Why are communicators and tricorders separate?

[JNG]

The fact that away teams still beam down in their ship duty uniforms (bright, target-practice red) with bulky equipment hanging from belts is nothing more than an entirely understandable limitation on budget and imagination. I mean, who knows what a realistic ground survey mission would look like with such technology? An intelligent nanite swarm?

Given the shown controversy about creating and "enslaving" the sentient nanites and exocomps and so forth, I don't think this will be happening any time soon. The color of the uniforms seems reasonable for peaceful visitors and the comment about red reflects what a human might think, but I doubt aliens are necessarily likely to see it that way; I don't think some sort of military-looking battle or concealment suit with phasers built into gloves would be appropriate for peaceful exploration, nor necessarily the most advantageous in life-supporting environments where the team could otherwise be unencumbered. Also, do you really think of their equipment as "bulky?"

 

[Strider]

Given the shown controversy about creating and "enslaving" the sentient nanites and exocomps and so forth, I don't think this will be happening any time soon. The color of the uniforms seems reasonable for peaceful visitors and the comment about red reflects what a human might think, but I doubt aliens are necessarily likely to see it that way; I don't think some sort of military-looking battle or concealment suit with phasers built into gloves would be appropriate for peaceful exploration, nor necessarily the most advantageous in life-supporting environments where the team could otherwise be unencumbered. Also, do you really think of their equipment as "bulky?"

jesus christ

 

[Jono]

I don't quite understand why Starfleet allows its communications between its people to be so, open. You call anyone on a combadge and anyone in a couple of metres radius of the combadge knows what you called about. It is useful in the sense you can call one guy in a party and the rest hear what your orders were or new information you have to pass on but in combat less friendly situations it just gives out useful information to a possibly hostile force. It's is basically walking around with a mobile phone constantly set to speaker phone.

In one episode of DS9 Kira calls for help while hiding from the Jem'hadar who were well within earshot and she whispers and you cut to the other guy and he's yelling back! Luckily the writers were with her and we don't see what it sounds like to Kira but by other examples you would think it would be more then loud enough to give away her position.

 

[Ronald Held]

Why be that prepared, when you can beam down anything you need within a short period of time?

 

[Harry]

I think there must be some kind of cultural reason behind many of the apparent 'low tech' solutions we see in the shows. I think that there is a cultural drive towards doing things manually and personally. That's why we don't see AIs in regular service, advanced robotics, virtual beings etc.

It may also explain why especially Kirk and co. seem to be extremely apprehensive towards intelligent computers.

In a way, it could be construed as a move away from today's gadget and tech obsessed society, and may be a part of the utopian setting.

That being said, I could imagine some high tech people somewhere within the Federation's forces.

 

[bryce]

I would imagine that a tricorder should be able to uplink telemetry back to the ship (around or on the planet/station/whatever) - and so sending back voice (& visual) data along that same uplink stream would be easy peasy.

What I mean is - I think tricorders, doubtless have a back-up communications capacity.

It's just that, as pointed out here already, not even member of a landing party/away team carries a tricorder - so hence the separate unit.

I also imagine that later tricorders (espically the padd-like NEM version) - as well as padds - would function as powerful mini-computers. Indeed, vast computer processing power would be implied, as needed to analyze and interpret all that sensor information into something meaningful.

(I've also liked the idea that, in addition to a UT, TNG-era combadges also incorporate a micro-miniaturized version of that bio-belt/monitor we saw on TMP uniforms.)

 

[Timo]

One might also argue, though, that tricorders omit the telemetry devices as redundant. That's sort of futuristic, too: the devices would automatically and wirelessly network with the nearest communicator, which would then give the required interplanetary boost to the signals.

This might explain what went wrong with Spock's tricorder in "City on the Edge of Forever": it would have been capable of playback in normal conditions, but when taken out of its networked context it got jammed in a mode that precluded the playback. Spock had to simulate the presence of the network somehow to get the tricorder out of that mode - and once that was done, the tricorder did have the capacity of playing back its records in the desired manner, like such a device naturally should.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[bryce]

One might also argue, though, that tricorders omit the telemetry devices as redundant. That's sort of futuristic, too: the devices would automatically and wirelessly network with the nearest communicator, which would then give the required interplanetary boost to the signals.

Good point...Starfleet/Federation Blue Tooth...

This might explain what went wrong with Spock's tricorder in "City on the Edge of Forever": it would have been capable of playback in normal conditions, but when taken out of its networked context it got jammed in a mode that precluded the playback. Spock had to simulate the presence of the network somehow to get the tricorder out of that mode - and once that was done, the tricorder did have the capacity of playing back its records in the desired manner, like such a device naturally should.

Timo Saloniemi

'nother good point...

(I would hope that kind of situation would have been anticipated by Starfleet R&D...but who knows...?)

 

[SicOne]

They are separate

(1) to keep more people employed in the Props Department, and

(2) to give the actors more apparatus to play with.

They should have gotten the Professor from "Gilligan's Island". If that guy can make a radio from a coconut, he could do wonders with a tricorder and communicator.

