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Get rid of the distinction between direct and relay antennas. Have only 1 type of antenna and if you want to make a relay then you need to have at least 2 antennas (1 receiving and 1 sending). Also remove the possibility to combine antennas (add more antenna types or gain property / antenna power slider).

We've had a few scenes with bases and space stations but none of them appear to have any impressive comms components. If we're going interplanetary then we should need some pretty large communication infrastructure, we could definitely use some Arecibo-sized comm dishes

Hey guys, I've been looking around, but can't seem to find anything like this. I love playing with extreme realism, and one thing that is very important in real life is spacecraft attitude for communications. I would like to either find a mod (or if need be, develope one) that requires orienting non-omni antennas toward either the DSN or a relay. I want to require GEO satellites to point their dishes down toward the planet (using PersistentRotation makes this possible). Ideally, if comms are not oriented correctly, the spacecraft would act as if their was a loss of line-of-sight, and have all the limitations that implies. Is there such a mod? I am not an expert modder, but I have done a lot of amateur .cfg editing and tweaking, and I have a rudimentary knowledge of C#, etc. Would this be a difficult mod to create?

This tutorial, Setting Up A Commnet System, suggests placing 6 satellites into a 4Gm Kerbolar orbit, 12 into 25Gm and, optionally, 24 into a 50Gm orbit. To do this in a finite amount of time requires launching them all individually at specific time intervals. I've calculated the following: To launch 6 Comm Sats to a 4Gm orbit, launch each with 13.48 day separation. To launch 12 Comm Sats to a 25Gm orbit, launch each with a 59.30 day separation. To launch 24 Comm Sats to a 50Gm orbit (optional), launch each with a 20.69 day separation. The 3 formulae used in this computation are: v = sqrt(G * M / R) p = 2 * PI * R / v / (6 * 3600) dt = 1 / (N * (1 / p1 - 1 / p2)) where: v is orbital speed G is grav:6.67408e-11 M is mass of Kerbol: 1.7565459E28 R is orbital altitude p is orbital period (days) PI is pi dt is launch separation (days) N is number of satellites to occupy an orbital altitude p1 is orbital period of Kerbin (days) p2 is orbital period of the target orbit (days) Note: dt for inner orbits will be negative which merely indicates the satellites will arrive in counter-revolutionary order 1/p is angular speed expressed as radians/day and subtracting the speed of the target frame of reference from the launch frame of reference is the insight that makes this achieve a full orbit with even spacing (your mileage may vary depending on how timely your launches are) I plan once arriving at apoapsis to not worry too much about the orbital parameters or spacing but to have the exact same orbital period for all sats in the orbit. This will keep them locked in their relative positions over a very long duration. If you're more picky about getting exact spacing, this tutorial, https://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Tutorial:Ideal_Orbits_for_Communication_Satellites, particularly the treatment of the Law of Cosines, is quite fascinating. It's most relevant to low altitude orbits, e.g. spacing N space stations around a body. [All of the above may have been covered elsewhere but I haven't seen it/didn't find it and I've just had to create all this from scratch; so I hope it's useful to someone else. Please let me know if you find any errors, as I have not executed this yet.]

I've been trying to bring a polar surveying satellite and a scanning rover to Duna in one payload. It's all good until I decouple my satellite with 2 Communotron 88-88 and the rover with a HG-5, a Communotron 16, and a Communotron 16-S suddenly goes "limited probe control". Isn't the rover supposed to have relay connections to my satellite? Or am I still supposed to have direct Kerbal link? Here are pictures of the satellite ,rover and the final stage: Album EDIT: Thanks for reminding me that there's a difference in antennas....

I'm seeing the Woomerang Launch Site even tho "Allow other Launchsites" is off. Also getting a comm net signal from there even tho "Enable Extra Groundstations" is off. I might try removing my mods and see if it's still happens. Don't have anything that touches comms tho I think. Just wondering if anyone else noticed it. A quick google search turned up nothing. Career game, KSP version 1.1.4.2 with Making History dlc

So, I haven't been very active in KSP since last year, and only dabbed a little bit once the comms were introduced. Well, just yesterday, I attempted a Duna mission with a probe only in career. I had a pretty big commsat setup in the Kebrin system. And yet while I still had some control on the approach of Duna (even during the Aerobraking phase) I had completely lost comms with my probe after I left Duna's atmosphere. Let me begin by saying that since this last time I restarted career mode, this was the first probe ever in the Dunian system. I tried to wait for one more aerobrake after I lost control and I still didn't get my comms back online and I had totally lost the probe. Gosh, it felt like a scary mars mission blowing millions of USD for nothing. Anyway, what is the best approach of an unmanned mission to a new world for the first time? Is there anyway to maintain that control without a commsat setup already in place? It's very different trying this with the comm networks now, and exploration seems even harder now. Not that I mind the challenge, but I have a laythe probe already on the way even before my Duna mission and I am afraid I will not be prepared for it by the time it reaches the Joolian system. How do I prepare unmanned missions with the commnet, and what steps should I take before sending a probe to unexplored worlds so that I do not lose it like I did with my Duna mission? **EDIT** Yes, I have upgraded my tracking station to the max. It is fully upgraded.

Did a few searches, couldn't find anything on the subject, so here goes,... We all know its possible using the stock game to align parts to the sun, due to solar panels; but does anyone know if it would be possible to align a newly created, pivot-mounted satellite dish to Kerbin, using only ingame stock mechanics/modules? So that when the part loaded, instead of facing the sun like a solar panel, it turned to face the direction of Kerbin.

Hi I've transferred a save through several versions and now onto 1.2 pre release.. However as it is set to normal difficulty the whole comms network setup thingy isn't enabled in anyway, is there a way i can edit my save so that I have: 1:no other groundstation except ksc. 2:no control over probes out of range. And any other general comms challenges cos my space program is quite well developed and ready for a 1.2 modfest, but if I can't do this I'll probably start again cos the comms thing is the biggest 1.2 feature for me by far. Thanks in advance, fly like a lunatic - land safe ;-)

In the Editor, I notice a "Blink Lights" button on the Communotron DTS-M1. When I click it, nothing happens. I know the Editor plays animations at high speed, so figure perhaps I missed it. Can anyone confirm whether and under what conditions the blink lights animation ever plays for this part in KSP 1.1.3? Thanks! ps. The button comes from the second ModuleAnimateGeneric (the pulseEmitMediumDishAntenna one) in Squad/Parts/Utility/commsAntennaDTS-M1/commsAntennaDTS-M1.cfg, and possibly has to do with mediumDishAntenna_Emit.dds in the same directory?

In one of Scott Manley's videos, I saw him launch a comms statellite and target Mission Control from its antenna. How do I do that? I installed Remotetech because I thought it may be part of that, but when I right-clicked on the antennae there was no otpion to do that. Furthermore, what tips do you have for setting up a communication satellite constelllation, What mods should I use? What the heck does the button with the antenna and the waves coming out of it do/mean?