Search the Community

Well, there seems to be a lot of dev info on Discord that did not make it onto the forums. Not that I've been asking about CommNet for months without getting any answers. Such is life for second hand forum citizens.. you're either on Discord all day or you don't get to talk to the devs. I can only thank providence that Dakota is still engaging with us here. Nertea, Destroyer of Fun — Yesterday at 2:17 AM i hear there are some questions about commnet and im here to answer them if they're here Spork Witch — Yesterday at 2:18 AM yeah! I was asking about whether occlusion and vehicle links were implemented at this time. I was told occlusion / LoS is not, but that if there's a commsat in range, you'll bounce off that back to kerbin. Further, is there a distinction between transmit-only and relays? I notice we have all the old commsats, wasn't sure if they ALL function as relays now, or if there's still the same split of RA=relay, others are Tx only. Nertea, Destroyer of Fun — Yesterday at 2:23 AM Generally All antennas are relays by default, they can bounce signal back (we didn't like this distinction) Line of sight is not a thing, there is only distance as a concern Connectivity between vessels is a simple matter of ensuring that they both have antennas that have ranges that qre equal or greater to the distance between them. So if 2 satellites are 100 km apart, they both most have antennas of rating 100 km or higher to connect Nertea, Destroyer of Fun — Yesterday at 2:26 AM Commnet and occlusion was extremely forgiving by default settings in KSP1 and we didnt feel there was a significant difference between soft occlusion and no occlusion for EA launch. Lots of the depth people would want requires a set of supporting visual and planning tools that are a fair bit of work to design and build Nertea, Destroyer of Fun — Yesterday at 2:32 AM I think there's a thing I wrote in a devblog of everyone playing KSP with different goals in mind - everyone has a thing they prefer, whether it is building vessels, making comm networks, etc. We can always take player feedback into account in driving plans and make changes at that point. Nertea, Destroyer of Fun — Yesterday at 2:33 AM dev hat off, I hate commnet and always turned it off in KSP1 Nertea, Destroyer of Fun — Yesterday at 2:34 AM I mean that goes back to need - a question we always need to answer is that, given all the ways people play the game, should you 'need' to do any particular thing? That could significantly impact what someone else wants to do. It's a fine line Spork Witch — Yesterday at 2:37 AM which is why it was always a toggle, but KSP is also about education. Learning about line of sight communications, and the need to set up satellites in particular orbits is a REAL WORLD learning thing, and also an orbital mechanics one, a core focus of KSP. The easiest way to properly position satellites is to launch them all at once, using resonant orbits. Without this constraint, from occlusion, you remove the one thing in the game that would actually direct someone to learn about these things. Nertea, Destroyer of Fun — Yesterday at 2:39 AM Yep, understood Nertea, Destroyer of Fun — Yesterday at 2:35 AM I think I could say with some confidence that increasing commnet complexity has to come with more viz and planning tools Nate Simpson — Yesterday at 2:39 AM A lot of us like all the detailed line of sight/relay features in Commnet and it's definitely a thing we want to revisit, but as always we're having to balance multiple priorities. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ That being said, here are all the current antennas in the game, for comparison purposes:

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).

