Jamming Com and Sensors

Graknor Stev

Mongoose
I'm certain it's covered in the rules but I just can't find it.

How does it work when you want to scramble another ships com so they can't report your location? Is it an opposed com roll? Instinctively I'd use that, but I guess there would have to be some conditionnal modifiers... right?

Is it anywhere in the official rules or will we have to make up stuff as we go along?
 
Actually, I have not seen any rules for jamming someone's transmissions. The closest thing to it is the anti-bugging device that's listed in the book.

As for jamming in space, it would not surprise me if they left it out because you're not allowed to 'jam' another ship's transmissions. Realistically, this is something that is amazingly hard to do.

First, all space ships are going to be immensely shielded to resist the kind of harmful radiation that would screw up their comms.

Second, the distances involved would require an energy allotment for the jamming device that would rival the heaviest weaponry, and even then I'm not sure it's doable.

Third, in order to effectively 'jam' a target you need to figure out what frequency their comms are operating on. If it is an uncoded, single channel broadcast, then it's not too hard to lock into the signal and then spoof the broadcast. This is done by emitting an extremely high powered emmission on the same frequency, thus overpowering the transmission from the 'jammed' vessel.

However, any vessel worth its salt will be using a frequency hopping technique to broadcast its transmission. This means it doesn't stay on the same frequency for more than a fraction of a second before it jumps to a new frequency. With the advanced technology this will probably occur several hundred times per second and occur in a nonsequential nonrepeating fashion. The only person who's going to be able to listen will be another with the same communication security. The only way you're really going to be able to 'jam' this type of communication is to somehow get a hold of his comms protocols and pump a high powerer broadcast out.

Fourth, the other thing to worry about is that though communications can travel faster than light by using the jumpgates and a carrier signal, they still only travel at near light speed across normal space. This means that you might not have to jam someone in order to keep them from calling for help in time. The down side to this is that in order to jam someone you have to start broadcasting before they do or their message will leave their ship before your jamming signal arrives. Now in most tactical situations the range is short enough that this really won't matter, but in open space you need to be aware of this.

Fifth, a jamming signal is high powered. This means that anyone with the paranoia to be looking will find it. Unfortunately for the jamming vessel, it is fairly easy to track the signal back to its source. So don't expect to stay hidden if you do this.

I'll leave it at that, but if you have any questions about all of this let me know.
 
Jammers are detailed on pages 198-199 of the main book.

Oscar
 
Oops, that's what I get for apparently skipping a page when I read. :oops:

OK, so a ships jamming range is 2,500 miles. This means 2,640 'squares' in range on a space map. Basically, if you can shoot someone then you can 'jam' them.

There is a little bit of a fudgy part in the writing though. It states that you must block a desired frequency or set of frequencies. In order to successfully use a jammer it requires a tech(electronics) roll. However, my quandery is with the first part. Does the character automatically figure out what frequency/frequencies need to be jammed if he succeeds in this roll, or does the character have to find out what the target frequencies are through some other means?
 
I would use opposed rolls. I would let the jammer make a roll and adding his ships sensorvalue to it, the jameed (new word? :D ) would also roll and add his ships sensorvalue and the highest wins.
 
Thanks for the help guys. The raiders are now dead :twisted:
 
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