Now-defunct-thread-that-should-not-appear-in-google-search.

[Vrana]

Guys, i suggest you stop trying to use dishes for geosync or lower sat constelations around Kerbin.

It is usually a complete waste of dishes. Geosync is at around 2.8Mm from Kerbin and you have omni antennas with 5Mm range and shortest range dish is 50Mm (if i recall right). Dishes are used for Kerbin->Mun,Minmus or Kerbin->other planet comms.

There is nothing inhernetly wrong with using them for comms on your "base" sat network but its a complete waste of their range and you are just making your lives more complicated by needing to target all those dishes instead of having omnis just pick up everything.

[BigD145]

2 868.75Mm and 5Mm omni is a ways down the science ladder. I've turned most of my short range dishes either off or pointing at Mun/Minmus.

[Sacred Aardvark]

My first satellite has two dishes, and its in geo-Kerbin orbit relatively over KSP. Its first dish is pointed towards mission control, its second is pointed towards the Active Vessel.

Satellite #2 has two dishes as well, the first of which is connected to the first satellite. The second is pointed at the active vessel. When I'm switched to this satellite, I clearly see the relay between this satellite and the first satellite holding strong.

However I can't get my third satellite or any normal vehicles to connect to the second satellite's relay. Am I doing something wrong?

You need a dish on the first sat to be pointed at the second satellite to have bidirectional communication. Or use omnis for short range communications.

It works when controlling the second satellite because it's the active vessel, but when you swap out of it there aren't any dishes pointing towards the second sat any more.

[jordanjay29]

You need a dish on the first sat to be pointed at the second satellite to have bidirectional communication. Or use omnis for short range communications.

It works when controlling the second satellite because it's the active vessel, but when you swap out of it there aren't any dishes pointing towards the second sat any more.

So I need three dishes on each? One towards mission control (through relays, if necessary), one towards the next sat in the chain, and one towards the active vessel?

[BigD145]

Everyone has to shake hands. If you want to shake hands with three people, you either need three hands or omnidirectional hands big enough to encompass everyone. The three people also need hands. You can't hold hands with your neighbors in a big circle AND with a single person in the middle of the circle without more than two hands.

[Sacred Aardvark]

So I need three dishes on each? One towards mission control (through relays, if necessary), one towards the next sat in the chain, and one towards the active vessel?

Yup, though the more the merrier, you probably will find use for them. All connections need to be two-way, i.e. a dish on the "receiver" needs to be pointed at the "sender" and vice versa, or via omnis.

[jordanjay29]

Everyone has to shake hands. If you want to shake hands with three people, you either need three hands or omnidirectional hands big enough to encompass everyone. The three people also need hands. You can't hold hands with your neighbors in a big circle AND with a single person in the middle of the circle without more than two hands.

Curses, you've found my mortal weakness! Now I'll never be able to play Ring-Around-The-Rosie Tag.

Seriously, though, thanks for the help guys.

[IllicitMedic]

Awesome mission illicit! I think that sort of thing will be even more fun once kOS integration is done...

I don't believe you need to put antennas at KSC; it has them already.

Your right but KSC only has a omni with a short range. While it is possible to link it with a dish around the Mun I find it unrealistic. Sure I can use the dish to send back info but an omni should not be able to transmit to the mun just because I have a dish on the other end. So I built a tower with a dish on it.

I plan on putting a GSO sat directly above KSC that will link to my tower and then act as the main relay for the rest of my future network.

[MaxP]

Guys, why not to make some small additional signal delay in SPU? It will be more realistic and interesting, due to more accurate planning of sats deployment?

And the dishes are bugged till now?

The planet targeting doesn't work, for Reflectron KR-7 at least...

At least one dish must be pointed directly to vessel, though another one is works fine with targeting planet.

Edited November 24, 2013 by MaxP

[KerbMav]

Your right but KSC only has a omni with a short range. While it is possible to link it with a dish around the Mun I find it unrealistic. Sure I can use the dish to send back info but an omni should not be able to transmit to the mun just because I have a dish on the other end. So I built a tower with a dish on it.

I think it is more a representation of the numerous dishes at KSC and not really meant to be one big omni-ant.

[Traches]

Your right but KSC only has a omni with a short range. While it is possible to link it with a dish around the Mun I find it unrealistic. Sure I can use the dish to send back info but an omni should not be able to transmit to the mun just because I have a dish on the other end. So I built a tower with a dish on it.

I plan on putting a GSO sat directly above KSC that will link to my tower and then act as the main relay for the rest of my future network.

It's cool if you want to play that way, but it's not unrealistic. What are all those dishes around mission control? Also, the Deep Space Network that we use to communicate with all our interplanetary probes is basically 3 ground stations spaced 120 degrees apart around the earth.

[Firov]

It's cool if you want to play that way, but it's not unrealistic. What are all those dishes around mission control? Also, the Deep Space Network that we use to communicate with all our interplanetary probes is basically 3 ground stations spaced 120 degrees apart around the earth.

Indeed. If anything the Kerbal Space Center "omni-antenna" should be able to reach out well beyond the furthest point of Eeloo's orbit. These are not small communications dishes, and unlike space based dishes they have no real power limitations.

Actually, what is the actual maximum range of the the Kerbal Space Center in RemoteTech 2? That's something I haven't really tested yet.

