Why doesn't my craft have working comms

[Sonny_Jim]

So here's the setup:

 

Craft 1 is in orbit around Bop, it has an RA-15

Craft 2 is in orbit around Pol, it has an RA-15 and a 88 88

 

Craft 1 has no signal, craft 2 has a signal back to Kerbin.  Craft 1 has a signal through to Craft 2.  Both craft have electricity.

 

I was under the assumption that craft 1 would be able to relay the signal through Craft 2 back to Kerbin?  I'm absolutely stumped as to why it's not working....

http://imgur.com/a/M0XD6

 

Like a steering wheel down my trousers, it's driving me nuts!  Any ideas?

[eddiew]

RA-15 is a relay antenna; Craft 1 is not relaying anything, it's the source of the signal and so needs a communotron, even if its a little one.

I think... I don't really understand CommNet yet 

[Sonny_Jim]

I was under the impression that relay antennas work as normal antennas, but can also relay a signal from other craft through it.

[Allocthonous]

Relay antennas do work as normal antennas, but they don't combine with normal antennas for relay purposes. Your 88-88 antenna can get a signal to and from Kerbin, but it can't be used to relay signals from other craft. You're only relaying using the little RA-15, which just doesn't cut it.

So your commnet visuals show the link from craft 2 to Kerbin with the 88-88, and they show the links between the local relays, but they aren't showing you that there's no relay connection from the local network to Kerbin.

[Sonny_Jim]

Ah ok, so it's not possible to use an RA-15 to connect to craft in the vicinity then use the 88 88 to push that data back to Kerbin.  That kinda sucks :\

[renhanxue]

28 minutes ago, Sonny_Jim said:

Ah ok, so it's not possible to use an RA-15 to connect to craft in the vicinity then use the 88 88 to push that data back to Kerbin.  That kinda sucks :\

It's not, but if you have access to the 88-88 you also have the RA-100. If you put a single RA-100 on craft 2 instead of the RA-15 and 88-88 you could get away with putting quite small antennas on anything else you send to Jool.

[Sonny_Jim]

13 minutes ago, renhanxue said:

It's not, but if you have access to the 88-88 you also have the RA-100. If you put a single RA-100 on craft 2 instead of the RA-15 and 88-88 you could get away with putting quite small antennas on anything else you send to Jool.

Bit late for that   But hey, that's how the KSP cookie crumbles.  Time to fire off an RA-100 to Jool.