SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - Is there a solution to the abysmal detection?

I mean, I tried to play SH5 again recently, but it is impossible...

the hydrophone still works on the surface, I know there is a mod for that, but I recall it reduced its efficiency even underwater, as far as I've seen. And without this cheat I can't hunt on the surface, because the watch crew are mute and blind. Recommendations, experiences are welcome.
the hydrophone does not work (on the surface) (sic!). Yesterday there were two german merchants nearby. When I told the "sound guy" to follow nearest merchant traffic, he attached to the farthest, barely audible one instead. Upon trying to manually listen to the closest merchant, I noticed how the "merchant" text just blinks for a split of a second, even when she's just 500m away. Still, I can't get the crew to follow its audio signature.
and even when I'm following a contact, the man calls out only its bearing, never a complete sentence, like if it is going away, closing, and at what speed. Are there any mods fixing this?
in this very same case, the "M" key map showed one of the merchants as a correct blue box, and the "TAB" minimap showed her only as a hydrophone contact line. Whaat?
is there a definitive solution to make the watch crew _and_ the hydrophone crew always see and call out a contact when they can? I sometimes play SH3 realtime in the patrol zone (for the atmosphere's sake), and wait for anyone to report a visual or a sound contact. In SH5 there is no such yelling, the game only disables time compression. Probably because SH5 "should be played" arcade-ish, sitting in front of it and accelerating time constantly.
I currently have more than 10 mods installed, one of them constantly freezes the game, I can't even get to the patrol zone. Oh well, gotta fix that myself. Supermod is desperately needed.