Help! Relay satellites not relaying

[J534]

Does anyone know why my relay satellites (circled in red) aren't relaying the signal for my probe? Both have electricity and are equipped with HG-5 Antennas.

screenshot: relay problem.png

Edit: Never mind, realized my probe core internal antenna doesn't have enough range to communicate with the relay satellites. I dont get it though. If my probe can communicate with KSC from the mun why not with a relay satellite much closer?

Edited April 7, 2024 by J534

[Aelfhe1m]

  On 4/7/2024 at 5:51 AM, J534 said:

Does anyone know why my relay satellites (circled in red) aren't relaying the signal for my probe? Both have electricity and are equipped with HG-5 Antennas.

screenshot: relay problem.png

Edit: Never mind, realized my probe core internal antenna doesn't have enough range to communicate with the relay satellites. I dont get it though. If my probe can communicate with KSC from the mun why not with a relay satellite much closer?

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Think about the size of the radio dishes at the KSC, the HG-5 (and all the other antennae parts) are absolutely tiny in comparison. The KSC dishes are a lot more sensitive than anything that can be carried on a satellite, so they have much more range. 

[Hotel26]

There's a lot you haven't said, so an outsider is going to have to start with the very basics.  Do you have Commnet enabled in the game settings?    (As best I can recall, this is done at world creation  time.)

A search (or edit) of your persistent.sfs will reveal that state:

  Quote

>grep EnableCommNet saves/Orbit/persistent.sfs
            EnableCommNet = True
>

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It may also be, as Aelfhe1m is intimating, that your probe is using a direct link to Kerbin as the most direct route.  Wait until it circles behind the Mun and then see how it relays.  Also, there are options for showing the relay network connections and you don't verify that you have those turned on, so it's inconclusive that there is any communcation occurring at all, which is why I ask about EnableCommNet.

Edited April 8, 2024 by Hotel26

[J534]

  On 4/8/2024 at 12:46 AM, Aelfhe1m said:

Think about the size of the radio dishes at the KSC, the HG-5 (and all the other antennae parts) are absolutely tiny in comparison. The KSC dishes are a lot more sensitive than anything that can be carried on a satellite, so they have much more range. 

Expand  

Ohh that makes sense! I wasnt thinking in terms of sensitivity for receiving signals, just power for sending.

  On 4/8/2024 at 4:38 AM, Hotel26 said:

There's a lot you haven't said, so an outsider is going to have to start with the very basics.  Do you have Commnet enabled in the game settings?    (As best I can recall, this is done at world creation  time.)

A search (or edit) of your persistent.sfs will reveal that state:

It may also be, as Aelfhe1m is intimating, that your probe is using a direct link to Kerbin as the most direct route.  Wait until it circles behind the Mun and then see how it relays.  Also, there are options for showing the relay network connections and you don't verify that you have those turned on, so it's inconclusive that there is any communcation occurring at all, which is why I ask about EnableCommNet.

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Thanks for the reply. I realized my on board probe antenna was too low powered to be received by the HG-5 relays.

[jimmymcgoochie]

This might be useful in future. Ignore the KSP v1.4 at the top, the values are the same in 1.12.