Antenna
Antennae allow communication with Kerbal Space Center, when deployed. With version 0.22 the antennae allow the return of scientific data from space, without the need to recover the craft on Kerbin. Mods like RemoteTech or Antenna Range add additional functionality to them.
In versions prior to 0.22, antennae couldn't be retracted and had no function in the base game. A bug could retract them when craft was accessed from the Tracking Station, at the cost of breaking the ability to redeploy them.
Packets
When an antenna transmits data to the Research and Development facility, it consumes an amount of electric charge for each packet of data. The transmission is suspended if there is insufficient electric charge available, and automatically resumes once sufficient stored power is accumulated. The direction and distance as well as the visibility of the facility, that there are no planets or moons in between, don't affect the transmission in any way.
Properties
It'll send the data in a whole number of packets so the last packet may not be fully utilized. Each antenna has three properties which define the size of a packet, which is 2 Mits in the stock antennae, the number of seconds required per packet and the electric charge required per packet. Depending on that the speed and cost in term of electric charge can be determined. The bandwidth shown in the part information in-game is calculated wrong because it assumes that the packet interval given in the part definition is the amount of packets per seconds although it is the amount of time between two packets.[1]
As the packets of all antennae in the stock configuration contain up to 2 Mits it sends one packet with 1 Mit if the total number of transferred data in Mits is odd.
Transmission
When the transmit button is pressed while reviewing experiment results, an antenna will automatically deploy to perform a transmission and then retract after completion. If the antenna's own right-click menu command is used to initiate the transmission, it will attempt to immediately transmit all data stored in all science modules on the craft. Aborting any transmission of scientific data will destroy any remaining data that was to be sent.[clarify] No warning will be given about this.
When the Transmit button is used and multiple antennae are available, the game chooses the best one based on the cost and time per Mit.
Available antennae
| Image | Part | Radial size | Cost (  ) |
Mass (t) |
Max. Temp. (K) |
Tolerance (m/s) |
Tolerance (g) |
Electricity (⚡/Mit) |
Electricity (⚡/s) |
Net transmission speed (Mits/s) |
Relay capable | CommNet Tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Communotron 16 | Tiny | 300 | 0.005 | 2 000 | 7 | 50 | 6 | 20.0 | 3.33 | No | 1 |
 |
Communotron 16-S | Radial mounted | 300 | 0.015 | 2 000 | 7 | 50 | 6 | 20.0 | 3.33 | No | 1 |
 |
Communotron DTS-M1 | Radial mounted | 900 | 0.05 | 2 000 | 8 | 50 | 6 | 34.3 | 5.71 | No | 3 |
 |
Communotron HG-55 | Radial mounted | 1200 | 0.075 | 2 000 | 7 | 50 | 6.67 | 133.3 | 20.0 | No | 4 |
 |
Communotron 88-88 | Tiny | 1 500 | 0.1 | 2 000 | 7 | 50 | 10 | 200.0 | 20.0 | No | 5 |
.png) |
HG-5 High Gain Antenna | Tiny | 600 | 0.07 | 2 000 | 8 | 50 | 9 | 51.4 | 5.71 | Yes | 2 |
 |
RA-2 Relay Antenna | Tiny | 1 800 | 0.15 | 2 000 | 8 | 50 | 24 | 68.6 | 2.86 | Yes | 3 |
 |
RA-15 Relay Antenna | Tiny | 2 400 | 0.3 | 2 000 | 8 | 50 | 12 | 68.6 | 5.71 | Yes | 4 |
 |
RA-100 Relay Antenna | Small | 3 000 | 0.65 | 2 000 | 8 | 50 | 6 | 68.6 | 11.43 | Yes | 5 |
References
- ↑ Bug report #2018 “Communication devices transmission speed display bug”
