The directional beam had been operating for 80 minutes.
From the Earth it went over a directional beam to a station 2,000 light-years away.
He would not have known in what direction to aim a directional beam.
Something about the directional beam that had brought us to this landing field, then no one being there.
Typically they do not give 'in and out' information, although some directional beams do exist.
But the darkened cloud was still blocking the directional beam very effectively.
It's not easy, because most of it is directional tight beam.
"Hold the directional beam where it is," he said to the communications man.
"Perhaps our space friends used a highly focused directional beam," he mused.
We had not expected," said the voice, "to find a directional beam or a radio.