Spacer as Soldier

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by malloyd

Pretty much. If all you want to do with an electronic communication system is make an ordinary call, you don't need a skill roll, any more than you need a Telephone Operation skill roll every time you place a call. Any points at all in Spacer certainly covers everything you need to make calls from shipboard equipment that doesn't need a skill rolls.

If you want to act as a relay a relay between two other stations on opposite edges of your reception envelope, one of whom is using a non-standard protocol, while somebody is jamming, then yeah, you need a skill roll, and Spacer isn't it.

Agreed. I'd identify three regimes in a post-TL6 environment:

No skill required. Using any system designed for general use. Imagine a phone here on Earth right now, or the radio equivalent that any passenger vessel would almost certainly be carrying. This would include more complex systems with computerized automation, but only to the limits of what that automation is programmed to do (HAL might tell you the AE-35 antenna-steering unit is down).

Soldier/Spacer. Switching on a system that has been disconnected for some reason, or using a system designed for tactical use. Most of us wouldn't know where the breakers are for the comms on a warship, or what the TLAs on a military radio stand for, or which icon out of dozens or hundreds to click on to start a call, but that would be a few minutes of standard training for a crewman or a soldier. Observing basic COMSEC would also fall into this category.

Electronics Op (Comm). Compensating for natural interference, extending range, figuring out foreign tactical equipment, hailing on a specific frequency band, keying in manual code (like Morse), operating new or classified systems, patching (phone to radio, intercom to radio, radio to shipboard PA, etc.), penetrating jamming, relaying comms between two other stations, using comms as sensors (e.g., scanning a broad frequency range), and so on.