That was close...

[Piggy]

Returning from my 14th patrol, U-207's new Metox seemed like flimsy gimmick....

Suddenly I get the shout from below, radar signals detected...

It was night time, heavy winds & rain with poor visibility but I decided to heed this new devices advice and dive. Stayed submmerged for 6 hours to be safe and surfaced for a run across the bay of biscay and a return to port.

Several hours later and the weather hasnt changed, good cover from planes at least. Then another warning, radar sugnals detected...

Of course I should have dived :oops: , but I decided to order flank speed and turn away. Suddenly two of the signals are getting stronger and heading straight for me. I dove and as I crossed 120m the pinging started. I waited untill they were making their DC run and ordered 160m, 20 degree's to port and flank speed.

It was a very well equiped frigate and layed a carpet of DC's that was unavoidable even while I pushing even deeper. :ping:

Thankfully I have a very good repair team, I havent had to use them much untill now and they performed well, leaks were contained fast without going deeper then 200m. Silent running, slight change of coarse and some tense moments but hours later they gave up and I surfaced, carefully.

Radio, flak gun, deck gun and both periscopes destroyed. If I was attacked again BDU wouldnt know about it.

Thankfully the poor weather held and I dashed across the bay without incident.

Handy little device that wooden cross...:up:

Oct 42 and things are heating up...

[ReM]

Sounds pretty realistic to me......things will get even worse later on. At least you live to fight another day.

[Kapt Z]

I was wondering if the Metox would pickup ship's radar as well as airborne radar. I have lost three careers so far, two to aircraft attacks and one to 'unknown' during a storm.

I believe the 'unknown' was a radar equipped destroyer that chased me down in the zero visibility storm. Sunk before I even knew what happened. Nervous when ever it is raining and foggy ever since.

I've never had a career get past June of '42(don't play to often) so I have not yet been able to use any of the radar detectors. Maybe this career....:hmm:

[Weiss Pinguin]

Only gotten far enough for radar/radar warning in stock SH3. That's either a testament to GWX's incredible difficulty or my incredible Bernard...ity... :hmm:

On a sidenote, I remember reading that Metox was a bit of a giveaway as it sent out signals of its own. (The Brits had difficulty tracking the signals though, I believe) Is this modelled ingame?

[Piggy]

Only gotten far enough for radar/radar warning in stock SH3. That's either a testament to GWX's incredible difficulty or my incredible Bernard...ity... :hmm:

On a sidenote, I remember reading that Metox was a bit of a giveaway as it sent out signals of its own. (The Brits had difficulty tracking the signals though, I believe) Is this modelled ingame?

This is as far as Ive ever gotten in GWX without starting late... this career started in early 41 and up untill this point it hasnt been that hard, but Im pretty conservative, I like to play it safe for the most part.

Uh huh, thats what I thought about metox as well (thanks to whoever it was the corrected me the other day), but I was taking the german's point of view in that assumption. When their subs started getting attacked without warning I believe they assumed it was because Metox was giving off a signal the brits could track. This was then backed up by a captured british officer, who as actually lying. In fact it was merely the allies switching to a better radar that Metox couldnt detect. The brits had given up trying to track Metox.

http://www.uboataces.com/radar-warning.shtml

Interesting, according to this article Metox could not provide bearings which it does in game, also was it capable of detecting ship borne radar which is what my post was all about?

http://www.uboat.net/technical/detectors.htm

[Piggy]

I was wondering if the Metox would pickup ship's radar as well as airborne radar. I have lost three careers so far, two to aircraft attacks and one to 'unknown' during a storm.


Apparently it does in game, but Im not sure if it did IRL?

[Weiss Pinguin]

Ah, I thought that bit about the lying sailor just meant that they couldn't track in on the signals, but still received them... If that even makes sense/is possible :lol:

[Faamecanic]

Only gotten far enough for radar/radar warning in stock SH3. That's either a testament to GWX's incredible difficulty or my incredible Bernard...ity... :hmm:

On a sidenote, I remember reading that Metox was a bit of a giveaway as it sent out signals of its own. (The Brits had difficulty tracking the signals though, I believe) Is this modelled ingame?

I think it was in Doenitz book "Ten years and Twenty Days" where he says that is what the German Navy thought....but it wasnt true.

The reason why they thought the Metox was giving them away is the Uboats kept getting attacked by air/sea and the Metox wasnt going off and giving a warning. So they thought these air/sea aggressors were homing in on the Metox signal, and not having to use their Radar. Thing is the Metox was a receiver..and transmitted no signal (never understood how german engineers tought it was giving away Uboats when it never transmitted a signal).

The truth of the matter was the Allies came up with a Radar that used a different bandwidth/frequency that the Metox couldnt pick up. With each advancement in radar the wave length used got tighter and tighter (example a 1cm band vs .05cm Band). Wave length being what is measured between Peaks of each radio wave. Also as the bandwidth got tighter, the allies could detect smaller and smaller items above water at a ever farther distance. Hence why in the later war they could detect items like the schnorkel or Periscope (when Uboat was submerged).

[Piggy]

Thats my understanding as well Faamecanic, at least it is now.

Ive got a question and instead of starting a new thread I'll ask it here.

Ive got the first generation radar on my boat, the one that has the plates covering the front of the conning tower...

So far it seems rather useless... What is its range?

Ive had it running continous sweeps and have never been notified of a target before I see it visually. Also it seems to switch off on its own, even when Ive been surfaced for a long time it just turns off on its own, which isnt really an issue because as I said, it seems useless?

Can you manually see a blip on the screen? Does the range switch actually do anything and if so what are the ranges?

[Faamecanic]

Not sure how GWX represents it (never lived that long :) ).... I know in stock a ship would show up on your map...and I believe up to 5 km away? A lot better then you can see in fog/rain.... (500m or so). Think of early radar like a limited hydrophone. I find it VERY useful in poor weather and cant wait until the day comes that I can use it (and live long enough in GWX to use it :) )

If your doing the scan yourself you will notice a SPIKE on the radar screen the you come across a ship. Keep in mind the first radar only scans 180 deg from front of your boat...you have to do circles to see 360.

Heh heh... I also didnt see your post about the Metox... so now the info is verified twice :)

[Weiss Pinguin]

Actually, I believe the early radar only covered 20 or so degrees. (FuMO-29, right?) I've also only lived long enough to acquire radar in stock, so I might be wrong there as well. :p

[Piggy]

Actually, I believe the early radar only covered 20 or so degrees. (FuMO-29, right?) I've also only lived long enough to acquire radar in stock, so I might be wrong there as well. :p


http://www.uboataces.com/radar.shtml

According this its 10 degrees on each side of the bow with a range of 7,500 meters against surface vessels.

So yeah, its really only usefull in poor visibility and if you're that close (assuming its a convoy) then chances are you're already being seen on allied radar. :doh:

[Jimbuna]

FuMO-29 GEMA was very limited as sited above....remember that in rough weather in game it will repeatedly switch off as the boat pitches into the sea.

[Faamecanic]

FuMO-29 GEMA was very limited as sited above....remember that in rough weather in game it will repeatedly switch off as the boat pitches into the sea.

Good thing as my watch crew likes to stay on the bridge, even when submerged in a wave for a minute or two during rough seas. Wouldnt do to keep the Radar on to Microwave my bridge crew now would it :lol: (well maybe I'll leave Bernard on the bridge)....

I think in Stock SH3 the degree of coverage was greater than 20 deg... but its been so long since I have played stock I cant remember.

I will still take in in poor visibility.... being as you cant see poop without it! Not as big a deal now that GWX fixed the "forever" storms that last months on end.... :damn:

[Piggy]

FuMO-29 GEMA was very limited as sited above....remember that in rough weather in game it will repeatedly switch off as the boat pitches into the sea.

Thats what I thouht was happening...

Yeah this radars use is very limited, but I like having all the latest gadgets...