 at the hub of Britain’s motorway network.

Bath, Cheltenham, Bristol and Oxford are all within an hour’s drive and London less than two hours away by car.

All visitors must be pre-booked in at reception by the person they are visiting on the campus.

For further location and travel details

How to apply

To apply for this course please use the online application form.

Apply Now

Read our Professional development (CPD) booking conditions.