World information:

Communication in the Wasteland

Long distance and short distance communication in post apocalyptic California

Overview: In principle, this text is about the differing methods that exist to transmit a message from one place to another. Regarded are the possibilities of radio, telegraph, postal services and even old satellites left over from the War.

Radio: There are several theories as to why, coming from the handful of scientists that have studied it. Some speak of a too low count of sun spots, others talk of interference brought on by too high background radiation, either way, one needs an astonishingly powerful radio to even send morse
code more than 200 kilometers. Voice grade transmission over 150 is likewise difficult.

Of the technologically most advanced inhabitants of the Wasteland, especially Vault-City, the NCR, the Shi in San Francisco and of course the Brotherhood of Steel, radio is used on short distances and especially in a military context.

Some of the bigger and medium sized settlements of post apocalyptic California have their own radio channels and usually those transmitters are strong enough to be heard in the whole town or city and often even outside of it.

Telegraph and Telephone: Telegraphs, that is, cables that transmit morse code, exist only in the NCR, and even there the first plans exist to upgrade the relatively new telegraph net to a telephone net as soon as possible. For the moment, telegraphing is only possible between the city states of the NCR, but again, there are plans to integrate the other big and small settlements into this net. A large part of the lines lead into the Hub and the great switchboard as well as the lines are cared for by the ministry of interior affairs.

A functioning telephone net is available in Vault-City, where the internal net of the Vault was extended outwards and in San Francisco, where the Shi have rebuilt one from the ruins.

According to the few outsiders, that ever visited the fortress of the Brotherhood of Steel, they as well, have a functioning telephone net.

Postal services: An official postal service exists only in the New California Republic, in the sense that there is a small army of mailmen, that deliver packets and physical letters. In the greater Republican cities one can simply write a letter, seal it, adorn it with a stamp and either give it up
directly at a postal office or throw it into a letterbox that is emptied daily and then delivered. In the smaller towns and settlements the post comes about once a week, sometimes even rarer than that. It is usually delivered to a small postal station and then distributed further. In some settlements the weekly arrival of the post rider is the highlight of the week.

A true, official postal service also exists in San Francisco and Vault-City, though those postal services do not cooperate. Someone that wants to send a letter or a package from, say, San Francisco to Vault-City, would do well to give it to a traveler heading in that direction or to a
caravan merchant that drives in that direction. Another possibility would be to give the letter to the Crimson Caravans or the Far Go traders, that would then give the letter to a colleague that continues to ride in the necessary direction.

Old satellites: A few will now think, wait a moment, before the Great War there have been dozens, if not hundreds of telecommunication satellites that have been placed in orbit. Wasn't it possible to pick up a satellite phone and place a call from Oregon to Uganda?

Yes. It was. The satellites that survived the EMPs of the Great War, have since all been destroyed by micro meteorites or such, it seems.