Current Release (GitHub) This mod adds long-range antennas using stock assets to facilitate communications networks for planet packs larger than the stock solar system. This allows the player to extend, rather than replace, the stock antenna progression, making long-range relays possible without trivializing inner-system communications. The RA-500 weighs 1.3 tons and has range rating of 500 Gm. It has a 1.25m bottom node and fits in a 5m fairing (i.e. it's a 2x rescaled RA-15.) The RA-2500 weighs 2.6 tons and has a range rating of 2.5 Tm. It has a 2.5m bottom node and fits in a 7.5m fairing (i.e. it's a 2x rescaled RA-100.) The RA-12500 weighs 5.2 tons and has a range rating of 12.5 Tm. It has a 2.5m bottom node and fits in a 10m fairing (i.e. its a 4x rescaled RA-15.) As an incidental benefit, these antennas offer progressively better transmission performance than the stock relay antennas, particularly in terms of ElectricCharge consumed per Mit transmitted. The enormous size of these antennas demands an unconventional approach to deployment. Possibilities include: Off-world manufacturing via mods such as Extraplanetary Launchpads, OSE Workshop, or Ground Construction. Oversized launch vehicles such as AB Launchers (5m), DIRECT (5m & 7.5m), or SpaceY Lifters/SpaceY Expanded (5m, 7.5m, & 10m). To facilitate the simultaneous launch of multiple satellites, this mod adds stock fairings (including interstage trusses) resized to 5m, 7.5m, and 10m diameters. In case none of the above appeal to you, compact deployable versions of all three antennas are provided (via rescaling of the Communotron 88-88 to 0.625m, 0.9375m, and 1.25m.) As the new antennas are substantially more powerful than the stock Deep Space Network, three additional levels of the Tracking Station are provided via the Custom Barn Kit (not included.) These allow the player to choose between launching local relays or simply boosting the DSN. Level 4 of the Tracking Station costs 2,111,000 Funds and boosts the DSN's range rating to 1.25 Tm. Level 5 of the Tracking Station costs 7,916,000 Funds and boosts the DSN's range rating to 6.25 Tm. Level 6 of the Tracking Station costs 29,685,000 Funds and boosts the DSN's range rating to 31.25 Tm. This presents alternatives at several performance points to the excellent JX2 Large Deployable Antenna. These parts are generally cheaper and less massive than the JX2 for their range with the trade-off of being much bulkier and far less visually distinctive. As a bonus, I've included a half-scale version of the RA-2 antenna that has the stats of the HG-5. This alternate handle-free form factor for the HG-5 fits better on compact probe assemblies as small as 0.3125m. Also included for launching miniature relays is a 0.625m fairing; I recommend RLA Stockalike for 0.625m launch vehicles. Installation and Requirements To install, copy the files to your GameData folder. This mod requires ModuleManager (not included.) Custom Barn Kit is required for the extended tracking station progression, but otherwise optional. License CC BY-NC-SA

Antenna-Helper Ever wonder what all the antennas you put on your craft, because they look so cool, actually do ? How far can you go with them ? How many science you'll be able to send back when you get there ? It's easy ! Just multiply the power of your strongest antenna with the result of the division of the sum of all your antenna's power by the power of the strongest antenna raised by their average weighted combinability exponent. This will give you the antenna power of your spacecraft, now calculate the root square of this number multiplied by the DSN power, it will give you your maximum range. So simple. OR You could use Antenna Helper to do all that, and more, for you. Ok, but what does it do ? It will show you the antenna capability of your active vessel in flight, in the editor and of all vessels in the tracking station. In flight ? Click the Antenna Helper icon on the toolbar : And you should see something close to that : The top line, in bold, show the signal strength of the whole CommNet path between your vessel and the DSN. Each button beneath it is a link in this path. Clicking on the Potential Relays button will expand the window to show all the in-flight relays : You can click on every link to display some info about both vessel (or DSN) and about the link it-self : Now take a look at : The Map-View A big circle has appeared ! Centered on the vessel or DSN your directly connected to (the first link of the main window), it helps visualize the range and signal decay of your active connection. While your ship is in the green circle its signal strength will be clamped between 100 and 75%, in the yellow circle between 75 and 50%, in the orange circle between 50 and 25%, in the red circle between 25 and 0%. And if you're outside the red circle you don't have any connection. With this new window (show it-self only in the map-view) : You can choose between different sources to show your potential range and signal strength : You mentioned the editor ? Yep. That's nice to see "on live" where you can go with your space probe but it's even better to know before launch how far you can travel. In the VAB (or SPH) click the Antenna Helper icon on the app launcher : It brings this window : Lots of info here, let's go through them from top to bottom : Selected type : which antennas are taking into account to compute the vessel antenna power. Direct (by default) will use all antennas, Relay will use only the antenna with relay capability. Current target : the range of your ship's antenna is determined by the antenna power of its target, which can be the DSN or a relay. By default the selected target is the DSN. You can change the target by