RT2 drives me nuts. Not relaying correctly?!

[nuclearping]

Hello

I have a set of probes in Keostationary Orbit.

• 2 Reflectron KR-7 90Mm Dishes
  
• 2 Communotron 16 2.50Mm Omni Directional Antennas

All probes have Power. All Dishes are set to Mission Control / Active Vessel. All Omni Antennas are deployed.

Now the following happens (follow mentioned satellites counter clockwise, so COM.T1 #2 is left from COM.T1 #3, etc.):

First image shows COM.T1 #3 having an active relay to COM.T1 #2 and is within 2.5Mm range. Dish 1 is pointed to Mission Control. Dish 2 to Active Vessel.

The Satellite has NO connection:

Next image shows COM.T1 #2 with the exact same setup. COM.T1 #2 has an active relay to COM.T1 #1 and is within 2.5Mm range. Dish 1 is pointed to Mission Control. Dish 2 to Active Vessel.

This Satellite HAS connection:

Last image shows COM.T1 #3 again. This time with forced connection to COM.T1 #1.

Now this Satellite HAS connection aswell:

But why is it only working in this setup? Isn't Sat#1 meant to relay to Sat#2, Sat#2 to Sat#3 and so on?

I really don't get it why this isn't working?!

[StarkRG]

If you force a connection from #2 to #1 (you'd have to have dishes point at each other), is the connection active? I've never tried to use omnis for relaying, only for the last leg of the connection.

[Mecripp]

He is out of range for the Communotron 16 and his problem is he's using Active Vessel which, I think people think it relay's through all the sat's and it don't it just hit's 1 target and that the Active 1 .

[StarkRG]

Oh, of course you're right, for some reason I read the range as 4.5Mm instead of 2.5.

Scratch that, no he's not, #3 is 2.4Mm away from #2 which is 2.4Mm from #1, they should be relaying.

Edited September 18, 2014 by StarkRG

[StarkRG]

Of course, using omnis in this way is rather silly since you'd need many more satellites than you would just using dishes. With dishes you just need 3 satellites and they don't need one dedicated to KSC, just point them at Kerbin and you'll pick up both KSC and Communotron omnis. The DTS-M1 is nice in that it gives you a 45 degree angle when pointed at Kerbin, this is enough to get most low-kerbin and medium-kerbin orbits (above a certain height you'll get drop-outs as you pass out of the angle).

Edited September 18, 2014 by StarkRG

[nuclearping]

Ok, I got it. Thanks guys.

1 DTS-M1 (pointing to Active Vessel) and 1 Communotron is enough. Just did some tests. But since I don't have the Communotron 32 yet (with 5.0 Mm range) I need to setup an (temporary) array in a lower Orbit I guess, otherwise the C16 can't relay to KSC.