I'm confused, I know, I'm always confused

So, while re reading "Storm from the Shadows" I came across this line
"Artemis' combat information center had analyzed the (slowly) arriving sublight transmissions from the recon probes".

I was under the impression that radio waves and of course "whisker beams" traveled at light speed.

any thoughts?

Gun Boat Diplomacy wrote:So, while re reading "Storm from the Shadows" I came across this line
"Artemis' combat information center had analyzed the (slowly) arriving sublight transmissions from the recon probes".

I was under the impression that radio waves and of course "whisker beams" traveled at light speed.

any thoughts?

I assumed this was slightly overstated, and that they were coming in at lightspeed.

This was just a few lines after Michelle ordered that the recon drones' grav-pulse coms be disabled before launch -- so (I believe) it's trying to make the distinction between (slow) light-speed reports vs the (fast) 62x light-speed FTL grav-pulse coms reports that the RMN has become used to.

But yeah, technically it's not "sublight".

Jonathan_S wrote:

Gun Boat Diplomacy wrote:So, while re reading "Storm from the Shadows" I came across this line
"Artemis' combat information center had analyzed the (slowly) arriving sublight transmissions from the recon probes".

I was under the impression that radio waves and of course "whisker beams" traveled at light speed.

any thoughts?

I assumed this was slightly overstated, and that they were coming in at lightspeed.

This was just a few lines after Michelle ordered that the recon drones' grav-pulse coms be disabled before launch -- so (I believe) it's trying to make the distinction between (slow) light-speed reports vs the (fast) 62x light-speed FTL grav-pulse coms reports that the RMN has become used to.

But yeah, technically it's not "sublight".

FTL always seems to be contrasted with "sublight", even when what is being discussed travels at C. E.g., radio, radar, laser whiskers, light itself.

Gun Boat Diplomacy wrote:So, while re reading "Storm from the Shadows" I came across this line
"Artemis' combat information center had analyzed the (slowly) arriving sublight transmissions from the recon probes".

I was under the impression that radio waves and of course "whisker beams" traveled at light speed.

any thoughts?

Jonathan_S wrote:I assumed this was slightly overstated, and that they were coming in at lightspeed.

This was just a few lines after Michelle ordered that the recon drones' grav-pulse coms be disabled before launch -- so (I believe) it's trying to make the distinction between (slow) light-speed reports vs the (fast) 62x light-speed FTL grav-pulse coms reports that the RMN has become used to.

But yeah, technically it's not "sublight".

Fox2! wrote:FTL always seems to be contrasted with "sublight", even when what is being discussed travels at C. E.g., radio, radar, laser whiskers, light itself.

I have checked the books through MoH and there is only one other place where "sublight" is used for communication; as opposed to space ships or missiles: in War of Honor chapter 58:

"Time of response to our sublight challenge, Harper?" Honor asked her com officer.
"If they respond to it immediately, we should be hearing something from them in another four or five minutes, Your Grace," Lieutenant Brantley told her.

And she was continuing to transmit her sublight challenges and demands that he identify himself as she came.

If there's a relay, then it's sub-light, because the relay can't retransmit faster than the light-speed signal would have gone through the hardware.

For all intents and purposes, it's light-speed though.

Technically it's entirely correct using the term "sublight" since no lightspeed signal actually travels at lightspeed due to the fact that it doesn't travel through a perfect vacuum.

Of course, the above is just an esoteric nitpick and the use of the word in the way it was done was kind of strange. Sublight in SciFi is usually related to engines or movement, not communication which is usually classified as being at lightspeed or FTL.

ThinksMarkedly wrote:If there's a relay, then it's sub-light, because the relay can't retransmit faster than the light-speed signal would have gone through the hardware.

I would classify that as latency/delay and not signal speed per se, but I guess it depends a bit on how you look on it because regardless if you have relays or not the signal will always be "sublight" the moment it's being processed by any kind of communications equipment.

Joat42 wrote:Technically it's entirely correct using the term "sublight" since no lightspeed signal actually travels at lightspeed due to the fact that it doesn't travel through a perfect vacuum.

That's far more pedantic than my relay idea!

Of course, the above is just an esoteric nitpick and the use of the word in the way it was done was kind of strange. Sublight in SciFi is usually related to engines or movement, not communication which is usually classified as being at lightspeed or FTL.

The most likely in-universe explanation is that the speaker simply mis-spoke. As you say, sublight is more often used to talk about movement of ships, so it might be in actual use aboard ship. Misusing to mean a light-speed signal (compared to an FTL gravitic signal) is entirely possible.

I realized that I should have checked for "sub-light" also and found a few places; all referring to communication:
At All Costs, chapter 19:

"Not a lot, Sir," the noncom said unhappily. "That far out, we don't have any of the FTL platforms close enough for a good look, and the sub-light—"

At All Costs, chapter 68:

I'm speaking to you over what we call a 'Hermes buoy.' It's an FTL relay with standard sub-light communication capability.

Storm from the Shadows, chapter 12:

It's actually capable of generating entirely new targeting and penetration commands on its own. They're not going to be as good as the ones a waller's tac department could generate for it if the link were still up, but we're estimating something like a forty-two percent increase in terminal performance at extreme range as compared to any previous missile or, for that matter, our own Mark 23s with purely sub-light telemetry links, even if the Apollo bird is operating entirely on its own.

Mission of Honor, end of chapter 21:

And wasn't it nice of BuWeaps to leave the Echo's sub-light telemetry links in place, too? he thought coldly, watching the icons of Sandra Crandall's ships sweeping closer and closer.

Thank you for your replies. I got to wondering if maybe I missed some sort of Manticoran electronics magic/vodoo that slowed down signals

Gun Boat Diplomacy wrote:Thank you for your replies. I got to wondering if maybe I missed some sort of Manticoran electronics magic/vodoo that slowed down signals

Why would they want to do that?