Station Technology

Station Telecommunications

The radio headsets aboard the space station are tuned to a series of frequencies that allow you to communicate with your fellow crewmates to warn them about station hazards, alert them to interesting opportunities, and so forth. Each frequency is encrypted and preprogrammed into your headset, although knowledge of a specific frequency and the encryption key will give you access to use them yourself. You can set your headset to interpret any or all frequencies simultaneously, but bear in mind that others can listen in on your headset by standing next to you and just listening in; also bear in mind that you only can transmit on one frequency at a time.

Standard Frequencies	Usage
Alpha Frequency (A)	Alpha Frequency is the standard frequency used for conversation aboard the station, and as such is usually cluttered with 'office chatter'.
Beta Frequency (B)	Beta Frequency is a standard secondary channel used aboard the station. Captains may require that it be used for specific purposes, but otherwise it functionally serves as another public channel.
Delta Frequency (D)	Delta Frequency is another standard secondary channel, although it commonly is left off.
Gamma Frequency (G)	Gamma Frequency is used for public announcements, typically by the AI, although (for example) the Quartermaster may use this to announce the arrival of the supply shuttle, Chefs may announce a new delivery to the dining area, and so forth.
Omega Frequency (O)	Omega Frequency is intended for use only for emergency broadcasts that threaten the station at large. By default, all headsets are set to receive Omega Frequency, and all crewmembers are expected to only utilize Omega Frequency during a genuine emergency. Announcements may involve shuttle call instructions, alerts about areas opened to vacuum or otherwise rendered nonserviceable, or other disasters that threaten the imminent destruction of the station.
Medical Frequency (+)	The Medical Frequency is accessible by medical staff and the Head Surgeon, and is typically used to report medical emergencies (influxes of patients, low supplies, etc).
Security Frequency (!)	The Security Frequency is used by security staff and the Captain, Head of Security, and Head of Personnel to coordinate operations regarding the defense of the space station, capture of criminals, etc. Most efficiently run security teams set up additional Security Frequencies to defend against the likelihood that someone may steal a security headset or manage to crack Security's encryption key.
Engineering Frequency (@)	The Engineering Frequency is used by miners, engineers, and electricians, ideally to communicate about damaged areas of the station that need repair, and for the Chief Engineer to provide direction to his crew's work.
Research Frequency (%)	The Research Frequency is used by all Research staff, as well as the Research Director, to coordinate research activities and discuss new developments that may need to be shared with the others.
Machine Frequency (#)	The Machine Frequency is used by the AI to communicate with fellow synthetics, and its encryption key is always set to something extremely complex. Finding it is easy enough, but breaking into it is much more difficult without a Neural Interface implant.

Some notes about radios and radio frequencies:

These are not the only frequencies in existence, of course. Those suspicious that someone is listening to their conversations may set their radios to add additional channels; since they are in charge of setting encryption keys, these may be easier or harder to intercept than standard channels.
The range of communication transmissions may be shortened if the station's resonance transmitters are depowered or taken offline. This may quickly become a problem as it can inhibit station communication and effectively isolate damaged areas.
Resonance Transmitters can be accessed (with Engineering-level access) to provide information about what is being retransmitted over them. This can be important in determining whether hostile forces have invaded the station, if they are using an unlisted frequency to communicate.
Frequency Scanners, while not standard station equipment, can be built in order to capture information about the frequency and relative strength of nearby outgoing transmissions. This, too, can be useful when searching for unauthorized uses of station resonance transmitters - while it won't tell you what's being said, it will indicate the frequency and effective distance of the nearest active transmitter.
High-powered machinery may make certain frequency bands unusable when in close proximity - this should never affect official station channels, if the machinery is functioning appropriately, but this may have an impact on clandestine channels. The best solution is usually to move away from any machinery that is actively interfering with a signal.
Radio frequencies are in the Gigahertz range, and vary from 00.000Ghz to 99.999 Ghz. Encryption keys are a hexadecimal code up to sixteen characters in length. Encrypted communications can be listened to, but their output will be scrambled to incomprehensibility or rendered simple bursts of noise.
Poor-quality transmissions have a great likelihood of being randered as bursts of noise, blocking out some or all transmissions made.
Once you have an unauthorized frequency, you can analyze it to attempt to break its encryption key. Of course, this takes a certain amount of technical skill as well as appropriate equipment, as well as requiring repeated exposure to transmissions on this frequency, to achieve keybreaking and translation unless the encryption key is ridiculously simple.