Tech level of the Vulcans/Romulans

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

How much cloaking did the BoT cloaking device provide? How much 'coverage' did it afford? If it couldn't do a full cloak, then another sign of inefficient power plants within.

[Teaos]

It was supposed to be perfect. But it was up against the most advanced ship in the quadrant who could only just sense it.

Conidering even latter cloaks could be detected I doubt it had much to do with power.

[Aaron]

How much cloaking did the BoT cloaking device provide?

It made it invisible and probably concealed most of it's emissions. The Enterprise used motion sensors (whatever those are) to get a general location.

How much 'coverage' did it afford? If it couldn't do a full cloak, then another sign of inefficient power plants within.

It was new so while it was not untested it was untested in combat, and the Romulans apparently didn't have much on Starfleets capabilites.

[Captain Seafort]

How much cloaking did the BoT cloaking device provide? How much 'coverage' did it afford? If it couldn't do a full cloak, then another sign of inefficient power plants within.

Another possibility is that its reactor was too powerful for its cloak (unsurprising given that it was a very early model). The E-nil could then have detected it in the same way the Jem'Hadar detected the Defiant in "The Search".

[Mikey]

Very possible - or, even the use of plasma-based weaponry (and supposedly, other systems) might have led to asignature "bleeding thorugh" the cloak.

[Captain Seafort]

True - TOS-era cloaks seem to have been vulnerable to plasma leakage, as Chang's BoP also demonstrated that flaw

[Teaos]

Most ships can make themselves rather stealthy but just shutting down all systems. The BoP cloak may very well just be a visual one with a few added features to cut down on sensor detection.

[Captain Seafort]

They'd still have to mask EM emissions as well, otherwise it'd stand out like a sore thumb on infrared.

[Aaron]

They'd still have to mask EM emissions as well, otherwise it'd stand out like a sore thumb on infrared.

That's probably the reason for the large exhaust, disperse the heat plume as much as they can.

[Mikey]

They'd still have to mask EM emissions as well, otherwise it'd stand out like a sore thumb on infrared.

That's probably the reason for the large exhaust, disperse the heat plume as much as they can.

That's very probable - not much different from IR baffles on RL aircraft. Although I suspect that the cloak itself was designed to bend EM radiation in a broad band, not just visible light.

[Aaron]

That's very probable - not much different from IR baffles on RL aircraft. Although I suspect that the cloak itself was designed to bend EM radiation in a broad band, not just visible light.

If it is there's no harm in having a back-up or something to minimise the energy spent. An IR baffle isn't an active system after all.

[Mikey]

I'm not disagreeing with that. One of the precious few times we'd see something of that nature.

[stitch626]

The Enterprise used motion sensors (whatever those are) to get a general location.

Well, space is not a vacuum, and has dust everywhere.
Maybe the sensers were picking up the "particle wake" (new term ) of the ship (similar to the wake of a ship in water).

[Teaos]

I doubt there would be enought dust in space to pick up a starship moving around.

[Aaron]

I doubt there would be enought dust in space to pick up a starship moving around.

You'd think they would be able to pick up the nav deflector doing it though.