Got a question for you guys. In my SR3 campaign, I'm in the process of creating a infilration/intruder character for a new player who will be joining up this weekend. I've got a fairly good idea of where I want to go with the design, but I have run into a bit of a hitch.

You see, the character is not a decker never will be. However, what I have in mind is allowing the character (and therefore the potential for other characters) to broadcast small amounts of data (images, audio, breif videos) to be wirelessly, preferably over headware radio with encryption (either broadcast or data, maybe both).

Obviously this would not be a problem with SR4, but considering that this character is being introduced in mid-February of 2051, I have a bit of a problem here.

On the one hand, I'm just broadcasting 'simple' data and not even risking Matrix connection. If the device on the other end has some memory and some sort of image-display capability (like a computer with a transmitter or a guy with a radio and an image link), then it shouldn't be a problem firing off some photos to some fellow half-a-mile away. Even if bandwidth is an issue, I should still be able to get at least 2Mp per Combat Turn (1% the speed of a Radio Link for a cyberdeck). Considering a picture is 1/60th of an Mp - and that even a minute of video is exactly 1Mp - I don't really see how that could be a problem.

On the other hand, I don't even know if the connection is reliable enough for this to work. I don't even know if a another radio (save for one designed specifically for the express purpose of doing so) could translate the data back into something useful when it the transmission is all said and done. Would the device attached to the radio be able to retrieve the file, or would it just receive unless noise?

Well, anyway, I look forward to your responses on this matter.

LordHaHa

A device attached to a radio should be able to reconstruct sent data. There are subtleties, but as long as you've got a general-purpose computer connected to a radio on both ends and the signal can reach and the noise doesn't obliterate the signal, your answer is "it can transfer a file".

~J

yeah. it's not explicitly allowed in SR3, but it makes sense. some of my characters use this to interface with devices remotely; my rigger, for instance, uses her headware radio to issue drone commands (from captain's chair mode) while she's away from her RC deck.

It very much depends on the frequencies used by the headware radio. Packet padio has been around for a while, but data transmission over standard ham radio frequencies is necessarily slow. On the other hand, higher frequences, in the gigahertz range, can provide superior speed but far worse range.

It doesn't depend at all, since he just asked the "can it happen" question. The proper speed does, as you point out, vary widely.

~J

psh, you guys just don't understand how stuff works. unbeknownst to the world at large, the electromagnetic spectrum awakened in 2011, along with the rest of the world. rather than complicated stuff like waves and dials, radios in T6W give their information to invisible pixies that fly really fast. more powerful radios can control bigger, faster pixies.

No, that only happened in 2065.

~J

nah, that was just when otakus learned to speak in fairyese.

My spy/infiltrator did that sort of thing all the time. The only difference between audio and video is format, so there's no reason your headware radio can't send pictures, videos, or even programs. The others have to be able to interpret the data, but it's still just data.

Thanks for the help, its given me a few things to present to my new player.

LordHaHa