The Tramp Freighter Campaign

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Varyon

, but now I'm thinking they are legally required to transmit publicly-available data when they travel, essentially downloading it on their way out of the system and broadcasting it once they arrive to the new one. t.

Unless thye fTL in and out _very_ close to the mainworld they won't be "broadcasting" technically. Communications to and from the mainworld will be directional and any broadcasting will have to be from there.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Unless thye fTL in and out _very_ close to the mainworld they won't be "broadcasting" technically. Communications to and from the mainworld will be directional and any broadcasting will have to be from there.

Fair enough. Given the distances involved, I'd imagine "broadcasts" would be limited to a planet and its orbit, and all other transmissions would be directional. In this case, we're probably talking about the ship sending the data to a nearby relay (probably the nearest power station), which will send it to the next relay, and so forth, until it reaches its destination. Initially downloading the data would have followed a similar path, albeit in reverse, using relay stations to reach the ship during its last day or so in system. Actually, it probably grabs the bulk of the data while it's still close to the main planet, then just gets updates (via the relays) while it's heading out to the transition point to hyperspace.