No radar detection option available in march 1942

[TECHNICOLOR]

Hello ,As the title says i have successfully survived until march 1942.Upon return to port i had many new wonderful upgrade options: a new bigger turm ,an extra flak gun , some early radar ( useless so far) BOLD 1.While looking through the upgrade chart i noticed that Radar detection should be available but it isn`t (appears before bold 1)
Any ideas Why ?
By the way what is right way to use the new tech/what are its limits?

I use GWX3

[Marcello]

Wasn't Metox available since July? March might be too soon.

[maillemaker]

I think the first radar detector is the Biscay Cross (Metox). You might not get it right when radar is available, I don't remember.

In SH3, even in GWX, radar is next to useless, especially the tower-mounted stuff.

Usually you want radar in low vis, which usually is accompanied by rough seas. In SH3 if water hits the tower it turns off the radar.

In all cases you will be detected before you detect with radar.

In any case, radar detection is better than radar, and it is virtually errorproof.

With map updates on, you will get pointers on the map indicating the direction and strength of the radar source. With this you can accurately plot out the position of escorts and thus convoys.

Air attacks are almost always prefaced with a radar hit and so radar warning is invaluable to diving before an air attack. Basically if you get a radar warning you had best dive right away.

Until you get radar warning on your snorkle mask, it is very dangerous to run on snorkle because aircraft will bomb it and you will have no idea it is coming. Until you get the snorkle RWR, the snorkle is best used only in an emergency to snatch a quick breath of air. Otherwise you want to surface with all hands on watch looking for planes.

Back to radar.

Without map updates turned on, the radar, all kinds, is basically worthless. Aside from giving away your position, it rarely gives you any information. I don't think I've ever had my radar operator give me a range and distance from radar while on patrol. Must be a bug. The only time I've heard them sing out is at the start of a patrol in my home harbor. After that, no reports, even when I turn on the radar when I have a ship in sight.

I've tried manually operating the radar, but it is very quirky. You have to be very quick on the mouse button to turn the radar wheel until you get a hit on the oscilloscope. But once you get a hit on the correct bearing, often the blip will vanish. I suspect that in the game model the antenna is still revolving even if you put it into non-revolving mode. But anyway it takes some fiddling with the radar to get a hit and the only way I've gotten it to do so is when I already had a sighting so I knew the range and bearing so that I could "test" the radar. If I had to operate it to actually find something without a visual contact I doubt I could do so in a reasonable amount of time without giving away my position from operating the radar for so long.

So really, radar is useless.

Radar warning is critical. It's so critical that if you lose it it will make your trip home very much in doubt. When the RWR goes off dive immediately and go to your hydrophone. If it was surface radar, you'll probably have a faint hydrophone contact. If no contact, it's an inbound aircraft.

RWR is especially critical when cruising at night when those bombers come in and nail you with the Leigh light at the last second. RWR gives you a warning that they are coming. Night is no safety for the uboat in late war.

Steve

[maillemaker]

This page gives a nice overview on actual u-boat RWR technology:

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

You can see that most of them did not give directional capability, often didn't detect all actual bands of radar use, and frequently had to be dismantled and taken below decks upon diving and re-installed on surfacing.

None of this is modeled in the game.

RWR in SH3 is basically a superweapon.

Steve

[TECHNICOLOR]

"So really, radar is useless."

Well, at least it looks cool on my turn,like armour or something like that.
Thanks for the answer.