[TEC] Sonar / Hydrophones fail to detect Merchants at slow speed
 

Sonar / Hydrophones fail to detect Merchants at slow speed

All testing was conducted on a “stock” 1.4 system

• If the merchant is traveling at 4kts or less the sonar will not detect the ship
• If the merchant is traveling at 5 or 6 kts, AI Sonar operator will detect and track the ship. However if you man the sonar station yourself and turn the sonar to the ship’s bearing you will “not” hear the sonar contact the AI Sonar operator is reporting
• If the merchant is traveling at 7 kts or greater the AI Sonar operator will detect the ship and you will be able to hear it at the sonar station when you turn to the sonar to the ship’s bearing.

This has to do with the RPM the ship is putting out. By default a ship will not be picked up below 25% of its maximum RPM output.

Damn,I had noticed this but thought sonar was broken
 

Goofy ! the ship is still making way/sound should be detectable:yep:

Well, maybe machinery and crew sounds, but below 25% of maximum RPM the prop shouldn't really be cavitating and thus you would not hear prop noise (not much anyways).

Harkmess
 

Sonar will give you a bearing green lite on a sunken ship, this should be the same for slow ships making way. They are not below a thermal .

Aha! So that's why we couldn't hear certain types of ships on the hydrophone! It's been driving me nuts!
I wonder what effect tampering with either "Hydrophone speed factor" or "Hydrophone noise factor" in Sensors.cfg will have on that. :hmm: