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HikeMacD
10-19-07, 03:58 PM
I feeling like I just learned to ride a bike. :rock: For the first time last night I manually used the hydrophones and found my target. I had gotten a contact report of merchant vessel and set my intercept course. About 10km away from where I thought I would intercept I went to periscope depth and started having my sonar guy do a sweep. No sound contact. Being pretty sure that my intercept course was correct I hopped on myself and did a small arc on the bearing where I thought the merchant would be. And sure enough at 348* there was the sound of screws. At first I didn't believe it so I turned up the ambient volume and my speakers to make sure. Definitely screws. Only a small merchant ship but I took him out with one torp. In my giddiness over finding a contact with my own ears I forgot that I had planned to surface and use the deck gun. :88) :lol:

TarJak
10-19-07, 05:09 PM
Nice work!:up: It's always a good feeling when you learn something new and get a result from it.

KeptinCranky
10-19-07, 05:20 PM
One thing, there's this knob on the right hand side of the hydrophone, you can click on the top half to only turn up the hydrophone volume, without having your speakers louder, this helps when people in the apartment below get woken up by the panicked cry of Alaaarm!!:D (my neighbours hate me,:rotfl: )

Also, good hunting with the hydrophone, it's my favorite method, just lurking and listening for unsuspecting merchies...:up:

TarJak
10-19-07, 05:31 PM
One thing, there's this knob on the right hand side of the hydrophone, you can click on the top half to only turn up the hydrophone volume, without having your speakers louder, this helps when people in the apartment below get woken up by the panicked cry of Alaaarm!!:D (my neighbours hate me,:rotfl: )

Also, good hunting with the hydrophone, it's my favorite method, just lurking and listening for unsuspecting merchies...:up:You camper Keptin!:rotfl:

d@rk51d3
10-19-07, 05:49 PM
One thing, there's this knob on the right hand side of the hydrophone, you can click on the top half to only turn up the hydrophone volume, without having your speakers louder, this helps when people in the apartment below get woken up by the panicked cry of Alaaarm!!:D (my neighbours hate me,:rotfl: )

Also, good hunting with the hydrophone, it's my favorite method, just lurking and listening for unsuspecting merchies...:up:You camper Keptin!:rotfl:

Well, it works, and pretty well too. Why burn fuel looking around, when you can sit tight in a shipping lane, and wait for them to come to you.:yep::D

KeptinCranky
10-19-07, 06:58 PM
LOL Tarjak, never thought of it that way :rotfl:

but hey, it works, as I've said before, the Irish sea is a good place for camping, as long as you bring marshmellows to roast by the fire of burning tankers...:arrgh!:

as to camping....I've never been a shooter kind of guy, last time I played Battlefield Vietnam over a Lan I heard the following phrase from the other room:

"hey, that one doesn't move like a bot....BLAM!"

to which my very astute response was:

"argh, you filthy $%&*!!, I'm dead again" :damn:

I hate snipers....

Gezoes
10-19-07, 07:03 PM
One thing, there's this knob on the right hand side of the hydrophone, you can click on the top half to only turn up the hydrophone volume, without having your speakers louder, this helps when people in the apartment below get woken up by the panicked cry of Alaaarm!!:D (my neighbours hate me,:rotfl: )

Also, good hunting with the hydrophone, it's my favorite method, just lurking and listening for unsuspecting merchies...:up:

:huh: Never knew about a volume control near the hydro :up:

Speaking of neighbours, mine walked pasted my window wednesday just as my watch crew yelled 'SCHIFF GESICHTED!' :rotfl:

Ofcourse I took him out with my Luger, no use in wasting precious deck gun ammo :smug:

U49
10-19-07, 07:25 PM
(my neighbours hate me,:rotfl: )

Is it, taht you 're living next to my door? On the staircase I hear them talking about an /&/&$$ole which is screaming stupid stuff in the middle of the night or in perfect time for the evening news... I also heard about people on the street looking up to sound from our house? I always wondered what they meant.. :hmm:

HikeMacD
10-19-07, 11:20 PM
One thing, there's this knob on the right hand side of the hydrophone, you can click on the top half to only turn up the hydrophone volume, without having your speakers louder, this helps when people in the apartment below get woken up by the panicked cry of Alaaarm!!:D (my neighbours hate me,:rotfl: )

Also, good hunting with the hydrophone, it's my favorite method, just lurking and listening for unsuspecting merchies...:up:

Yeah, I use the hydro volume. If I turn the speakers up too loud the kids will wonder why dad is cursing in German. :lol:

Patboot
10-20-07, 06:21 AM
Quick tip for the 'phones: at periscope depth, set "all stop". Wait for the speed to drop off, then carefully make a 360 sweep.

With 'ambient' up and your sound too, you can hear a ship out to about 40km. Your soundman wont even register one that far out.

:know:

Gezoes
10-20-07, 07:46 AM
Mmm... the mouse pointer turns red, but that's it. Can't turn the knob, there's no change in volume, down or up :-?

Patboot
10-21-07, 06:45 AM
On the 'ambient' knob? click the top half to increase, the bottom to decrease.

papa_smurf
10-21-07, 06:51 AM
Nothing beats manually tracking a enemy contact for a while, plotting an intercept course, and then sinking it:D .

Im also getting good at identifying what type of mercahnt ship im tracking (i.e. if its a large cargo or tanker - I need help!!!!)

HikeMacD
10-31-07, 04:50 PM
Maybe I'm an idiot and didn't get the ambient knob to work but when you manually use the Hydrophone does the stamina of your sonar operator have any affect on what you hear? I was listening last night and couldn't hear squat even with the speakers up and I think the ambient knob turned up. Later after I had moved crew around and had a new sonar guy I could hear great with out the speakers being turned up. MAybe I'm just getting old. :p

Rykaird
10-31-07, 05:10 PM
Maybe I'm an idiot and didn't get the ambient knob to work but when you manually use the Hydrophone does the stamina of your sonar operator have any affect on what you hear? I was listening last night and couldn't hear squat even with the speakers up and I think the ambient knob turned up. Later after I had moved crew around and had a new sonar guy I could hear great with out the speakers being turned up. MAybe I'm just getting old. :p

This has stumped me for a long time as well. But here's what I've noticed. The FIRST time I try to raise the volume by clicking on the ambient knob, it only works IF there is a ship that's been detected and you can hear it in the hydrophone. After that, if I don't click it off, the heightened volume usually stays on.

But I can mouse it all day that first time with no change in the volume if there is no ship there.

Don't ask me why, and as always, it may be unique to me and my mods.

BulSoldier
10-31-07, 05:31 PM
WEll i am not using often the hydrophone myself but several patrols ago i installed the first avaibable radar on my VIIB and this night my last patrol ( around 38 000 tons for a month long patrol in nord atlantik :)) got a radar contact from my radioman.It seems was far enough and a 2 merchant(large and small).
In the darknest of night i just over the horizon the watch spotted the ship.I went to the radar while aproaching the target to check out is it possible to use radar manually and yes it did.I never knew it was possible.And on the green line shows up a distorbtion (hell i cant write this right way),a small and and a big one.And just down left on the screem there are some numbers, i guess its the distance (i never used that old radar :D). In any case was interesting playing with that toy,later just bombed the radar distorbtions and the line was clear again :rotfl: