Re: Trans - what? (digest #226)

Date: Mon, 20 Mar 95 23:49:41 -0500
From: Derek Wildstar <wildstar@qrc.com>
Subject: Re: Trans - what? (digest #226)

Hugh Foster <100326.446@compuserve.com> wrote in reply to me:
> >> Personally, there are many things about the Deyos and the Virus that
> >> strain my suspension of disbelief to the breaking point.  This is one
> >> of them.  Unless you're wedded to the T:TNE canon, these items are
> >> 'retcons' added for the New Era, and don't belong (and don't exist) in
> >> Classic or MegaTraveller. <<
> 
> Ay-men! We never moved up from CT, really, except with some 
> of the rule fixes; no starship in either Ace's or The Dog's 
> campaigns has a transponder. 

Not exactly.

There's a perfectly good reason for starships to have a transponder system
onboard (transponder in the same sense that modern aircraft are equipped
with a transponder, and NOT the Deyo/Virus hokum that GDW created for T:TNE).

In my Classic/MegaTraveller universe, starships have the following systems
as part of the standard communications and navigation suite:

1) Transponder.  This is a radar reciever and transmitter, that also has
   a simple, hard-wired process-control computer built into it.  Standard
   traffic-control radars operate on one of several bands, and broadcast
   coded data pulses as the sweep their beams through space.  The
   transponder recieves this radar pulse, decodes the data, and transmits
   a similar pulse, with new data.

   The data pulse from the traffic control radar contains a traffic control
   ID code (see notes under "Navigation Reciever" below), and a scan
   position code.  The transponder removes the traffic control ID code and
   inserts its own transponder ID code in its place, and then repeats the
   scan position code back as a broadcast (as opposed to the narrow beam
   used by the traffic-control radar).

   The transponder ID code is an the ship's official registry number, a
   (relatively) short alphanumeric code, unique to each ship.  Registration
   information is distributed througout the Imperium in varoius databases,
   so that in theory anyone recieving the transponder signal can determine
   who the ship is, and display this information on the bridge.
   
   Merchant ships transponders are equipped with an on/off switch: the
   transponder can be silenced if need be.  Of course, operating a starship
   without showing a transponder is a serious offence unless there were
   extenuating circumstances.  Broadcasting the incorrect transponder signal
   is also a very serious offense.  Failure to show a transponder signal has
   been cited by the Imperial Navy as sufficient reason to presume a vessel
   has hostile intent - and such vessels have been fired upon in the past.

   In addition ot that, military ships have programmable transponders, and
   can transmit false registration numbers and/or false scan position codes.
   Transmitting a false ID can make the warship seem to be a harmless
   transport (or a larger threat than it is!), or can be for a wholly bogus
   registration, while false scan position codes will make the ship appear
   where it actually is not, or can make the ship appear to be a 'false' or
   'ghost' trace on the Navigation reciever's display, and even dissapear
   entirely if the decoding logic rejects the signal as entirely spurious,
   and removes it from the display (quite litterally, transmitting an "I'm
   not here" code).  While these measures won't fool an enemy vessel all of
   the time, they are generally effective on pirates, raiders, and other
   small forces.

2) Navigation Reciever.  This is a reciever very similar to the one built
   into a transponder, which feeds data into the ship's navigation computer
   systems.  By combining the traffic control radar signal with data broadcast
   by other transponders operating in the system, the navigation computer
   can determine the locations and (given several observations) the courses
   of every ship in the system).
   
   Some traffic control radars are used to provide position and advisory
   information to starfarers, while others are used to locate ships (either
   by direct radar reflections (at short ranges) or by activating their
   transponders (at longer ranges).  The function of the beacon is coded
   in the traffic-control ID code.  Some beacons are used to interdict a
   a world or a system, while others provide traffic lanes and flight paths
   to manage traffic.  Like ship registration numbers, the traffic control
   ID codes are maintained in a database, so that a ship can quickly
   determine the purpose and charted location of the beacon and act
   accordingly.

   Tampering with traffic control beacons, or otherwise interfering with
   their operations is a very serious Imperial crime (and one that pirates
   have been known to engage in).

3) Black Box (or Flight Data Recorder).  This is a data storage unit (at
   lower TLs, a tape recorder, while at higher TLs more exotic and durable
   technology is used).  It records several hours' worth of cockpit
   conversation, plus all flight control inputs, and the most recent jump
   co-ordinates.  Higher TL units record more parameters, and retain the
   data for a longer period of time (TL-15 units, for example, store data
   on the last 8 jumps).

   These boxes (which are orange, and very durably constructed) are
   ordinarily sealed and 'tamperproof'.  The box can only be legally
   opened and its data played back by the appropriate Imperial officials,
   and only after a warrant has been granted by the appropriate (subsector
   level) authority (although the warrant is merely a formality in any
   case where a flight mishap has caused a loss of life).

   Skilled characters can, of course attempt to tamper with a Black Box;
   they are not likley to be successful, and their tampering will probably
   be detected, unless they have high skill levels in Mechanical (physical
   access to the Box), and Electronic (for low-tecyh boxes) or Computer (for
   high-tech boxes).


wildstar@qrc.com
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                          "It's Science Fiction, if, presuming technical 
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