Are more advanced antennas worse?

[Teodzero]

Judging by those stats the more technologically advanced Comms DTS-M1 is six times the weight and double the price of default Communotron 16. It also transmits data at a slower rate and a higher cost, while having only incrementally better impact and temperature tolerance parameters. It's just not worth using for anything other than aesthetics that way.

Is that how it's supposed to be? Am I missing something? Are there some hidden stats? Will it get better further down the tech tree?

Edited January 6, 2015 by Teodzero

[Red Iron Crown]

You're not missing anything, in the stock game there's no good reason to use the later antennas other than aesthetics.

[KerikBalm]

Well, the weight doesn't matter for 1 of them.

For some reason two of them have physics signfigance set to 1, but the DTS-M1 is not flagged like that, so it is not massless.

Of course, I have no compunction about modding the stats in the stock game. So.. for me, they are better, because with a bigger, focused antanae, you need less signal amplitude to send a message... so I mod the two more advanced antennae to use less electric charge per data sent.

[RainDreamer]

I recommend either antenna range or remote tech(0.90 update at last page) if you like to see them being more useful.

[RexKramer]

Half the speed at twice the cost? That's the one designated for use on government contracts, of course.

[AlexinTokyo]

Note that the bandwidth readings in the data windows are actually the reciprocals of the real values (a known bug from way back when). So the later antennas are, in fact, faster than the earlier ones.

You can easily see this if you transmit a Gravity scan via the Commutron-16 vs the big dish antenna (whose name I forget).

The power required is accurate, however, so using the earlier antennas costs less charge than the later ones.

Since you're much more likely to be charge limited than time limited, the earlier antennas are indeed better.

[eddiew]

I use the bigger dishes if I've got a lot of science instruments (expanded with DMagic and other mods) and plenty of battery - just to get the job done faster. Even then, you could put multiple small (physics-less) antennae on there and transmit in parallel.

Bit sad really - fix it Squad!

[StrandedonEarth]

The descriptions suggest that there should be different ranges for different antennas. Hopefully they'll implement that when they polish up science

[michaelsteele3]

Maybe the bigger, more advanced ones should give you more science for transmitting data.

[tsotha]

Maybe the bigger, more advanced ones should give you more science for transmitting data.

IRL a bigger antenna allows you to use less power. I don't see why they just don't do that.

[pincushionman]

I agree with AlexinTokyo, the 88 is far faster than the 16.

[SaturnV]

The only situation that you use a high-tech antenna is when you want something looks like a dish antenna on your ship.

If the time limits, put more C-16 on. If the charges limits, put less C-16 on. If low on funds, use one C-16. if you want lighter vessel, attach the lightest C-16 (Can‘t recall whether it's weightless though). So, just use C-16.

If it's me to design those antennas, I‘d make later antenna heavier, bigger but also much more EC efficient

[MacroNova]

The descriptions suggest that there should be different ranges for different antennas. Hopefully they'll implement that when they polish up science

IMO, this is the best way to make the larger antennas truly relevant. The other avenues are power consumption and the time it takes to transmit. But the communotron would have to take a lot longer and suck a lot more juice before it became impractical, and then it would be hard to use in the early game. Perhaps the transmission time and power requirements could be tied to the distance from KSC (so a communotron at Duna will take a lot more time/energy than one at the Mun), but that's getting pretty complex.