The "listening device" on Trisol was used to send transmissions to Earth. Later those transmissions were observed by another distant civilization.
Why did it even have the ability to transmit, let alone under the control of a single operator?
The "listening device" on Trisol was used to send transmissions to Earth. Later those transmissions were observed by another distant civilization.
Why did it even have the ability to transmit, let alone under the control of a single operator?
The transmitter element of the station is very low powered. Its function isn't described in the books, but we know that the Trisolarians have a fleet of spaceships and satellites in orbit that would need to be communicated with.
“Listening Post 1379 is a small facility without high transmission power. The maximum range may be twelve million light-hours, about twelve hundred light-years.”
By comparison, a typical Earthican satellite broadcast station (of which there are tens of thousands) would easily be able to beam a signal that strong into space if we knew what direction to point it in with any degree of certainty.