Combadge
From Hidden Frontier
The current design of the Starfleet Combadge has been in use since 2371, but the technology has been around since the early years of the 24th century. For more than 150 years prior to the use of combadges, Starfleet personnel had to rely on hand held communicators to keep in contact with each other, their ships, or their stations. Though extremely durable and versatile, these communicators always had one small problem: they had to be constantly held by the user. In some situations, especially on dangerous away missions, Starfleet personnel may need to hold a phaser in one hand and a tricorder in the other, meaning that most humanoid species were left without an extra hand for their communicator. In 2273, Starfleet R&D tried a new solution by issuing wrist-worn communicators. These devices proved very unreliable, and were quickly dropped in favor of returning to hand-held communicators.
The current standard communicator badge performs three important functions:
- Voice communications with other personnel and a mothership or space station
- Lock on telemetry for transporters
- Universal translator
The communicator casing is made of duranium covered in gold and silver alloys, both functional and aesthetic. The primary internal components of the communicator include the subspace transceiver assembly (STA), a monofilm voice pickup, an encryption circuit, the universal translator, and the saurium krellide power cell.
The communicator is activated simply by the user tapping the outer surface. Security protocols require that all Starfleet combadges only work for a specific user, and are coded to that person's heat signature and other biofunctions. On board a starship, the tap is not essential, as the computer is constantly monitoring for contextual signals to begin voice transmission. However, off ship, the tap is an essential habit to get into to preserve battery power. Once the communicator is activated, the internal computer waits for contextual clues to determine to whom the transmission will be directed.
Previous to 2371, the combadges in use by Starfleet personnel were limited to a line-of-sight range of 500 km. That is, this was the maximum range that two people with unboosted communicators could talk to each other without the signal being routed through a mothership. The current design has a range of up to 1200 km. The range will, of course, decrease considerably should any obstructions be between the users. Using relayed emergency subspace beacons, the maximum range of a combadge without a mothership can be increased to up to 3.72 light-years.
As for the communicator's translation capability, each has a basic conversational library of the languages from 253 galactic civilizations plus the basic analytic routines to translate some unknown languages. When the communicator is in range of a starship, it will patch into the main computer's translational algorithms, increasing its translation capabilities accordingly.
Many of the other major galactic races use a similar type of combadge with similiarities and differences when compared to the Starfleet model. For example, the combadge used by the Bajoran militia has a slightly smaller translational library, but is 155% faster. The Klingon version is modified for more remote control over transporter circuits and has a 33% higher battery time. The Romulan communicator does not have a dermal sensor, meaning that they are constantly on and probably monitoring the user and his surroundings.
