Annihilation

[Rynn]

I don't buy that elite scientists on the outside wouldn't have worked out in three years that The Shimmer scrambles radio communication, and had some engineers create a telegraph that transmits information using a pulse-based code (e.g. Morse Code) through a thin wire/optical fiber, or had drones with inertial guidance systems carry memory cards back and forth between the team and base. 

I assumed they tried stuff like this and it didn't work. They mentioned sending in animals and drones so it stands to reason they tried simple things. But given how the laws of physics on upwards don't seem to comply anymore in the shimmer No doubt whatever they tried didn't work still. Drones with simple instructions still don't come back, wires fail to transmit anything and whoever went in to trail one doesn't come back etc.

I also don't get why they trekked through the swamp if their destination was the lighthouse? Come in from the Gulf in Zodiac boats like a SEAL team.

I wondered this too. They could have probably done with an explanation as to why they couldn't, like perhaps the whole lake (if it was a lake and not the ocean) being inside the shimmer.