PIPELINE Tight Beam Communications!

Tired of having your opponents listening in on your communications? Rehnquist has the answer, The Pipeline series of communications devices! Pipeline uses a focused microwave beam to direct your message where you want it to go and nowhere else! Great for point-to-point communications and anywhere you need to transmit data safely and reliably!
Get Pipeline and stay in touch!

Pipeline point-to-point radios: $750, 3 spaces, 4 DR Similar to regular radios, except: (1) The antennas ("horns") must be in Iin~of-sight with each other. (2) Transmissions are on a tight beam _" (game scale) wide, rather than generally broadcast. (3) Anything opaque to visible light and in the direct path of the beam will stop the signal, making communication impossible. Human beings and animals in the signal path take no damage (in Car Wars scale, they're not exposed to it long enough to matter). The signal cannot otherwise be jammed, and smoke does not affect it.

Pipeline mobile radios: $750, 1 space, 1 DP. These are not as effective as point-to-point systems, simply because the mobile antenna must be reoriented for broadcast every time the vehicle moves. Treat the radio as a laser for targeting and to-hit purposes, including sustained-fire bonus, but Pipeline radios do not drain a car's battery the way a laser does. The receiving antenna is large enough to not require a to-hit penalty. The antenna must be top-mounted, and can be mounted in a turret.
Mobile-to-mobile communications are possible, at a -4 penalty to target the receiving car's Pipeline antenna.

Pipeline pedestrian communications: $750, 3 grenade equivalents, 1 DR These backpack-mounted Pipeline radios allow a pedestrian to stay in touch with a fixed base, for instance. They contain a battery with enough power for four hours of operation. A pedestrian-carried antenna is -5 to hit; larger antennas are available, but they require setup on a tripod (1 minute minimum).
The Pedestrian Pipeline is worn like a backpack and cannot be worn with any other backpack. If carried, it counts as 5 GEs. If a pedestrian wearing a Pedestrian Pipeline is hit by weapon fire, roll one die; on a 1, the Pipeline is hit instead of the pedestrian.