 

[Ronald Held]

I think Timo's idea of sending the tricorder data through a communicator has some merit and evidence fro it.

 

[USS KG5]

This just got me thinking: why do they have separate tricorders and communicators? Back in the days of TOS, and even TNG and the other 24th century series the technology wasn't around, but think about it now - with the rate of integration real world technology is going through, don't you think the tricorder/communicator separation thing is going to look a bit dated soon?

Practically I can't see why you would necessarily want to combine the two devices - be a bit of a bugger if your new alien friends banned scanners on their planet and as a result you cannot talk to the ship. The same goes with weapons, you can leave your phaser behind and still do the rest of your job.

 

[Santaman]

*bleep bleep!* *Opens multifunctional device, makes x-ray of his own skull which is sent to the main viewer on the bridge* shit.. wrong button.. "Sorry Cap'n..."

^^ thats why you wanna keep them seperated..

 

[Cary L. Brown]

This just got me thinking: why do they have separate tricorders and communicators? Back in the days of TOS, and even TNG and the other 24th century series the technology wasn't around, but think about it now - with the rate of integration real world technology is going through, don't you think the tricorder/communicator separation thing is going to look a bit dated soon?

If I'd been making the new Trek film, it is one thing I might have paid attention to. Of course, I think I probably would have gotten quite a negative reaction for doing away with the classic tricorder/communicator combo, but it would have made sense given modern technology.

Far from it.

You're looking at this from the standpoint of modern, infrastructure-heavy situations, and mainly from the standpoint of control interfaces, I suspect.

The thing to realize is that the control interface... whether for a contemporary cell phone, or a ST communicator, or a ST tricorder, is a small part of the device.

In the case of a modern cell phone, you're talking about a device which has a tiny, low-power energy storage device, a very low power tranceiver, and a relatively large percentage of the total device dedicated to interface.

Sure, you can play "space invaders" on it, or whatever... but it's only useful as a communications device if you have an active "cellular network" to tie into, so that your teensie little transceiver and weensy little battery pack don't have to do very much.


Now, a Star Trek communicator has a simple user interface, along with a massive power cell and multiple tranceiver sets (at a mimimum, radio-frequency and subspace)... and realize that unlike a cell phone which only has to transmit and receive over a very short distance, this has to be able to reach tremendous distances without the benefit of a compatible infrastructure to collect, boost, recode and retransmit the signal, etc (as cell phones have). It has to work on its own.. meaning it has to produce extremely powerful signals... and collect extremely faint signals effectively. Think more of the communication stations used to stay in contact with contemporary space missions, rather than your pocket cell phone, and you'll have a better sense of what this device does.

A tricorder, on the other hand... has a more complicated user interface, a number of powerful sensor and scanner devices, and a massive-output power cell, along with massive data storage and computing power (by contemporary standards).

Are these REALLY the same device, or remotely the same device? The only thing that they might have "in common" would be the user interface. Functionally, they are not only totally different, but would likely be highly incompatible. Would having an orbital-range transmitter operating next to, and simultaneously with, your super-sensitive electromagnetic-resonance sensing system really be a good idea?

Don't think of it as a "magic box with controls." Think of it as a set of functions. If the functions aren't the same (and moreover, if they're potentially incompatible), well... the conclusion ought to be obvious.

 

[SoM]

Are they? We've only seen a separate UT on two occasions: once when provided by aliens ("Arena"), once when Spock desired exceptional translation performance and customized the required instrument ("Metamorphosis").

One might say that the usual UT is an implant that all our heroes possess - hence the "everybody speaks English even after confiscating or dismantling all the gear of the heroes" phenomenon. Only some demanding special tasks would require a separate, bulky piece of hardware - which in ENT would be a smallish box, in TOS a microphone-like tube, and in TNG a commbadge. And when the heroes were deprived of those, they'd be unable to learn all-new languages, as in much of ENT, in TOS "Arena" and in VOY "Basics".

Wasn't there a VOY episode where we're told the UT broke down completely on an away mission, but a "helpful" local stepped in to help and beamed back to the ship with them?

Now, a Star Trek communicator has a simple user interface, along with a massive power cell and multiple tranceiver sets (at a mimimum, radio-frequency and subspace)... and realize that unlike a cell phone which only has to transmit and receive over a very short distance, this has to be able to reach tremendous distances without the benefit of a compatible infrastructure to collect, boost, recode and retransmit the signal, etc (as cell phones have). It has to work on its own.. meaning it has to produce extremely powerful signals... and collect extremely faint signals effectively. Think more of the communication stations used to stay in contact with contemporary space missions, rather than your pocket cell phone, and you'll have a better sense of what this device does..

Which brings to mind the question - how far have we seen the 24C commbadges work over, unaided (i.e., not involving a ship/shuttle/runabout as a potential relay station)? Planetary distances, certainly, but what's the limit?

 

[Wingsley]

In the TNG ep "Silicon Avatar", a pre-colonization expedition on Melona IV is visited by a landing party led by Cmdr. Riker, and Riker sends out a call for help when the Crystaline Entity appears. The Enterprise is said to be at least a day away at warp speed, and Riker (apparently) communicates through nothing more than his combadge.

