Why is my com-sat network so weak ?

[Mapoko]

Hello. 

After not-so-short break I got back to KSP. 

I am in early stages (Tier 1) and building up my campaign.

Tonight I started my com-sat network with the first 4 Equatorial satellites (I know they are not perfectly aligned. Sorry for the eye sore).

What tricks me is that I am using the best Tier 1 antennas and I get red signal (10%)

The orbit is 1M and orbital period of 2h 0m 0s,  so the absolute maximum between 2 satellites is 2M.

Antenna says 5M ?

My ground facility is level 2.

I would like to solve this before I can send the polar Scanner/relay satellite.

 

SATELLITE 

NETWORK 

ANTENNA

[FancyMouse]

Rating determines what is the maximum distance that two antennae of the same rating can connect (implying the signal strength is at minimum 1%). It's not maximum distance for 100% strength. Red line means they can connect, just with a low signal strength.

[Mapoko]

I see. 
So how can see what distance is for at least 50% strength ?

Also, 10% still gives me control / can do SCANSat scans on the Mun/Minmus before I make network there ?

[DerekL1963]

3 minutes ago, Mapoko said:

Also, 10% still gives me control / can do SCANSat scans on the Mun/Minmus before I make network there ?

Yes.

[bewing]

1.7Mm should give 73% (green) signal strength between two HG5 antennas. So one of your mods is messing up your signal strength, and you need to find out which one.

(unless you've messed with the range modifier in your settings, or you are running at "hard" difficulty level)

Edited January 30, 2017 by bewing

[Mapoko]

I have "Plasma blackout" option ON.

I would like to make it hard/realistic, but not impossible.

Maybe it is it ?

 

I noticed "Range modifier 0.65" as well.

I just did press Hard when I started and added some more difficulties like 120% friction heat, Parts failing due to G-Forces and Pressure, Plasma blackout etc.

 

 

EDIT 2 : Planning to install Outer Planetary Mod (OPM) at some point, so I guess I should be more lenient about range?

Edited January 30, 2017 by Mapoko

[Snark]

21 minutes ago, Mapoko said:

I have "Plasma blackout" option ON.

I would like to make it hard/realistic, but not impossible.

Maybe it is it ?

Plasma blackout isn't relevant here, since all your satellites are orbiting outside the atmosphere.  What the plasma blackout option does is to cut your communications when you're going through the hot part of reentry.

22 minutes ago, Mapoko said:

I noticed "Range modifier 0.65" as well.

^ That's it.  That's your problem right there.  You've reduced your antenna ranges to only 65% of their nominal values.  Therefore, your network is operating at the extreme outer limit of their (reduced) range.  Change that to 1.0 and you'll be good to go.

23 minutes ago, Mapoko said:

EDIT 2 : Planning to install Outer Planetary Mod (OPM) at some point, so I guess I should be more lenient about range?

When you install OPM, it tinkers with the ranges.  It boosts the power of the level-3 tracking station by 8x, and boosts the power of all antennas 4x, so that it's possible to reach the outermost planets.  So that's independent of your choice about antenna ranges.

Personally, I really don't care for that solution.  OPM adds new planets to the outer edges of the solar system, but it leaves the inner system intact.  Therefore, boosting like this will allow talking to Sarnus, Urlum, Neidon, and Plock... but it makes everything way overpowered for the inner solar system, in my opinion.

So, for playing with OPM (or other mods that feature enlarged solar system, such as New Horizons or Galileo's Planet Pack), my preferred solution is to have an upper-tier antenna up at the top of the tech tree that can reach much further than the RA-100, and leave all the other antennas and tracking station power alone.

Fortunately, there's a mod for that, if you're so inclined. 

Does basically what it says, adds a new part which is a 1000G antenna.  One of the things this mod also does is, if it's installed alongside OPM, it undoes the power boost that OPM does by default, so that everything behaves like it does in the stock game.

[bewing]

It's the range modifier that is doing it then. Your antenna's max range is not 5 anymore. It's 5 * .65 = 3.25

To get better range, you need to add more antennas, or be more lenient with that range modifier setting.

Otherwise, you're going to need a pilot on every ship you send anywhere, and you won't be able to transmit science -- because you will always be out of comm range.

 

[Mapoko]

Thank you very much! I am sending a polar com-sat/scanner to the Mun now. Hope I will not lose signal before I catch orbit.

