A satellite terminal and a machine-implemented method are provided for encoding a burst header of a burst for transmission on an inroute. One component of a group of satellite terminal components consisting of an ASIC, a FPGA, and a DSP, generates a burst header having five information bits encoded therein. The five information bits may be encoded using a Reed-Muller code, a (32, 5) block code or a convolutional code having a code rate of either 1/5 or 1/10. The five information bits may represent one or more of a modulation type for a payload of the burst, a code rate for encoding the payload, a code type, and a spreading factor for spreading the payload during transmission. A satellite gateway and a machine-implemented method are also provided for decoding a burst header of a burst received on an inroute as described above.