Aaron I am back with a question!
 

Aaron,

I was one of your original not very productive testers.

I am trying to figure out the best way to use MOBO to solve a problem. Let me give you the history.

This begins with me playing SHCE (Silent Hunter Commanders Edition). Often you get radar contacts and you have to figure out to intercept those contacts.

Prior to tonight, I would basically use the "bow on" approach. Of course, that has many short comings.

So, I read up on a paper plotting technique. The technique use a series of concentric scale circles which provide distance and bearing from your own ship. It assumes that you turn your sub North and lay to. You then gather two data points containing the triplets (time/range/bearing). From there, you can use the chart to solve the contacts speed, course, and where to intercept.

So, I am thinking that I can use MOBO which I had once volunteered to test. This is the procedure which I worked out and I suspect that it is probably very clumsy. So, I want to ask is there a better way:

(1) Collect the same data.

(2) Set the scale.

(3) Place ownship at the center of the map. Enter the best speed which my sub can make the intercept.

(4) C, SPACE, B, D, T - Create a contact unit connected to ownship with the line showing bearing, distance, and time for my first observation.

(5) C, SPACE, B, D, T - Create a node unit connected to ownship with the line showing bearing, distance, and time for my second observation.

(6) Use the mouse to adjust these two units to correspond with my collected data.

(7) Lock the units and remove the lines.

(8) Create a line between the node and contact and press Y for TSD.

(9) Delete the node and apply V (vector) to the contact with the solved course and speed.

(10) Select the contact and press the space bar to connect to my sub and press I to display the intercept point.

(11) Create a new node over the intercept point and add a line to my sub while pressing Y for TSD.

(12) The line just drawn will give me the course and time to the intercept point.

Well, is this the right way to use MOBO? Thanks for your time.

There's a couple steps there you could probably eliminate.

You don't need to create a connecting line to OwnShip before pressing I to generate the intercept. Basically, it assumes if nothing is connected to a contact and you press I it knows to give the intercept in respect to OwnShip's position/speed.

You don't have to delete the initial observation nodes, unless you really want to.

If you haven't tried version 1.1 yet, it has a data entry feature for the nodes. Rather than relying on moving the graphic shapes to position the nodes, you can just select a node and directly enter, speed, bearing (to or from), heading, distance, etc in the Unit Data window. Might be a little less cumbersome than drag-adjusting node positions.

Some of the stuff you talk about I want to try to expand on with some new features in version 2.0. For instance, an intercept point will behave similar to a node in that you'll be able to mouse-over it and press the spacebar to just connect it to ownship, display bearing, TSD, etc.

...and maybe a few other surprises.

Aaron,

I have attempted a few intercepts without too much success. I have identified the following causes:

Problems:

(1) Inaccurate data collected.

(2) Early radar sets with limited range.

(3) On fast contacts with low powered radar a lot of time is lost laying to while working out a plot. If it was initially in motion on a rough vector, the chances of an intercept could be greatly increased.

How would I attempt to do a running intercept where I do not lay to for 15-30 minutes to gather two tuples of data? Thanks.

Read thru Lurker's Tactical manual on radar intercepts.

You're asking how to do a relative motion problem. MoBo has tools that simplify adding vectors together... There's more info in the manual.