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Light-Speed Spaceships Would Have Trouble Phoning Home
(www.iflscience.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Jerry Pournelle's "CoDominium" books work like this. The ships are FTL, but can only use the FTL drive at a certain point to leave a system. There isn't a way to send messages faster than light, other than a ship. There is mention of "message sloops" which are small ships with high acceleration wich can move from the jump point to the inner system faster than one of the battleships.