Naval Communications

[kalos72]

So I was reading through some articles in Challenge magazine and wondered...

How do naval ships communicate world wide and why couldn't they still do it after T2k? Or could they?

Just looking at things like Going Home, they MUST be able to communicate to these ships some how and if so why couldn't these ships be used as communication hubs as well?

[Cdnwolf]

Tin can and a very long string??

I thought it would be satellite signals but if they were destroyed early on then it would be hard to handle long distance communication.

[kalos72]

Ok true...if naval ships rely on satellite comms then that makes sense...

I guess WWI / II was all Morse Code?

[WallShadow]

Short wave transmissions can be bounced off the ionosphere for over-the-horizon communications. Ham radio operators may still be in existence in the US after the blasts, assuming they protected their sets from EMP.
Nuclear subs at sea can (could?) receive Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) transmissions underwater by extending a LONG wire antenna to pick up signal from Clam Lake/Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, Wisconsin or the Escanaba River State Forest, Michigan/Project Sanguine transmitter. For a view of this in action, watch the film "Crimson Tide".

[Olefin]

There could still be transatlantic cables still operational - i.e. communicating via telegraph or telephone and then using short wave radio to pass on the messages

Or they could be using repeater stations - i.e. ships spaced at intervals specifically for communications - especially if they are using low power communication mediums

Finally I could see the US could saving a couple of operational communications satellites as well and using them similiar to the one in Twilight 2013 that was put up for the Presidents "your on your own" speech- i.e. on a low orbit specifically used for very important orders - like the Omega evacuation - they can only stay up a few weeks at a time because they cant get them up to higher orbits with what few launch facilities and rockets they have left and are used sparingly since they have so few left - but during the time they are up they can use the full capacity of their comms equipment as to interacting via satellite -

for Omega it could have been used to transmit the order, get any USN ships still in European waters to meet at Bremerhaven with the Hancock and also to order the rendezvous that is mentioned in A River Runs Thru It - i.e. the ships that came out of Norfolk to escort them the last 1/3 of the way in - in a low orbit that only allowed the satellite to stay up a couple of months - long enough for beginning to end of Omega

[kalos72]

I can't imagine WWII level comms aren't still possible...assuming EMP and power needs are addressed. And those guys sent messages clear across the Pacific with no problem...much less some of the newer stuff HAS to survive at some level above smoke signals.

Fuel (ethanol/methanol) isn't that hard to find...but not having any clue as to how these work on a long range, large scale I can't get my head around the writers explanation of this stuff.

Seems to me like another example of the writers trying to make this all "end of the world as we know it" and dark.

[Trooper]

How do naval ships communicate world wide and why couldn't they still do it after T2k? Or could they?


Navies that don’t have access to NATO or Russian SATCOM have to use HF radios.

Modern naval HF system:

http://www.thalescomminc.com/datasheets/Naval_HF_Products_and_Subsystems_Catalog.pdf

[Gelrir]

According to this forum, the Canadian Navy dropped Morse training and usage in 1993. I suspect this was a NATO-wide change.

A useful forum about naval radios, in any case:

http://jproc.ca/rrp/


--
Michael B.

[Gelrir]

Here's a web page with lots of info on mid-1990s American naval submarine radios:

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/navy/docs/scmp/index.html

As far as power: any ship that can move around can probably generate enough electrical power to operate its installed radios.

--
Michael B.

[Cdnwolf]

According to this forum, the Canadian Navy dropped Morse training and usage in 1993. I suspect this was a NATO-wide change.

A useful forum about naval radios, in any case:

http://jproc.ca/rrp/


--
Michael B.

http://jproc.ca/rrp/index.html was the same website I was going to suggest.