Hydrophone at periscope depth

[hachiman]

Hi

Heard some reports the hydrophone does'nt work at peri depth'but a few metres below this

Is this true??

[swe-mike]

Yes that is correct. I'm not a 100% sure about the exact depth figure but from what I heard you have to be at/or below 20 meters for it to operate.

Can some1 confirm 20 meters?

Regards,

Mike

[Spaxspore]

Yes that is correct. I'm not a 100% sure about the exact depth figure but from what I heard you have to be at/or below 20 meters for it to operate.

Can some1 confirm 20 meters?

Regards,

Mike

i can confirm, played 4 patrols and not once got a audio contact at anything above 20m

[Onkel Neal]

17 meters. Soon to be 55 feet.

[castorp345]

17 meters. Soon to be 55 feet.

"soon"??

any word you can divulge as to what the timeframe on that "soon" might be???

:D

[ssbn627g]

17 meters. Soon to be 55 feet.

I don't ever remember giving the order:

"Dive, make your depth .... meters" LOL!

[Onkel Neal]

Really, truly soon :yep:

[Nightmare]

Shouldn't sonar work at periscope depth though? At least to a degree? The sonarman would always call out "Running hot, straight, and normal" after torpedoes were fired during an attack run. Since in real life, a sonarman would hear the torpedoes and make sure they were running normally, I would think that sonar would function to a degree.

[hachiman]

So is'nt that a bug?
You could listen at PD in SH3!!

[NefariousKoel]

So is'nt that a bug?
You could listen at PD in SH3!!
Since you could do it in SH3, I'm guessing this will be easily modified in SH4 to whatever depth.

I'm not sure where the hydrophones were located. If they were on the deck, then it certainly wouldn't make sense being able to use them while surfaced if they're above water or at the waterline.

[HannesGM]

I've read that escorts had problems with sonar at steep angles early in the war... but too shallow??? Never heard of... If anything, you shoudnæt be able to hear a ship passing over you on sonar.

But yeah, sonar here works also just when passing below 17m.

[Charos]

17 meters. Soon to be 55 feet.

Incorrect

Planesman make depth - 55.7742783 Feet. :lol:

[Snowman999]

Shouldn't sonar work at periscope depth though? At least to a degree? The sonarman would always call out "Running hot, straight, and normal" after torpedoes were fired during an attack run. Since in real life, a sonarman would hear the torpedoes and make sure they were running normally, I would think that sonar would function to a degree.

Sonar should work at PD, yes. I'd have to look at plans, but I think later fleet boats had primary sound heads on the underside of the superstructure. The late-war FM sonar I think had them topside.

I've seen game reports of enemy ships passing at 400 yards and sonar not hearing them. This is just wrong--you can hear a skimmer at 400 yards with your ears while standing in the middle of Control. With a Dixie cup on the hull you could hear the skimmer's CO ask for more coffee. I think this isn't modeled correctly.

[PeriscopeDepth]

I would think early sonar would be pretty degraded at PD due to surface noise. For best performance, I would think you'd need to be below PD. I bet the SH engine can't handle that, so it's below PD or nothing.

PD

[Snowman999]

I would think early sonar would be pretty degraded at PD due to surface noise. For best performance, I would think you'd need to be below PD. I bet the SH engine can't handle that, so it's below PD or nothing.

PD

See http://www.maritime.org/fleetsub/sonar/index.htm for everything you'll ever want to know about WWII sub sonar ops. Clearly it worked at PD as turn-counts were the primary speed-determining method fed to the TDC. Not to mention dozens of printed accounts, both real and fictional.

Surface noise in the sound channel is a challenge, yes, but fleet boats had dual sound heads on the keel, not topside. 55+ feet below the surface. Not hearing a maneuvering surface contact at 400 yards is impossible.

[castorp345]

Not hearing a maneuvering surface contact at 400 yards is impossible.

amen!

[JohnMalcolm1970]

I must admit, this is fairly annoying. I'm in the midst of attempting my first patrol in an S Class boat. Reached my patrol area and loitered around enough to fulfill the patrol requirements, then set off in search of merchants.

I've found one, in rough weather. Below or at 55 feet it's perfectly clear on the hydrophone (or sonar or whatever). While manually listening at this station I order a change in depth to periscope depth. As soon as it crosses the depth at 55 feet the sounds cuts off suddenly.... as if the hydrophone's just been switched off. No tailing off or degredation in the sound... just a sudden abrupt cut-off.

The rough seas are a bit annoying too... feels like the Mid Atlantic.

I want to like this game, but they'd better get some more patching done soon, and not rely on the community to do the bulk of the work. Does anyone wish to step forward and admit they were part of the beta testing team?

What they should have done was look through the SHIII forums, and identify the individuals who spotted bugs and errors in that game, then sent them a beta of SH4. As it is at the moment I wonder if there was ANY external testing done at all.

[MikeJW]

I can get my sonar man to call out contacts at PD. Did it last night when a thick fog cut visibility down to 600' and I was waiting on a merchant to cross my stern. Maybe it's a bug that keeps the player from listening but the sonar man can.

[jhelix70]

an annoying bug.:damn:

Tried to look at the sensors cfg file, found a section called hydrophones but didn't see anything obvious dealing with the submarine's depth

Anyone else have an idea where this might be controlled?

[Kaleu_Mihoo]

IIRC it was located in sensors.dat in SH3, don't know if it's so in SH4. If so, you probably can edit the settings with the excellent mini tweaker by timetraveller.