clicking on Pick A Target. (more about it below) Status : a quick explanation about which antenna on your craft will actually be used in flight. Power : the antenna power of your vessel. Max Range : the maximum distance between your vessel and the target after which you'll lose the connection. Depend on the power of your vessel and the power of the target. Max Distance At 100% : the distance between your vessel and the target after which your signal strength will start to decay. Color bar : it works with the Max Distance At 100% and the Max Range distance. The number aligned with the black bars separating the colors indicate the distance at which the signal decay. Example from the pic above : between 2 050 205 945m and 51 662 800 363m, your signal strength will vary from 100% to 75%. So the target is important ? Of course, one antenna on its own don't do anything. It must be connected to another antenna, can't compute maximum range or signal strength with only one antenna. Two type of target : the DSN (Deep Space Network) : it's the (very) big antenna on Kerbin. It has three levels with different power, you upgrade from one to another by upgrading the Tracking Station. relay(s) : those are vessels you build yourself, two condition need to be meet : having at least one antenna with relay capability and setting the vessel type to "Relay". You can simulate all those connection directly from the editor : Click the Pick A Target button : From here you can select a different DSN level, your current level is in bold and is selected by default. For simulating against in-flight relay hit the In-Flight Ships button : In this window you should see one button per flying vessel with its name and its antenna relay power, important distinction, when your connection is going through a relay only the relay antenna of this relay will be used. Sound obvious but... So if your building a relay make sure your selected type, in the main window, is set to RELAY. Speaking of building relays, you may want to simulate the antenna range of a relay before you launch it. To do so you need to add your ship/relay to the Antenna Helper Editor Ship List. Just open your vessel in the editor and click on Add Ship to the Target List in the main window. After which you can click on Editor Ships in the Pick A Target window : It works the same way as the in-flight relay list, the number between parenthesis is still the antenna relay power. But what all those numbers really mean ? They are, mostly, just distance. At a solar system scale. So big distance, like space-travel distance (we're playing a space program game, are we not ?). Anyway, to help figuring out what does numbers represent you'll find this window, by clicking on Signal Strength / Distance in the main window : In it you'll see what signal strength to expect for a distance equal to the minimum and maximum distance between the home body (Kerbin), its moon(s) and all the others planet on the solar system. Keep in mind that those distance are approximate, specially for celestial body with an highly inclined orbit. You can check the distance used by hovering your mouse on the celestial body name. In the same window you can check the signal strength to expect at any given distance, write it in the input box at the bottom of the window and click the Math ! button. Still don't get a clear representation of what those space-travel distance mean ? Save your ship in the Antenna Helper Editor Ship List, click the Add Ship to the Target List button in the main window. Quit the editor and open up the Tracking Station. Tracking Station ? Yummy ! Yes it's good. Fire Antenna Helper : From there if you select a vessel in the Tracking Station list you'll see its range circles just like in flight. You can check the range for the active connection, the DSN connection and for all relay in flight by selecting it in the GUI. To check the range of a vessel saved in the Editor click the Editor Ship List button. Now you can see the range and the signal strength of your future vessel for the different connection type. The number between parenthesis is the total antenna power of your vessel, as opposed to the Ship List in the Editor that show the relay power. Sounds awesome but I don't want/need X feature ? In the Advanced Settings menu you'll find a tab for Antenna Helper. Here you can disable the mod per scene, choose to use Blizzy/LinuxGuruGamer toolbar instead of stock, and, set the refreshing speed for the flight UI, in case it slow your game. About the mod DOWNLOADS for KSP 1.4.3 : Get it with CKAN, thanks to @linuxgurugamer SpaceDock GitHub DEPENDENCY : Toolbar Controller Previous KSP version : Last release for KSP 1.5.1 Last release for KSP 1.4.3 Last release for KSP 1.4.2 Last release for KSP 1.4.0 Last release for KSP 1.3.1 It is localized in Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Russian, Spanish, German and French. It should be compatible with every mods, except RemoteTech and Kerbalism. If you find any bugs please report it, either on GitHub or on this thread. Know issues and maybe future plans Dev thread (closed), for posterity Sources are on GitHub License is MIT Credits The idea for an in-game calculator is from this thread by @Tyko. Thanks to @Poodmund for his google doc's calculator, and for the help he provide to this mod, and to the KSP wiki; Thanks to @Skalou for his help with the math Thanks to @wile1411 for his bugs reports and suggestions. Thanks to @Wyzard for his several bug fixes Thanks to the translators : Japanese version : @EBOSHI, @COLOT and @anarog_1 Simplified Chinese : @CN_Warren Spanish : @fitiales Russian : @AlexALX German : @woeller Antenna Helper icon/logo made by myself with assets from FlatIcon by Freepik.

