Eve Master Class - Jump Portals

Since I have recently acquired both the skills and a Widow Black Ops Battleship to fly, I figured I would find out how to properly use the Covert Jump Portal Generator. Finding official information on the Evelopedia or item database proved impossible, and the general Eve forums were filled with guesses, half answers, and confusing short hand. Thus I decided to filter the wheat from the chaffe and present here the offical account of how to use a Jump Portal.

Modules

There is the Jump Portal Generator which can only be fitted to Titans, and the Covert Jump Portal Generator which can only be fitted on Black Ops Battleships.

Skills

Both modules only require Jump Portal Generation level I to use. Further levels of the skill reduces the amount of Strontium Clathrates (aka Stront) by 10% but since the Covert Jump Portal Generator requires no Stront for activation, training it past level I is useless.

Module Fuel Consumption

The Jump Portal Generator requires 500 Stront per activation minus 50 units per level in Jump Portal Generation, and 1000 GJ of capacitor. The activation lasts for 60 seconds.

The Covert Jump Portal Generator requires 0 Stront per activation and 100 GJ of capacitor. The activation last for 20 seconds.

For both modules, during the activation the ship's velocity is 0.

Jumping Ship Fuel Consumption

For each ship that jumps through the Jump Portal to the cyno beacon on the other ship, there must be enough Isotope fuel of the correct type in the cargo bay / fuel bay of the Titan or Black Ops ship. Reminder: Amarr = Helium Isotopes, Caladari = Nitrogen Isotopes, Gallente = Oxygen Isotopes, Minmatar = Hydrogen Isotopes.

The amount of fuel required depends on the mass of the porting ship, the Jump Portal Mass Consumption Factor (aka MCF) of the module, the Titan/Black Op pilot's skill level in Jump Fuel Conservation (JFC_level), and the base amount of fuel the Titan/Black Op ships needs to jump itself.

Mass * MCF * ((base fuel cost) - (base fuel cost * 0.10 * (JFC_level))) = fuel required / light year

Example 1 - A 1 million Kg ship using the jump portal of a Titan with a MCF of 1e-9 which itself requires 1000 isotopes per light year operated by a pilot with Jump Fuel Conservation IV will require:

1,000,000 * 0.000000001 * 1000 - (1000 * 0.10 * 4) = 0.6 isotopes / light year

Example 2 - A 1 million Kg ship using the jump portal of a Black Ops with MCF of 1.8e-7 which itself requires 300 isotopers per light year operated by a pilot with Jump Fuel Conservation IV will require:

1,000,000 * 0.00000018 * 300 - (300 * 0.10 * 4) =  32.4 isotopes / light year

If we assume that any decent pilot has Jump Fuel Conservation IV then we can prepare the following little reference chart.
 

Ship Class	Approx mass	Black Ops Isotopes / lyr	Titan Isotopes / lyr
Frigate	1,100,000 Kg	35.64	0.66
Cruiser	12,000,000 Kg	388.8	7.2
Battleship	103,000,000 Kg	3337.2	61.8

Jump Portal Range

The range is dependent on two factors: The base jumping range of the Titan or Black Ops ship and the pilot's level in the skill Jump Drive Calibration. For a Titan with a pilot that has Jump Drive Calibration IV, this is 7 light years. For a Black Ops with the same pilot the range is 4 light years.

Ship Restrictions

Any ship class may use the Titan's Jump Portal Generator.

Only ships that have Jump Harmonics 2 as a property may use the Black Ops Covert Jump Portal Generator. Currently those ships are Covet Ops Frigates, Stealth Bombers, Force Recons, Blockade Runners, and Black Ops Battleships. Oh, and Strategic Cruisers with the Covert Reconfiguration subsystem installed.

Jump Portal Operation

In order to make use of a ship's Jump Portal, all jumping pilots must be in a fleet with the pilot of the Titan / Black Ops ship and of course the pilot generating the cyno or covert cyno beacon in the target system.

The first step is the cyno is created. Then the Titan / Black Ops pilot activates the jump portal generator by clicking on the cyno pilot's name in fleet and selecting "Bridge To". (Note: I am unsure if the module needs to be manually activated prior to creating the bridge, or if it is activated by the bridge creation. I will confirm this week. UPDATE: Confirmed that no manual activation of module required.)

Next every jumping pilot right clicks on the portal generating ship and selects "Jump" to make use of the portal. They have to be within 2000 meters in order for this option to appear, just like using a stargate or Jump Bridge POS module. Of course, the correct amount of fuel needs to be in the generating ship as well.

The amount of time all ships have to make it through the jump bridge is 60 seconds for a Titan, and 20 seconds for a Black Ops ship.

Once all jumping ships have bridged through the portal and the activation time is complete,  the Black Ops ship itself can jump to the covert cyno beacon whose duration is 60 seconds.

(Note: I have read conflicting reports of whether or not Black Ops can create a bridge to normal cynos. Again, I will confirm this week.)