Directional Relays?

[GKSP]

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  My rather primitive and outdated relay system contains two relay sats, exactly the same including layout, with four of the antennas directly superior to the Communitron 16, except they're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

[Randox]

No; antennas have no direction based restrictions in the stock game.

f you want to add some realism for your own enjoyment, relays should of course have more than one dish, though you may prefer to use one relay and multiple direct antennas to get the desired look without monstrous power requirements (relay antennas use a lot of power, and if you have more than one they all get used whenever another probe is communicating through that relay. This is particularly problematic around bodies like Jool where sunlight is weak). Alternately, you can imagine the single dish relay rotating to re transmit signals back and forth.

 

I'm not sure why the connection strength would be off for the second relay. My best guess is that you have plasma interference turned on and the communication path was through the atmosphere of Kerbin for the second relay (I think that would do it. A lot of my probes loose connection at high altitude during launch briefly until I extend a longer range antenna and I think it's due to plasma interference in the atmosphere).

[GKSP]

I tried to put both antennas in almost the same orbit, so none of them are inside the atmosphere.  On another pass, I had little connection to both relays but full connection to KSC.  I'll just overlook this problem as my relays are outdated anyway.  Actually I might not want to overlook this; I plan to utilize a science station orbiting the Mun and that has a spotty signal.  Depending on how long the science processing from the Mun landing I'm doing soon will take, I'll just launch some new relays.  This will be using two eccentric polar orbiting sats, like in a guide I've seen, but my extra ground stations aren't working(and I've made sure its enabled) so I'm also going to include three circular equatorial sats.  Think this'll work?

[Spricigo]

This guide expliain commnet in detail.

Signal strengh is  related only to max range ane actual distance between the crafts. Max range is in tirn determined by the formula :

RANGE=SQRT (VAP1*VAP2) 

VAP is Vessel Antenna Power.

 

2 hours ago, GKSP said:

On another pass, I had little connection to both relays but full connection to KSC

In that particular the relays are irrelevant.  All communication will be handled by the direct (stronger) link between your craft and KSC.

The whole point of relay is to act as link between your craft and KSC. Either because your craft don't have a strong antenna or because LoS issues.

 

 

[GKSP]

40 minutes ago, Spricigo said:

This guide expliain commnet in detail.

Signal strengh is  related only to max range ane actual distance between the crafts. Max range is in tirn determined by the formula :

RANGE=SQRT (VAP1*VAP2) 

VAP is Vessel Antenna Power.

 

In that particular the relays are irrelevant.  All communication will be handled by the direct (stronger) link between your craft and KSC.

The whole point of relay is to act as link between your craft and KSC. Either because your craft don't have a strong antenna or because LoS issues.

 

 

Sorry.  I misworded what I said.  The vessel had little connection to the relay, but the relay had full connection.  I mentioned this to point out how on the first pass, one relay was red, the other green; the second pass had two red relays.

[Snark]

On 8/28/2017 at 4:08 PM, GKSP said:

Sorry.  I misworded what I said.  The vessel had little connection to the relay, but the relay had full connection.  I mentioned this to point out how on the first pass, one relay was red, the other green; the second pass had two red relays.

To really give you an answer, we'll need specifics.

• What antennas (i.e. what kind, how many) did the vessel have on it?
• What antennas (i.e. what kind, how many) did the relay have on it?
• How far apart from each other were the two craft when you observed the weak connection?

Give us that information, and we can show you the math for why you had the result you did.    Without that information, I suspect there's not much more anyone can tell you other than what has already been said.