Combadge

The combadge is a combination of a badge and communicator, worn by Starfleet personnel on their uniforms during the 24th century. Combadges are used for onboard ship communication with other Starfleet personnel, when:


 * For accessing the onboard computer when not in an area where the computer was listening.
 * For ship-to-shore communications.
 * For direct communication to another combadge.
 * Transporters use the combadge to lock-on to its bearer to make transport faster. Combadges were fitted to act as a universal translator. Due to the size of the combadge, its working range was limited to 500 km, although a starship could boost the signal to bridge larger distances. Combadge.jpg

Personal Communicator
The current Starfleet-issue communicator represents the latest improvement in small subspace radio devices. Its primary role is to maintain voice contact among crew members aboard ship and during away missions and to provide a lock-on contact for transporter operations. Voice contact with other devices, such as the ship's main computers, is also within the communicator's capabilities. The communicator casing was micro-milled duranium, mirroring the Starfleet insignia.

Control System
Control of the personal communicator while aboard a Starfleet vessel was a matter of preference and habit. To initiate a voice call, it was simply a matter of tapping the front of the badge to confirm that the message was meant to go out. During away team missions, the tap was essential to conserve internal battery power. The tap activated a dermal sensor to relay a power up command to the combadge.

The range of the communicator was severely limited, mainly due to the small size of the emitter and power supply. In transmissions between two stand-alone communicators, clear voice signals can propagate only 500 kilometres, this is a tiny fraction of the 40,000 kilometres required to contact an orbiting starship, so it was the starship that must become the active partner in order to receive the communicator's low power signals and transmit corresponding to the communicator's receiver.

User ID Security
For security purposes, the communicator is a personalized Starfleet device that could be programmed to respond to the individual crew member's bioelectrical field and temperature profiles using the built in dermal sensor. If an attempt was made to operate an appropriately programmed device by another crew member without security override authority, the communicator will fail to activate.