CLOSED See release thread : Hi Kerbonauts around the world Ever wonder what all the antennas you put on your craft, because they look so cool, actually do ? How far can you go with them ? How many science you'll be able to send back when you get there ? It's easy ! Just multiply the power of your strongest antenna with the result of the division of the sum of all your antenna's power by the power of the strongest antenna raised by their average weighted combinability exponent. This will give you the antenna power of your spacecraft, now calculate the root square of this number multiplied by the DSN power, it will give you your maximum range. So simple. OR You could use Antenna Helper to do all that, and more, for you. Looking for translators : If you like to help translate Antenna Helper please send me a message, either here or on GitHub. Translation remaining : English : Done Japanese : Done. Thanks to @EBOSHI, @COLOT and @anarog_1 Simplified Chinese : @CN_Warren Russian : @AlexALX Spanish : Done. Thanks to @fitiales German* : ... Italian* : ... French* : @Li0n Brazilian Portuguese* : ... *those language should be added to KSP 1.4. Ok, but what does it do ? It will show you the antenna capability of your active vessel in flight, in the editor and of all vessels in the tracking station. In flight ? Only in the Map View (for now). Click the Antenna Helper icon on the app launcher : And you should see something close to that : Those color circles represent the maximum range between your vessel and its relay/DSN, it also indicate how much signal strength you get. While your ship is in the green circle its signal strength will be clamped between 100 and 75%, in the yellow circle between 75 and 50%, in the orange circle between 50 and 25%, in the red circle between 25 and 0%. And if you're outside the red circle you don't have any connection. Apart from the color circles, you'll see a small window next to Antenna Helper icon on the app launcher : The four button will show you your range, and signal strength, from different sources (relay or DSN). ACTIVE (by default) show your range for the active connection, which can be from a relay or DSN. DSN show the maximum range between your vessel and the DSN RELAY show the maximum range between your vessel and all the in-flight relay DSN and RELAY combine the two above, showing you all the possible connection, with their range You mentioned the editor ? Yep. That's nice to see "on live" where you can go with your space probe but it's even better to know before launch how far you can travel. In the VAB (or SPH) click the Antenna Helper icon on the app launcher : It brings this window : Lots of infos here, let's go through them from top to bottom : Selected type : which antennas are taking into account to compute the vessel antenna power. Direct (by default) will use all antennas, Relay will use only the antenna with relay capability. Current target : the range of your ship's antenna is determined by the antenna power of its target, which can be the DSN or a relay. By default the selected target is the DSN. You can change the target by clicking on Pick A Target. (more about it below) Status : a quick explanation about which antenna on your craft will actually be used in flight. Power : the antenna power of your vessel. Max Range : the maximum distance between your vessel and the target after which you'll lose the connection. Depend on the power of your vessel and the power of the target. Max Distance At 100% : the distance between your vessel and the target after which your signal strength will start to decay. Color bar : it works with the Max Distance At 100% and the Max Range distance. The number aligned with the black bars separating the colors indicate the distance at which the signal decay. Example from the pic above : between 2 050 205 945m and 51 662 800 363m, your signal strength will vary from 100% to 75%. So the target is important ? Of course, one antenna on its own don't do anything. It must be connected to another antenna, can't compute maximum range or signal strength with only one antenna. Two type of target : the DSN (Deep Space Network) : it's the (very) big antenna on Kerbin. It has three levels with different power, you upgrade from one to another by upgrading the Tracking Station. relay(s) : those are vessels you build yourself, two condition need to be meet : having at least one antenna with relay capability and setting the vessel type to "Relay". You can simulate all those connection directly from the editor : Click the Pick A Target button : From here you can select a different DSN level, your current level is in bold and is selected by default. For simulating against in-flight relay hit the In-Flight Ships button : In this window you should see one button per flying vessel with its name and its antenna relay power, important distinction, when your connection is going through a relay only the relay antenna of this relay will be used. Sound obvious but... So if your building a relay make sure your selected type, in the main window, is set to RELAY. Speaking of building relays, you may want to simulate the antenna range of a relay before you launch it. To do so you need to add your ship/relay to the Antenna Helper Editor Ship List. Just open your vessel in the editor and click on Add Ship to the Target List in the main window. After which you can click on Editor Ships in the Pick A Target window : It works the same way as the in-flight relay list, the number between parenthesis is still the antenna relay power. But what all those numbers really mean ? They are, mostly, just distance. At a solar system scale. So big distance, like space-travel distance (we're playing a space program game, are we not ?). Anyway, to help figuring out what does numbers represent you'll find this window, by clicking on Signal Strength / Distance in the main window : In it you'll see what signal strength to expect for a distance equal to the minimum and maximum distance between the home body (Kerbin), its moon(s) and all the others planet on the solar system. Keep in mind that those distance are approximate, specially for celestial body with an highly inclined orbit. You can check the distance used by hovering your mouse on the celestial body name. In the same window you can check the signal strength to expect at any given distance, write it in the input box at the bottom of the window and click the Math ! button. Still don't get a clear representation of what those space-travel distance mean ? Save your ship in the Antenna Helper Editor Ship List, click the Add Ship to the Target List button in the main window. Quit the editor and open up the Tracking Station. Tracking Station ? Yummy ! Yes it's good. Fire Antenna Helper : From there if you select a vessel in the Tracking Station list you'll see its range circles just like in flight. You can check the range for the active connection, the DSN connection and for all relay in flight by selecting it in the GUI. To check the range of a vessel saved in the Editor click the Editor Ship List button. Now you can see the range and the signal strength of your future vessel for the different connection type. The number between parenthesis is the total antenna power of your vessel, as opposed to the Ship List in the Editor that show the relay power. About the mod This is still a work in progress, you can use it safely, it won't break any thing in your game but the value may be off. If you find a bug or have any suggestion please post it on this thread or create an issue on GitHub. Know issues : the circle of the map view jitter at high time-wrap. Almost fixed. the orientation of the map view circle, relative to the camera, is, most of the time, sub-optimal. Fixed when orbiting the DSN's planet transparency of the circle are not good, specially when they overlap. in-flight, antennas of the active ship are all considered extended. in-flight math are done only once on loading. It need to be re-done when the ship stage, dock, etc... DSN and range modifier may not be correctly set when loading a new game (after an "exit to main menu") range modifier are off when using RSS, see this thread should be fixed by v0.13, waiting confirmation circles in the Tracking Station disappear when zoomed far away Tracking Station window should be clamped to the button. Not sure actually Future plans : showing the range circle in the tracking station. Done + show range circle for ship not already launched. Done Window with NUMBERS in flight. in the editor, a window showing a list of antenna with their characteristics. in the editor, add all the in-flight relay to the list of target. Done in the editor, add relay antennas (part) to the list of target. Done re-work the GUI, possibly with the new GUI system instead of on OnGUI. map view window should be clamped to the toolbar button. Done Have a way to simulate an antenna at an arbitrary location, see this post show the occlusion of signal on the circle, see this post + move the dsn circle to the antenna position, see this post show the possible connection range along the relay orbit, see this post Credits The idea for an in-game calculator is from this thread by @Tyko. Thanks to @Poodmund for his google docs's calculator, and for the help he provide to this mod, and for writing the CommNet section of the KSP wiki. Thanks to @Skalou for his help with the math Antenna Helper icon/logo made by myself with assets from FlatIcon by Freepik. Download Antenna Helper from GitHub. You NEED Toolbar Controller too (v0.1.4.7 or higher) SpaceDock and CKAN will come once it reach a more mature state. Last version for KSP 1.2.2 / 1.3.0 Source are on Github. License is MIT. Please share your thought, suggestion, bug(s) report, 2 (or more) cents, etc... And enjoy building your craft with the exact number of antennas needed

I've been using CommNet for a while, and love it. I have just managed to find myself in a particular situation I want answers to in my science game. In it, I'm still waiting for transfer windows thanks to kerbal alarm clock, so I'm sticking to Kerbin system-based operations. My rather primitive and outdated relay system contains two relay sats, exactly the same including layout, with four of the antennas directly superior to the Communitron 16, except they're pointing opposite directions. This is obviously because they're supposed to be on opposite sides of Kerbin(And yes I do have newer antennas.) Anayway, I did not align the orbits perfectly so they shifted very close to each other, so any vessel can hit up both at once. In Map view, I noticed one of my ships had a very strong(green) connection to probe A but a weak(red) connection to probe B. They have since moved on but I still want to know: Is the weak connection because the antennas were pointing away from the target? Does signal strength relate to the angle of an antenna relative to the connection direction? Thanks in advance. --GKSP

I am still confused about the intended combined antenna capabilities. Do "direct" antennas actually "stack?" What about relay antennas? I am working with a very limited tech and money capability in a career game and it is making a big difference.

