How to relay?

[bertibott]

Hi,

first I should mention that I am running a rather heavily modded install. Still my problem is with mechanics from the stock game.

I am using the Galileo plent system. I sent a probe to the second moon (Ceti). This probe has some siency stuff on it and is also supposed to function as a relay. For this purpose it is fitted with an HG-5 High Gain antenna (this is the only "real" antenna on it). This probe is orbiting in a circular, polar orbit at abit 200km (it was supposed to go to a higher orbit but ran out of fuel).

So now I launch a second probe. A lander this time. This one has a Communotron 16 on it. Unfortunatly I forgot to activate the antenna after my transfer burn (at the time the built in antenna in the probecore was enough). So after a while I lose the connection... but I think to myself not all is lost... I still have the probecore antenna and the relay... that shoudl fix things for me... right?

But when the lander gets closer to the relay it does not establish a connection.

So in short... a probecore antenna does not connect with the relay... How do I have to design a relay so that it will actually do its job? Do the probecore antennas not work with relays? Does a relay have to have multiple antennas?

[Benjamin Kerman]

First, check to make sure that the communitron 16 is extended. Even in the probe core can extend antennas, even when not connected to the DSN. Next, make sure that the HG-5 antenna is extended on the relay antenna. You might need a stronger relay antenna, or more relay antennas between the two craft. The HG-5 antenna is really crappy, so make sure that the HG-5 antenna can actually connect to the Kerbin equivalent. 

[Snark]

There are various things that could go wrong, but I would guess that the most likely one is that your probe core simply wasn't within range of your relay.

1 hour ago, bertibott said:

But when the lander gets closer to the relay it does not establish a connection.

How close?

HG-5's power is 5000 km.  Probe's power (with the built-in antenna in the probe core) is 5 km.  Do the math, and the connection range between the two is 158 km.  That's pretty tight.  Did your probe pass within 158 km of the relay?

1 hour ago, bertibott said:

Does a relay have to have multiple antennas?

No, just a single antenna will do the trick.

Depending on the antenna, combining multiple antennas may boost the range somewhat, but not a lot (if you need more range, it's far more effective to move to a more powerful antenna type than to try to combine lots of little ones.)