Originally posted by Turambar
no, ETAK was a completely different device, it use d quantum pulses to communicate, not normal comm equipment,
if it was simply a new frequency and language, it'd be a somewhat less important seeming thing and it woudlnt have taken years of research and a coverup rebellion to do
Quantum pulses? From what I remember from the Tech Room, Shivans communicate through the electromagnetic spectrum. In fact, your ship picks up communications between the Iceni and the Shivans during the one nebula mission. That kind of shoots the "massive new device" theory out of the water. I always thought that the Shivans communicated in the normal spectrum, but that their communications were completely incomprehensible; that Bosch managed to get data from an Ancient archaeological site that enabled him to decrypt Shivan transmissions. Regardless, I don't think adding a big honkin' radar dish to the Iceni would do much for its looks.
Oh for goodness' sake... I know that debate about Shivan means of communication ended ages ago, but I simply can't help throwing a short comment on it here...
I don't mean to be mean, nowhere near it, but do you people have any idea what you are talking about? Basically, the point is that Shivans use quantum pulses AKA bursts of electromagnetic radiation as their natural means of communication, just like humans and Vasudans use voice, machanical wave-motion via air.
Let me explain further: Electromagnetic radiation
consists of quantum flow (photons, more specifically); short pulses of electromagnetic radiation can be considered as quantum pulses. So you are both right; most likely Shivans use the normal spectrum of radio waves and not gamma or x-rays or visible light, as we indeed can hear their signals in some missions. So, there's nothing special in quantum pulses themselves - hell, when you turn on the radio, it catches quantum pulses emitted by the transmitter kilometres away. Or your cordless mouse transmits them to the receiver, which converts them to normal USB mouse signals. Or the cell phones... Only thing special in Shivan communication is that they can
directly produce the pulses they want to generate and transfer information within them quite easily, whereas we humans (and Vasudans) have to build complex things that first convert the information into electrical form (be it analog or digital), then send it modulated into carrier signal (at least three means of modulation can be used; frequency modulation, amplitude modulation or polarization modulation - of these, only FM and AM are widely used on Earth) and finally a receiver converts the signal into comprehensive form - be it text, voice or picture. The Shivans need no devices, they can produce and receive radio signals with relative ease.
On this background it's quite simple to see what ETAK actually is: It's an emulator that produces a signal comprehensive to Shivans; an emulator, if you like. The problems encountered here are:
-what frequencies do Shivans use? This is relatively easy to find out, just listen to them with radio telescope and pick the right frequencies.
-what modulation type do they use? Equally easy to find out.
-what they say and what we say to them? This is the hardest problem to sove, and does not actually require hardware, but indeed more like software, actually a decyphering tool... And, as it seems, it didn't quite go as Bosch planned it. Or who knows? Perhaps he persuaded the Shivans to leave human-vasudan space. Anyway, as it seems, ETAK is more like a powerful computer or computer program that emulates a shivan receiver/transmitter and tries to convert normal(for us) information into Shivan form and vice versa. So, it certainly wouldn't need any external special antennae - it could very well use the ships own comm subsystem, which would very likely be more than capable at operating with Shivan frequencies.
That is all.
