Which was sort of how I was looking at starting the article: what are the variables that can define an ansible model?
Of course, interesting operational considerations are really fun. For example, an FTL radio, with propagation of 1 parsec an hour, that can only be used in Jumpspace. That is, your jump bubble is your antenna, signal strength is the square of your jump potential, base distance is your jump potential, and just for fun, falloff follows the inverse cube law (signal strength is the inverse of the cube of distance in units of jump drive potential).
The math might not work, but... I’m still working on it, and the idea of an ansible not being usable in real space is interesting.
Ok, there are a number of variables here:
Type of transmission:
Broadcast (aanybody in range can receive it)
"beamcast" (directional, but anybody in the right direction can
recioeve it)
point to point (either you have to be near the destination point to
receive it, or *only* the destination unit can recieve it)
Range
does it obey the inverse square law or some other function of range
if not, does it just "chop off" at range?
speed (how fast does the signal move)
bandwidth (how many symbols per second?)
"symbol set" (how many different "states" does the signal have?)
Then we get into things like size of unit, of antenna, etc. Powerr
requirements. And more.
Oh yeah, special conditions. Does it require a strong gravity field?
A weak one? Or some other thing that limits the location of
transmitters/receivers.
--
Leonard Erickson (aka shadow)
shadow at shadowgard dot com
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