One possibility: it could be said that since there was already an expedition there when Riker's team visited (or maybe Riker and company accompanied the expedition to the planet for the first time) and that they were already beginning to establish a permanent presence there, and there could have been a communications satellite serving as a relay/booster in orbit. So the jury is out on that one.

 

[Timo]

Really, the jury will spend the rest of its days mulling this over, because in basically every adventure we can choose to assume that the skies above our heroes are saturated with UFP communications networks (or nets available to the UFP through a variety of treaties). Those might be able to pick up the signal of a teeny weeny primitive 20th century transmitter across several lightdays and send it to the other side of the Federation in a matter of minutes.

That is, almost any Alpha quadrant episode could be treated this way. VOY and DS9 might give better examples of extreme ranges "in the wilderness".

We might also want to believe that subspace communications travel faster if they have more power behind them. A commbadge might have basically infinite range (as the super-duper tech at the receiving end could filter the weakest signals out of the worst noise), but couldn't get its message from A to B in a practicable timespan. A shuttle transceiver might get the word out faster, while only a starship comm array the size of a largish building could send near-instantaneous messages to the destination (be it the receiving user or the nearest link in the insta-relay comm network).

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Wingsley]

^ That is not what I was talking about.

Think of it this way: In "Mudd's Women", Harry expressly communicated ahead (surreptitiously, to be sure) to the Rigel XII mining colony using "subspace frequency 3-9". So we can assume that Starfleet personal communicators in both the 23rd and 24th centuries are capable of at least limited extrastellar communication.

But it is never clear if, say, an expedition left behind on a planet (either temporarily or long-term) might also have a little something extra left with them: maybe a satellite could be deposited in orbit. The satellite doesn't have to be a high-tech, high-powered Federation telecom buoy. Instead, it could be just an Expeditionary Package, to serve as a weather monitoring station, a local telecom relay so expedition team members don't loose touch over the horizon, and maybe a modest subspace booster to call nearby starships, space stations or expeditions if there are any in range. Such a "package" could be small, low-power and easy to store, set-up, handle and fix.

 

[JNG]

That sounds quite reasonable and the Tech Manuals do make vague reference to various pieces of "temporary" communications equipment. All the same, I can see why the writers wouldn't be eager to establish onscreen the launch of such a useful gadget as standard operating procedure, because a few of the typical ways Our Heroes get in trouble would be a bit more difficult to apply with it in the mix.

 

[Wingsley]

Maybe you can come up with a few examples, but the only one I can think of would be the planet Neural in the TOS outing "A Private Little War." In that ep, there was a landing party deliberately left on the planet, but because of the Klingon presence there no satellite would be used.

I would think that a starship would deploy such a satellite only if an expedition would be left behind on a planet, not just every time a landing party beamed down.

 

[Timo]

Think of it this way: In "Mudd's Women", Harry expressly communicated ahead (surreptitiously, to be sure) to the Rigel XII mining colony using "subspace frequency 3-9". So we can assume that Starfleet personal communicators in both the 23rd and 24th centuries are capable of at least limited extrastellar communication.

But by themselves, or by connecting to a communications network?

Harry was aboard a starship. In today's terms, we would assume that the ship would be radiation-proof and that there'd be antennas everywhere on the insides to pick up personal communications and route them to a network for sending out to the desired address. We would also assume that this happens so often that Uhura cannot really keep track of outgoing messages - not unless there's a specifically declared communications silence or state of reduced and regulated communications in effect.

In 1960s terms, few would think that way, of course, but why should we have to care about writer intent?

Now, we have a few examples of our heroes using their communicators (at short ranges) while infiltrating a hostile starship - so the "radiation proof" assumption probably doesn't hold. But the existence of networks is almost a given in hindsight, even if nobody in the 1960s was smart enough to imagine such things. It wouldn't be just a single comm-booster buoy per planet: it would be trillions of such buoys, sown on a bewildering variety of occasions, each with a lifetime of at least a few centuries and each absorbed into the growing network through complete backward compatibility or flexibility (which is a feature of all Trek comm or computation systems anyway).

We would need a very special argument indeed for being able to claim that location X in episode Y would be free of UFP commnets. Neural won't cut it: it's a surveyed world, and the ship that surveyed it would have taken care to lay at least a breadcrumb trail (even if the last crumbs close to the planet would be proofed against exposure by natives). Whether Kirk would trust the proofed relays to communicate in the presence of Klingons is another argument; if he couldn't trust them, how could he trust a direct broadcast from his handheld unit to his ship?

Really, instantaneous communications from random locations are such an important part of Star Trek that it doesn't make any sense IMHO to assume that commnets are difficult to access or that they require a bulky, ship-mounted piece of special Starfleet hardware. Our heroes might not be in the habit of dropping commsats or spysats on every location they visit (since they do make special note when they deploy spysats), but they need not be the only players in the game. Dedicated commnet maintainers might deploy these trillions of relays, or the sheer accumulation of random relays could do the trick. And a range of a few lighthours would then probably suffice for hand or chest communicators in most cases.

Timo Saloniemi