So Jool takes a long time and a lot of electricity to scan, amirite? I was wondering about the differences in time and power consumption when survey-scanning different bodies, but all I could find was the general idea that it generates data and has to be transmitted, like science. But how much data? So I scanned every body and did some math and here you go! Replicated here, but this is all hand-entered so don't trust it completely: Power (⚡) Body Kerbol Kerbin Mun Minmus Moho Eve Duna Ike Jool Laythe Vall Bop Tylo Gilly Pol Dres Eeloo Mits – 123 42 15 51 141 66 27 1200 102 63 15 123 3 9 30 45 Communotron 16 – 738 252 90 306 846 396 162 7200 612 378 90 738 18 54 180 270 Communotron 16-S – 738 252 90 306 846 396 162 7200 612 378 90 738 18 54 180 270 Communotron DTS-M1 – 738 252 90 306 846 396 162 7200 612 378 90 738 18 54 180 270 Communotron HG-55 – 820 280 100 340 940 440 180 8004 680 420 100 820 20 60 200 300 Communotron 88-88 – 1230 420 150 510 1410 660 270 12000 1020 630 150 1230 30 90 300 450 HG-5 High Gain Antenna – 1107 378 135 459 1269 594 243 10800 918 567 135 1107 27 81 270 405 RA-2 Relay Antenna – 2952 1008 360 1224 3384 1584 648 28800 2448 1512 360 2952 72 216 720 1080 RA-15 Relay Antenna – 1476 504 1080 612 1692 792 324 14400 1224 756 180 1476 36 108 360 540 RA-100 Relay Antenna – 738 252 90 306 846 396 162 7200 612 378 90 738 18 54 180 270 Time(s) Body Kerbol Kerbin Mun Minmus Moho Eve Duna Ike Jool Laythe Vall Bop Tylo Gilly Pol Dres Eeloo Mits – 123 42 15 51 141 66 27 1200 102 63 15 123 3 9 30 45 Communotron 16 – 37 13 5 15 42 20 8 360 31 19 5 37 1 3 9 14 Communotron 16-S – 37 13 5 15 42 20 8 360 31 19 5 37 1 3 9 14 Communotron DTS-M1 – 22 7 3 9 25 12 5 210 18 11 3 22 1 2 5 8 Communotron HG-55 – 6 2 1 3 7 3 1 60 5 3 1 6 0 0 2 2 Communotron 88-88 – 6 2 1 3 7 3 1 60 5 3 1 6 0 0 2 2 HG-5 High Gain Antenna – 22 7 3 9 25 12 5 210 18 11 3 22 1 2 5 8 RA-2 Relay Antenna – 43 15 5 18 49 23 9 420 36 22 5 43 1 3 10 16 RA-15 Relay Antenna – 22 7 3 9 25 12 5 210 18 11 3 22 1 2 5 8 RA-100 Relay Antenna – 11 4 1 4 12 6 2 105 9 6 1 11 0 1 3 4 The original data and calculations are in this Google Sheet, so check me and correct me!