I am OK with losing signal on the dark side (realistic), but hope I will have signal when I have direct visual to Kerbin.

EDIT : With signal modifier 1.00 it seems to work as intended.

 

To mods : Please do not lock the topic yet. If I have more com-sat related questions I will simply use this topic. Thanks

Edited January 30, 2017 by Mapoko

[Snark]

Glad you've got a handle on it! 

5 hours ago, Mapoko said:

To mods : Please do not lock the topic yet.

Just so you know, that's generally not how it works; moderators generally only lock threads when there's a problem (e.g. a flamewar spinning out of control, that sort of thing).  Certainly we don't lock "question" threads just because the question's been answered. 

Actually, the way that an "answered question" is dealt with isn't up to the moderators-- it's up to you, the questioner.

  If you feel that your question has been answered, the best thing to do is to go ahead and mark the question as "answered".  Pick the response that you feel is "the" answer to your question (it could even be one of your own), and click the little gray "check mark" button that appears in the gray bar to the left.

Doing that will accomplish several things.  First, it shows up as "answered" in the forum topics list, so that helpful folks who are browsing around looking for people to assist will know that you've been taken care of, so they can focus their efforts on helping other people.  Also, when you mark a particular response as "best answer" in this way, the forum software automatically moves it up to the top of the responses list, i.e. not just buried down in the middle somewhere in chronological order.  That helps other people who may be having similar problems to you, who are hunting for an answer:  if they come across your question, they immediately see the answer right there at the top, and don't have to rummage around through all the responses.

5 hours ago, Mapoko said:

If I have more com-sat related questions I will simply use this topic.

Well, sure, you could do that.  However, if it's a different question that will have different answers, it generally works best just to open a different topic.  That helps everyone:  answerers don't have to wade through all the responses to earlier questions, and people who might be having similar problems who are searching for answers benefit similarly.

[Mapoko]

14 hours ago, Snark said:

Personally, I really don't care for that solution.  OPM adds new planets to the outer edges of the solar system, but it leaves the inner system intact.  Therefore, boosting like this will allow talking to Sarnus, Urlum, Neidon, and Plock... but it makes everything way overpowered for the inner solar system, in my opinion.

So, for playing with OPM (or other mods that feature enlarged solar system, such as New Horizons or Galileo's Planet Pack), my preferred solution is to have an upper-tier antenna up at the top of the tech tree that can reach much further than the RA-100, and leave all the other antennas and tracking station power alone.

Fortunately, there's a mod for that, if you're so inclined. 

Does basically what it says, adds a new part which is a 1000G antenna.  One of the things this mod also does is, if it's installed alongside OPM, it undoes the power boost that OPM does by default, so that everything behaves like it does in the stock game.

I was not aware of that change that comes with OPM.

Not installed yet, as I am still in Kerbin-Mun-Minmus range.

But personally I do not mind having only limited windows of communication (like real life).

For example only being able to contact my drones around Eeloo for only few days in specific years.

Although I will not mind if there is a mod that will let me control said drones if I have orbiting station with Lab, Relay antennas and Engineer/Scientist/Pilot to operate them

*Any mod like that ? 

[Snark]

41 minutes ago, Mapoko said:

Although I will not mind if there is a mod that will let me control said drones if I have orbiting station with Lab, Relay antennas and Engineer/Scientist/Pilot to operate them

*Any mod like that ? 

Actually, you don't even need a mod-- it's stock. 

The top-end probe cores (1.25m and 2.5m) provide this functionality.  I believe it requires a pilot to operate.  If you have a ship that has one of those cores, and a pilot, then it can serve as a "control endpoint" for remote-controlling probes.  IIRC, the 1.25m core only allows for direct links (i.e. can only remote-control craft that have direct LOS to the controlling ship), whereas the 2.5m core allows for 2 hops (so you can have one relay in between the remote-control craft and the controlling ship).

I haven't actually used that functionality myself (yet), I'm basing the above statements on my memory of reading the 1.2 release notes, but I believe that's how it works.  I'm sure someone will happily correct me if I'm wrong. 

[Mapoko]

Thank you very much! I haven't played past Kerbin-Mun-Minmus since 1.1.2 (I think?). Real life stuff + starting over.

Lots of stuff to discover !