Checking Hydrophone
 

At what intervals should I submerge and check my hydrophone while on patrol?

The choices are endless. :doh:

If surfaced during the early years I'll drop to 30 - 50 m about every hour of game time, run silent, and have a good listen. At night, or away from the main routes, I'll leave it a lot longer, maybe 3 hours, unless I suspect something may be nearby.

I'm sure there are others out there who remain at the hydrophone most of the time underwater, but that's not for me :D

While your avoiding driving into the morning or evening blinding sun.

Every time my TC 'stutters'. That generally means that the system is generating a ship model so something is out there...

lol, I noticed the same thing. I guess not playing sh3 on a top-end pc has it's advantages.

:yeah:

Last 4 patrols the weather was so bad all the time that I switched to the routine of "get into patrol zone, submerge, stop engines and wait for hydrophone contact". There's no point wandering on the surface when visibility drops to 300 meters...

Stop engines?

Back to the question at hand.

The following is from the Uboat Commanders Handbook:

"28.) This possibility of using the hydrophone to help in detecting surf ships should, however, be restricted to those cases in which the submarine is unavoidably compelled to stay below the surface. The hydrophone must not lead to inactivity [passivity] underwater, which would be wrong; it is an auxiliary instrument and no more, and can never be a substitute for ocular perception and surface viewing. As soon as visibility allows, the, place of the submarine is on the surface. Otherwise valuable opportunities of attack are lost."

How's that for an answer? Straight from BDU!

Well that might be true, but I bet you this handbook was written before the start of WWII or at least before '42 / '43.
Because believe me, in the later years of the war U-boat captains would never have been told 'the place for a submarine is on the surface'.

1943.

Whenever the SpySat plonks another convoy icon on the nav map.

A couple of years ago I did some numbers on this:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...7&postcount=27

I do it when I am trying to intercept a radio contact. I dip down from time to time to see if the intercept course I plotted was in any way accurate. Once I establish a hydrophone contact it's the old game of "sound check every 30-60 minutes" until visual contact is made.

And that is why, even in clear, calm weather, I do a check every two hours (and turn 90 degrees to port, then to starboard).

Every hour in bad weather.

I admit I don't usually don my own "ears," but I should. I probably give up 10-15k tons a patrol when I don't (or get them, but it takes 10 days more).

I guess we all know this, but the detection hierarchy is pretty simple:

1. You manning your hydrophone
2. Qualified PO manning hydrophone
3. You on the bridge as WO
4. WO on the bridge as WO