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Originally Posted by nattydread
I could have swore that some radar detectors were type specific.
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They are actually frequency-specific. You may want to investigate
this website for more information on the "microwave radar war." If a radar detector works against a specific frequency range it will detect all radars in that frequency range, whether carried by ships or aircraft, assuming the radar warning receiver is sensitive enough to detect the radar signal..
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Either way, I think there should certainly be differnet detection ranges with respect to air and surface radar. In theory aerial sources of radar would have line of sight from much farther out, while surface radar could be blocked by the horizon, preventing line of sight until the surface vessel is much closer.
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Their line of sight is indeed greater; however, the other things to consider is the strength of the radar signal and the sensitivity of the radar warning system - at what range can the RWR detect the radar? The power-aperture of a radar carried by an aircraft is likely less than that of a warship, since warships generally has more power and surface area available for its radars than do aircraft, so while it might be in line-of-sight it might still be undetectable.
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Id think max range should be based on the DD/DEs radar mast height(maybe average hieght for the all DD/DEs if thats too complcated) and the height of the conning tower(maybe average height for Uboats). Whatever horizon range these values give should be the absolute max possible for that surface radar's range. The actual radar detector range would be roughly twice the radar users max effective detection range, provided it its less than the horizon range.
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This sounds OK for a surfaced U-boat; what do you do when the U-boat is showing a periscope, a
schnorkel, or a combination of the two? What about if the periscope is just above the waves, or several meters above the waves? The U-boat's radar cross-section that controls the amount of radar energy reflected back to the ship or plane is significantly different in each of these situations.
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Example, lets say a DD has a radar that is determined to be effective out to 1000m, but the horizon range is 5000m, then the max uboat radar detector range would be about 2000m from the DD(double the radar user's effective range). But if the DD has a radar set that can in theory detect out to 6000m, it will only be able to detect ubouats out to the 5000m horizon, the uboat's radar detectors would also detect the DDs radar at about 5000m(maybe give or take 100m or so). Unfortunatly for the uboat detecting the DDs radar also means the DD has likly found him also.
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Actually, the submarine might detect the destroyer at greater ranges if its radar warning receiver were sensitive enough to detect scattering of the radar beams. A ship's radar is pretty powerful, so even the scattered energy of the beams could have a lot of power at relatively short ranges.
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On the other hand, uboat radar detectors would routinly detect allied air to ground search radar roughly twice the effective range of the allied air to ground search radar.
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It's not a bad rule of thumb, but you might want to really understand the performance of the different radars and radar warning receivers before being able to set realistic values. One way to skip the radar equation calculations would be to find sources that told you the rough ranges at which aircraft and ships could detect conning towers, periscopes, and
schnorkels could be detected, and the ranges at which the RWRs could detect aiborne and shipborne radars, and call it "close enough."
Pablo