[KerbMav]

MissionControlRange = 7.5E+07

[IllicitMedic]

Indeed. If anything the Kerbal Space Center "omni-antenna" should be able to reach out well beyond the furthest point of Eeloo's orbit. These are not small communications dishes, and unlike space based dishes they have no real power limitations.

Actually, what is the actual maximum range of the the Kerbal Space Center in RemoteTech 2? That's something I haven't really tested yet.

It has unlimited range if whatever you want to communicate with has a dish with enough range on it. Otherwise I think its only 2.5mn because if you send up a sat with only a 2.5mn omni in GSO it wont be able to connect directly.

If the big dishes are going to serve as the dishes then I think KSC should be able to hit a 2.5mn omni in GSO but it won't.

[Sacred Aardvark]

And the dishes are bugged till now?

The planet targeting doesn't work, for Reflectron KR-7 at least...

At least one dish must be pointed directly to vessel, though another one is works fine with targeting planet.

All the three dishes I've used, the 88-88, DTS-M1 and KR-7 have worked, though haven't used the 88-88 for body targeting yet due to sticking to the Kerbin-system, and I've just verified that the KR-7 on my KSO is targeting the mun and connecting just fine to the satellite in Muns orbit (which has a DTS-M1 pointed at Kerbin).

I've only found one possible bug* with the dishes, everything else has been eventually tracked down to my own mistakes, but since I didn't notice anybody confirming it to be happening in their game and it was a small issue to begin with, I'm assuming that the supposed bug was/is my error in targeting or another mod going loopy and not investigated it further.

* If the cone of a Dish pointed at a Body contains a Second Body, the Dish will not connect to objects inside the SOI of the Second Body.

[jordanjay29]

Okay, I have a WTF?! moment going on. I'm trying to send a probe to the Mun, and I have loaded this thing with a dipole for launch and a Comm 32 to communicate with my Kerbin positioning sats at geo-Kerbin orbit (the same ones I was talking about above, got them working). Once I get to my apoasis, I deploy my Comm 32 antenna to communicate with my KPS satellites, which are at less than 3.00Mm, but even the 5.00Mm range of the Comm 32 can't seem to connect. In map mode, I see the connection lines from my satellite to my probe, but no dice on a data connection.

This didn't happen when I had dishes, so what's the problem with my antennae?

EDIT: Nevermind, my original relay sat moved in its orbit. Not sure if it jumped or just migrated from poor orbital skills. Bleh.

Edited November 25, 2013 by jordanjay29

[Mykill Metal]

I usually put 8-10 because you're going to be launching more stuff. (sats, ships, probes,) and you're going to want them ALL to talk to each other. So the more, the better.

[123nick]

where can i find the dev build?

[gwichy]

Hi, is there some sort of GUI letting you know the current and maximum distance of the signal between a given probe and the closest relay? I did try to mess around the settings but I haven't found it yet. If there is not would that be implemented later? That would be kind of handy

PS: for example the line that shows the trajectory ahead of the probe on the map view could be a certain color until the point where the probe would lose contact. That is only an idea, I do not know if this even could be done

Edited November 25, 2013 by gwichy

[Fail-o-matic]

Still trying to get things figured out. I have 4 probes orbiting Kerbin in semi sync with 2 Comm-32(5 Mm) and 2 DTS-m2(50 Mm). A probe orbiting Mun has stays in contact with just the comm32, but moving out to minmus, no signal and just pointing a dtsm2 at kerbin and one of the kerbin dtsm2 at minmus - no signal, only when directly targeting the 2 does it make contact. Seems the cone is plenty wide and targeting info says distance is 47Mm, why no signal?

[Mykill Metal]

Still trying to get things figured out. I have 4 probes orbiting Kerbin in semi sync with 2 Comm-32(5 Mm) and 2 DTS-m2(50 Mm). A probe orbiting Mun has stays in contact with just the comm32, but moving out to minmus, no signal and just pointing a dtsm2 at kerbin and one of the kerbin dtsm2 at minmus - no signal, only when directly targeting the 2 does it make contact. Seems the cone is plenty wide and targeting info says distance is 47Mm, why no signal?

Because BOTH of the crafts have to be able to reach each other. Say distance is 47Mm you need a dish on each with at least 50Mm range. If i read correctly.

[Fail-o-matic]

Because BOTH of the crafts have to be able to reach each other. Say distance is 47Mm you need a dish on each with at least 50Mm range. If i read correctly.

They do, the one around minmus is targeting kerbin with the dts and the one around kerbin is targeting minmus with a dts - no signal. But I can target mission control with the minmus dts and get contact till MC faces the wrong direction.

[Mykill Metal]

Try targeting the sats directly. That's why i put like 10 dishes on each.

[Fail-o-matic]

Try targeting the sats directly. That's why i put like 10 dishes on each.

I tried that and direct targeting works fine. Just playing around trying to figure how planet spamming works so I dont have to send multiple dishes with everything.

Hopefully the how to guide is going to sort all this out.

Edited November 25, 2013 by Fail-o-matic

[tuib598]

You review the data in whatever part it's stored and hit Transmit. If you have a connection to KSC, it will send. If not it'll say you have no transmitters.

Even when i'm pointing right at KFC it still says that there are no coms devices. i've tried with every antenna. Whats the problem?!

Thx