CommNet Signal Strength Calculator & Antenna Selector

[Poodmund]

KSP CommNet Signal Strength Calculator & Antenna Selector

 

Stock + OPM System:  Link 

(When you open the links above, please save a copy to your own Google Account to be able to edit for yourself)

This document allows you to view the antennas utilized by CommNet to aid you in the preparation for missions to specific bodies or to determine signal strengths between vessels before launch.

 

 

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Antenna Selector Sheet

The 'Antenna Selector' sheet allows you to pick enter a specified range between vessels and enter which antennas you require to give you a signal strength that is suitable for the application. You can also get a visualization of the signal strength between all major celestial bodies with the currently entered antenna setup.

There is also a separate sheet for use with Near Future: Exploration's reflector mechanic.

 

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Antennas Sheet

The 'Antennas' sheet allows you to view all the antennas listed by the creator/mod pack grouping and all their individual statistics. Here you can enable/disable the antennas from the mods you are using.

 

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Systems Stats Sheet

The 'System Stats' sheet lists details about all the available bodies to chose from if you wish to make your own calculations or assumptions.

 

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Form Submission

I have included a link on the 'Antennas' sheet to a Google Form where you can submit details of antennas you wish for me to include on the spreadsheet. The submissions should auto-fill into the 'Form Submissions' sheet for later review. Useful for mod authors to submit their own CommNet module stats for their antenna parts.

 

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Please let me know what you think, any mistakes I have made, any ways I can improve this etc. etc. 

Hopefully you find this useful for your own games.

 

KSP CommNet Antenna Selector - Stock + OPM System: Link

 

P.S. This document was built off of my original KSP RemoteTech Antenna Selector document, if you are interested in RemoteTech, please visit the forum post for this calculator: Link

 

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For great visualizations of the antenna ranges at the various DSN levels, also be sure to check out @Kergarin & @wile1411's illustrations that can be found here. They are super useful.  

 

Edited December 30, 2021 by Poodmund

[ToukieToucan]

Looks good, very useful! 

[Poodmund]

Just a PSA: The Signal Strength calculation has been updated to accurately reflect the in-game Signal Strength.

[Poodmund]

Update: Implemented Range Modifier and DSN Modifier difficulty settings to allow you to input the values on your difficulty sliders to give you the information for you custom difficulty games.

I am pretty sure I've implemented this correctly, if you find any inconsistencies, please let me know.

[derekmw]

How do you find the combinability exponent for antennas?

[Poodmund]

All the combinability exponents are listedin the 'Antennas' sheet for your perusal. However, off the top of my head, I can tell you that they all have a value of 0,75 except for the Communotron 16 which has a value of 1 and the 16S which has a value of 0. Also nothing combines with the DSN obviously. 

[SleweD]

Hello, I don't want to sign into Google docs for a personal copy of this but I noticed your current public link has far too many users at the same time. I made a terrible port to Excel using vlookup:

http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=18766548889788460884

 

On a separate note, I don't understand what the combinability exponent is actually doing, is it to stop you spamming relay antennae on a craft and getting infinite Commnet range?

[Poodmund]

Haha, there usually aren't that many people using it at once. 

The combinability exponent is listed against combinable antennas so that those with a value < 1 have a diminish-able return when adding multiple antennas on the same craft. You effectively can get 'infinite' range on your connection if you just keep adding antenna but you are more limited to vessel size and part count at that point.

For reference, if you have a DSN Lvl 3 and a craft at Eeloo at its furthest point away with 20 of the most powerful antennas, you get about 80% odd signal strength.

[Poodmund]

Update: The average combinability exponent value used for a vessel is now weighted to provide more accurate results.

After some encouragement from @Plusck I have incorporated the proportionality of the power to combinability exponent value when calculating the average value for the vessel. This now should mean you get more accurate results when using multiple antenna on a craft that have different combinability exponent values.

This is calculated in the following way:

Sum((Antenna 'n' Power * Antenna 'n' Exponent):(Antenna 'n+1' Power * Antenna 'n+1' Exponent)) / Sum(Antenna 'n' Power):(Antenna 'n+1' Power)

i.e. A vessel with a Comm 88-88 (100e9 @ 0.75) and also a Comm 16 (500e3 @ 1.00) would have the following:

((100e9 * 0.75) + (500e3 * 1.00)) / (100e9 + 500e3) = 0.75000125 ... being the Weighted Average Combinability Exponent for the Vessel.

Basically what I am doing is weighting the Combinability Exponent value used for any antenna proportionally against its total power level when working out the Combined Combinability Exponent for the vessel.

[Mokmo]

I'm surprised no mod antennas are in there, took the time to send in the DMagic Signal intelligence antennas

[Waz]

On 10/22/2016 at 1:10 PM, Mokmo said:

I'm surprised no mod antennas are in there, took the time to send in the DMagic Signal intelligence antennas

Unfortunately, it's a direct antenna, not a relay. Probably a bug.

[Mokmo]

1 hour ago, Waz said:

Unfortunately, it's a direct antenna, not a relay. Probably a bug.

I did put it in the form, but yeah considering the tech level it should be a relay...

EDIT: The RA-100 and 88-88 antennas are pretty much the same, except the former is the relay antenna and both are 1/10 the power of the Over Signal intel antenna

 

Edited October 24, 2016 by Mokmo

[Poodmund]

I did look into the parts in D-Magic (whoah they are huge!) but the configs for them say that the parts are Tech Level = Unresearchable...?

Are they only meant for Sandbox and not Career or are they just in a test state right now?

[Waz]

11 hours ago, Poodmund said:

I did look into the parts in D-Magic (whoah they are huge!) but the configs for them say that the parts are Tech Level = Unresearchable...?

Are they only meant for Sandbox and not Career or are they just in a test state right now?

The inline version of the SIGINT is "Unresearchable" (no idea why), but the .End one isn't.

Edited October 25, 2016 by Waz

[Poodmund]

I was notified that the Spreadsheet was not functioning properly and looking into it discovered that unfortunately some of the cell formulas had been slightly borked, probably due to some copy/pasting or something by an end user, that unfortunately is unavoidable some times.

PLEASE, let me know if you spot the document not functioning properly and I will jump in and fix it.

On another note, I am still trying to think of ways to be able to let the user toggle Mod antennas for selection in the drop down lists whilst toggling from a list of mods they have installed. I'll have to give it more thought.

EDIT: @Mokmo and @Waz, I have been tinkering with the sheet to try and integrate toggle mod packs to show up in the Selector page. Take a look at this dev Sheet: (removed)

If you look at the 'Antennas' sheet, you can see a couple of mod Antennas, of which you can toggle the mod on or off, making them selectable or not in the 'Antenna Selector' sheet. What do you think?

Edited November 8, 2016 by Poodmund

[Poodmund]

Update: Right, I have implemented 'Mod' support. You can toggle the listed mod antennas On/Off on the 'Antennas' sheet and they should dynamically appear/disappear from selection in the drop-down lists in the 'Antenna Selector' sheet.

The new mod toggles can be found here:

Please let me know how you find it.

P.S. Pinging @Waz and @Mokmo  

[Waz]

4 hours ago, Poodmund said:

Update: Right, I have implemented 'Mod' support. You can toggle the listed mod antennas On/Off on the 'Antennas' sheet and they should dynamically appear/disappear from selection in the drop-down lists in the 'Antenna Selector' sheet.

....

Please let me know how you find it.

P.S. Pinging @Waz and @Mokmo  

Works great! Now we just need morer biggerer antennas :-)

[Errol]

Does anyone know where to find the Lat and Long of the DSN stations?

[Mokmo]

Oh hi, didn't check my forum notifications in a while (school etc) 
The spreadsheet seems to work right 
I'm going to add the JX2Antenna mod through your form, it's a gorgeous antenna with a 1T range, mostly for use with planet packs.
 

 

[Poodmund]

20 hours ago, Mokmo said:

Oh hi, didn't check my forum notifications in a while (school etc) 
The spreadsheet seems to work right 
I'm going to add the JX2Antenna mod through your form, it's a gorgeous antenna with a 1T range, mostly for use with planet packs.

Thank you for the heads up. I think I've fixed all the erroneous formulas... I am not sure how they get changed as I've locked the cells but somehow it may be to do with users copy and pasting parts. I have no idea.

Anyway, thank you for the submission. I will get around to adding it at some point.  

[RadialThrone1]

Made a few additions to the calculator, like "Antenna range needed to reach minimum distance"

Feel free to copy them into the real one if you want.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1g8PxDTod5hxr17C6B5eQ0zAtvaHms7sC_nJkL00W1Wg/edit?usp=sharing

[Wowy]

So i'am new to this game... and well... I don't know how to use your calculator  What is Deep space network? how do I now will it work? i'am so confused...

[EstebanLB]

On 5/1/2017 at 6:04 PM, Wowy said:

So i'am new to this game... and well... I don't know how to use your calculator  What is Deep space network? how do I now will it work? i'am so confused...

The DSN is the base at the KSC, the final destination of the comm link. It is upgradeable to three levels

[symbolic]

The spreadsheet seem to be broken again.

[mudkest]

great tool, but I think Jeb messed around in it, cells A7, F8, F9, G8 and G9 seem to be messed up.