[ryanwigginton]

Originally Posted by johan_d

Dunno, but assume you are the captain, laying in your bed and some comes in telling 'ship sighted' then you ask what ship? they answer it with for example a merchant.
Now next question you as is perhaps how far away ? the spotter gives your a value, lets say 'about 5 km' in front of us.
So, you always have a value to start with. If it is 5104 meters or about 5 km, your desicison making is the same.

It's not so much the decsion making, but the fact that with a click of a button I get exact bearing and range. Which in turn allows me to calculate exact target heading and exact target speed. I just think there must have been more 'fudge-factor' and more work involved to get the information in the first place, in particular the range.