Relay antenna won't use direct ones to transmit back right?

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

So am I understanding this correctly? A relay antenna won't use a direct antenna on the same vessel to send data. In other words, a relay antenna is a one-in-all deal and won't "cooperate" with other antennae on the same ship.

Up until now I just winged it and it worked... no idea why or who, but it worked... doesn't help that SQUAD doesn't include precise and simple instructions... but anyhow, I have this ship on Dres orbit. The idea was to have a rover down there and a relay satellite. The rover has a Com-16 and the satellite has an HG-5 and a 88-88.

My reasoning being that the connection would be Kerbin <> 88-88 on one hand, and HG-5 <> Comm 16 on the other... But apparently not. I'm guessing that the HG-5 want to talk to Kerbin and it can't?

[FancyMouse]

Well, small relay+big direct does not equal a big relay...

[Superfluous J]

2 minutes ago, FancyMouse said:

Well, small relay+big direct does not equal a big relay...

...in the game. In reality 2 dishes and some code (and some hardware to link them together) and yes, it would equal a big relay.

But yeah in the game it won't work. Things relay or are direct. The only time you can have a direct antenna is at the endpoint, never in between.

Sometimes I wish there were no "relay antennas" and instead half of the advanced probe cores were extra massive and had the ability to relay. Plus maybe a part that allowed relaying. Then, you'd need 2 antennas to relay and the ship automatically figured out which to use for sending and receiving based on the situation.