Remember, if the enemy can detect your radar, you don't appear as a blip on a screen somewhere saying "the party is here!"
They only know that they detect a radar signal from somewhere. In the war, this often prodded the enemy into making unwarranted assumptions and doing something stupid as a result.
In his encounter with the Shinano, Commander Enright ignored all the crap about being careful about running radar. He ran the thing continuously throughout his action. Admiral Abe of the Shinano detected the radar signal, decided that meant a whole wolfpack was after him and changed his battleplan entirely.
He changed his course from one that would completely eliminate Archerfish's chance to take a single shot, slowed down and altered course directly across Enright's sights. Boom! (repeat as necessary). Scratch the biggest single target of the war.
Why? The pressure of detecting a radar signal worked decisively in Enright's favor. He knew Shinano's exact course and speed. Shinano knew there was a freakin wolfpack out there or they wouldn't be running their radar conrinuously.
Radar detectors were no help to the Japanese navy.
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