Tonto Silerheels wrote:
Modern frequency hopping (spread spectrum) radio communications are indistinguishable from noise unless you know the sequence of frequencies being used. Theoretically, you could suppose some great technological leap that would surmount this problem, but that would require another suspension of disbelief.
You don't need any sort of technological leap. With current technology, frequency hopping provides no protection against eavesdropping by a dedicated attacker, even if the standard hopping frequencies aren't being used. It provides protection against interference and jamming. If it provided significant protection against eavesdropping, no one would bother with encryption. The frequencies being used aren't random, they have to be agreed on, usually via a reproducible pseudo RNG or a set frequency pattern, by both the transmitter and receiver. The pseudo RNG thing means the same frequencies WILL be used repeatedly. Applying probabilistic analysis to a large section of spectrum would show a preference for that "static" to show up on those frequencies. If you've been recording the spectrum, it's simple to reconstruct the message at that point. If it's encrypted, decrypting and reading the message is another matter, but you know the message exists and have an encrypted copy. Both the ability to monitor huge amounts of spectrum and do basic 20th century spectrum and signal analysis is something I would expect to see in the average 24th century military grade reconnaissance drone.
KNick wrote:It could be that the SNARCs did pick up such communications, but did not recognize them as such. To the SNARCs, it might seem like just another burst of static caused by something like lightning. If the SNARCs then filtered out all such bursts of static, then it would never come to OWLs attention. Especially if the filter was established before OWL became self-aware. The SNARCs would continue to filter them out now that OWL is thinking on his own, but he still wouldn't realize that he needed to look at them differently if it is not specifically called to his attention.
Such settings would be set by the designers of the SNARCS, not Merlin. If the federation engineers were unable to tell the difference between an high power impulse signal with a well known frequency response that covers huge amounts of spectrum and a low power, non-impulse signal that has a much, much, much smaller frequency footprint, then Merlin should just give up because humanity has no chance against the Gbaba.
OWL could have missed other radio signals because "he" hadn't been ordered to look for other radio signals.
True, but Merlin has been been monitoring for any potential communication between the Rakurai and the temple for the entire series. He's known at least one other person (Paityr) had access to at least limited federation tech since OAR. He's known since BSRA there's a possibility of other groups of people who know the truth and may or may not have access to some sort of tech. If Merlin didn't put looking for electronic signals as a priority, that's a fairly huge oversight.
PeterZ wrote:Guys, Aivah's request is more interesting. I believe she is setting Clyntahn up for an assassination. She exposed her knowledge to Merlin after Dialydd Mab inadvertently acted as her picadore. She must have gotten word back about Clyntahn's reaction and knew he would go out of his way to appear unaffected. Now it is only a matter of time until he leaves the Temple and exposes himself. When he does, I believe Aivah has some method to kill him. If she can get there quickly enough, that is.
If she's like Paityr, maybe she's planning to kill Clyntahn, then wake whatever is under the temple so it can help 'archangel' Merlin set things 'right'.
It would be a fairly interesting turn of events at least.