Janet's Star Trek Voyager Site

SHIP U.S.S. VOYAGER:
COMMUNICATIONS

screenshots by Janet

 

SHIP-TO-SHIP COMMUNICATIONS

SHIP-TO-SHIP CONTACTS

One of the most frequent types of communication made by USS Voyager encompass ship-to-ship transmissions. If USS Voyager had not been hurled into the Delta Quadrant, a large proportion of the ship's communications would have been ship-to-starbase transmissions. Both types of transmission will typically span from hundreds of Astronomical Units to tens of light years, far beyond the capabilities of the lower-power subspace transceiver units already described. The communications system designed into the starship comprises ten ultra-high power subspace transceivers. Each is a trapezoidal solid 6 x 4 metres by 3 metres thick, set below the hull skin layer. The antenna array is the only device imbedded within the outer 11.34 cm of the skin. It is tied to the rest of the transceiver by a direct field energy waveguide. Since the operation of the long-range units can take place at both sublight and warp velocities, the internal arrangement of the transceiver allows for a greater number of major assemblies, including a sublight signal preprocessor, a warp velocity signal preprocessor, an adaptive antenna radiating element steering driver, Doppler and Heisenberg compensators*, a combined selectable noise/clutter eliminator and amplifier stage, and a passive ranging determinator. As with the short-range system, signal encryption/decryption is handled by the main computer. All Starfleet starships are able to transmit and receive voice and data via subspace; the maximum transfer rate as at the late 2360s was 18.5 kiloquads/second but technological advances may have improved this rate by the time of USS Voyager's launch on its mission to the Badlands in 2371. Calls between ships during low-action levels are usually initiated by a hailing signal packet, which contains all pertinent information relating to the calling ship. The call, usually directed toward upper-tier command personnel, can be held for routing to the proper destination by Security or Ops. Routine voice and data exchanges between scientific, technical, and operational departments aboard both vessels can be cleared by Security once contact has been established. Crisis action levels, especially during Red Alert, can see normal hailing signals circumvented, depending on the exact situation. As with the other communications modes, calls can be closed out by either active controls, direct voice commands, orthe aural monitoring functions of the main computer as it processes contextual cues.

*One component of a transporter system are 'Heisenberg compensators', designed to permit the derivation of precision vector and positional data of particles on a subatomic level. [TNG: Realm of Fear] [TNG: Ship in a Bottle]. Behind-the-scenes: Werner Eisenberg's 'uncertainty principle' suggests that on a subatomic level, it is possible to know the motion or the position of a particle, but not both. Some scientists have suggested this basic characteristic of matter may make it impossible for a transporter as seen on Star Trek to work, so staff member Michael Okuda suggested the 'Heisenberg compensator' as a scientific gag to 'explain' how the transporter does it anyway.

[#155 Flesh and Blood, Part One]
Janeway: "Hail them."
Kim: "I've tried. They're not responding."
Tuvok: "Shields at 68%. Should I return fire?"
Janeway: "Not yet. Open a channel. This is Captain Kathryn Janeway. We're not here to fight you."
Tuvok: "Shields at 52%."
click for audio clip from the episodenote the change between ordinary voice and comms. voice
a Hirogen ship attacks USS Voyager
[#170 Renaissance Man]
Due to hostile damage, the Delta Flyer cannot communicate with USS Voyager through normal means.
On the bridge, Kim is in the captain's chair. "Report."
Lieutenant Ayala, at the helm: "There's some kind of pulse being directed at our transceiver array. It's coming from the Delta Flyer."
Kim: "Hail them."
Ayala: "No response."
Kim looks at his monitor: "Looks like they've encoded the pulse with a com. signal."
Janeway's image appears on the main viewscreen.
Kim: "Captain."
Janeway: "Sorry about the image, Ensign. Our com. system's been damaged. The only way I could send you a signal was through the main deflector."
(Actually, it is not Janeway but the Doctor masquerading as her.)
click for audio clip from the episode
Lt. Ayala reports


the encoded pulse provides an image, albeit poor quality, of Janeway

 

STARBASE CONTACTS AND THE MIDAS ARRAY

Communications with starbases are handled in a similar manner. USS Voyager, during its seven years in the Delta Quadrant, is out of range of any Federation Starbase, but the ship's communications systems were of course designed to expect Starbase communication. Depending on the action level and distance from the starship, voice contact with a starbase can be routed through numerous Starfleet Command tiers. As face-to-face exchanges take place, information is constantly moving along hundreds of other high-speed subspace channels. Starship logs are downloaded along with volumes of collected information, including vehicle hardware and crew performance, sensor scans, strategic and tactical analyses, experiment results, and many other areas. Since this would be a routine procedure if USS Voyager had remained in the Alpha Quadrant throughout the ship's service life, it would have been and indeed was the work of a quick moment to make the first such download from USS Voyager to Starfleet via the MIDAS Array in 2376, in [Pathfinder]. Janeway tells Lieutenant Reginald Barclay and the listening Admiral Paris: "We're transmitting our ship's logs, crew reports and navigational records to you now." That first contact between USS Voyager in the Delta Quadrant and Starfleet came as an unexpected surprise to Voyager's crew and could have lost valuable time if initiating the download had not been a routine procedure capable of being implemented at the touch of one or two computer control buttons. Starbases routinely make uploads to starships which include new additions to the galactic condition database, Starfleet clock synchronisation values, compilations of other starship downloads, flight advisories, mission orders, and other information necessary to the smooth running of a starship. It is likely that this information was included in Starfleet's upload from the Pathfinder laboratory via the MIDAS Array in 2376 as well as data on new communications technology. Lieutenant Barclay informs Janeway: "We're sending you data on some new hypersubspace technology. We're hoping eventually to use it to keep in regular contact and we're including some recommended modifications for your com. system." While docked at a major starbase, voice and data are normally transferred by the optical data network.
The first conversation between
Project Pathfinder on Earth and
USS Voyager in the Delta Quadrant [#130 Pathfinder]:

click for audio clip from the episodepart 1 click for audio clip from the episodepart 2