Internal antennas aren't combinable and can't be used for transmitting science (or relaying signals) - their only purpose is to provide short-range control to unmanned craft. It makes sense that probe cores would include an internal antenna, but why command pods? If you have a command pod with a kerbal inside, then the kerbal provides control and the pod's antenna provides no benefit. If you have a command pod without a kerbal inside, then you're not going to have control even though you have an internal antenna - unless you have a probe core as well, in which case you can just use the probe core's internal antenna. Either way, the pod's antenna still provides no benefit. So why include the antenna module in command pods at all? Is there any circumstance in which it would have any meaningful functionality?

This in-depth post describes an intuitive and easy to use system in which range to target affects communications. This gives a use for the larger antennas as well as giving the player the capability of setting up communications stations without requiring them to do so. First, each antenna is given a range. At any distance up to this range, data will be sent at the maximum speed for that antenna. Outside that range, data transfer speed will be reduced as a factor of the multiple of its distance vs the range. If you are at twice the range of the antenna or dish, it will send data at half the rate while still expending energy at the same rate. The small starter antenna has a range of 10,000km. This means it works well for transferring data across low to medium Kerbin orbit and even works okay out to the Mün, but struggles to send data all the way from Minmus to KSC. Its base rate of transfer is 2 mits and 10 electric charge per cycle, but when transmitting from the Mün to KSC, it will send about 1.67 mits per cycle. From Minmus it will send about 0.43 mits per cycle. The large antenna has a range of 1,000,000km and a base transfer of 3 mits and 30 electric charge per cycle. It can easily reach all the way across the Kerbin system and even to nearby objects, but struggles with interplanetary distances. When transmitting between Eve and Kerbin at closest approach, it will send about 0.79 mits per cycle. When transmitting between Duna and Kerbin at closest approach, it will send about 0.42 mits per cycle. The dish antenna has a range of 50,000,000km and a base transfer of 5 mits and 125 electric charge per cycle. It can reach across small interplanetary distances with no signal loss, and even at the greatest extremities it still gets good reception. If it were transmitting from Jool to Kerbin, at closest approach it would be transmitting nearly full, and at the most distant points it would transmit at about 3.0 mits per cycle. From Jool to Eeloo at most distant points it would transmit about 1.6 mits per cycle. You can increase your transfer rate by putting multiple antennae on your spacecraft. They will all automatically be used by default, or you can turn them off to prevent them from being used. To set up a communications station, you simply right-click one of the antennas on the craft and choose the option to turn the craft into a comm station. Once you do that, all of its antennas which are on will automatically deploy. If you label the craft as a space station, it will automatically become a communications post provided it has any working antennas, but you can disable this by right-clicking the antenna. There is no drawback to having it set up as a comm station except to clutter up your list of comm stations. Next to the transmit science button is a button to transmit to a comm station. Clicking this brings up a window which lists all of your active comm stations with two buttons next to each, one to transmit to that station and hold, and the other to transmit to that station and then immediately from there to KSC. There is also a column listing the distance to the comm station, and they will all be listed in order of distance with the nearest comm stations at the top of the list. Another column lists their status, for example "in orbit around the Mün". At the top of the comm station window is a button to select multiple comm stations. If you click this, it removes the two buttons by each station selection and changes it to a depressed square slot. When you click a station, it puts a "1" in the box next to it. The next station you click, it puts a "2" in the box, and so on. When you hit the transmit button, it will send the data to each station in the order you listed. If you try to send data to and hold it at a station that contains a duplicate of the data, you will have to overwrite the duplicate in order to hold it there, but no conflict will occur as long as the data is being immediately transmitted out again as soon as it arrives. A station does not expend electric charge from receiving data. When data is being transferred from a station that is not rendered and loaded in physics, the craft will have its parts loaded but will not render the meshes nor load physics. The electrical parts will all be activated and its electrical intake, storage, and output will all be managed by the game to determine if the craft is able to send data at the full rate or even at all. This includes reading its position around planets as well as position of parts for occlusion to check the electrical intake of any photovoltaic panels. To prevent excessive memory usage, there will be a limit of 5 transmit waypoints in a single transmission. By right-clicking an antenna or dish, you can scale the transmit rate as you like, to reduce both the transfer rate and the electricity cost per cycle. This is useful to adjust it a bit downward on a craft that can't quite sustain it, or way down if you're using the power-hungry dish on a small probe that doesn't generate nor store very much electricity.