Re: Commo Traffic and Direction Finding...

Ryan M Gill wrote:

> Ahh, but Narrow beam works fine for a point site that isn't bouncing
>

True. once the battle goes active you need some sort of WAN.

> across the battlefield at 50 mph and maneuvering all over the place.
> Given the speed with which DF gear works now, all it takes is sweeping
> the DF antenna once and you give the other guy a positive fix. (now
days,
> all it takes is keying a mic with the antenna side lobes projecting
> towards a DF unit. )
>

That depends on the aspect the DF picks up the beam. Actually it would
take more
than one DF to track a	narrow beam. A DF antennae also has to be able
top pick p
that particular freq or light frequency. And a micro thin DF would be
virtually
un-dfable. But you are right in that it doesn't work for moving units.
But if
something is moving at 50mph, its already out in the open and masking
emissions is
not that big an issue, and it would require a constant transmission to
make the
plot something you cold bring down point fire on.

Second there is low power transmission. Your example of DFing from space
or even
from high atmosphere is one thing. But I can make my xmissons even today
of such
low power that the signal doesn't carry very far at all. Point is for
every action
and equal reaction. Don't assume that COMSEC will lag behind detection
capability.
It has yet to for any length of time and the guys that work on that
stuff likely
won't be any stupider in the future than they are now.

>
> You mention sat comms. In the case of a SF unit operating on a planet
and
> transmitting to their buddies in orbit, its not so hard. If the SF
guys
> are red force and defending the planet, screw any Sat Comms. They are
> probably comprimised or most likely a dumb piece of metal and
composites
> swirling in orbit.
>

Correct.

>
> Laser will require line of site. If its a set emplacement, I'd say
> that buried fiber would be the thing. But then those can be tapped if
> they can be found.
>

Good luck.

>
> The thing about DSII is that it glosses over most Commo/Jamming issues
> quite highly. One has to wonder given the general rule that commos are
> very directional and hard to jam bears out truely. Perhaps it would
> overly complicate the rules too much...
>
> Still it would be fun to have a track that rolls every turn and sees
if
> it can DF a particular target. If it does, he gets to pass a
firemission
> to the Med Artillery unit its attached to. Of course that would make
it
> really advisable to move that HQ track around all the time...Perhaps
only
>

Passing DF plots to artillery only work well with stationary targets.
That's why
the preferred method of call for fire will most likely remain some sort
of visual
acquisition from the FO.

Los