Remote Tech Help - Building first set of satellites

[RainDreamer]

Hey everyone, I'm new here. I just grabbed Remote Tech 2 recently, and is designing my first set of satellites to be used as relays. I have 2 questions:

1. Is it possible to make a set of relay with just omni antennas for low orbit probe controls? A lot of the example I saw online always have a dish and an omni antenna.
   
2. If not, is it possible to make a set of relay with Communotron 88-88 instead of the DTS-M1 everyone uses?
   

The reason for these questions is because of my current design:

It is extremely small and light, and also very, very cheap (~3.5k), allow it to be spammed around as disposable relay beacons. The thing though, it only looks good with the Communotron 88-88. With the DTS, if I want to keep the form factor when retracted relatively the same, I have to put it on the side, making it looks unsymmetrical (and for some reasons, it ticks me the wrong way).

So I wonder if I could still use the Comm88, or I can just ditch the dish antenna altogether, since I got a set of specialized comsats with loads of dishes planned after launching these relays.

Edited November 18, 2014 by RainDreamer

[TechnicalK3rbal]

RemoteTech doesn't have many set-in-stone rules for satellites, it all depends on their use. Generally the best way to do it is to set up three geo(keo?) stationary satellites, one right over the space center, to transmit the signal to other satellites. You can either use the long-range Omni for this or set the directional dishes to target the entire planet, and it will transmit to everything within it's (arc? range? angle? I don't know.)

[bdito]

If you only want control for probes in Kerbin's orbit then all you need are omni antennas.

People usually put a dish or two on their sats so they can reach vessels on interplanetary missions. So their sats act as a relay. The long-range dish will connect to the active vessel while the omni's relay it to the KSC.

The biggest problem is knowing how many batteries you need for your sats so they don't run out of power when they're on the dark side of a planet. You can get a mod like Fusebox that will give you a readout of all your electrical information like generation, drain, time to empty, dark period, etc.

Edited November 17, 2014 by bdito

[ExavierMacbeth]

As mentioned if your only looking for local control around Kerbin the default Comm 16 (3Mm radius) Omni is plenty. That is a range of 3000km so as long as you drop enough of them to act as relays (If you sync them up right you can do full coverage with 3-6 of them) they will provide all the control needs you need for local area around Kerbin.

Often the reason to include a directional is to set it to "Active Vessel" so that they always point to whatever ship you are actively flying. The usefulness of this depends on the goal & the antenna stats. To use your two examples...

DTS-M1 - 50Mm Range, 45 Degree Angle

Reflectron SS-5 - 90Mm Range, 25 Degree Angle (Remote Tech Hard Dish, Non-Deployable)

88-88 - 40,000Mm Range, 0.06 Degree Angle

If you are trying to remote to the Mun the DTS works fine. You can point the ones in Kerbin Orbit targeted to "Mun" and the cone will cover the entire orbit so any ship with a DTS with the target "Kerbin" can form a link. The SS-5 can do the same thing from Minimus, where the DTS doesn't quite have the range. However using the SS-5 in Mun orbit results in a cone too narrow to cover Kerbin's Geosync orbit so you might loose connection if the sats pointing at the Mun leave the cone.

For the 88-88 you MUST point it directly at something because the cone is too narrow, it is designed for interplanetary after all. Using it on your sats with the target of "Active Vessel" will let them point at whatever you are flying, but on the ship you are flying you would have to manually choose the target you want to point it at rather than just pointing it at the planet and letting the remotetech auto pathing forge links.

You can intermix the antenna though so if you do use the 88-88 on your dump sats your active vessel could mount something with a larger cone & still get a connection... at least until the range is enough to prevent a two way link.

Also the SS-5 is nice for remote launches since it can be deployed & linked before launch and doesn't sheer off during flight.