Hydrophone range V Mark1 Eyeball?

[Poacher886]

Hi,
I have a question to those in the know....

In SH3 and SH4, i would spend most of my time underwater because i could detect a ship further away with the Hydrophone than seeing on the horizon. Thus i could hear it before seeing it!!

Now given that in history U-boat commanders would spen as much time as they could above water, im guessing, the hydrophone has been seriously enhanced.

My question is: in reality how far could the Hydrophone detect a ship at say 9 knots and is that further than the eye could see it?
Also how is this depicted in SH5 (which i have not played yet..waiting for the Mega mod) is it correct or non-sence.

And lastly, guessing it is portraied incorrectly in-game, has a mod fixed the issue?

Thanks

[vanjast]

Under perfect weather and swell conditions, the range was somewhere just over the visual horizon for a single ship ~10-20Km.
This was for a single ship, for a convoy, according to some uboat 'observations' it could be anywhere between 50-100km.
With SH4 there was a whole urgument about the range being only about 5km... which is just crazy.

At the time there was a standing order that the Uboat was a surface boat that could submerge, and that someone worked out that travelling further would increase your chances of discovering a convoy. They obviously didn't do well at Stat maths.

Anyway surface patrol was used more as it was simpler and more comfortable for the crew, compared to sitting submerged for hours.
But for the game you do not have to follow 'dicta' just because 1000's of others say so.... be daring and break the rules :)

[Poacher886]

Thanks,

So how is this represented in SH5? is it correct or at least close to correct?
Im also guessing you can still use your Hydrophone while surfaced as in other SH games!!