I realize the answer to this is probably RTFM, but I'm going to ask anyway. So how does subspace work?... No, I kid. Sort of.
What I'm wondering about is subspace communications. In several instances we see officers in remote places in real-time conversations with Earth. And we saw the NX-01 deploying subspace relays which are presumably how this is accomplished. Plus there's Voyager which cannot send or receive to SFC in any reasonable amount of time from the Delta Quadrant except when that big array is used or they are co-opting an alien network. There must be some sort of range/power limitation to how these signals are sent.
Do we know what this limitation is? What is the range of subspace comms? How does one go about jamming as in TWOK? Is it a point to point or broadcast technology? If someone is eavesdropping on a subspace signal, is the signal degraded or interfered with? Are stars (or pulsars or singularities or whatehaveyou) transparent to subspace signals?
SO many dumb questions. Feel free to point me at a thread where someone has answered these questions before. Or to tell me which manual to fucking read.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
It's obviously more a plot device than anything else- we see Enterprise D using realtime comunications with Earth/wherever a lot but (mostly back in the first two season) there is sometimes a lag.
I think that's all dependant on where the ship is in relation to the various subspace relay stations spread throught the federation.
I'm kind of suprised that there are not subspace relays located in subspace.
As to jamming, on DS9 we see various races flood the local area of combat with various radiation/ particles/pulses that jam the signal- probably it just jams the recievers and does not actually interfere with the signal though.
Posted by Balaam Xumucane (Member # 419) on :
I did flip through my TNG Tech Manual and it mentions an practical max transmission distance of something like 22 ly. Can anyone confirm this?
Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :
Confirmed. The manual is somewhat ambiguous on whether the 22-ly limit applies to all subspace communications, or to those attempted by the Galaxy class hardware. It also remains nebulous on the issue of what happens to the signal after the limit: does it continue as a coherent signal in normal space at lightspeed, or does it degrade into mere lightspeed noise?
To fit onscreen data, it might be smartest to assume that the limit depends on the hardware. A Galaxy can talk in realtime with anybody within 22 ly, or with anybody connected to a relay network where the nearest buoy is less than 22 ly away. A Danube might have a range of only 5 ly, though. And a big badass fixed installation could do realtime signaling across 500 or even 5,000 ly without the help of relays.
Also, a cleverly compiled signal would remain readable even after it degrades to lightspeed - so a starship can communicate beyond its subspace hardware limit, but with a delay that rapidly increases with distance beyond that limit.
Timo Saloniemi
Posted by Bernd (Member # 6) on :
The strange thing about subspace communication, at least according to the TNGTM, is that the subspace relays do not (or not primarily) amplify the amplitude of the signal, but push it deeper into subspace where signals are faster. On the other hand, this probably gives us a very similar relation between power and signal range as with real-life EM transmissions. So I agree with Timo that the range of a (near real-time) signal depends on the power of the ship's subspace transceiver.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
I have my own subspace array. in my pants
Posted by The Mighty Monkey of Mim (Member # 646) on :
Point!
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
It gets my point across, yes.
Here's aquestion- how big is that subspace array shown on TNG (the horrible Aquiel episode) supposed to be?
I was going to build one but the scale is....elusive.
150 meters tall? Larger?
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
It's in the TNG technical manual, isn't it? Not that there's any information, beyond the drawing.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
It's not the exact same station though- the Aquiel version seems to have a habitat component (but with no real windws it's anyone's guess).
Posted by TheWoozle (Member # 929) on :
For all we know, it's some sort of digital radio-like signal, but humping its way through the next dimension over.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
The model and the set obviously do not match... The only vague indication of scale on the model is that there seems to be a presurized section which on the drawing has a man-sized hatch at one end. This could be anything, but I've always thought that it was the crew-accessible point that was never meant to house a facility as large as seen in "Aquiel".
Still, you gotta question how important or valuable a station must be to house a permenant crew of two plus pooch, when all they do is monitor routine subspace stuff. At least the Epsilon-9 station was gargantuan and coordinated comms for an enormous region of space.
Mark
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
It's possible that the relay needs regular maintence and that priority channels require someone there to prevent some foreign power from setting up a communications tap.
Bad idea to have a crew of only two- most male/female pairings would lead to....distractions. Particularly if Starfleet somehow assigned you a total psycho as a partner.
I'd have flushed her damn dog out the airlock from sheer spite.
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
Presumably Starfleet would have a low ratio of total psychos amoungst its members. Although that doesn't seem to be the case.
Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :
It's just that the psychos are shunted to postings where they can do relatively little harm, such as key communications nodes, flagships, demanding diplomatic missions, or the Admirality. We thus get a biased idea of the true percentage because our heroes and their trusty camera crews also tend to mostly hang around these low-risk locations.
As for why there was a habitat section attached to SR-47, this no doubt was a special request from the Commander, Communications Division, so that he could promote a certain affable underling of his to that prestigious position, 365 ly away from his own office.
Timo Saloniemi
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: It's possible that the relay needs regular maintence and that priority channels require someone there to prevent some foreign power from setting up a communications tap.
Possible... Someone did just that to the MIDAS array. Still, it never really seemed like an important place, nor one really far from help - or replacement, for that matter. I'd say that all the relay stations would be visually inspected by patrols on a minimum schedule; all those Excelsiors have to do SOMETHING...
Mark
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
All those Excelsiors are desperately needed to serve as taxis for the visiting admirals of the week. Besides, everyone knows that exploration on Trek can only be accomplished by the biggest/newest starship (at least we never hear of other ships doing anything like that). Excelsiors also serve the vital role of depleating the Dominion's weapon energy reserves and keeping Jem'Hadar weapons crews at the peak performance.
I'd be intresting to see a subspace array (manned) with some defensive capabilities- stuff that is stationed out by Tholian, Tzenkethi, Cardassian, Romulan or Breen space.
Fuck, when you think about it, the Federation really has few friends.
Posted by Balaam Xumucane (Member # 419) on :
So, er, where the hell was the Epsilon 9 Station anyway? I always just assumed it was near Klingon space (not that it makes its position any clearer). But maybe it was a comms array much nearer to Earth. What is it, three days as the V'ger flies? Correct me if I'm wrong, but it didn't seem to have ANY defensive capacity.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Well, draw a line from Klingon space to Earth, and Epsilon 9 was on it somewhere.
Posted by Balaam Xumucane (Member # 419) on :
