Halo Alex,

(My greeting of Halo versus Hello came from one of the trivia shows that indicated that someplace in Texas passed a law that Halo was to be substituted for Hello. The change also adds a new salutation.)

My apologies for being slow on the reply, unfortunately there are a number of factors that are impacting on trying to keep up.

> On 08/22/2020 10:20 PM Alex Goodwin <xxxxxx@multitel.com.au> wrote:
>
>
> On 23/8/20 7:32 am, Thomas RUX wrote:
> > <snip>
> >> There we will have to agree to disagree - for consistency with prior
> >> PA:VT use, I've ruled (and used) that the previous "take" had already
> >> been fully exploited in the corresponding scan.  I didn't bother coming
> >> up with reasons, and no one asked.
> >>
> >> If you want more data above and beyond that previous scan, you need to
> >> go take another look-see (although even a low-grade fool will use the
> >> prior sensor take to guide their next search(es) ).

> > My USN rating was Sonar Technician Submarines and my passive sonar equipment received al the sound energy in the water. On the stack I would be listening to the noises trying to detect anything that sounded like a ship's screw/propeller and looking at the Bearing Time Record (BTR) that used supposedly gun powder impregnated paper to record information to see if there was a line indicating a noise that was probably below my hearing as a back-up. We had three analysis systems that were being watched for signals that the operators and the passive systems did not detect. Actually, we had four but the last one was used to refine sound characteristics. Unfortunately, all my boats were built in the 1960s so we only had the BTR paper, reel to reel tapes, logs, and the a similarly impregnated paper from the fourth analysis system as permanent records.
> >
> > A spaceship's or starship's passive sensors are gathering all sorts of energy that I would think is processed through the ship's computer using a software package as well as storing the raw data. In the case of Da Boote the search parameters would be setup to determine any sources of fuel. Once in a system the sensors are still collecting information that may or may not be analyzed at the time.
>
> Da Famous Tom B,

Sorry, but Da Famous Tom B., a.k.a. kaladorn, is not responsible for the mess above that would be the Tom Rux who volunteered to serve on a ship designed to sink and re-float itself. I'm also the one who has tykes teaching him how to play games. We now have a new activity which is flying balsa gliders.
>
> For reasons probably relating to lack of sufficient coffee, I read that
> as "curried gun powder-impregnated".

No, your low caffeine level had nothing to due with reading that the paper used in the Bearing Time Recorder (BTR) was supposedly impregnated with a very small quantity of gunpowder. A belt with a metal needle rotated across the paper which sat on top of a metal plate. The sound energy received by the hydrophones got converted to electrical energy. The received electrical energy was split part going to the BTR which as the needle passed over the paper would close the circuit and set off the gunpowder.
>
> My major concern for ruling as I did was having enough Early Installment
> Weirdness already, given how I've spruiked rational knowability
> elsewhere.  As with Jonesy below, I wanted _knowing how to drive_ the
> toys to be at least as important as _having_ the fancy toys.  In this
> particular case, they had civspec sensors (-2 to sensor rolls) on top of
> a quirk adding a further -1 to such rolls.

MgT 2e Spacecraft Operations pp. 142-153/PDF 143-154
Sensors pp. 150-151/PDF 150-151

On the Sensor Target Table p. 150/PDF 151

The Range Bands are Adjacent (1 km or less Range Band Table p. 151/PDF 152), Close (1-10 km Range Band Table p. 151/PDF 152), Short (11-1,250 km Range Band Table p. 151/PDF 152), Medium (1,251-10,000 km Range Band Table p. 151/PDF 152), Long (10,001-25,000 km Range Band Table p. 151/PDF 152), Very Long (25,001-50,000 km Range Band Table p. 151/PDF 152), Distant (More than 50,000 km Range Band Table p. 151/PDF 152).

The sensors are Visual, Thermal, EM, Active Radar/Lidar, Passive Radar/Lidar, NAS, and Densitometer

CRB 2e p. 151/PDF 152 under the heading of Sensor Types provides "the types of sensors commonly found on spacecraft across Tech Levels."

Visual (all): Electronically-enhanced telescopes.
Thermal (all): Picking up heat emissions.
Active Radar/Lidar (all): Detects physical objects. Active use bounces beams off a target and thus makes it easier to be seen (DM+2 to Electronics (sensors) checks to be
detected in return).
NAS (very advanced): Neural Activity Scanner. Detects neural activity and intelligence.
Densitometers (advanced): Determines internal structure and makeup of an object through its natural gravity.

I did not find any information in CRB 2e on what EM stands for or what it detects. Referring back to MT I believe EM means electromagnet emissions and detects the emissions in the bands for radio, IR , visible light, UV, and X-ray.

CRB 2e does not describe what Passive Radar/Lidar sensors are but as a guess they the receivers of radar/lidar used to passively detect and triangulate a target's bearing and range when it is using actively using them.

At ranges over 50,000 km the only sensors capable of detecting a contact would be visual and thermal and would provide minimal details. The visual sensor's minimal detail is a basic outline and a thermal sensor's minimal detail is hot or cold overall.

Das Boote has a J-2 drive which places the starship at TL 10 which indicates that it's MgT CRB 2e sensor suite has visual, thermal, EM, and active/passive Radar/Lidar systems.

Per PDF MgT HG 2e p. 19 Step 7: A TL 9 Civilian Grade Sensor Suite is composed of LIDAR and RADAR. Combining the CRB 2e information with HG 2e in my estimation Das Boote's sensor suite has visual, thermal, EM, and active/passive Radar/Lidar systems.

MgT HG 2e System Defence and Sensors p. 24/PDF 25 extends CRB 2e's range bands as follows

Distant (50,0001-300,000 km; Very Distant (up to 5,000,000 km): All Electronic (sensors) checks become Formidable (14+), and Far over 5,000,000 km): At these ranges, sensors can spot the signature of ships making jumps (inbound or outbound), and can determine only whether a contact is a ship or other similar-sized astronomical body. In either case, sensors will only be able to determine the size of the contact to the nearest 10,000 tons.

>
> Per the MGT2 survey rules, scan time was 2D6 days.
>
> If some wombat hadn't already blundered past and ruled the other way,
> I'd certainly bow to your professional background (and the cinematic
> example of Ronald "Jonesy" Jones in _The Hunt For Red October_).
>
> I'm not sure if Badass-Moustache was explicitly looking for fuel sources
> _per se_ - he just quit looking as soon as he had enough evidence (using
> JOAT 3 to stand in for science (planetology) ) to conclusively infer at
> least one fuel source. 
>
> The exception was discovering the rogue gas dwarf Teapot (Solomani Rim
> 2530) - he had managed to get a Survey Index of 12 from long range, but
> I wanted to mix things up a bit (as he was scanning a
> theoretically-empty parsec), so gave him 8 sensor blips that _might_ be
> something and had to be further refined. So Badass-Moustache dug out all
> the accumulated data and conclusions from Milford's Run, strained it
> though The Moustache Of Power, and had to re-analyse those blips in
> light of his accumulated experience, data and conclusions.

I have made a quick review of The Great Rift Book DSE Handbook PDF and I did not see how the sensor rules from CRB 2e and MgT HG 2e are being used.

snip

Tom Rux