Usage of active sonar
 

Hi there folks..
i assume pinging merchant vessels is safe in terms of not being detected.. however i wonder if it is still safe like if you ping a merchant on spesific bearing and have a DD also near but on a different bearing.. i mean do you acctually point the pings to certain bearings??

another question is that if the DD's can locate your ping from any direction or is it also limited with their sensor angles..

oh boy.. seems like my english starts to suck.. hope it is clear & sorry..

thnx in advance for the answers..

I have been wondering about the same thing!

I believe your safe from detection if the DD has it's stern facing you although I haven't confirmed this with the active sonar ping. I love the sound of that distant return ping.

Dont ping near destroyers unless you want every warship in the area to know exactly where you are.

Uuuhh...

By the way!
How do you ping? :oops:
And what does it actually do?

Does it show nearby ships exact locations or?

You can send an active sonar ping from the sonar station (from the button on the station=.. as far as i know it is quite identical with the active sonar the DD's are using against you.. you send the ping, wait for it to reflect from the board of the vessel and from the time the reflection comes back to you, the sonar man gives you the estimated range to target.. i believe you can have the same information from the sonar man without entering the sonar station but you'll miss the cool sound then :smug:

anyway back to my question.. anyone else knows if you point the ping to an certain bearing???

No

The ping sweeps out from your boat in a concentric circle 360 degrees.

Evidently it records the "first" return and indicates its range.

Yes it will "alert" destoryers within range that something is there.

What that range is I dont know, If they can get a fix on range, direction from one ping well they got a hellua sonar op !

Actually they would be lucky to have the phones on at the precise moment the ping reaches them.

So just to confirm, sonar pings will not alert merchant vessels? So no sound (even noisy sub screws) will tip them off right? Lots of times I run across pairs of merchants... though I have TDC on auto solutions I want to start going manual, as I am wanting a promotion to gnarled sea dog.

So if I run across some merchants I can ping all day long and they won't give a damn?

Typically merchants are not fitted with sonar. So there basically deaf.

In real life they might actually hear the ping through the hull but all that would do is alert them that "something" is there.

I doubt that is modeled in the game though.

in reality the destroyer will hear the ping it is pretty loud you dont even need hydrophone to hear it. He will propably know the rough bearing where it came from but not the range. So they will of course man all stations and start searching for you.

In game it is not modeled from my expirience. Ive pinged escorts from less then 1000 yards without alerting them. I assume it is because of the accustic detecting duration. It is set to a certain period of time, that means the destroyer must hear your noise for that period of time in order to detect you. So he cant detect you from the ping because its a very short burst, could be moded though.

Hrm in SH3 a depth ping was like ringing the dinner bell.

Okay somebody test this.

not in stock sh3. I said it can be moded.