Long Range Communications

[kato13]

I have been trying to work out my Project Phoenix long range communications plans and would appreciate insight and ideas.


Some thoughts I have had.

Satellites
I believe within the Morrow canon is the description of a single base with a Morrow project communications satellite mounted solid fuel rocket. I am going to take that one step further by having a base on an Island of Costa Rica (Isla Nublar ) used as a rocket launch facility once the project decides to go active. Being closer to the equator helps with the launch, It also seems like a good place for an alternate communications HQ given it would be unlikely to be destroyed unless there was a security breach.

Another possibility is a heavily EMP shielded satellite which is launched but remains dormant (with a cover story of failed activation) until the project decided to activate it. This has many unpleasant variables attached to it but it might be much easier than building a launch base in secret.

Balloons
At each of my regional facilities I am considering having a tethered large high-altitude balloon carrying a wind power generator and the equivalent of a small communications satellite. This seems like an elegant solution but I am not sure to what degree this would be harder to use than a satellite. Given this has not been applied in the real world yet I think it might have issues I am not thinking about.


Civilian Broadcast Equipment
One of my major project plans is to both distribute hand cranked radios and to begin broadcasting on civilian frequencies. I know that AM can travel a huge distance so my regional bases should be able to cover all of the lower 48.


If anyone has any other ideas or comments please post them.

[kalos72]

I know this post is crazy old but....

I really like the idea of the tethered balloon acting like a mini comms satellite...T2K wise, how could that be utilized for long range comms?

Perhaps like a repeater a mile in the sky?

[mikeo80]

When I learned Morrow Project back in the 80's, one of the technologies we used for communication was the Ultra Low Frequency area. This tech was being espoused especially in the 70's for communication with our nuclear balistic subs. We figured that this was a viable tech to incorporate. We envisioned the ULF being the backbone of TMP especially for wake up sequences. The transmission rate for ULF is very slow. The "computer" in the bolt holes would be a perfect interpreter for such a signal.

We also envisioned a backbone of relay stations to incorporate VHF once the Project was up and running. TImeline came out with such a thing in their module "American Outback".

My $0.02

Mike

[kalos72]

Does Morrow Project have core books and modules like T2K does or is everything player driven?

Id LOVE to get my hands on some of these details...

[mikeo80]

Originally Posted by kalos72

Does Morrow Project have core books and modules like T2K does or is everything player driven?

Id LOVE to get my hands on some of these details...

Kalos,

TM1-1 v3 is the central rule book for TMP. Still available at Timeline, Ltd. Website. V4 is being printed as we write, I am waiting with baited breath to get mine!!!!

They also have a book on TMP vehicles and character loadouts. Most characters use pre-ordained gear. Makes game master set up much easier.

There are twelve scenario books. They are listed below.

Liberation at Riverton
Damocles
Operation Lucifer
Ruins of Chicago
Starnaman Incident
Operation Lonestar
Desert Search
Prime Base
Bullets and Bluegrass
Final Watch
Fall Back
American Outback

As with T2K, you can use the books as is, or as a template to start your own scenario. I believe that all of the modules are still available at Timeline Ltd. website.

Hope this helps.

My $0.02

Mike

[kalos72]

Awesome thanks. I cant seem to find it for sale though, that Timeline LTD sites purchase section is down it appears. I will try to email them...

I might just get into this line more, looks like ALOT of data to chew through.

[Owen E Oulton]

Originally Posted by kato13

I have been trying to work out my Project Phoenix long range communications plans and would appreciate insight and ideas.


Some thoughts I have had.

Satellites
I believe within the Morrow canon is the description of a single base with a Morrow project communications satellite mounted solid fuel rocket. I am going to take that one step further by having a base on an Island of Costa Rica (Isla Nublar ) used as a rocket launch facility once the project decides to go active.

If you tried to set up a launch base on Isla Nubar, wouldn't Crichton's dinosaurs eat you?

[ArmySGT.]

Third edition and some of the modules can be purchased at Noble Knight Games.

Noble Knight Games - Morrow Project page.

[ArmySGT.]

The Module "American Outback" features a Relay Station for Morrow Project radio systems.

This one is different than the Kilo Alpha repeater in "Final Watch".

[Gelrir]

I suspect there are three different things being discussed here: the super-low frequency equipment used to activate teams from Prime Base; the tactical radios of the Project (symbolized by the PRC-70); and whatever transcontinental system the Project expected to set up after the Atomic War.

The Military Affiliate Radio System communicated fairly reliably from Vietnam to North American in the 1960s, with equipment that would fit in the bed of a deuce-and-a-half. I think you could justify a V150 dedicated to being a comm vehicle, with an extensible mast (similar to the ones used by television remote vans); or the same comm capability built into a MARS-One or Scientific-One vehicle. Some images and info:

http://www.fold3.com/image/244368538/

http://www.ne7x.com/web_pages/mobile1968.htm

http://www.qsl.net/ea4bb/EA4BB/Collins_KWM-2A.html

http://www.w2xc.com/KWM-2.htm

http://www.collinsradio.org/cca-coll...a-transceiver/

http://www.wb4hfn.com/COLLINS/Docume...chure-KWM2.htm

http://www.radioing.com/collins/tr01.html

The 4000 kilometer range quoted for the PRC-70 is for sending and receiving CW (morse) or FSK (modem, more or less) with a doublet antenna (i.e., not just the usual whip on Project vehicles). While the doublet antenna is normally stretched out parallel to the ground, I'm sure a well-designed vertical pole could do something similar. Between two PRC-70s, with the right conditions, time of day and operators, ranges are more like this:

• doublet antenna, Morse code or modem: up to 4000 km
• doublet antenna, voice: up to 800 km
• whip antenna, FM voice or SSB voice: up to 40 km
• whip antenna, AM or FM voice: up to 24 km

(this information is converted from "Operator's Manual, Radio Set AN/PRC-70", page 1-10).

I imagine the super-low-frequency system can't be picked up by the tactical radios, so the details may not be too important to game play.

--
Michael B.

[RandyT0001]

If you visit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio-wave_propagation
you can see the radio spectrum broken down into bands. The VLF and LF bands are low frequency and travel by ground waves, following the curvature of the Earth. The are used to send short messages to ships and submarines at sea. (Flash traffic in the movie "Crimson Tide".) Used by MP to wake teams. The radio equipment the teams have can not send signals at the proper frequency to respond with a message back to PB.

The PRC-70 operates across the HF band and about 40MHz into the VHF band. The PRC-70 has a range of 2500 miles if it is properly set up to operate in the CW mode, in the lower end of the HF band, with the proper antenna, the doublet, erected at a sufficient height. It does this by skywave.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skywave
HF can also use relay stations to increase the range of signals.

The VHF band on the PRC-70 is for local communication with units close to the radio. From a few miles up to tens of miles depending upon how high the antenna is and ground clutter. This is a direct line of propagation communication mode. A relay or repeater station can be erected on a tall tower, hill top, etc. that recieves and re-transmits the signal at a higher power level. The combination of height (few hundred feet) and increased power expands the signals coverage area to fifty or sixy miles in diameter. Relays can be simplex, one frequency for both recieving and re-transmitting, or duplex, a frequency for recieving and another about 500kz from the other for re-transmission.

The doublet antenna is a half wave dipole. It is made of two wires set in a single line, one wire is connected to the radio and the other is connected to the ground. A horizontal orientied dipole radio radiation pattern is like a doughnut (with a very tiny hole) and the wire goes through the center of the doughnut hole. If you set the wire of the antenna on a north-south axis most of the energy is transmitted to the east and west. A vertical whip antenna is a quarter wave antenna (half of a dipole). The ground of the Earth forms the other half of the "dipole" of a vertical antenna. They radiate in a 360 degrees around the vertical antenna but at reduced power from a dipole.

A type of directional antenna is referred to as the Yagi-Uda. To learn more about it read this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yagi-Uda_antenna
Whereas the horizontal dipole has a radiation pattern like a doughnut, the Uda-Yagi has one side of the "doughnut" at a smaller, less powerful size while the other side is bigger, more powerful and shaped like ovaloid or egg. They are often the easiest directional antenna to make and are use for radio direction finding.

[kato13]

Good information. Thanks.

Other than an overlap in Acronyms the
Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) seems like it would be something the project would look into supporting financially. Maybe sponsoring contests or something so they could start to make connections to users whom if they survived would be valuable postwar.