Personal Meson Communicators

[rinku]

Aright. But T5 doesn't in itself override every other previous edition of Traveller, which all say device to device, and that meson communicators are tight beam only, like laser and maser ones.

 

[MasterGwydion]

Aright. But T5 doesn't in itself override every other previous edition of Traveller, which all say device to device, and that meson communicators are tight beam only, like laser and maser ones.

This would mean though that no ships or vehicles can have meson communciators, so it is not really an issue. Only things that are not in motion can use meson communications, since the CSC page 65 says this,

"Meson transceivers are bulky devices requiring fine-tuning and precise location information of communication nodes."

Under another section of Satellite Uplink on the same page, it says,

"Laser and meson transceivers do not require satellite uplinks as they have integral capability to establish point-to-point between two stationary or moving transceivers."

So, this says that they can be stationary or moving, but does not remove the requirement of knowing exactly where both the transmission point and the receiving point are.

Page 65 also says this,

"They are almost impossible to jam or intercept and can communicate through solid rock or metal, making communications through the entire surface of a planet possible."

So, unlike with lasers, communication is possible through other matter. My question is this. If you must know the precise location of your communications target and you cannot see them, nor communicate with them using Meson Communications (since you do not know their precise location), how do you know where they are? What does "precise location" mean? Does it mean you know where they are well enough to target them with meson weapons or that you know that they are somewhere within a 500km radius area? For laser communications, you literally have to hit them with a laser beam, so you are basically targeting them directly. So do mesons require the same level of knowledge as to the location of the ship?

 

[CordwainerFish]

(bites tongue on comments to the extent of well it depends on the wavelength of the phenomenon and you do know they're not really mesons and...)

 

[MasterGwydion]

(bites tongue on comments to the extent of well it depends on the wavelength of the phenomenon and you do know they're not really mesons and...)

So many comments. lol

 

[rinku]

So, unlike with lasers, communication is possible through other matter. My question is this. If you must know the precise location of your communications target and you cannot see them, nor communicate with them using Meson Communications (since you do not know their precise location), how do you know where they are? What does "precise location" mean? Does it mean you know where they are well enough to target them with meson weapons or that you know that they are somewhere within a 500km radius area? For laser communications, you literally have to hit them with a laser beam, so you are basically targeting them directly. So do mesons require the same level of knowledge as to the location of the ship?

Essentially yes. To use a laser or maser comm as described in CT through MGT2e you need to know where to point it.

Meson comms do have a much longer range than the weapons grade ones - the same as laser comms vs laser weapons.

The nodes would usually establish their locations using broadcast means (radio and radar) or passive detection before switching to the more secure tight beam communications.

Alternatively, the nodes might have prior knowledge of where the other one is. It would be sufficient for only one node to be initially aware of the other one's location.

So if there's a Darrian spy asteroid base with meson comms, an arriving Darrian ship that knows where it is could send a message by meson and advise the base of it's current location, allowing the base to reply.

Or, an arriving naval vessel could meson hail the navy base.

Or the standard transponders that all ships are meant to carry will provide the fix. It's only ships actively trying to avoid detection that will need a way to locate the other node.

All of the above applies to all tight beam transceivers. But mesons might have the extra wrinkle of intervening planets and such. Can't beam to a location you can't detect, unless you already know the location.