Proposal: Commo Bases

[mmartin798]

40km is a good number. If each station has a 100m mast with a microwave horn at the top, that gives line of sight on earth of 82km. Spacing them at 40km will allow for terrestrial microwave communication of the comm net as back up should the sat links be down.

Another consideration is that the broadcast power does not need to be that high for radio if it is just used for Project personnel. Project radios all have RF-preamps, so really weak signals can still be readily picked up. If the communication network is also to be used for public/civilian use, then you do need to start pumping out tens kilowatts or more of broadcast power versus several hundred watts. This may make a difference in the means to power the unmanned stations.

[dragoon500ly]

Originally Posted by mmartin798

40km is a good number. If each station has a 100m mast with a microwave horn at the top, that gives line of sight on earth of 82km. Spacing them at 40km will allow for terrestrial microwave communication of the comm net as back up should the sat links be down.

Another consideration is that the broadcast power does not need to be that high for radio if it is just used for Project personnel. Project radios all have RF-preamps, so really weak signals can still be readily picked up. If the communication network is also to be used for public/civilian use, then you do need to start pumping out tens kilowatts or more of broadcast power versus several hundred watts. This may make a difference in the means to power the unmanned stations.

I'm planning on using a shipping container as the unmanned base, complete with fusion power pack and anchored to a nice concrete pad. I'm of two kinds on the microwave horns, in your opinion, would it not be better to restrict to VHF/HF/AM/FM and satellite only?

[ChalkLine]

It's extremely unlikely that satellites will ever be able to be used again after the war. Most if not all satellite will succumb to a Kessler Cascade event and be destroyed and their orbits filled high speed wreckage.

[dragoon500ly]

Originally Posted by ChalkLine

It's extremely unlikely that satellites will ever be able to be used again after the war. Most if not all satellite will succumb to a Kessler Cascade event and be destroyed and their orbits filled high speed wreckage.

Personally, I'm in 100% agreement with you. But canon specifics satellites and even mention Project satellites waiting to be brought online.

Now, admittedly, after 150 years of orbital decoy, I'm curious about how much debris would be left. And from my limited knowledge of orbital mechanics, would not a high orbit at a steep elliptical angle bypass most debris fields?

On one hand, confining a team to a single satellite that appears at inconvenient times (and people laughed when I purchased Living Steel) would drive the poor cookie officer white-headed!

But realistically, I think the Project should choose to confine itself to VHF/HF/AM/FM radios.

[mmartin798]

Originally Posted by dragoon500ly

But realistically, I think the Project should choose to confine itself to VHF/HF/AM/FM radios.

I agree that the satellites are gone, unless the Morrow Project covertly put an orbital transfer vehicle with their satellites at L4 or L5 for insertion into orbit and activation once the current constellation finishes killing itself. How you do such a thing without detection is beyond the scope of this thread.

The only reason I have for the microwave is the higher transfer speeds. Since these comm bases are store and forward, it might be useful to get the message packets transferred as quickly as possible in both directions. But microwave does have the alignment issue when setting up, so it is non-trivial to get working.

[dragoon500ly]

Originally Posted by mmartin798

I agree that the satellites are gone, unless the Morrow Project covertly put an orbital transfer vehicle with their satellites at L4 or L5 for insertion into orbit and activation once the current constellation finishes killing itself. How you do such a thing without detection is beyond the scope of this thread.

The only reason I have for the microwave is the higher transfer speeds. Since these comm bases are store and forward, it might be useful to get the message packets transferred as quickly as possible in both directions. But microwave does have the alignment issue when setting up, so it is non-trivial to get working.

I'm not a commo guy by training, but with a TEOTWAWKI scenario, it would seem logical that the high-tech gear would be more likely for breakdown. There is also the security issue with microwave, its line of sight and repeated from point to point, sooner or later, that microwave horn is going to point at something really critical, like a command base.