Radar in SH IV

[qvcatullus]

Hi, all!
I know that there has been a bug history with SH IV, but I'm also new to the game, so I'm not sure what all is going on. Running 1.4 stock game -- one of the bug fixes mentioned is to a problem with the radar not turning on/off properly.
I'm having some trouble working the radar. Specifically, two major problems and an annoyance. I've been on a career and using the air search radar since forever, but I just took my first patrol with surface radar.

The annoyance has been that I couldn't tell which 'setting' of the radar button was actually turning it on and asking it to run a continual sweep, because every time I would go to the actual radar station it would switch to focus and sometimes it would be off when I thought I had it on; etc.

My first problem is that I have no idea how to interpret the PPI (fuzzy line) radar. I had thought that it just shows a cross-section of wherever the roundy-round radar is pointing, and the line will have spikes at distances where there are returns on that vector, but I have pointed the focus at ships that I know are there and seen nothing on the fuzzy-line. If it is related to the air radar, then why is it 'blank' until I get surface radar installed?

My second problem is that once I got the surface radar and the new, improved air radar installed, my air radar coverage has gone all spotty. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, which is a bit annoying as it's supposed to be 'improved' now. I am particularly confused because I started getting air returns when I knew for a fact that the radar was turned OFF. Does air radar only work when surface is not turned on, is that a strange coincidence, or am I crazy?

Finally, a radar question, rather than a problem... I would imagine that running around with active radar is going to get me detected, otherwise there would not be an option to turn it off. Do only certain types of ships (escorts, capitals, etc.) have a chance to detect my radar emissions? Will they be more likely to do so at a certain year or a certain range? Can they detect my air search radar beam, since I don't seem to know how to control that?

[tomoose]

Firstly, you have no control over your air search radar, there is no screen for that at all. So don't worry about it being on or off. Once you've got it it's on and stays on.

Secondly, you DO have control over your surface search radar. The screen on the left is your range screen. The screen on the right (spinning) is your location screen. The annoying 'bug' in the game is that every time you go to that station it automatically stops sweeping (drives me crazy).

Switch on the sweep and select one of the three ranges available (middle button at each radar screen). As the locational radar sweeps and shows you a 'spot' on the screen at the same time a 'spike' will show up on the other screen indicating the range (the spike will not "remain" displayed like the "focus" does on the other screen). Of course part of the problem is not being able to see both screens very well at the same time unless you manipulate your mouse view.

One of the other oversights in the game is that the radar station is available basically from day one but unless you actually "buy" the radar (SJ) it is considered not installed therefore you can't use it or any of the buttons until such time as you can buy it with your renown.

Hope this clarifies things.

[tomoose]

another annoyance.
If you dive, obviously your surface search radar will switch off. When you surface it does NOT automatically turn back on, you must switch it on manually.

I'm at 1943 in my current campaign and I don't believe using radar has increased my possibility of detection. Not sure if that's even modelled in the game.

[Torplexed]

Finally, a radar question, rather than a problem... I would imagine that running around with active radar is going to get me detected, otherwise there would not be an option to turn it off. Do only certain types of ships (escorts, capitals, etc.) have a chance to detect my radar emissions? Will they be more likely to do so at a certain year or a certain range? Can they detect my air search radar beam, since I don't seem to know how to control that?
The Japanese only started installing crude radar detectors very late in the war, and usually only on the bigger warships. Electronic emission detection played a big part in the Atlantic war, but the Japanese barely got in the emissions detection game before the war ended. As tomoose mentioned, it's probably not modeled at all.

[LukeFF]

The enemy should be able to detect SD radar emissions, but I don't if that's enabled or not. Regulations stated the SD was to be run for no more than 5 seconds and then shut off for 40 to 70 seconds.

[Torplexed]

According to the combined fleet site the E-27 radar detector became available in April 1944. Clair Blair states in Silent Victory that this is probably how the battleships Ise and Hyuga were able to evade the large sub net Admiral Lockwood had prepared for them when they made their last run from Singapore to the Home Islands. Lockwood later wrote "It was a bitter pill to take and I make no alibi."

http://www.combinedfleet.com/radar.htm

E-27

Became Operational: April 1944
War Status: used in war
Purpose: ESM warning indicator
Wavelength: 75-400 cm
Peak Output: n/a
Transmitter: n/a
Receiver: UN-955
Detector: n/a
Detected: enemy radar/radio use 300 km
Weight: 40 kg
Number Built: 2500
Antennae: unknown

[ColonelSandersLite]

edit: oops, sorry for the necro, replying to the wrong thread...