USS Voyager's situation is unique for a Starfleet vessel, being as it is in the Delta Quadrant and 60,000 light-years from Earth at the time in 2374 when the Doctor briefly visits the Alpha Quadrant [#82 Message in a Bottle]. In 2376, MIDAS, which is a loose acronym derived from Mutara Interdimensional Deep Space Transponder Array System [source SS. ST:M and TOSTFF omit "System"] becomes the vital link between Project Pathfinder and USS Voyager. Controlled remotely by signals from the Pathfinder lab, the MIDAS Array fires a tachyon beam which opens up a micro-wormhole to the Delta Quadrant through which a datastream communication can be transmitted between Project Pathfinder and USS Voyager.


the MIDAS Array transmits


the cyclic pulsar

Later that year MIDAS is redeployed to act as a conduit for Starfleet's revolutionary hypersubspace technology which allows communications to be received within days of transmission. To begin with, datastreams are exchanged between Project Pathfinder and USS Voyager: Pathfinder uses a cyclic pulsar to amplify the signals from the MIDAS Array. The cycle only peaks every 32 days but it is enough for Voyager's crew to receive a short burst of information once per month and have about seventeen hours to respond. Voyager is sent tactical updates, letters from home and news about the Alpha Quadrant. The beginning of this process is depicted in [#144 Lifeline]. Janeway's reports on Voyager's encounters in the Delta Quadrant are relayed through Project Pathfinder. This includes information about first contacts with alien species, casualties and status of the Maquis.

Live communication between Project Pathfinder and Voyager, is achieved in 2377, stardate 54732.3, after Lieutenant Reginald Barclay of the Pathfinder team followed a tip from Voyager's Ensign Kim and Seven of Nine. Operation Watson bounces a tachyon beam off a quantum singularity and allows 11 minutes of live air-time per day. Janeway is told that how the 11 minutes are allocated is up to her to decide. The crew draw lots to determine the order in which they would make personal calls to friends and family at home - each will have 3 minutes of uninterrupted com.-time.

Advert for PROJECT PATHFINDER section:
picture advert
Beam to PROJECT PATHFINDER.

If Admiral Kathryn Janeway had not travelled back in time from the early 25th century and assisted in the early return of USS Voyager to the Alpha Quadrant in 2377, then it is likely that what Admiral Hayes tells Janeway would happen:

"We've redirected 2 deep space vessels toward your position. If all goes well, they could rendezvous with you in the next 5 to 6 years. ... As we get closer our conversations become more frequent. When responding to this message, please let us know of any casualties. I'm sure you've had more than your share. I'm anxious to know the status of your crew - the Maquis, first contacts that you've made, interactions with the Borg. But there'll be time for everything. Our thoughts are with you. Talk to you soon."
In addition, the United Federation of Planets is constantly developing new technology to enable the farthest corners of the galaxy to be brought closer together via ever faster ever better communications links. This might take the form of a deep space telescope that can transmit images of distant sectors and phenomena (e.g. the Argus Array (Argus Array picture) three light-years from the old Cardassian border) or a communications apparatus designed to relay messages over extended distances such as the MIDAS Array.

 

NON-STARFLEET CONTACTS

Most of the key interstellar-capable cultures in the Milky Way have come to use subspace frequencies in the interest of rapid communication. Even those that have had dealings with the Federation but are not members usually have gone some way toward adopting some common protocols, if only (in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants) to interact with Starfleet vessels. In the Delta Quadrant most spacefaring species encountered by USS Voyager use some form of subspace communication whose voice and data translation routines can be managed if Voyager's computers can perform adequate signal analyses and produce viable algorithms for use with the Universal Translator. How the Universal Translator works and cases where it could not cope with certain alien languages is in the article SHIP USS VOYAGER: Universal Translator.

USS Voyager's situation is unique for a Starfleet vessel, being the only one in the Delta Quadrant and still dedicated to Starfleet principles (i.e. excluding USS Equinox which was carried to the Delta Quadrant also). For in Alpha Quadrant and parts of the Beta Quadrant, dedicated Federation survey and contact ships will precede certain starship contact, performing pathfinder missions, making cultural contacts, and compiling the required communication information. The possibility always exists, however, that a certain small percentage of true first contacts will be made by a starship, activating a series of events designed to ensure adherence to the Prime Directive by all concerned departments. Pending Federation policy determinations on the specific contact, Starfleet's traditionally conservative interpretation of the Prime Directive's non-interference requirements may result in subspace channels being closed down or set to higher encryption, if it has been determined that a new contact is using subspace radio. It is to be expected that USS Voyager follows similar protocols in the Delta Quadrant, for the ship's policy is not to make contact with pre-warp civilisations, such as that encountered early in 2371 which utilised polaric energy as a power source (that is, after Janeway changes the course of history to preserve the planet), and such a policy logically extends to careful use of subspace communication also.