MGT Only: Ultra-tech communicators
- Thread starter rancke
- Start date
no EM, huh? and no other considerations listed?
well, IR and sonics will work. range may be an issue.
IR is simply photons, and as long as a detector can sense it there is no particular limit to straight-line range for either the source or reflections.
fibre-optics of course, except they require physical connection.
in water sound can travel literally hundreds of miles, but not in air without an enormous db level. through a straight-line pipe one might be able to transmit a sonic signal quite a distance. it has the same limitation of fibre-optics, requiring physical connection.
pneumatic tube delivery via pipes is very old tech but there may be uses for it even at high tech levels. again, physical connection.
during the cold war quite a bit of intel was collected via lasers reflected off of windows, or via radiar reflected off of metal plates, sensing vibrations caused by voices.
light seems the best option.
well, IR and sonics will work. range may be an issue.
IR is simply photons, and as long as a detector can sense it there is no particular limit to straight-line range for either the source or reflections.
fibre-optics of course, except they require physical connection.
in water sound can travel literally hundreds of miles, but not in air without an enormous db level. through a straight-line pipe one might be able to transmit a sonic signal quite a distance. it has the same limitation of fibre-optics, requiring physical connection.
pneumatic tube delivery via pipes is very old tech but there may be uses for it even at high tech levels. again, physical connection.
during the cold war quite a bit of intel was collected via lasers reflected off of windows, or via radiar reflected off of metal plates, sensing vibrations caused by voices.
light seems the best option.
Meson comms go through a planet, if I remember right.
Enoki
SOC-14 1K
I could see a neutron emitter using near LOS in anything but an atmosphere.
Backscatter systems could also be a possibility. That is something that broadcasts on a wide scale so while detectable the message encoded isn't obvious to anyone not looking for it. The carrier signal looks like background radiation, EM, etc.
Another would be simultaneous transmission of the signal from several locations. The sender and receiver either know where each other are precisely or the receiver has the means to determine their time and location precisely.
As the message is received at that point from the various transmitting stations, each of which transmits only part of the message, simultaneously but only at the receiver's location they can decode the message.
Anyone else anywhere else gets only bits and pieces of it and the randomness of the general transmission is such that they can't make out what the message is.
Backscatter systems could also be a possibility. That is something that broadcasts on a wide scale so while detectable the message encoded isn't obvious to anyone not looking for it. The carrier signal looks like background radiation, EM, etc.
Another would be simultaneous transmission of the signal from several locations. The sender and receiver either know where each other are precisely or the receiver has the means to determine their time and location precisely.
As the message is received at that point from the various transmitting stations, each of which transmits only part of the message, simultaneously but only at the receiver's location they can decode the message.
Anyone else anywhere else gets only bits and pieces of it and the randomness of the general transmission is such that they can't make out what the message is.
Lycanorukke
SOC-13
Gravitic comms was mentioned in Rats&Cats. I guess they used gravity waves as a carrier wave. You have gravity generators and detectors so you have a carrier for the signal.
Neutrino transmitters could be used. They already have neutrino detectors but just need a way to modulate the signal reliably (pulsing a fusion+ power module maybe?).
You could put Quantum Entanglement in ultratech - though that might violate Travs no FtL comms rule (depending on how/if it works).
(Pure speculation and handwaving) Zero point energy comms - by adding or removing energy at a point in space you shift the vacuum energy up and down from the zero point . This ripples outwards and can be detected as a change in the vacuum energy of space/time. (this would use vast amounts of power though - generating negative energy is energy expensive)
Neutrino transmitters could be used. They already have neutrino detectors but just need a way to modulate the signal reliably (pulsing a fusion+ power module maybe?).
You could put Quantum Entanglement in ultratech - though that might violate Travs no FtL comms rule (depending on how/if it works).
(Pure speculation and handwaving) Zero point energy comms - by adding or removing energy at a point in space you shift the vacuum energy up and down from the zero point . This ripples outwards and can be detected as a change in the vacuum energy of space/time. (this would use vast amounts of power though - generating negative energy is energy expensive)
If by not broadcasting you mean not multidirectional (and so dificult to intercept/jamm by enemy), any beam communication will foot the bill (laser, maser, meson, etc...). Of those, only meson is really ultra-tech as you describe it, as laser is already used, and I think maser too (not sure about that).
