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Re: Isle Royal Base, com system failure.
At 04:28 PM 1/3/97 EST, Randy Vice wrote:
>On Fri 3-Jan-1997 10:58a, bgarmer@tsc.net wrote:
>
>BG> I am back!!!! I so do dislike coming in on the middle of the
>BG> conversation
>BG> but I will insert my comments for all they are worth.
>
>Welcome back Bill, we missed you dearly in some of the conversations (yes, we
>were grumbling you had taken a hike when we needed your input.:^)
I know - being the pillar of technology is such a heavy job. ;)
>BG> I agree that cold sleep will be hell on the body especially depending on
>BG> the
>BG> length of time spent in sleep. My team waking up 150 years late are
>BG> pretty
>BG> sick and reaching for the O2 as soon as possible. Waking up on time
>BG> (right
>BG> after the war) wouldn't be so bad. I have assumed that only the command
>BG> element of the IR complex woke up. To explain the rest, I have to give
>BG> some background on how I run my game.
>
>Depends on if you go by TMP's cold sleep v. cryogenics. I go with the latter.
>The only thing I screw with my PCs are the ones with high active PSI scores
>since they tend to "leak" their energy in this status (in my game atleast:).
>They get back their "energy" back about 25% per week after awakening,
>depending on how long they were on ice.
Since neither technique is "real technology" yet, I will go with what is
said in Desert Search. It also adds to the "something has gone wrong"
feeling when you can tell your players that they don't feel like when they
went through the test freezing during training.
< stuff deleted >
>BG> I suggested last year that the recall signal from PB to all the various
>BG> installations comes in the form of an Extremely Low Frequency (ELF)
>BG> signal.
>BG> PB and a few other installations would have the large transmitting
>BG> antennas
>BG> while most installation would have smaller receive only antennas. This
>BG> means that a bolt hole would have to be woken up, then an HF (high
>BG> frequency) antenna raised, and an acknowledgement signal sent. If this
>BG> didn't occur with a reasonable amount of time (say one half hour), then
>BG> the
>BG> installation would have assumed to be in trouble and a team would be sent
>BG> to
>BG> investigate.
>
>You have a point there. I still don't understand why they wouldn't have a
>transciever instead of just a reciever, albiet a very short range to other
>sites with small antennas.
Well you have a security issue here. If every bolt hole had the capability
to wake the neighboring teams you could unravelling the project by using a
bolt hole to wake up the next team and thing use that team's equipment to
wake up teams outside the range of the equipment of the first team and so on.
By having several command points available to wake up teams you reduce your
security problems (but not get rid of them). The one (and only) reason to
have PB the only command point that can wake up project is that it can
provide better security since it is always awake. But then we have a single
point failure in the system (if this was the system the project chose then
they would have to add timers to the various installations and bolt holes to
wake up these assets in case of a failure at PB or have PB send out a pulse
every XX days and if that pulse isn't received, wake the asset up).
That's why I would have to do with a sabotage explaination.
>BG> EMP is an impluse event that puts a lot of energy into free space. Most
>BG> of
>BG> this energy is in the lower frequency bands. Power lines (which act as
>BG> low
>BG> frequency antennas) picks up a lot of this energy and send its into the
>BG> power inputs of connected equipment. Wiring harness would do the same
>BG> thing. In environments were nuclear events (I love that term) are
>BG> expected,
>BG> antennas are secured or protection is inserted - equipment is disconnect
>BG> from power lines - etc. Semiconductors are very small and thus don't
>BG> couple
>BG> a lot of energy from an EMP event so are fairly safe. Where they get
>BG> into
>BG> trouble, is when they are connected to antennas or power lines that can
>BG> conduct the EMP signal direct to them. Tube equipment didn't suffer to
>BG> badly because they could handle a lot more voltage than modern
>BG> semiconductors could.
>
>BG> ESD (technical term for static electric shock) puts a lot of voltage onto
>BG> the electronics (thousands of volts) directly. Different effect.
>
>Everyone thought that the Russians using old tubes were EMP proof. Until
>someone figured out all that extra wiring made dandy antennas for the EMP.
Yep - I know that Navy equipment uses the unique EM signature of the EMP
pulse to detect a "nuclear event." You will see a light on some equipment
so marked that let's you know if that bright spot on the horizon is actually
a nuclear fireball or just the sun rising in the west.
>BG> Well I design equipment that goes into Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and we
>BG> shield
>BG> for a total does exposure of 12 kRADs-min (many - many more times than a
>BG> human can take). These are commerical satellites - not military.
>
>"Impressive, most impressive."
As an aside, the memory for the control equipment on these satellites has
error correction circutry. This circuity scans the memory and corrects
errors it detects. By looking at the number of errors fixed per unit time,
you can determine the radiation level the satellite is seeing. A great
geiger counter without the additional cost.
>: damocles@nostromo.gate.net : Bruce Morrow,a man before and after his time:
>:"The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the :
>:United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms." :
>: - Samuel Adams : Morrow Project Planning: Looking forward to the end! :
>
Bill
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