Detection across the Alpha Wall

Hi All,
We are told in the early books that detection across the boundary between N-space and Hyper is not possible.

Still Both the FTL comms and the Spider work by interaction with this Wall. So these should be detectable from just above the wall...

Of course since even tramp freighters travel in the Delta band and we know there is a lot of noise and inteferance on the sensors nobody has actually hung around to look.

Of course now we have fleets lurking in Hyper to Mousetrap incoming forces we have high quality military sensors and idle hands...

So I would expect that due to the differing physics of each band there would be a large frequency shift that would take the known signal frequencies way down. Still these should be predictable.

Thus suitable Frequency analysis as is currently done with passive sonar could pick out such signals even if they could not read them. The Spider probably creates a burst of noise for every "grab" it makes. Since the noise is in the Alpha layer and not N-Space its not detectable - currently.

Think about a couple of Sag-C's tracking an LD or Ghost from above the barrier and then dropping in on it at optimal attack range. Ouch!

Or MAlign localizing Ghost Rider drones and dropping in on them to kill them.

Somebody will have got there by the time Raoul makes Captain.
:->

Captain Golding wrote:Hi All,
We are told in the early books that detection across the boundary between N-space and Hyper is not possible.

Still Both the FTL comms and the Spider work by interaction with this Wall. So these should be detectable from just above the wall...

Of course since even tramp freighters travel in the Delta band and we know there is a lot of noise and inteferance on the sensors nobody has actually hung around to look.

Of course now we have fleets lurking in Hyper to Mousetrap incoming forces we have high quality military sensors and idle hands...

So I would expect that due to the differing physics of each band there would be a large frequency shift that would take the known signal frequencies way down. Still these should be predictable.

Thus suitable Frequency analysis as is currently done with passive sonar could pick out such signals even if they could not read them. The Spider probably creates a burst of noise for every "grab" it makes. Since the noise is in the Alpha layer and not N-Space its not detectable - currently.

Think about a couple of Sag-C's tracking an LD or Ghost from above the barrier and then dropping in on it at optimal attack range. Ouch!

Or MAlign localizing Ghost Rider drones and dropping in on them to kill them.

Somebody will have got there by the time Raoul makes Captain.
:->

According to David it's still a no go. You can't even see a star or a planet one hyper layer up, let alone a ship. Lots of discussions about this when Oyster Bay happened.

Captain Golding wrote:Of course now we have fleets lurking in Hyper to Mousetrap incoming forces we have high quality military sensors and idle hands...

-snip-
Think about a couple of Sag-C's tracking an LD or Ghost from above the barrier and then dropping in on it at optimal attack range. Ouch!

Or MAlign localizing Ghost Rider drones and dropping in on them to kill them.

Stars and large Jovians have their own hyper limits, so unless you're trying to pounce on Ghost Rider drones watching over a wormhole or Junction, it's physically impossible to translate down on top of one.

If you try to downward translate in the outer, I think it was 20% of a hyperlimit (someone crosscheck me on that please?), you're can't but you'll survive the attempt. If you try a downward translation closer than that, I believe the in-book description was "using a cannon to fire soft-boiled eggs at a brick wall", and you're DEAD before you can realize your navigator made an oops.


Second problem, even if you somehow translate down practically right on top of a GR drone, downward translations have huge energy bleeds, your sensors take a bit to reconfigure. While you're blind as a bat, that drone is going to be speeding away from you at considerable speed, they are much faster than even Grand Alliance LAC's, the only things faster than a Ghost Rider drone is attack missiles.


Author also said it's not possible at all. You can't detect the pulses from the Alpha-band

There is also the whole dimensional distortion bit, as hyper is smaller than normal space.

Which David will never address as it causes a lot of issues to major plot elements.

Captain Golding wrote:Hi All,
We are told in the early books that detection across the boundary between N-space and Hyper is not possible.

Still Both the FTL comms and the Spider work by interaction with this Wall. So these should be detectable from just above the wall...

You quoted the relevant parts that lets us infer how it works: You can interact with the boundary one one side but you can't detect across it - ie the different sides are "insulated" from each other.