Radio Waves (was: RE: FTL: ON TOPIC ADDED)

> Deeply in Love with Dot wrote:

a counter waves emmited from the target, designed to disrupt the incoming
radio waves...

Why is it always 'thin air'? Why can't it be 'fat air'? 'Mostly fit but
> could lose a few pounds air'? wrote:

Something to take a look at: Timothy Zahn's Conquerors series. Very nicely
written three book trilogy, with something along these
lines...

J.

> What if Kra'vak are sensitive to radio? What if radio causes
[...]
> AFAIK, according to the offical background, the Kra'vak did fire

The *only* problem with the radio waves idea is....space is fraught with radio
waves already. Stars, nebulae, whole galaxies give off a lot of radio waves.

It would kinda suck to be susceptible to radio waves when your parent star
tends to emit those sort of things...

(but as an idea for other....things/items/whatnot being the Achilles
Heel to alien races, this could something that might be fun to explore)

Mk

> The *only* problem with the radio waves idea is....space is fraught

Well, how about a race that evolved on a planet whose atmoshpere was
particularly good at screening out radio waves? When they leave their planet,
they need shielded ships or be subject to the detrimental effects of
the background radio-wave bombardment..  In a universe as big as ours,
this may not be too far fetched.

At 9:21 PM -0500 9/17/97, "Why is it always 'thin air'? Why can't it be
> 'fat air'? 'Most wrote:

IIRC, Poul Anderson had a first contact story in which the "twist" was that
the aliens communicated at ultrafrequencies but emitted random noise at
audible requencies. It drove the translation computers nuts
since they were working on the human-audible component, which was
meaningless and varied widely from individual to individual. I forget the name
of that one.

One I do remember the title of was H. Beam Piper's "Little Fuzzy." That had an
alien that made a cute "yeek" sound, but also carried its content at the
ultrasound frequencies.

Anybody who hasn't read Piper really should do so immediately. "Star Viking",
"The Cosmic Computer", and "Uller Uprising" are the most promising as
sourcebooks for FT or DS gaming. SV and CC both feature a lot of grav combat,
fought with hyper velocity cannon, missiles and electronic warfare. Very
sophisticated for stuff written in the 60s.

»»»»» stay on topic Yellow 3, stay on topic.... ««««««

> At 13:42 18/09/97 +1000, you wrote:
This is another one that's getting FAR away from Ground Zero games if you
don't mind folks..

Say a race *is* susceptible to radio waves which casue them some harm or
injury (say the way Microwaves would hurt humans). What way would it be
implemented? Beam weapons? Satellite systems (imagine a satellite with a
footprint like Sky's european coverage, but it kills.. ouch.) And if so, are
there any possible countermeasures?

                                TTFN
                                        Jon

In a message dated 97-09-18 01:38:39 EDT, you write:

<< The *only* problem with the radio waves idea is....space is fraught
> with radio waves already. Stars, nebulae, whole galaxies give off

Yes, it is; I can't stare at the sun very well. Ouch, Oooo, Ouch,
Ouch!!!!!

> << The *only* problem with the radio waves idea is....space is fraught

Then stop staring at it!! *whap*
Yeesh...

M "everybody's a comedian" k