On Thu, Jun 25, 2015 at 2:00 AM, Tim <xxxxxx@little-possums.net> wrote:

> There's no need for radar.  Coming out of jump space (in multiple
> rulesets) produces a bright EM "flash" across a broad range of
> wavelengths.  If a sensor system can't get a bearing on that to within
> at most a square arcsecond, it's not worth the cardboard it was made
> from.
>
> Given at least one ruleset, the jump flash is visible *without
> instruments* at a million kilometres, which is roughly 100D range for
> terrestrial planets

Exactly.  Jump flare says "watch this space".  Other passive sensors
will start collecting data on your vector and transmitting that data
to come control node.

The nice thing about the system is that the nav buoys/spy sats can be
fairly small, and if they are using a comm laser for routine traffic
(and maybe a meson comm for the occasinaly emergency message) their
communications to the nearest node are effectively invisible to local
ships.

Dan

--

"Any sufficiently advanced parody is indistinguishable from a genuine
kook." -Alan Morgan