If phasers are energy weapons (which they are), then you would expect them to not have an "ammunition" limit, since energy is constantly being generated before, between, and after a shot. So why is it that we have seen "phaser energy reserve coils" (or some such item; in some of the Dominion-war arc episodes Sisko and Dax have one of these things in their hands and say "take a good long look at this people (..)")? Does this imply that (the Defiant in this case) can only fire a limited number of times, or have I got it wrong?
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Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
I just kinda figured they were like big batteries. You have something that's generating the power for the phasers. Eventually, it burns out or runs out of energy and has to be replaced. I think it was just one component in the phaser systems though.
------------------ "A gathering of Angels appeared above my head. They sang to me this song of hope, and this is what they said..." -Styx
I don't remember offhand the technobabble name of this device, but I got the impression that it was some sort of a focusing device or capacitor or something that experiences lots of strain every time the phaser is fired, and eventually just "burns through".
Having to regularly replace this component with a fresh one would be similar to having to replace the firing pin of your gun from time to time, but not all that similar to having to insert new ammo.
Incidentally, I doubt any other ships have these devices in their strip-type phasers - this seemed like something specific to the pulse phasers of the Defiant.
Timo Saloniemi
Posted by Obi Juan (Member # 90) on :
Yeah I kinda got that idea too.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
It's also possible that they use those things to store the energy for a while before firing. That way, if the power flow is interrupted, they can still get off another shot...
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