Transporter Protocols

These are Star Fleet's standard transporter protocols:

Blind Beam Out

A blind beam-out was a method of using a transporter.

This method was used when normal means of acquiring a transporter lock on a subject were unsuccessful. A transport cycle was engaged within a designated area without knowing exactly who or what was present. This was usually done in an emergency situation where an immediate evacuation was required.

Concealing Transporter Use

Normally, a ship’s sensors and computers easily detect use of the transporter. On a related note, it’s sometimes possible to disguise a transporter’s carrier wave to make it look like one emitted by another species technology. Most species' transporter technology uses a distinctive carrier wave that can be altered to resemble those of another species. For example, Romulan transporters operate on a similar subspace frequency to those of the UFP; with only a minor adjustment, they can simulate a UFP carrier wave.

Disabling Safety Protocols

Transporters are programmed with safety protocols and biofilters which prevent them from rematerializing known harmful biological agents or dangerous items (such as explosives).

Replicators / Transporters

Replicator technology derives from transporter technology. An individual with the right technical skills can turn a replicator into a transporter by re-aligning the energy-conversion matrix (of course, most “replicator-transporters” are usable only for small objects—such as bombs).

Site-To-Site Transport

A site-to-site transport is a special type of transport where the object or person being transported is transported from one site directly to another, neither site being a transporter platform. A site-to-site transport is accomplished by first transferring the transporter's target from the site of origin to the pattern buffer of the transporter, in the same manner as the usual "beam in" procedure; instead of being routed to a transporter platform, however, the matter stream is diverted to a second site, in a similar procedure to a conventional "beam out".

Site-to-site transportation is very resource intensive. It consumes twice the energy of a conventional transport (since it is effectively two consecutive transport maneuvers), and requires twice the time in the pattern buffer. It is very useful, however, when time is critical (for example, when a casualty needs immediate attention in sickbay, site-to-site transportation is almost invariably used) or other unusual circumstances. On the other hand, it is almost never used in emergency evacuations of large groups because it would effectively halve the capacity of the transporter system.

Transport at Warp Speeds

Numerous complications arise when attempting to transport at warp speed. If the transporting ship and subject are both moving at warp speeds, they must match warp speeds as closely as possible.

Transporting someone who is not moving while the transporting ship is at warp speed is also possible but difficult. The annular confinement beam must be synchronized with the warp core’s frequency, and the timing must be precise, to accomplish this.

Even using the transporters at close to warp speeds is dangerous. In a process known as near-warp transport or touch-and-go downwarping, a starship drops out of warp just long enough to transport someone or something off of or onto the ship, then returns to warp speed.

Transporting through cloaks and shields

Normally, an active shield or cloaking device prevents transport onto or off of the affected ship (it is, however, possible to transport through an internal force field).

Matched Shield Frequencies

If one ship can match its shield frequency to another ship’s, it can maintain a transporter lock on someone on that other ship and transport them off of it even though the shields are raised. Note: the matching of frequencies in this case does not allow either ship to bypass the other’s shields with attacks; the correspondence is not that precise.

Radion Beams

A character can cause the main deflector to emit a radion beam, which will carry the transport beam through a shield.

Shield Windows

Some ships have their shields cycle along with their sensors to minimize the effect of the shields on sensors. This usually results in a microsecond “window” every five to six minutes in which a person could transport through the shields. Similarly, it’s possible to transport through a shield by projecting the transport beam right between two of the target ship’s shield generators. If a ship can manage to open up a hole or “window” in one of another ship’s shields with an attack, that ship can transport personnel or object onto or off of the target ship.

Tachyon Burst

Firing a tachyon burst at a ship requires that ship to reset its shield harmonics.