[RoaldLarsen]

1) The reduced number of contacts could be a result of using high time compression. This will certainly reduce the number of contacts you make yourself, and may reduce the number of radio message contact reports you receive.

(From a realism point of view, there are too many contact reports in the game, I deliberately run at high TC to reduce the number of contacts.)

2) The contacts appear on assigned routes, but displaced a random distance from a pre-set waypoint. For stock, the game map (brown pull-down in top left corner of <F5> map screen) shows the most common convoy routes as well as some single ship routes. For a supermod, read the manual that came with the mod.