Maser, not yet that I've seen, but narrow beam directional microwave radio is in use. (Maser implies coherent beam.) Radio-frequency coherent beams are theoretically doable.
Enoki
SOC-14 1K
I suppose you could have an autonomous message carrier too. Something like a high tech carrier pigeon that could be quite small in a low gravity or vacuum setting that simply "flies" to the receiver and delivers the message.
It could have a self destruct built in if it is unable to complete the trip.
It could have a self destruct built in if it is unable to complete the trip.
In the game? Lasers, masers, mesons come to mind.
You might also manage some trick with gravitics. You could use your ship's power plant as a very slow and very crude telegraph, run the power up and down to make dots and dashes.
You might also manage some trick with gravitics. You could use your ship's power plant as a very slow and very crude telegraph, run the power up and down to make dots and dashes.
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
This is another area where Traveller has failed to explore the applications and implications of its own technologly.
If you can switch on and switch off a signal source that you can detect you have the ability to transfer information - morse code or binary/digital take your pick
You have artificial gravity and gravity detectors so a gravitic communication device could be built.
Similarly for nuclear dampers, if you can modify decay rates of nuclear material at a distance then information can be encoded.
The magical neutrino sensor could also be able to be re-tasked for simple communication, all you need it a neutrino source that you can turn on and off and you have a digital signalling device.
Now many of these methods are going to be pretty basic at TL of introduction, but as TLs rises the amount of info you can carry on your signal becomes greater.
If you can switch on and switch off a signal source that you can detect you have the ability to transfer information - morse code or binary/digital take your pick
You have artificial gravity and gravity detectors so a gravitic communication device could be built.
Similarly for nuclear dampers, if you can modify decay rates of nuclear material at a distance then information can be encoded.
The magical neutrino sensor could also be able to be re-tasked for simple communication, all you need it a neutrino source that you can turn on and off and you have a digital signalling device.
Now many of these methods are going to be pretty basic at TL of introduction, but as TLs rises the amount of info you can carry on your signal becomes greater.
The lower-range of "ultratech" lasers (pre-X-Ray) are described in canon elsewhere as tunable Free Electron Lasers (at least as weapons). For a non-weaponized version, you ought to be able to make a tunable coherent-beam (i.e. "Laser") communicator version for any EM-Wavelength from long-wave radio up thru UV.
Every mass is a source of gravity, and the combination of gravitics technology and densitometers ought to make gravity-wave communication systems fairly simple.
And just as an interesting aside, we have already accomplished neutrino communication several years ago (TL-8) in the laboratory. (Now admittedly, the transmitter and receiver were both High Energy Physics research facilities several thousand miles away from each other, so it is hardly a portable system at today's TL).
Every mass is a source of gravity, and the combination of gravitics technology and densitometers ought to make gravity-wave communication systems fairly simple.
And just as an interesting aside, we have already accomplished neutrino communication several years ago (TL-8) in the laboratory. (Now admittedly, the transmitter and receiver were both High Energy Physics research facilities several thousand miles away from each other, so it is hardly a portable system at today's TL).
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Supplement 4: Central Supply Catalogue , p.172-179 is the section on electronic communication and sensor equipment, but I do not see anything revolutionary there except the descriptions for Laser Transceivers. No mention of MesonComms that I noticed. They do have computer software options and add-ons for all of the equipment though.
MikeinBallard
SOC-9
I've wondered if the power that a black globe absorbs can be measured, and how precisely. My thought experiment went something like this: the Zho's intercept a single, highly sensor-equipped missle. It shows up like a sore thumb pinging and photographing everything. It even seems to be firing a modulated maser beam back along it's path to... nothing. The Imperial Voroshilev hanging back 5 km turns off it's black globe generator, where it's been measuring the maser modulation to build up a picture of the outside universe...
