How do you use radars?

[frenema]

I finally made it to 1942 for the first time (sadly...) and I installed the first radar available: FuMO-29. My first patrol with it and I have no clue as to what its function is. I switched it on for continuous sweep and it's as if it doesn't exist. I do realize it can only work on surface, but it just isn't detecting anything. Any ideas?

[FIREWALL]

It only detects on a small frontal section. And at the moment Idon't remember the range but it's not real long.

It doesn't work good in bad weather either.

[Subject]

Don't get me started on the radar... :roll:

Kinda immersion killer for me and finally got so tired of ships being spotted way before getting radar contact, that I pimped the Fumo.
Now range is ~12 km in good weather and 5-7 km in heavy rain/fog.

Feels much better! :smug:

[richardphat]

would naxos or the next model would be suggest to get?

[Hartmann]

Early radars are like a flashlight in the dark for allied planes and destroyers and are only useful in bad weather. My first radar is always switched off.

Very different experience when i´ve played sh1, where the radar was very useful for track convoys, enemy submarines, task forces, and plot good intercept routes.
allied ASW is a lot better

[Kpt. Lehmann]

It doesn't work good in bad weather either.

No you are incorrect, the opposite is true Firewall.

Also, the coverage area depends on the model. The early U-boat radars only covered a small arc to the front. Later versions covered 360 degrees.

To use the radars, rotate the radar wheel until you see this: (That spike is your contact.)

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f117/KptLehmann/radar.jpg

[JHuschke]

Ahh..I've stared at radar for too long!

[Murr44]

Use the early radar for short periods only. As was previously stated, allied aircraft & warships can home in on the emissions & find you when you least expect it. I was attacked by an aircraft in the middle of an overcast, pitch black night; simply because I had neglected to make sure the radar was off. Didn't suffer any casualties or damage but it was a pretty close shave...

[Hartmann]

Use the early radar for short periods only. As was previously stated, allied aircraft & warships can home in on the emissions & find you when you least expect it. I was attacked by an aircraft in the middle of an overcast, pitch black night; simply because I had neglected to make sure the radar was off. Didn't suffer any casualties or damage but it was a pretty close shave...

yes is better a radar detector.

the allied plane have to search at night with the radar while you can detect his emisions and dive at time.

the problem is know the range of the aircraft and know if it is aproaching.

[Murr44]

What I meant is that the plane found me because I'd left the radar on. It was sending out a "Here I am. Come and get me" invitation to every enemy aircraft or ship nearby. That's why I said that the early radar should be used be very short periods of time & then turned off.

[frenema]

Thanks for all the suggestions, I guess I was lucky that no one found me when I had my radar on for the entire patrol. :lol:

One more question regarding the radar: does the radar man report the contact, or do I have to use it manually to find the contacts? I'm pretty sure the answer is yes, but I was just wondering because on my last patrol the radar man didn't report any contact although the ship was right ahead of me.

And why don't we just add in another tech to thread?
After my last patrol I got a sonar set up in my sub now and I was wondering how it should be used. Will the enemy merchants and/or escorts know if I am pinging them?

I know I have lot of questions, it's just that all these new technologies just started popping up at end of 1942.

[chanbasti]

i decided that since the benefits of radar are no even close the the drawbacks...so i will not be buying it this career around. also my radar has this weird thing that it will keep turning itself on even after i order it turned off. i can you use the little icon command and that won't keep it off, or i can go to the station ad click the little switch to off. as soon as i leave the station it comes back on. it's even on underwater??? so no RADAR for me. it's just no good. relying on my Mk.1 eyeballs here. will be buying a RWR. that thing is great.

[FIREWALL]

I still don't think the early one works worth a shet. :nope:

[nikbear]

Could someone please clear this up once and for all,I thought that the RAF couldn't detect the emmisions from the early german radars and that the story was made up by a captured pilot which made the germans think twice,so Donitz gave the order for them not to be used.None of it was true,it was just the allies putting the germans of the scent that they had built centimetric radar which the germans thought impossible to be fitted to allied planes,so which is it:hmmm:and which version is modelled in GWX,can we leave the radar on:06:

[Etienne]

Could someone please clear this up once and for all,I thought that the RAF couldn't detect the emmisions from the early german radars and that the story was made up by a captured pilot which made the germans think twice,so Donitz gave the order for them not to be used.None of it was true,it was just the allies putting the germans of the scent that they had built centimetric radar which the germans thought impossible to be fitted to allied planes,so which is it:hmmm:and which version is modelled in GWX,can we leave the radar on:06:

That was the Metox (IIRC) radar detector. Some guy managed to get the Germans to believe they could detect the emission from a passive system from hundred of miles away.

...yeah.

[nikbear]

So,could they(the allies) detect anything from either system:06:

[Etienne]

No. Radar detectors are, by nature, passive. Some might emit some form of RF interference, but I highly, highly doubt that this could be detected at any kind of tactically significant distance.

I think the allies eventually developped some form of radar detector, but I can't recall for sure.

It's what those TV detecting vans in the UK are reputed to detect... And those "Radar detector detector" people think the police have. It could be possible, I suppose... But we're talking minute amount of radiation here.

[nikbear]

Thank you for finally clearing that up:yeah: