Hydrophone Operator and contacts
 

Greetings all,

I have seen various threads that discuss the "best" options about "how to" patrol the assigned grid and ways to find contacts.

One of the things I have seen most suggested is to actually MAN the hydrophone station yourself, because I can hear contacts better than the operator.

This is a great idea, but personally when I man the station I don't EVER hear any contacts. I fully understand that my hydrophones are only hearing sounds in a very small portion of a VERY LARGE ocean.

I guess I am wondering if there is a way to increase the volume of the hydrophone station, as for when I am at that position.

Is this an option on the control panel of that station or in the main?

I am not seeing anything, and what I find myself having to do, is turn up my speakers at full volume.....which annoys others in the room, when I am playing,.

What do those of you who regularly man the station do, to help yourself find contacts?

Also what is the frequency that you actually man the station in a given timeframe.

Thanks,

Raise the volume in the game:

http://i.imgur.com/c41ntyk.jpg


Then raise the volume in your pc or headphones

Turn off engine to make the hydrophone all quiet

Try this for the first time in training mission "Convoy attack". If you can't hear the noise even after this it means your installation is not working.

And make sure you don't use a mod that lessens traffic in the sea. Mediterranean mods or Black sea mods might take out traffic in other sea areas to make the game load faster.

Thank you, good sir!

I'm looking forward to sinking 'em ALL! Or at least some- at a higher rate now. :D

What particular mod that you are using gives the "tabs" in the upper left corner of the picture??

How often do you man the hydrophones yourself?

In the command.en file, there is an entry to increase the volume if the hydrophone relative to the fx sounds in the game. Using set keys, you can assign a key to do this function. I have had a problem with the dial knob at the hydrogen station being unreliable. It is also wise to bring the sub to a complete stop before listening as this increases the range of the station. You also need to be at periscope depth or lower. I usually go to about 100 M.
SH3CMDR has thermal layers added, but I don't think it is modeled for detection by the sub, but only for detection of the sub.

The mod is Charts addon 1.3. You can find a description of it if you click my name and go the downloads tab or check Subsim's SH3 - Graphics -downloads section.

I'm now playing in 1940 December and during regular patrolling only check the hydrophone at 0400 hours in good weather. If the visibility is poor I advance submerged and might check the hydrophone personally now and then. If there are known or suspected contacts around I always use the hydrophone myself. The AI operator is useless.

During the later war years the hydrophone gets more and more important and I use it personally all the time.

@ Irish1958
 

@ Irish1958
Would you mind giving a path to the correct "command.en" file and further detailed information as to how you set a personal key for the function to turn up the hydrophone sound volume in the "command.en" file?
Thanks
Clay

Download Set-keys. http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/down...o=file&id=1016
Instructions on how to use it and where the file is are in the readme.

You can do all sorts of interesting things with the program the best being the ability to have one key for a chain of commands. For example, you can set one key to emergency dive, flank speed, lower periscope, hard left rudder, check depth under keel etc.

Thank You Irish1958. :salute:

Only below 10 meters does the hydrophone start working. Depending on the sea-state you may not reach that quickly enough when you go to periscope depth. So make sure you are deeper than that.

And you may need to turn up the volume of your pc anyhow. Be carefull of your ears though, when you are done and set speed setting and rise to the surface.

Are you sure you're turning the wheel slowly enough, or mousing on the pointer itself to drag it around. I found many more contacts that my watch officer could see, and now I've (recently) discovered the Hydrophone station, you can't keep me out of that seat. Hear a contact, turn to the source of the noise, up to peri depth and viola. Unless of course it is in the company of one of those damn torpedo speedboats. :oops: